Board eyes snow days, calendar

McCOOK, Neb. — McCook Public School students can breathe a sigh of relief: there won’t be extra days tacked on the end of the school year due to using snow days.

Unlike past years with milder winters, McCook Public Schools this year have utilized three snow days and several 10 a.m. late starts.

During discussion of next year’s school calendar at the regular McCook Board of Education meeting Monday night, board member/vice president Teresa Thomas asked how the district stood with snow days.

Superintendent Grant Norgaard said no snow days are set aside in advance, but instead, he keeps track of the number hours of student instruction. There is a minimum number of hours required for students and as the school year progresses, if those hours will be compromised, extra days or half days will be added at the end of the school year, he said. For this year, numbers are still on track, Norgaard said, with McCook Schools Business manager John Brazell adding that numbers for afternoon preschool are running a little close.

Norgaard said several factors go into the decision if and when to close school due to inclement weather, due to the number of school buses on the road and staff, parents and students who drive in from outside the district.

These include communicating with the maintenance director and bus drivers who live within the district about road conditions; communication with representatives of the Nebraska Department of Roads; emails from the Goodland (Kan.) weather station and going outside and traveling the roads himself.

It’s a hit-and-miss science but most times, he makes the right call, he said, although there was that one day a few years ago when school was called off because of a forecasted blizzard and all it did was rain, Norgaard recalled.

The board unanimously approved the school calendar for next year, choosing between two calendars presented by Norgaard last month at the board meeting.

The board chose the school calendar with parent-teacher conferences the second week of March, instead of the third week.

Both calendars have school starting Monday, Aug. 19, with graduation on Sunday, May 17.

Board president Tom Bredvick asked that in the future, school calendars could include days slated for summer school, as well as other activities going on in during the summer months. School is almost becoming year-round with the number of activities during the summer, he said.

Superintendent Norgaard, who creates the school calendar each year, agreed, saying that summer school is not always about remediation.

The board also approved a $8,000 donation to the FFA program at McCook High School from Farm Credit Services, a customer-owned financial cooperative. McCook School Board member Mike Langan, financial officer with Farm Credit Services, explained the donation comes from $4,000 from the main office and $4,000 from the regional office.

Attending the board meeting Monday night was Tysha Park and Boy Scout, Spencer Rogers.

Park told the board she has two children in the McCook school system and asked for more communication concerning parent-teacher conferences and other school information.

Spencer Rogers, a 10th grader, told the board he was attending the meeting as a requirement in earning a community service badge in his quest to become an Eagle Scout. An Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in Boy Scouts.

Other items discussed at Monday’s meeting included:

— McCook Public Schools business manager John Brazell told the board that an outside company would conduct a study at no cost on school buildings in the district, to see if it was economically feasible to switch from fluorescent lighting to LED lighting. Changing the lighting would not be done unless the costs are revenue neutral, he said, with significantly lowered electricity costs. Brazell told the board the in-house renovation of a math classroom at the high school is completed, with new flooring, ceiling and other updates. For the past few years, classrooms and other areas at the high school have been systematically updated by the maintenance staff, including the library, commons area and teacher’s lounge. He also told the board that a $300 error in last month’s financials has been corrected.

— Board member Loretta Hauxwell requested a policy committee meeting to discuss how to make district school polices more easily found on the district website, as recommended by an audit that suggested the change. Policies are currently on the district’s website but take a little digging to find.