GIPS Board Brief August 15, 2025

The Grand Island Public Schools "Board Brief" is an online monthly publication sharing the Board of Education meeting highlights, updates, campus recognitions, and more.

Here's a recap of the August 2025 Regular Board Meeting.

• Agenda
• Video Stream
• All Board members were present.

37 Grand Island Senior High (GISH) students were recognized for stellar results on their respective AP tests.

From the 394 AP tests taken by GISH students in the 2024-25 school year, GISH earned a five-year high in 54% of AP Exams scored 3 or more. The 37 the honorees earned the titles of AP Scholar, AP Scholar with Honor, and AP Scholar with Distinction.

Congratulations, Islander AP Scholars!

AP SCHOLAR: Gavin Andrade, Max Epfield, Maddox Enck-Monie, Claire Gartner, Kaelie Heminger, Alijhandra Kirschbaum, Jennifer Lara-Patino, Ashton Marshall, Anni Nguyen, Kimberly Ochoa, Alaynah Potter, Edgar Ramirez, Brian Rauda, Isabella Roe, Diana Stephenson, Aaron Tenski, Noah Veik, & Michael Westerby

AP SCHOLAR WITH HONOR: Daniela Cortes, David Diaz Hinojosa, Cody Garrett, Riley Holling, Katherine Johnsen, Cydney Obermeier, Lucas Skalberg, Brandon Vega, Alex Weaver, & Cael Wiegert

AP SCHOLAR WITH DISTINCTION: Sophia Heminger, Noah Javorsky, Reagan Kort, Thomas Liegl, Olivia Madison, Maximos Mendez, Ashlyn Ruzicka, Sarah Wichman, & Owen Williams

(Pictured are the students who were able to attend the Board Meeting for recognition.)

GIPS offered a variety of different programming throughout the Summer for students. Ranging from the annual Power Camp, to Robotics, to Art, to credit recovery, over 150 staff joined the efforts to provide high-quality Summer programs in 2025.

Dr. Summer Stephens, GIPS Associate Superintendent, provided an report on this Summer's programs and the participation numbers each program saw. Highlights include:

• Summer Strong

• 161 Students from all 8 Title I Elementary Schools

• Power Camp

• 225 Students

• Summer Program @ Howard

• 29 students; Grades K-2nd

• Focused on Math and Reading standards

• Summer EL

• 120 students; K-12th

• “Leaders” & “Learners”

• ESY Elementary/Secondary

• 29 Elementary Students

• 12 Secondary Students

• Summer Program @ Dodge

• 50 K-4th students

• Middle School GRIT Robotics Camp

• 19 Students; Grades 6th-8th

• Middle School Art Camp

• 12 Students; Grades 6th-8th

• GISH Credit Recovery

• 176 Students

Hear Dr. Stephens' full presentation HERE.

Dr. Summer Stephens, GIPS Associate Superintendent, presented a second round of annual updates to the Student Handbook.

This month, a few more adjustment were presented that are directly related to policy updates mandated by the state that were to be voted on at this month's meeting (August).

Highlights of this month's presented adjustments include:

• Clarifying definitions and expectations around Excessive Absenteeism as it relates to the GIPS goal of 90% of students to be present for 95% of the school days.
• Updating expectations on "Student Appearance", "Harassment & Bullying", "Notice of Nondiscrimination", & "Parental Access to Educational Practices", to be consistent with the policy updates (see below).
• Sharing the new process to purchase an Electronic Device Voluntary Protection Plan thru ParentVUE.
• Including the "Academic Expectations for Participants" section to be consistent with the new, higher expectations that GISH Activities will be operating.

This was shared as both an information and action item so that they may be in-place for the 2025-26 school year.

Hear her full presentation HERE.

Mr. Virgil Harden, GIPS Chief Financial Officer, shared an annual update on the opportunity for the Board to adopt an optional property tax authority resolution.

The concept is a Property Tax Authority Cap (or limitation) for all public school Boards of Education in Nebraska. The new Property Tax Authority Resolution is an additional 5% above the current cap.

This will not impact current property taxes for the community. The action would only grant the Board the authority to ask for up to 5% more if needed in the future. Any future action would require a Board vote.

The Board approved the resolution each of the last two years. Two years ago, GIPS not use any of the funds. Last year, GIPS used approximately $1.3 million of the available $6.1 million. The dollar amount involved for this year's resolution is approximately $6.7 million.

Hear Mr. Harden's full presentation HERE.

Mr. Fisher shared the latest installment of district policy reviews and proposed updates. Descriptions of the proposals may be found immediately below.

