OSMOND — The District 42 Board of Education met early on Monday, Feb. 12, because of girls’ subdistrict basketball that evening.
The board began by reviewing sev- eral board policies, the first of which had to do with school lunch accounts, and which was updated with some changes to wording.
Other policies up for review this month were those on volunteers, record management and retention, booster clubs and parent-teacher organizations, handbook changes, resolution of conflicts, sex offenders, and staff and district social media. These policies were approved.
In going over the minutes of the previous meetings, the board discussed the joint committee meeting with the Wausa school board. An article covering that meeting is printed on another page of this issue.
Athletic Director’s Report
In the absence of Athletic Director Brian Guenther, Principal Kurt Polt read his report. Guenther’s report included that conference tournaments went well for the girls’and boys’teams with Osmond hosting the boys' first round and the girls’ second round.
The football schedule has been set, with officials hired for the two-year cycle. Osmond’s homecoming game will be on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, against Hartington-Newcastle.
Principal’s Report
Principal Polt advised that the third quarter progress reports were sent home the previous week, and said with no feedback on the 2024-25 school calendar, he would move forward with the copy that was distributed at last month’s meeting.
Polt reported that he had received a bid on shot clocks and light-up backboards from BSN Sports. He gave the board information on wired vs. wireless and prices on both. He will see if he can get another quote before the March meeting, and a decision will be made at that time.
The principal has begun work with the staff to update class offerings for the next school year. He will begin the class registration process in March for students who will be in grades 7 through 12 during the next school year.
The principal reported on the following upcoming dates: The ESU 8 high school quiz bowl competition is scheduled for Feb. 28, and the junior high quiz bowl for Feb. 27. Both will take place at the ESU in Neligh.
Feb. 26 is the first day that the NSAA allows spring sports practices.
District speech will be held at Stuart High School March 12, and state speech will be at Kearney High School March 22. Class D All-State band will be March 23, hosted by the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Osmond had seven students selected.
Spring break is scheduled for March 1 and 8, Polt said, and March 7 is the final day of the third quarter. There will be no school on March 4, he reported, as Osmond will be hosting the conference speech meet.
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent Steven Bremer reported that he had met with Melissa Polinoski, assistant vice president of Early Childhood Programs for the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, and Susan Norris, executive director at Pierce County Economic Development, to discuss daycare and early childhood education options for Osmond Community School. He is reading through the resources they shared with him, and found that a large portion of grants are available to independent home-based daycare providers. He went over the options for the types of daycare the school could utilize.
Bremer gave an update on the co-op talks with Wausa, a report of which is posted on the Osmond Community School website. The co-op would include FFA, football and wrestling.
Future plans as far as the co-op are to have joint meetings in January and July and committee meetings in October and April, to discuss co-op needs for basketball and possible block scheduling. He had suggested dates for joint board meetings with Wausa, which the Wausa superintendent will be discussing with that school board.
Bremer then addressed the board with a response to his superintendent evaluation, explaining how he will take care of any issues moving forward as a new administrator. Board President Mark Moes thanked him for his responses and commented that it has been seven months with Bremer serving as superintendent and it has been positive, with great communication.
Superintendent Bremer then went over the bank rates for the district’s money market and CD accounts at Security Bank. After discussion on the options, the board authorized Bremer to negotiate updated money market and CD rates with Security Bank.
The superintendent advised that preliminary work had begun on how the district might better make use of available space for offices, study areas, guidance, MTSS, SPED, Team-Mates and meeting rooms, as well as potential use of the open area across from the trophy cabinet. Depending on estimated costs, he said, the board might want to consider a priority listing of moving forward with the project, as well as the best place for funding to be used.
He then explained a Security Bank OCS Branch for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. If approved by the board, it would begin in the 202425 school year. The branch would be open one morning per week before school for students to make deposits into their own savings account. On their first deposit, Security Bank would match it, up to $5.
This would help foster financial literacy among students, teach budgeting and saving skills and promote responsible decision-making. The students would be able to open an 42R SCHOOL BOARD DISCUSSES CO-OP
account with parental permission, and start saving toward short- and long-term goals.
After more discussion on how the savings accounts work, the board authorized Superintendent Bremer to work with Security Bank to open up the OCS Branch of Security Bank beginning with the 2024-25 school year.
In other business, the board: — heard a brief update on the Americanism meeting which was held Feb. 7 with faculty and board committees.
— went into closed session to review teacher salary negotiations for 2024-25.
