My Personal Recap of June and July

My Views Are My Own

By Lisa Schonhoff, Ed.S.

7/28/2025

As we wrapped up our public meeting in June, I reflected on my first six months of serving on the SBOE. Following are my observations.  In June, there were approximately 700 pages of documents in our agenda that consisted of five contract approvals and three grant approvals in the consent agenda totaling $4.5 million, along with 24 action items in the regular agenda.  Oftentimes, the items that are initially approved in the regular agenda show up again in the consent agenda when the grant runs out and the board is asked to allocate general state funds.  When this occurs, I ask the question: 

Does the benefit of the program outweigh the dependency that will result in higher taxes?  

In essence, how will this program benefit students and would taxpayers overall agree with

the appropriateness of the ask?

One particular grant that the Board unanimously voted Yes for is the 21st Century grant.  This is one I will be learning more about due to the sheer cost that will eventually be funded by taxes.  

One action item for which I voted No is the Menstrual Product Pilot Program.  I’m sure that most high school teachers remember not too long ago the TikTok Bathroom Challenge that encouraged students to record themselves destroying the school restrooms.  It may be more appropriate for communities to solve these types of issues locally through nonprofit partnerships, instead of placing the burden on the taxpayers.  This passed with a 5:3 vote.

There were items in the consent agenda as well as the regular agenda regarding early childhood.  While I voted yes for the item in the consent agenda, I voted no on additional funding for preschool in the regular agenda. I have expressed my positions on early childhood in the past, but I will reiterate my stance here.  While I believe it is irresponsible to cut funding where there is already a strong dependency, I also believe it is irresponsible to create further dependency on early childhood programs that don’t typically show increased student proficiency beyond third grade.  With the current property tax crisis in Nebraska, our tax base simply cannot sustain universal preschool, and I do not believe the benefits outweigh the tax burden on hard-working Nebraskans. You can read more about this in my prior blog post regarding universal preschool.  

The Board unanimously agreed that further study needs to be done around the priority school process before designating or removing schools from the Priority Schools list.  “Priority Schools are among the lowest performing schools and demonstrate the greatest need to increase capacity to implement, support, and sustain school improvement efforts.  Priority Schools receive the most intensive level of support from the Nebraska Department of Education.”  

Other Quick Points:

The Social Studies Standards Revision process is underway, and the work will continue throughout the next year.

The NDE has been diligently working on its Strategic Plan.  Commissioner Maher plans for it to go live in January of 2026.

While there was not a public meeting in July, I was able to attend the NDE literacy training. I thought the best points that were made by the AIM Institute presenters were the importance of having students reading physical books and having pencils in their hands during the majority of the reading block of instructional time.  EXCELLENT!  You can join the Nebraska Literacy Project Mailing List to stay up to date on literacy at the NDE.