Hear Mr. Fisher's full presentation on policies HERE.

Only proposed change would include:

• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up for voting approval at the September Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

No changes are being proposed.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up for voting approval at the September Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Only proposed change would include:

• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up for voting approval at the September Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Only proposed change would include:

• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up for voting approval at the September Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Recommendation would be to eliminate this policy as it is redundant. The wording and coverage of this policy is already captured in another existing policy.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up for voting approval at the September Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Only proposed change would include:

• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up for voting approval at the September Board meeting.

1. Welcome Back and our Teacher of the Year awards
   August 6, 2025 we will be celebrating Welcome Back and Teacher of the Year Awards. One of the Foundations favorite Program is Teacher of the Year. This past school year we asked for nominations to celebrate Teachers, staff and Administration. Ask and you shall receive. We received over 2000 PLUS nominations. That is 487 different individuals. A committee of community volunteers were tasked to read through all 2000 PLUS nominations and select one person from each of our six categories. Every year the volunteers find this task to be extremely difficult. They know that so many deserve this award, but they can only choose one per category. Those selected 5 teachers and Staff Members will receive a certificate and a check for $500.00. The recipient of the Administrator Award will receive a certificate and $1,000 of extra building or department budget authority for their administrative area. Thank you to First National Bank of Omaha has generously sponsored our Teacher of the Year Awards for 21 years.
   
   
2. Legacy Grant updates
   Congratulations to Abigail Johnson, an 8th-grade teacher at Walnut Middle School, who is the recipient of the Dr. Eugene Miller Legacy Grant of $1000. The family of Dr. Gene Miller has created an annual grant fund to invest in the students of Grand Island by investing in the quality of their educators. Haley Koeppe, an 11th and 12th-grade English Teacher at Grand Island Senior High, was awarded the GIPS Foundation Professional Development Grant of $1,000!
   
   Alyssa Jensen, a 3rd-grade teacher at Wasmer Elementary School, was awarded the GIPS Foundation Professional Development Grant of $1,000!
   
   
3. Classroom Grants
   GIPS out of the box thinking Teachers are heading back to the classrooms and we want to announce that Classroom Grant application open on August 1st! This grant is for teachers that think outside the box, looking to offer their students NEW opportunities that are outside the basic curriculum.
   
   
4. 3rd Annual Harvest Event

• Event Date September 25th, 2025
• Tickets now available at gipsfoundation.org
• Harvest event will include:
• Cocktails, live & silent auction, dinner, Dessert Dash, Mission Moment on raising funds for Scholarships: Speakers: Brian Levander, Heart of the Foundation Award: Honoring Dan & Ron Eakes, Host: Colleen Williams, Auctioneer: Phil Wieck, Presenting Sponsor Tom & Kim Dinsdale
• Dress: Casual

Mr. Fisher shared a Superintendent Report with the Board.

• School is underway!

• We had KG, 6th, & 9th Grade students in our schools yesterday. A great opportunity for those students to get acclimated to a school and staff that is new to them.

• Had a chance to visit all of our schools between the first two days of school. And we are seeing great energy and a positive start to the school year.

• The Annual Welcome Back Event was well received by our staff.

• Our Keynote Speaker Gian Paul Gonzalez brought a really good message to our staff.

• Foundation Awards was part of that program. We also did our 25 years of service to GIPS pins.

• We received notice that GIPS will receive funds as part of the State Literacy Grant, approximately $440,000.

• The Board is still working to schedule the date and time for their annual Fall retreat in October or November.

Hear Mr. Fisher's full report HERE.

Mr. Virgil Harden, GIPS Chief Financial Officer, provided a brief overview of the requested GIPS Transportation Routes for the upcoming school year.

The proposed routes would be the same that we provided in the previous school year.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Only proposed changes would include:

• Adding the following language: "Respect for the individual regardless of economic status, intellectual or physical ability, race (including skin color and protective hairstyles, which could include but are not limited to braids, locks, twists, tight coils or curls, cornrows, Bantu knots, afros, weaves, wigs, or head wraps)..."
• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.
• Adding the phrase "military or veteran status" in the list of "respect all individuals".

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Only proposed changes would include:

• Adding the following language: "Respect for the individual regardless of economic status, intellectual or physical ability, race (including skin color and protective hairstyles, which could include but are not limited to braids, locks, twists, tight coils or curls, cornrows, Bantu knots, afros, weaves, wigs, or head wraps)..."
• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.
• Adding the phrase "military or veteran status" in the appropriate listings.

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

The proposed change would be to update the definition of a "Capital Project" to read:

"For the purposes of the CIP the definition of a capital project is a project with a useful life of at least 3-5 years and a cost of at least $10,000." (The previous cost was $5,000.)

