OSMOND — The District 42R Board of Education met Monday,April 14, with several guests in attendance, including retiring science and math instructor Larry McKenna, Paige Kumm of Tigers & Friends Childcare, and social studies and Americanism instructor Dale Krause.
McKenna Shares Stories
McKenna spoke about his years at Osmond Community School, where he began his career during the 1992-93 school year as the science teacher in all grades until another science teacher was hired. He then also taught math, joking that he has a science degree but is "highly qualified" to teach math.
McKenna then talked about the different extra-curricular activities he has been involved with, including high school and junior high wrestling, and the WWO — little kids wrestling. He was also asked to coach junior high track, and although he didn’t know anything about track, they “made him do it anyway," and he grew to like it.
He shared other memories and funny anecdotes about his time here, added to by one of his former students who is now on the school board.
McKenna stated that he lived just down the street from the school and, one night, he stopped halfway home and thought, “This is a pretty good town!" He said he will miss it, but it is just time to retire.
Board President Mark Moes thanked Mr. McKenna, saying “We’re glad you came here." Board Member Tyler Gansebom agreed and said, “You brought a lot of fun and humor to the classroom."
Before/After School Care
Paige Kumm was in attendance to discuss with the board the before and after school care and kindergarten readiness program she will have here, which start the end of the month. She said she will need two staff members for more than 10 kids.
After discussion had been held at previous meetings about where the program could be held, it has been decided to hold it in the east side of the "yellow building." Superintendent Skip Bremer said he wanted it to be clear that they are not talking about closing the west side of the building, which is the fitness center.
Bremer also said this program will help the district in many ways. One of those is that where kids go to daycare, they tend to stay for Pre-K and kindergarten. They will see the kids in her childcare go into this program.
Americanism Report
Mr. Krause spoke to the board about the Americanism committee, saying this has been its most productive year since he was brought on board.
He reported there are eight dates they celebrate throughout the year that relate to Americanism, and mentioned also discussing the death of former President Jimmy Carter and the state funeral in January.
Krause said the ninth grade takes the pre-citizenship test this year, and he is looking at getting more students involved inAmericanism contests, like the spring Americanism essay contest. He gave them motivation by making it part of the grade this year, and there were only four students who did not turn one in.
He said he hopes Americanism becomes a source of pride for the students. He added that when he started, the Americanism records were in a small folder, and it is now a large binder.
SCHOOL BOARD HEARS FROM VARIOUS GUESTS gave a brief report on the girls’ basketball program and provided a list of dates for games for the 2025-26 school year, which included several new games that were added to the schedule.
Principal’s Report
Principal Kurt Polt reported on a number of activities which have been held, including prom on April 5, seniors honor roll breakfast on April 9 and kindergarten round-up on April 10. Regarding the latter, Polt said it indicated that there will be 18 students in kindergarten next year.
Polt reported that class registration for students in grades 6-11 began that day. Also, students had completed the Pre-ACT and the ACT, and they were currently conducting NSCAS testing during the allotted open window of time.
Upcoming events Polt reported on including an eighth grade career day at NECC, beginning of Easter break with early dismissal on April 17 and school resuming on April 22.
The district music contest will be held on Friday, April 25, at Laurel. The 2024-25 awards convocation is scheduled for April 28 with academic awards and junior high awards, and then the 9-12 activity awards convocation will be on May 6.
The junior high conference track meet will be in Creighton on April 26, and the high school conference track meet will be in Winnebago on May 3; conference golf will be in Homer on May 5. The K-6 spring concert will be held on April 29, and the 7-12 spring concert will be held May 2.
The seniors’ last day of school is scheduled for May 7, with graduation practice on May 9, and the graduation ceremony on May 10 at 2 p.m.
Polt reported that the jazz band received a second place finish at NECC out of 16 bands, the speech team finished fourth in Class D1 at the state speech contest and three band
members received medals for first chair at the Class D state band contest at UNK. He also reported that the FFA brought home numerous awards from the state FFA contest in Lincoln, and the FBLA has one national qualifier, Keely Gubbels.
Mr. Polt advised that Leah Kuhl will no longer be the speech coach; Robin Wagner will be taking over in that capacity. He also said that Paige Kumm has agreed to be head volleyball coach, with Ashley Koehler the first assistant and Candice Gansebom second assistant.
Principal Polt reported that he had not received a written quote from Mid States School Equipment on new bleachers, but the “guesstimate” was $150,000, and he was advised that the district was better of not getting them. He also said it would be about $50,000 to add motors to the existing bleachers.
Polt informed the board that he has been following the discussion of LB140 in the Legislature, which is the restriction of cell phones in the classroom. So far, there has been no opposition, and once it goes through the last round, the governor will sign it, and it will then be state law. He told the board to keep in mind that there are some things that students need their cell phones for. The whole idea is to reduce stress and anxiety. Superintendent Bremer added that he will have a conversation with staff about it regarding policy.
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent Bremer quickly went over the policies for the month, which included those on admission of students, part-time students and foreign exchange students; enrollment of expelled students; adult education; immunizations, and homeless students.
Bremer reported on the resignation of Lauren Thompson, the school’s food service director, and the hiring of Sarah Polt to fill the position. In addition, Jacqueline Boos was hired as assistant cook, and Becky Wattier was moved to head cook. He also said the district had its five-year visit on April 4; it is given 21 days to provide corrective action and most have been taken care of.
Mr. Bremer announced that Court Floors was chosen to do the work on the gym floor, and it will be done June 6-17. Also, regarding the choice gas program, he reached out to all vendors and the best price was with WoodRiver Energy. The district has a three-year fixed therm rate with them.
Other Discussions
Board Member Larry Krohn gave a brief report on the Nebraska Association of School Boards budget and finance workshop he attended in Norfolk recently.
The board then discussed the scenario proposal chosen by Wausa, out of four scenarios from the feasibility study, regarding consolidation. The scenario Wausa chose was with the high school at one site (Wausa), middle school at the other site (Osmond), and elementary schools at both sites.
The feasibility study had given pros and cons for this scenario, which the board discussed at length. There were also follow-up questions from the April 1 committee meeting.
One of those was “Where are your ‘line in the sand’ items that you absolutely need to hash out in order to proceed?” One comment was that the schools should co-op first to show commitment before consolidation.
The board suggested going back to Wausa and reversing the scenario, where Osmond would have the high school and Wausa the middle school.
Board Member Michelle Reikofski commented, “Our short-term needs need to be addressed before there is talk of consolidation.”
Part of the difficulty, committee members said, was that both districts are so similar; also, there is a concern about the size of our gym. If one of the schools were to build a new gym, it would be that community’s patrons who pay for it.
One of the comments brought back from the committee meeting was that Wausa kept bringing up “six years” as a timeline. The board agreed there should be a timeline, but said the two should fully co-op all activities before talking about consolidating.
So the question was asked, “Where do we go from here?" It was agreed that the board can’t go to the community because they don’t have it all figured out.
The discussion then turned to a coop with Plainview. The committee of Tyler Gansebom, Michelle Reikofski and Mark Moes met with the committee at Plainview and they asked about each others’ interests, including girls’ and boys' basketball, bowling Unified Bowling and girls’ wrestling.
The problem Osmond has had with others is that there are schools that don't want to be flexible as far as classification change. However, Plainview said they don’t care about moving to another class; they seem to be very open to working with Osmond.
It is sounding positive as far as bowling, Unified bowling and girls' wrestling, and the Plainview board is going to discuss it at their board meeting.
