BROKEN BOW, Neb. – The Broken Bow School Board met for a regular meeting Monday night that lasted less than an hour. Colby Fisher was the lone absence.
At the opening portion of the meeting, Jennifer Jackson was approved to join the board unanimously, filling the position left vacant by Tim Chancellor.
Discussion on going forward from recent scam
During the treasurer’s report from Amy Staples not much further into the meeting, the subject of the recent scam the school fell victim to was brought up.
“Again, I want to be totally clear that it’s our fault and we’re not trying to put blame on other people. We have to do a better job and we ultimately take blame for that and we’ll have some checks and balances that improve that system if we ever go that route again with a wire or ACH transfer,” said Superintendent Darren Tobey.
“We’re not alone in this happening,” said Board President Tom Osmond. “It does happen more frequently than what you realize. Generally, it’s not public information. [We] just wanted to be honest and transparent as we have always been so that we don’t lose that trust even when bad things happen.”
Tobey added that the $1.8 million bill targeted by the scam was an uncommon situation for the school, and that the recovered $700,000 had been placed back into the special building account it was wired out of.
“We don’t deal with wires and ACH transfers,” said Tobey. “And we certainly don’t pay bills of $1.8 million each and every month. If we weren’t doing a construction project, I mean, you see our bills every month. There’s not a whole lot that we’re paying for outside of our salaries and insurance.”
Tobey echoed the original statement from the district, saying that there would be no effect to taxpayers moving forward. He explained that $26.5 million was taken out up front and invested utilizing CDs locally and a money market account with interest that could be pulled from each month without penalty. In all, between $1.3 million to $1.4 million is estimated to have been generated with the investments.
“So we’re going to use some of that money and then we’ll do our best as we wind down on this project to try to save as much money as we can, and hopefully we can come in under budget and we’ll use that money to replace some of the money that was taken too if we don’t get anything back in the insurance avenue. That’s why there won’t be an expense to the taxpayers necessarily on the budget. We do understand that that is still money that we could have in our account. So I don’t want anybody to think it’s a ‘no big deal’ because that’s not how we operate. But we do have some wiggle room or ability to get into the next budget cycle without impacting us on the next budget cycle,” Tobey explained.
No members of the public were present at the meeting for the public comment portion of the meeting.
District accolades, fee/price changes
Tobey said that student Addi Ellis and Coach Skylar Morris would be playing in an upcoming athletic all star game that could be watched on Nebraska Public Media television.
Football camp started this week, and conditioning for other sports begins the first week of August with practices starting the following week. Teachers will start logging days back in the building the first week of August as well. The first day of school is September 2.
The board approved several fee and price changes. Preschool tuition was increased by $10 to $155, effective for the 2026-27 school year. Substitute pay for the upcoming year was also increased $10 to $155 per day.
Lunch and breakfast prices were increased for this school year, resulting in a $2.15 price for breakfast, MS/HS lunches being $3.85, and elementary lunches being $3.75.
Activity pass and gate costs for activities will remain the same for the upcoming school year.
A new name for the middle school building, update on construction progress
What used to be the middle school building will have a new name going forward after the board approved to name it the ‘Performing Arts Center’. A new sign with the new name will be placed where the building says ‘Broken Bow Public Schools’ right now. At the conclusion of the renovation inside the structure, the building will have primarily vocal and instrumental classrooms inside in addition to the theater.
Tobey said that a walk-through of the interior of the new CTE building had been conducted, identifying some paint, drywall, and outlet fixes needing attention. He added that he was told the HVAC would be complete tomorrow (Tuesday) and that the floor in the theater was painted, the curtains were hung, and chairs were installed.
Policy updates and review
Several policy updates were approved by the board on Monday night, including the implementation of an anonymous bullying reporting document. Tobey stated that student information fields on the form will be optional, but added that in order for teachers and staff on the receiving end to be able to address the issue reported some information about each situation would be needed from students.
Staff and district social media use was another subject discussed a little longer than others.
“We have several Facebook, I’m just going to say social media accounts, that are built by coaches and used by coaches that are not part of the school system but they use our school name and they function like they are,” said Tobey, who explained that the policy was regarding not allowing comments on posts on the accounts, adding that he is aware that there are plenty of positive interactions that happen on the accounts too.
Upcoming work session, meeting dates set
The next board work session was set for August 4 at Noon, to be followed by an August 18 board meeting at 6 PM.
For budget purposes, September 3 was set as a work session day, to begin at 11:30 AM. The board meeting to follow will be on September 15.
Monday night’s meeting adjourned at 6:57 PM.
