The Broken Bow Board of Education met in Regular Session Monday evening, April 20. School Board President Tom Osmond called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM.
In the Financial Report, Board Treasurer Jennifer Jackson noted a long list of purchases from Amazon – supplies for next year’s school year. The final payment to Hausmann Construction was also noted, a check made out for $1,704,106.82.
In District Accolades, the FBLA brought back two State Champions from their recent competition in Kearney, with 13 individuals placing well enough to compete at the National Leadership Conference in San Antonio, TX from June 29 to July 2, 2026.
State Champions were Tristan Taylor, Keeley Moninger, and Tylee Fenton with a team Introduction to Business Presentation, and Lachlan White with an individual first place in Introduction to FBLA. Other National qualifiers are Ashlyn Wardyn, Paislee Oeltjen, Arianna Pate, Lillian Gregoski, Chase Johnson, Tristan Taylor, Kathryn Guffey, Emmett Palmer, Brody Morris, and Ashlyn Schauda.
Board Comments on End of the Legislative Session, and the End of an Era Locally
Board Member Pam Holcomb celebrated the end of the Nebraska Legislative Session in Member Comments. It had been a busy session, and Holcomb noted, “Now I just don’t know what to do with my time!”
However, with the end of the Session comes changes and challenges for the Board. Among these are changes to how budgeting and finances are presented to the public. BBPS Superintendent Darren Tobey noted starting in 2027 government officials will be required to hold a public session to answer questions, with no more “pink postcards” being sent out. However, with the sessions scheduled in July, before any budgeting or valuations have been finalized, the Board was unsure how many answers they would be able to provide.
Option enrollment programs will now require school districts to enroll the siblings of any student that the school district enrolls from outside of the district area. With State budget challenges continuing, Tobey also pointed to a reduction in Special Education funding of $18.5 Million as likely to pose a challenge as well.
Board President Osmond also took a moment during the Board Comments period to recognize the impending retirement of Custer County Chief Managing Editor Mona Weatherly, who was in attendance reporting on the meeting. Osmond noted Weatherly’s valuable reporting over many years as a contributor to the success the school has experienced, particularly in helping get out the vote approving the bond for the recently-completed school construction.
Resignations and New Hires, New Chrome Books
The Board approved the resignation of Middle School Science Teacher Mike Miller. Miller will be moving on from BBPS after 22 years of service at the end of the school year. New to the district next year will be 4th Grade teacher Abbie Neujahr from Cozad and Danielle Coutts. Coutts will be moving to Broken Bow from Georgia to teach English, but is originally from Ainsworth.
The Board also approved the purchase of 195 new Chromebook computers at a cost of $56,355. Students in 2nd, 5th, and 9th Grades will benefit from the new devices in the upcoming school year.
The District’s 2024 – 2025 Annual Report was approved at the evening’s meeting as well. The report provides a high-level overview of the district’s finances, enrollment and scores from student standardized testing. The final report, pending some minor changes to pre-school enrollment numbers can be found here: 2024-2025 District Report Card.docx
With that, the BBPS School Board entered Executive Session to address an unexpected employment matter at 6:25, with no further business to be conducted afterward.
The next meetings of the Broken Bow Board of Education will be the working session, to be held next month on Wednesday, May 6 at 12:00 PM, and the regular session, scheduled for Monday, May 18 at 6:00 PM at the BBPS District Conference Room.
