Advisory Board Talks NeSA, Wellness Committee And More

By Natalie Bruzon
[email protected]

The Clearwater-Orchard  Advisory Board met on Tuesday at 6 p.m. for a brief meeting, during which they discussed NeSA scores and updated projects on both sites. 

Mike Sanne, principal at the Clearwater site, reminded the board that although the NeSA scores are in, writing scores are still embargoed. 

“Reminder, writing scores are still embargoed until a later date, but we do have the scores for science, math and reading,” said Sanne. 

The board looked at the NeSA scores from this year and the previous two years for both sites, showing a comparison on how the sites did in previous years. 

“I would say probably 80 percent is a good target. One-hundred percent is a good goal, but 80 percent is a good target,” said Cathy Cooper, Orchard site principal regarding the percentage teachers should strive for. “You can see in middle school we did a really good job of getting above or near that.”

Cooper also commented on the embargoed writing scores, saying that several schools were questioning the scoring standard and test administration.  

“If parents ask, we will send out a score sheet where they can see their students scores, but because the writing scores are embargoed, we can not release that yet,” said Cooper. 

Sanne updated the board on the Health Advisory Council, which among other things looks at hot lunches and activity times for students. 

“We’re going to meet again in May, and then we’ll have some recommendations to give to you folks, the board, for our Wellness Policy,” said Sanne. “We will start approving it in June and July.” 

Sanne also talked about the assistant basketball coach position for which the search continues, and  Shelly Mlnarik brought the board’s attention to a scheduling issue with JV games for the 2017-2018 school year. 

The Orchard site does not have enough room to accommodate both JV games and varsity games, and Mlnarik has estimated that the rotation schedule means losing over six JV games. 

“It’s just something to think about,” said Sanne.

“You’ve gotta look at what’s best for the players, versus where they’re playing,” said Amy Thiele. 

“This might just be an out-of-wack year too,” said Mlnarik. “I’m just throwing that out there so you know that and can start thinking about it.”

Sanne also presented the sealed bids for the bus to the advisory board. 

Husker Used Parts and Trucks, Inc out of O’Niell had the highest bid with $1250 for the bus, which the board voted to accept. 
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The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 7 at 7 p.m., which conflicts with the concert in Lynch. 
The board voted to move the meeting to 5 p.m.