School board to ask for bond vote to finance new facility

The Sidney school board voted last night to have a bond election to finance a new elementary school. The election will take place September 10.

At the May meeting, the board decided to give the public an opportunity to speak out before going through with an election. The board held two public hearings June 10 about a possible new elementary school.

"The meetings were not hugely attended by any means," said Jay Ehler, superintendent of Sidney schools.

He estimated that there were a total of 35 to 40 people at the two meetings. At July's meeting, the board will decide the amount that will be voted on and the location of the election.

Sub: Scout leader seeks change in policy

Also at last night's meeting, Brian Kurz, Cubmaster of Sidney Cub Scout pack 90, asked the board to revise its policy so that he can either send home literature about the organization with students in their Friday folders or be allowed set up a table during open houses at the beginning of the school year.

"This year I was told I could not be in the building during the open house and could not send literature home with the students," Kurz said.

The board's policy has stifled his enrollment, he said. There were 30 boys in his pack three years ago and now there are only 10. Kurz suggested limiting the amount of literature that any one group could send home per year, instead of cutting it out altogether.

"It is difficult to convince young people to make smart choices and get involved in positive organizations in their communities," Kurz said.

He added that the school board policy is making this job much harder.

"I long for the days of close cooperation between our schools and our civic minded organizations," Kurz said.

Ehler explained why the board decided on this policy a few years ago.

"The Friday folders were getting very full," he said. "It was our employees that we're paying that were having to stuff them and send them home."

As a result, the board decided that outside groups could post information on a community bulletin board where kids and family members could see it instead of sending it home with students.

There were also some concerns about separation of church and state.

"We had some youth group stuff going in there," Ehler said.

Last night, however, the board expressed desire to make sure information about organizations was getting to students.

"We want to be careful about cutting off organizations such as cub scouts and 4-H," Ehler explained.

The board decided to put possible revision of this policy on next month's agenda and to consider allowing civic groups to set up tables at the beginning of the year open house or possibly at parent-teacher conferences.

Sub: New hires approved

The board then approved certified new hires for Sidney's next school year. Bryan Schoening, a Sidney graduate, will begin teaching middle school math in January, once he finishes his student teaching at Creighton Preparatory school in Omaha this fall. Michael Colerick, a regular substitute for Sidney schools, will teach middle school math during the fall semester. Rebecca Gigax was hired as a new first grade teacher. Diane Williams, a teacher of 25 years, will start in Kindergarten in the fall.

"We felt very fortunate to get somebody with her experience," Ehler noted.

The school finished with certified hiring as of last week.

Sub: Students fare well on state tests

Sheri Ehler, principal at West Elementary and director of curriculum and assessment at Sidney public schools, shared the results of the Nebraska state tests given to 4th, 8th and 11th graders.

Four different NeSA tests measure student abilities in reading, writing, math and science. On the writing portion, Sidney 4th graders scored just below average, 8th graders scored just above average and 11th graders scored significantly above average.

The 8th and 11th graders take these tests online.

NeSA writing tests were taken around the first of February and the results were made public May 24. Information on the three other state tests should be available by August.

Jay Ehler mentioned that Sidney 11th graders recorded several perfect scores.

"That was kind of exciting," Sheri Ehler said.

The board decided not to approve the resignation of Kindergarten teacher Dustie Staley who worked at South Elementary. If teachers put in their resignation after an April 15th deadline, the board generally doesn't approve it. Staley sent her resignation letter May 14. The board decided to continue with this policy for the sake of consistency.