Nebraska education board postpones votes on Omaha learning plan, mental health grants

The Nebraska State Board of Education postponed for the second time a vote on a plan for the Learning Communities of Douglas and Sarpy counties, which includes school districts in the Omaha area.

The community achievement plan covers four areas: early childhood, learning centers in North and South Omaha, attendance and the development of the Metropolitan Omaha Education Consortium Collective Impact plan.

Several of the Republican members had concerns with partnering with OneWorld Health Center, which provides transgender health care. But that piece of its operation is outside of its part in the learning communities’ plan.

Board member Sherry Jones said she doesn’t approve of several offerings OneWorld has, including allowing children 12 and older to visit an off-campus youth clinic without a parent, offering hormone therapy and medical transition assistance and offering Plan B.

“And, although OneWorld Health does not provide abortion services, the clinic can refer minors to such service providers in Omaha,” Jones added. “Again, in my opinion, these providers hurt women and kill babies in the womb.”

Deborah Neary, who represents part of Douglas county, said the plan on which the board would vote has nothing to do with gender-affirming care or talking with students about it.

“There's a reason that the learning community plan has been around for a long time because there's a huge need,” Neary said. “I really am seeing a recurring theme that I'm hearing people talk about negative things, frequently it's culture war topics that concern me, but they'll talk about negative things, and they're willing to vote down something that will derail or dismantle important programs.”

Maggie Douglas, who represents part of Sarpy county, said on a visit with several other board members to the learning centers, OneWorld made it clear its funding for education was completely separate from its funding for health.

Board member Elizabeth Tegtmeier disapproved of the whole plan, saying there hadn’t been improvements in student achievement since the last time it came to the board. The plan has been around for about 10 years and goes to the board for approval every three years. She specifically pointed to the Omaha Public Schools District, which received the most funding as part of the plan. The state identified the district as needing support to improve for several years.

“I'm a ‘no’ vote because it's not going to make a bit of difference,” Tegtmeier said. “It hasn't made a difference for the last three years on student achievement, and it's not going to make — because it's not significantly different from what we received in the past.”

Board members in support of the plan, like Liz Renner, understood Tegtmeier’s concerns. Renner added that the data showing little improvement was post-COVID, which schools are still working to come back from.

“I just feel like these aren't normal times to just take out those numbers and say it's not succeeding, because digging-yourself-out-of-a-hole results are different than starting-on-solid-ground results,” Renner said.

Members ultimately voted 6-2 to send the plan to the executive committee, a change from the planning and evaluations committee it has been in, with a hope to find a compromise. The board will likely meet before the end of February for a vote because the state aid tied to the plan is included in TEEOSA calculations, which are due by March 1.

The board also postponed a vote on a subcontract with ECDataLab as part of a grant to combine already-collected data on birth-to-five to see what patterns there are across the state in areas like early literacy and access to early childhood education. The money comes from a federal grant that the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is leading with help from the Nebraska Department of Education.

Members had questions about how helpful the data would be and if it would be secure. NDE staff said the data would not be leaving Nebraska or shared with ECDataLab, which would only provide technical assistance.

The board skipped over any discussion or action on two grants for mental health services that were on the agenda. The two grants would help with training and recruiting school psychologists and getting professional development for teachers.

In 2025, the board locked 4-4 on different funds for teacher mental health training. The two items passed over on Friday’s agenda came from a U.S. Department of Education grant for a four-year period. It’s unclear when the board will discuss and vote on those grants.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be March 6. There will likely be a special meeting before then.