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

The proposed changes include replacing the phrase "Small Purchase" with the phrase "Simplified Acquisition" throughout the policy.

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

A newly proposed policy per new Legislative requirement.

Policy was developed by legal counsel and meets the requirements of the new state legislature.

The primary requirement includes:

"Each person who is required to have a permit to operate a pupil transportation vehicle for this School District shall meet all requirements to hold and continue to hold a pupil transportation operator’s permit, including the successful completion of a physical assessment and a Medical Examiner’s Certificate."

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

A newly proposed policy per new Legislative requirement.

Policy was developed by legal counsel and meets the requirements of the new state legislature.

The primary requirement includes:

• Stating the district is required to provide transportation services to Foster Care Students.
• DHHS will cover the cost of any provided transportation for Foster Care Students in the district.

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Only proposed changes would include:

• Adding the following language: "Respect for the individual regardless of economic status, intellectual or physical ability, race (including skin color and protective hairstyles, which could include but are not limited to braids, locks, twists, tight coils or curls, cornrows, Bantu knots, afros, weaves, wigs, or head wraps)..."
• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.
• Adding the phrase "military or veteran status" in the appropriate listings.

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Legal counsel recommended the district remove the lengthy section that maps out the response protocols, and replace it with a more consistent guideline stating:

"The requirement that the following personal information collected and maintained under this part

shall be reported to the Clearinghouse:

(i) A verified positive, adulterated, or substituted drug test result;

(ii) An alcohol confirmation test with a concentration of 0.04 or higher;

(iii) A refusal to submit to any test required by law;

(iv) An employer's report of actual knowledge of:

(A) On duty alcohol use;

(B) Pre-duty alcohol use;

(C) Alcohol use following an accident; and

GRAND ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS

(D) Controlled substance use;

(v) A substance abuse professional report of the successful completion of the return-to-duty

process;

(vi) A negative return-to-duty test; and

(vii) An employer's report of completion of follow-up testing."

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Legal counsel recommended that we strike out a section and replace it with new language to be more consistent with legal requirements. The updated section would read:

"The Superintendent or designee shall develop and implement such criteria to identify high ability learners, and shall take steps to offer accelerated or differentiated curriculum programs that will address the educational needs of the identified students at levels appropriate for the abilities of those students. The accelerated or differentiated curriculum programs shall meet the standards of quality established by the Nebraska Department of Education."

This was shared as a first read at the July Board Meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed changes would include:

• “Enrollment of Expelled Students” clause would be removed from a different policy and added to this one as it is a more logical fit for this protocol. The clause states that students Expelled from other schools may not enroll at GIPS until their expulsion term is completely carried out.
  
  
• “Military Families” adding a clause that would allow for students to be enrolled right away.

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

A few sentences are to be added per state Legislative requirement.

The clause would state:

"Non-resident students may only be admitted on a part-time basis or permitted to participate in a school-sponsored extracurricular activity when required by law."

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Due to a new statewide legislative mandate, a few new additions and refinements are needed to be reflected in the current district policy. The State provided a model policy stating that public school districts are required to either adopt the model policy, or one that closely resembles the model.

Much of the current policy would stay the same. A few notable updates to the existing policy would include:

• Adding the following language: "Respect for the individual regardless of economic status, intellectual or physical ability, race (including skin color and protective hairstyles, which could include but are not limited to braids, locks, twists, tight coils or curls, cornrows, Bantu knots, afros, weaves, wigs, or head wraps)..."
• Changing the policy name to "Student Dress Code & Grooming" (state requirement)
• Adding the specific mention that students are allowed to wear religious attire, adornments, and other attie associates with race, national origin, or religion.
• Adding that students are permitted to wear natural and protective hairstyles.
• Adding that attire should not promote violence, drugs, alcohol, profanity, or hate speech.

This was shared as a first read item at the June Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed addition would be to add that generating "deep fakes" or "inappropriate computer generated images" would not be permitted.

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

A newly proposed policy per new Legislative requirement.

This new policy does not change any protocols in our district as it mirrors our Positive Supports system we've already been utilizing for a number of years.

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

The only proposed change would be to add the following clarifying statement:

"The Superintendent or designee shall, as required by law, designate each school-sponsored interscholastic athletic team or sport as either: (1) boys; (2) girls; or (3) mixed."

This was shared as a first read at the July Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 9 - 0

All other policies from the July Board meeting were voted on and approved in the consent agenda as those policies did not require approved changes or simply fixed grammatical errors.