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 March 2025 Regular Board Meeting.

• Agenda
• Video Stream
• Amanda Wilson was not present but gave prior notice.
• Lisa Albers was not present in-person, but attended via Zoom to listen to the conversations. She was not able to vote.

The 2025 Hall County Spelling Bee brought the county’s best spellers together in a grueling competition of words. Qualifying students from numerous Hall County schools compete in various grade level categories ranging from 5th Grade - 8th Grade. The 2025 Hall County Bee featured a number of GIPS student spellers and found a few among the top winners in the county:

• Makenna Ostrander - Westridge Middle School - Hall County Spelling Bee Champion
• Tatiana Sage - Westridge - 2nd Place Overall
• Addie Haag - Westridge - 3rd Place Overall
• Brody Troidl - Westridge - 6th Grade 1st Place
• Remi Buchfinck - Westridge - 7th Grade 1st Place
• Mackenzie Fanta - Seedling Mile Elementary - 5th Grade 1st Place

Congratulations, Spellers!

Both the Grand Island Senior High Boys and Girls Wrestling Teams had a strong showing at the 2025 NSAA State Wrestling Tournament in February. Among the stand out accolades were two individual state champion wrestlers for the Islanders; one for the Boys Team and one for the Girls Team. Congratulations to the following state champion wrestlers:

• Alex Gates - NSAA State Champion Boys Wrestling - 132 Weight Class
• Anyia Roberts - NSAA State Champion Girls Wrestling (back-to-back) - 155 Weight Class

Unfortunately, Anyia was unable to attend.

Congratulations, Wrestlers!

Mrs. Lisa Albers, Ward B Board Member attended the Board Meeting virtually through a Zoom video link.

While on the Zoom link, Mrs. Albers shared a brief update of her advocacy work in Washington D.C. This week, she is in the nation's capital with the Nebraska Association of School Boards (NASB) to do advocacy work on behalf of public schools in Nebraska.

Hear Mrs. Albers' full presentation HERE.

Mr. Mitchell Roush, GIPS Communications Director, shared an update regarding the renaming of a district facility.

The GISH facility next to the Grand Island Senior High Tennis Courts and Memorial Stadium currently known as the "Success Academy Building" is the new home for our High School Skills Academy. This scenario, of course, has caused notable confusion with our staff, families, and community stakeholders. It is the district's vision for that facility to be renamed to something that would not be tied to a specific program. That way, going forward, the building may retain its name for years or decades to come without causing confusion for our students, families, staff, and our community. In order to re-name a facility at GIPS, Board Policy #4510 dictates we form a committee of voices including Board Members, Administrators, Teachers, and Community Members. This information and action item seeks to present a potential committee to the Board and seek a vote of approval for the committee so the process of renaming the "Success Academy Building" may begin.

The proposed committee members would be:

• Eric Garcia-Mendez - GIPS Board of Education
• Amanda Wilson - GIPS Board of Education
• Mitchell Roush - GIPS Communications Director
• Dan Petsch - GIPS Grounds & Safety Director
• Renee Engel - GIPS Special Education Director
• Emily Bailey - Gates Teacher & GIEA Incoming President
• Jared Bombeck - GISH Administrator
• Shaun Willey - GISH Counselor
• Kelsey Alcorn - GISH Skills Academy Teacher
• Jennifer Worthington - Community Member (Retired)
• Amanda Mortiz - Community Member (YWCA)

This was shared as both an information and action item at March's Board meeting.

Hear the 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.

The proposed changes would include:

• Eliminate the “The” listed before Grand Island Public Schools.
• Updating the language to say “would not exceed the maximum levy allowed” rather than listing the actual dollar amount. This allows for more generalization so if there’s a change in law for dollar amount, the policy will still be viable.
• Also updating to read “funds available as approved by the board and allowed by the statute." rather than listing specific budget line items.

This was shared as a first read item and will be an action item for vote at the April Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

The only proposed change would be to drop the "The" in front of the name of, "Grand Island Public Schools".

This was shared as a first read item and will be an action item for vote at the April Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

No proposed changes at this time.

This was shared as a first read item and will be an action item for vote at the April Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

No proposed changes at this time.

This was shared as a first read item and will be an action item for vote at the April Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

The only proposed change would be to edit the label "Board of Education" to read as just "the Board".

This was shared as a first read item and will be an action item for vote at the April Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

The only proposed change would be to drop the "The" in front of the name of, "Grand Island Public Schools".

This was shared as a first read item and will be an action item for vote at the April Board meeting.

Regular review of an existing policy.

Two proposed changes include:

• To drop the "The" in front of the name of, "Grand Island Public Schools".
• Add a sentence that reads, "In 2015 the name was changed to the Grand Island Public Schools Foundation."

This was shared as a first read item and will be an action item for vote at the April Board meeting.

Tracy Goodman, Ward B Board Member, shared an update from the Grand Island Public Schools Foundation:

1. The GIPS Foundation has approved the 2025 Scholarship Award Plan and declared values for both General and Academic Aristocrat Scholarships to be offered.

