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Float Nurse
The District would like to add a floating nurse to help our buildings with contact tracing. This task took a lot of time away from our administrators and nurses from doing their main roles in the respective fields. The float nurse can also help with subbing during nurse absences. The District can use ESSER III funds for this position.

Bookkeeper Administrative Assistant
The District has had a combined position of Payroll/Bookkeeper Administrative Assistant. The District requests to split the duties of Payroll and Bookkeeper into two full-time roles. This will help with a separation of duties as well as from an audit standpoint to have these roles separated for checks and balances. In comparison with other districts our size, they have two payroll administrative assistants plus a bookkeeper.

KSDEF Coordinator

The KSDEF Coordinator will provide communication and accounting support for KSDEF. The Coordinator will coordinate accounting, quarterly meetings and support fundraising efforts. This position is funded by Kearney School District Education Foundation yet this will run through our KSD payroll. The position is a 10 hour weekly position.

Southview Para-professional

Southview Elementary has received a transfer student that requires a one on one paraprofessional per the IEP. It is being requested that a new paraprofessional position be approved to meet this need as we currently don't have available staff to provide this one on one support.

LENS Special Education Teacher
In a year, LENS doubled in size going from approximately 66 students with one section of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades to over 130 students with two sections for each grade level. In addition, our special education population increased not only with numbers but also with higher support needs. Currently, we have one special education teacher who is allocated to support all special education at LENS, while also supporting half of the special education population at Southview. We have looked at other scheduling possibilities; however, those have resulted in students missing recess, specials classes, or Project-Based Learning which then takes away the point of the students going to LENS.

While caseloads at SV/LENS do not look high on paper, it is the logistics that significantly impact the feasibility. Differences between building schedules for three grade levels, travel time, and student needs at any particular moment in time, without an in house teacher, create the biggest obstacles. LENS does not currently have any dedicated in house support staff except for a one on one para that spends her day with one particular student. The special education teacher servicing SV/LENS is not receiving a full, daily plan time or lunch period.

Pulling a special education teacher from Kearney Elementary half a day was considered. However, we run into the same problems in scheduling that SV is experiencing. KE currently has the lower caseloads, but historically their numbers drastically climb starting in November due to new referrals. KE also tends to see students with higher social/emotional needs and supports students transitioning from the BEST program back to the resource setting. Hawthorne and Dogwood have higher caseloads than SV.

We do have a Kearney Junior High para that provides support for two class periods a day. While she can support, she cannot provide any instruction. Next year, the KJH para will not be available to assist due to the increased caseloads the JH will see.

We propose the addition of one FTE in order to support special education needs at LENS which would also allow for special education needs to be fully met at Southview.