WAYNE – Board of Education members at Wayne Community Schools hosted their first regularly scheduled meeting of 2021 Monday evening.
From the community room (room 202) of the Wayne Jr/Sr High School, the meeting began with Dr. Jeryl Nelson, Mr. Lynn Junck and Mrs. Jaime Manz being sworn in as board members by legal counsel, Mr. Eric Knutson.
Knutson then led the meeting as board members elected a president and vice president. After two years from being off the board of education, Dr. Nelson returned and was voted as president while Mrs. Manz will remain the vice president.
Also, Deb Daum (recording secretory) and Rochelle Nelson (treasurer) retained their positions.
Superintendent of Wayne Community Schools, Dr. Mark Lenihan said the school district posts their policies on the wayneschools.org website.
“That’s our official policy manual although we have about five paper copies in all of the offices and areas in the district,” said Dr. Lenihan. “The board has several committees, so they kind of talk through who’s going to be on what committees. Each board member serves on three committees.”
The board also selected State Nebraska Bank & Trust of Wayne as their depository institution, Wayne Herald as the classified recording records and Eric Knutson as legal counsel.
Moving into the regular meeting, the board approved both the Aetna Health Insurance and Ameritas Dental quotes early in the meeting. There was an increase of just over 10% for the health insurance as the dental quotes remained the same.
Dr. Lenihan recommended the board table the 2021-22 draft calendar until the school finalizes if they want to remain with the 10 a.m. late starts or change to a 2 p.m. dismissal for teacher in-service days. The first day of school for fall of 2021 would be Wednesday, August 11 with a noon dismissal. The final day of school won’t be set until the April board meeting
The negotiations settlement with the Wayne Education Association (WEA) was brought forward where there was about a 2.2% increase on the total package.
“The total package for teachers includes salary and insurance,” Dr. Lenihan added. “So, it’s all taken into consideration. That is pending approval from the teacher’s association (WAE), so once they approve that it’ll be official.”
Wane Community Schools is fully staffed and there are only a handful of kids not able to be in school as the district has a plan in place to work with those who can’t attend in-person. The 2 p.m. Friday dismissals will continue through the third quarter and the board will determine if it’ll continue once the fourth quarter comes closer.
Wayne Community Schools continues to accept applications for a math teaching position along with a head football coach.
The next regularly scheduled Wayne School Board of Education meeting will be on Monday, February 8. The meeting will begin at the elementary school for a tour before the agenda meeting will take place at the Wayne Jr/Sr High School.
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