School board calls special meeting

A state bill's affect on budgets and a last minute hire were cause for a special school board meeting on Monday.

Nebraska Legislative Bill 407, the major school finance bill in front of the Unicameral this year, restricts the amount that public school districts can increase their budgets on an annual basis.

"This is really the reason for the special budget meeting," said Sidney Schools Superintendent Jay Ehler.

School board member Tom Von Seggern and Ehler learned about a helpful provision in this bill at a Nebraska Association of School Boards budget meeting in Gering earlier this month.

"This year they're allowing a one-time offer of an extra two percent if you want to grow your budget this year," Ehler said.

Sidney schools already built some head room into their budgets, a few years ago, in anticipation of new restrictions. Board members theorized that increasing funds this year might be helpful anyway.

"If 20 years down the road, we fall on some hard times and we want that extra budget authority, it's a good thing," Ehler said.

Following board approval, the increase is sent to the state for their sign off. The board expects the state to pass it without problem, but the process will take about a month.

"Just about everybody's doing it," Ehler said.

For implementation, the measure must have the approval of both entities by September, which is when school board budgets have to be finalized.

This year, Sidney schools were allowed an initial 1.5 percent increase, which adds around $250,000. The additional two percent would be provide a further $330,000 for a total increase of almost $600,000, said Deanna Kantor, district bookkeeper.

The school board agreed to the increase, in case schools need the money down the road, when increases are fixed at a lower percentage.

Sub: Sudden change

Diane Williams, a teacher of 25 years who was planning to start teaching kindergarten at South Elementary in the fall, resigned her position during the second week in July. She informed the district she and her husband will not be relocating to Sidney as anticipated.

Ehler recommended the board disapprove this resignation to stay consistent with policy, as it was tendered so close to the school year.

Although the school board showed sympathy for Williams' unique situation—she had not anticipated the change in plans—it decided not to accept the resignation.

"If she put us in a bind, what's your answer gonna be then," asked school board member Randy Flamig, "if we had no kindergarten teacher and we were stuck?"

Shari Ahlschwede, who is from the Sidney area but earned her bachelor's in Arts, Music Education in California and completed her student teaching on the west coast, will be taking the place of Diane Williams as kindergarten teacher at South Elementary. She has a certification in multiple subject teaching from Azusa Pacific University in California.

"The only difference is, Diane's a teacher of 20 years and Shari is new, but we feel really confident," Ehler said.

Sub: New policy adopted

The board approved a change board policy 3028, which allows outside entities to pass out information about their organizations at open houses or parent-teacher conferences.

This policy was discussed at the last two meetings, after a Cub Scout leader addressed the board with concerns about his falling enrollment. The leader thought this was partly due to his inability to get information out to students who might be interested in his organization. The board considered changing the policy at its last meeting, but were concerned about the separation of church and state. The school asked its attorneys to look over the document and reword it.

"This was the best wording they could come up with to suit us and what we were trying to accomplish with this," Ehler said.

The new wording specifies that only non-profits whose main purpose is to provide education and services to children will be allowed to pass out information at certain school functions.

"At the end of the day, we'll still have some legal issues that we'll have to deal with possibly," Ehler said. "If an organization comes in that we really don't want in, we'd have some discretion, I guess."