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 May 2025 Regular Board Meeting.

• Agenda
• Video Stream
• Josh Hawley & Eric Garcia-Mendez were not present but both gave prior notice.

Elementary students across the district submitted various technology-based creative projects to the Nebraska Educational Technology Association (NETA) Spring Conference competitions. Two GIPS students came home with awards as they won their respective categories with their work.

Congratulations to the Following NETA Award Winners:

• Harper Jackson, Kindergarten - Dodge Elementary
• Noel Montes, 5th Grade - Gates Elementary

Harper created graphic designs she turned into a video with voiceover. Her artistic project highlighted her favorite moments from a Nebraska Golden Sower Book.

Noel used a school-based coding program to generate his own, unique musical track.

Way to go, student creators!

Faith plans to attend Hastings College to major in Elementary Education.

Chloe's plans are to attend Wayne State College to major in Elementary Education and earn a Special Education endorsement.

Congratulations Faith & Chloe!

Area leaders for ALLO Communications presented a donation of $3,650 to the GIPS Foundation on behalf of their program called, ALLO for Education.

ALLO for Education is a program that allows new residential ALLO customers from November through December 2024 with the opportunity to select a school to receive a $50 donation from ALLO. Supporting education means supporting the difference makers, the little learners, and the homework helpers.

The district intends to use the generous donation to help support the GIPS Education Fellowship Program which provides opportunities for Classified Staff to become Certified Teachers.

Thank you, ALLO!

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.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed updates would include:

• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.
• Updating a few of the protocols to better coincide with current practices in the district regarding internet use.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up as an Action Item at the June Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed updates would include:

• Updating the job title of the Human Resources Director to reflect the current job title which is, “Chief of Human Capital Management”
• Updating phrasing to say “personnel records” rather than “personnel records files”.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up as an Action Item at the June Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed updates would include:

• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.
• Updating “music and physical education instruction” to read as “specials instruction” so it covers all specials classes.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up as an Action Item at the June Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

The proposed update 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 as an Action Item at the June Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

The proposed update 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 as an Action Item at the June Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed updates would include:

• Removing the “The” listed before the name “Grand Island Public Schools”.
• Removing one phrase “the support” and simply referencing classified staff as such.

This was shared as a first read item and will be up as an Action Item at the June Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed updates would include:

• Proposal would eliminate the existing policy and replace it with a newly written one.
• New draft for the policy was provided by Perry Law Firm.
• Update would make the policy more general to adhere to the federal requirements.

After much discussion, the feedback was to take a second look at some of the wording of the policy regarding birth certificates. The intent is to bring this back to the policy committee for a little more work.

This policy has been tabled and will be reviewed again by the Policy Committee in the coming months.

1. The Foundation is excited to see the Class of 2025 walk in the Graduation ceremonies on May 11, 2025.
   
   
2. The Foundation will host a press conference announcing the totals of the Staff Giving Campaign on Monday, May 12th at 4:30 p.m. at the Bill Marshall Conference Room/ Memorial Stadium Jack Martin Field.
   
   
3. The Foundation will release the nomination forms for the 2025 Teacher of the Year Awards (Teacher/ Staff Member/ Administrator of the Year). The nominees will receive their nominations by May 15th, through email.
   
   
4. The Foundation Board will meet on May 13, 2025.

Owen Williams, GISH Senior, was elected by his peers to represent them on the Board of Education as a Student Representative. At each Board Meeting, Owen shares a student report.

Highlights from Owen's report include:

Activities

• District Baseball kicks-off tomorrow. Islanders have the #2 seed.

• Boys Soccer finished as District Runner-Up.

• District competitions for the rest of Spring Sports are ramping up.

Around GIPS

• Seniors at GISH have recently given their presentations from their Capstone experiences.

• Senior “Class Day” was today with fun highlights and reflection from the year, and then graduation rehearsal at the Heartland Events Center.

• GISH Graduation will be Sunday, May 11th at 2:00 p.m.

• “Purely Chocolate” was a business launched by students in the GISH Entrepreneurship Pathway. They provide a few free samples of their four cookie flavors for the Board to try.

Staff Shout-Out:

• Mr. Cloutier, GISH Social Studies Teacher

Hear Owen's full report HERE.

Mr. Fisher shared a Superintendent Report with the Board.

• Thank you, Owen, for being a great representative of his student classmates in this role. He has brought some good perspectives to the role and the conversations we’ve had this year.
  
  
• GISH Graduation will be Sunday, May 11th, 2025 at the Heartland Events Center. While parking will be tricky for the event (due to construction) West side lots for the State Fair will be open and shuttles available.
  
  
• Spring Sports and Spring Concerts have been taking place all across the district.
  
  
• Our Parent Advisory Council met this week. As we did with our Key Communicators group, we shared the idea we’ve been considering on the “GIPS Community Academy” as a potential opportunity to provide to our community.
  
  
• GISH Registered Apprenticeship Signing Day will be next Tuesday, May 13th at CPI.
  
  
• Echoing what Owen shared about the Capstone presentations, it’s an incredible thing to hear from our Seniors about what they’re learning thru their research and work-based learning experience.
  
  
• The GIEA Retirement Reception was last evening. As usual, it was a very well done event and a great opportunity to recognize 25 year and 30 year educators in the district along with district teacher retirees.
  
  
• The GIPS Retirement Banquet for all retiring Certified and Classified Staff will be on Monday evening.

Hear Mr. Fisher's full report HERE.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed updates would include:

• Removing "The" in front of the title "Grand Island Public Schools".
• Other proposed changes are aimed at fixing syntax, shortening sentences, and establishing consistent tense usage.

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed changes would include:

• Removing "The" in front of the title "Grand Island Public Schools".
• Updating a phrase from "in good taste" to instead read "appropriate" in relation to clothing choices by staff.
• Removing the final sentence that read: "Discretion and common sense call for an avoidance of extremes which would interfere with or have an effect on the educational process."

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed changes would include:

• Adding expectations in the policy to include "Vapor Products". Specifically, stipulating that staff, visitors, and volunteers are not permitted to use tobacco products nor vapor products while on district grounds.
• Removing "The" in front of the title "Grand Island Public Schools".

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed changes would include:

• Removing "The" in front of the title "Grand Island Public Schools".
• Adding a clarifying statement at the beginning of the fourth sentence that reads, "Activities that are prohibited include".
• Overall, the intent of the policy would remain the same which states, "Staff shall not engage in political activity upon property under the jurisdiction of Grand Island Public Schools."

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed changes would include:

• Updating the staff training components of internet safety to include more current internet-based terminology and present day use cases. For example, instead of referencing the "world wide web" we would refer to it as "internet".
• Expansion of the staff training also includes specific online behavior on social media.
• Emphasises the importance of teaching digital safety and digital citizenship to our students.

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

The Board entered into a brief Executive Session for the purpose of of discussing negotiations.

After reconvenining from Executive Session a motion was made to "Approve the wages and salaries for Classified and Administrative Employees".

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0