2. The Foundation will offer and award the top five distinguished scholarships: the Bob Hamblet Northwestern Scholarship, two Jack & Lucile Martin Memorial Scholarships, and two Charles R. and Bessie E. Frith Scholarships. These five scholarships will be awarded in March during a separate signing ceremony.

3. The Foundation is grateful for the 90 volunteer scholarship reviewers who gave selflessly of their time and talents to ensure that the awarding process is fair and equitable to all students who fulfilled and submitted their applications.

4. The Foundation spoke to the GIEA to secure their endorsement for the 2025 Staff Giving Campaign that will kick-off on April 1 and end April 25.

5. During the March GIPSF Board meeting, Board members will be asked to attend scholarship signings and both the Martin Scholarship and General Scholarship receptions.

Hear the full Foundation report HERE.

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:

• Wrestling Teams had two state champions this year: Anyia Roberts (second straight state title), and Alex Gates.
• Girls Wrestling finished in the Top 5 at State with multiple medalists.
• Boys Wrestling finished in the Top 4 at State with multiple medalists.
• Boys basketball finished their season at 13-12; they also earned district runner-up.
• Show Choir earned a lot of great accolades this year including winning the Northwest competition.
• Speech Team earned 4th Place overall at Districts.
• Robotics had two teams finish in the top 25 for the state tournament.
• Spring Sports have started their practices.
• Powerlifting is sending their lifters to the national competition this week.

• GISH Hooligans group (15 students) went to Shoemaker to read to students for Read Across America Week.
• Islander Extravaganza hosted families and students from all three middle schools to explore the opportunities at GISH.
• Howard Elementary staff is great! Every year my family volunteers during their Holiday presents experience for students and it's incredible to see what the staff do for students.

• Islander Activities Office - Mrs. Tomlin, Mr. Lemburg, & Mr. Ladwig

Hear Owen's full report HERE.

Mr. Fisher shared a Superintendent Report with the Board.

• Islander Extravaganza was a little different format from past events but the feedback I got back was very positive. It was great to hear the “High School 1-0-1” presentation for families and students who are entering high school. The turnout was good!

• Reminder that we have the Parent Advisory Group meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) during the lunch hour.
  
  
• Mentioned with The Foundation report, the Scholarship signing event is coming-up.
  
  
• The GISH Band has their mattress fundraiser this Saturday. A fairly good portion of the proceeds will end-up going back to our high school band program.
  
  
• We’re getting into our concert season for our schools. Middle School and High School show choirs will be performing at GISH this week.
  
  
• Sunday, March 30th is the Honors Event at GISH.
  
  
• Project SEARCH will be holding their 15-Year Reunion on Friday afternoon.
  
  
• Registration for the 2025-26 school year is moving right along! The registration push for the end of the month helps us identify how many sections we need for our schools and our staffing needs.

Hear Mr. Fisher's full report HERE.

Mr. Virgil Harden, GIPS Chief Financial Officer, shared an update regarding the recently completed annual Audit Report for the fiscal year of 2023-2024.

Annually, all Nebraska school districts are required to have an independent audit and file an annual financial report (AFR). For the Fiscal Year ending August 31st. Grand Island Public Schools submitted our AFR timely but received permission to submit our audit report on or before 01/31/2025 due to a change in auditors.

The annual audit came back in good standing stating "the accompanying basic financial statements present fairly, in all material respectives...". A full look at the 55-page approved audit may be found on the February Board meeting agenda.

This was shared as information item at the February Board meeting.

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

As part of the safety and security projects approved by the Board during the August 8, 2024 meeting the attached proposals were received from Kidwell Incorporated and CEI Security & Sound for security cameras for various district buildings. The lowest responsible proposal is from Kidwell Incorporated in the amount of $2,131,828 to be paid from the QCPUF.

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

See above information item for rationale.

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

No changes were proposed.

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed changes to the policy would be to shorten the content and update some language to better reflect the existing practices within the district. The newly worded policy would read:

"School provided services and products are not income generating for the district. All proceeds from sales and services must be submitted daily to the school office. Funds will be allocated to the appropriate activity revolving account for future purchases or replacements. All financial transactions related to the production of products or services must be conducted through the school's appropriate activity account. School employees are prohibited from using school resources for personal gain."

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

A proposed change would include removing the job title of “Executive Director of Business” and replacing it with “Chief Financial Officer”.

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed changes would be to clean-up some of the wording to read:

"Moneys collected by school employees, student treasurers, and others shall be handled with best practice business procedures. All money collected shall be receipted, counted, and deposited without delay. Moneys left overnight in schools shall be kept in safes provided by the district for safekeeping of valuables. To the extent possible money collected will be deposited daily."

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Proposed changes would include removing the job title “Director of Business” and replacing it with “Chief Financial Officer”. Also to include a clarification for delivering physical checks.

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0

Regular review of an existing policy.

Only proposed change would include to remove the “The” in front of the “Grand Island Public Schools” listing.

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

MOTION PASSED: 7 - 0