By Tyler Dahlgren

Education is a pillar in the Hastings community, that much is undeniably true. If you need proof, just take a drive around the city of 25,000 Nebraskans that gifted us Kool-Aid and the greatest college football coach of all time. 

Hastings Public Schools has eight buildings scattered across the community. Hastings Catholic Schools has St. Michael’s Elementary and St. Cecilia Middle & High School smack dab in the middle of town. There’s Adams Central Public Schools on the western outskirts of town, and Central Community College to the east. Bryan College of Health and Sciences opened in the Mary Lanning Healthcare four years ago, and Hastings College has been a Central Nebraska mainstay since 1882.

On a crisp Tuesday morning in late October, leaders from these institutions gathered in a conference room at Educational Service Unit 9, as they regularly do. The Hastings Area Education Consortium (HAEC) isn’t new. Collaboration has been at the core of this community for many years, but the group has ramped up their unique partnership the last couple of years.

In a community where 10-percent of jobs are tied directly to education, this kind of cooperation is advantageous to all parties.

“We make a big impact when we work together, that’s kind of the thing in our community,” said Adams Central superintendent Shawn Scott. “We have goals. In the last two years, we’ve really resurrected the group and really focused on the community development piece to this and how we can help each other, because what we do really does matter to each of us. What the colleges do matters to the public and private schools. What the K-12 schools do really matters to the colleges. The more we can work together, the better off our community is going to be.”

Hastings Public Schools superintendent Dr. Chris Prososki is the newcomer, having stepped into his current position this past summer. He knew Hastings as a community rich with educational history and tradition, and was wowed by how connected the institutions were behind-the-scenes. 

“Being an outsider looking in, it comes down to streamlining opportunities for kiddos,” Prososki said. “We’re really looking at different ways we can open doors for students, whether it be through CCC, Bryan or Hastings College. Our priority is to make sure they’re on the path to success.”

Bryan College of Health Sciences will hold its first graduation ceremony in Hastings next May. Being involved with the HAEC is a no-brainer, said president Dr. Kelsi Anderson. Working with the secondary institutions in town pays off big time when it comes to pathways to enrollment.

“It’s a lot easier to recruit students who know you than to cold call students from an ACT list. The more we can expose students to our programs, whether it’s at CCC, Hastings College or Bryan, the better. There’s tons of pathways for students right here in our hometown.”

The goal, Anderson continued, is to make Hastings as attractive as possible. When students graduate from college, the HAEC wants them to stick around. Education is an economic driver, Scott said. The data doesn’t lie, and the data shows Hastings to be an educational hub.

“It really does drive the economic workforce and supply chain of workers,” said Hastings College president Dr. Rich Lloyd. “It’s why businesses should want to locate here. We have three colleges that produce graduates eager for opportunities and secondary districts that are producing really talented students. In other places, colleges might not share information with one another because they assume that if they do, they’re going to lose in that transaction. We see it as we all win when we do that.”

In most communities, as Lloyd alluded to, multiple school systems and colleges might compete for attention, resources, or students. In Hastings, they’re doing the opposite.

“Most of us are part of Hastings Economic Development,” said Scottl. “When we can sit down and say that about ten percent of the jobs in our community are education-related, it makes a powerful statement.”

When the HAEC gathers, they don’t just swap updates from their institutions. They start each meeting by sharing small victories—both professional and personal—that remind them why their work matters. It might be a new academic milestone, a state championship, or a family celebration, but each story adds a note to the growing harmony among Hastings’ schools.

“Learning about other institutions and what they’re doing is always fun,” said Father Cyrus Rowan, Chief Administrative Officer with Hastings Catholic Schools. “That way, we can help promote those things in a way that strengthens the community. This collaboration facilitates growth. An important part of our partnership is learning about what others are doing and thinking about how we can work together to improve.”

ESU 9 is the tie that binds. The service unit, located on the northern edge of town, serves 15 public districts and also provides supports to four parochial districts. Collaboration, not competition, is the key to shaping both student success and community growth, said ESU 9 administrator Drew Harris.

“As a service unit, we look for ways to assist our schools in improving and ways to make ourselves useful and purposeful. This is just an opportunity for us to demonstrate some purpose and value in being part of facilitating this and broadening it along as we do.”

An investment into young people is one Hastings has shown its willingness to make. Here, education is the foundation, and students are the future.

“We have to understand that in a community our size, our kids are our future,” said Scott. "They’re our future workforce, our future teachers and school board members and employers. So anything we can do to make sure that we have a good, quality setting right where we are, we’re going to do it. They have a lot of opportunities right here. They don’t have to go far.”

This cooperation shows up in practical ways, too. Hastings College hosts high school football games, giving students access to high-quality facilities while fostering community pride. 

“That’s pretty unique,” said Prososki. “Not every town has those kinds of partnerships.”

Dr. Lloyd said that Hastings College and CCC have partnered for decades, offering students hybrid degree options that combine liberal arts with technical expertise. 

“You can come to a private liberal arts college and get a degree in agribusiness by taking 24 hours at our community college,” Lloyd explained. “We send our business students there because they have the expertise in areas like culinary arts and construction management. We also partner in teacher education programs.”

The collaboration extends to Bryan College of Health Sciences as well. Together, they’ve built a dual-degree program that allows students to earn both a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bryan and a Bachelor of Arts from Hastings College, taught in partnership with Mary Lanning Healthcare. 

“We’re asking, ‘How can we open up our catalogs to benefit students?’” said Lloyd. “Instead of seeing each other as competitors, we see ourselves as collaborators.”

That cooperative model is not just unusual, it’s almost unheard of. 

“I don’t know of any other town of 25,000 that has three place-based colleges offering different pathways and all working together,” Lloyd said. “It’s rare.”

Connected, the education institutions in Hastings form a talent pipeline and an economic engine. The Hastings Area Education Consortium is synchronizing stability, growth and success--a rare accomplishment indeed.