By Tyler Dahlgren

It was the summer of 2021, and Adams Central Elementary needed a summer school spruce-up. Attendance had dropped in the previous couple of years, and the pandemic didn’t help.

Fifth-grade teacher Libby Lollman, who was helping with the summer school at the time, sat down with superintendent Shawn Scott. The two started brainstorming, and what they landed on was a paradigm shift. 

Enrichment. Academic exposure. Extracurricular opportunities.

Students at Adams Central Elementary have so many talents just waiting to be tapped into, said Lollman. That simple belief captures the essence of Beyond 175, a total reimagination of the traditional, and, at times, dreaded, summer school.

“We thought the focus needed to be centered on enrichment,” Lollman said of those early conversations with Scott. “We wanted to keep those core academics, but we also wanted to embed some fun things into our programming. Things that’ll get the kids here and keep them coming back.”

Beyond 175 was born, immediately striking the perfect balance between learning and summer fun. In fact, many of the courses offered blend the two so well that it’s easy to lose track of where one ends and the other begins. Cooking, cosmetology, chess and olympic games. Marble rollercoasters, rockets and barn quilting. If a teacher pitches an idea for a course, Beyond 175 accommodates it.

“It’s been a mindset shift as a district and for parents, too,” said Lollman. “We just keep saying, ‘Enrichment, enrichment, enrichment.’ It’s so much fun and more camp-based than before. Kids want to be here, and the students who need to be here want to be here.”

Thousands of students have walked through the doors to Kristin Lukow’s music room at Adams Central Elementary over the past 41 years. They’re always greeted with infectious enthusiasm and a warm smile, be it October or the middle of June. Lukow lives for what she calls “creative time,” so there was little to no chance of her missing out on Beyond 175.

“My goal for them is independent musicianship,” she explained. “I don’t have a class of 29 like I do throughout the year. I have a class of 12, and I have a class of five. There’s more one-on-one instruction, and it just allows us to take things a little bit further than what we normally do in the classroom.”

As they are for students, summers are somewhat sacred for teachers, too. Spend 10 minutes in Lukow’s room on a Wednesday morning in June, and you’ll quickly figure out that there’s nowhere the longtime teacher would rather be. The same can be said for her Beyond 175 students, who spent their session bringing to life a song Lukow composed that same morning.

“All the teachers here are really nice, and they make being here a ton of fun,” said Briella Borrell, who will be a fourth-grader in the fall. “I’ve had softball camps and a few other school camps this summer, and this is just as much fun.”

There’s something for everybody. Literally.

“They have really good programs for us,” said incoming fourth-grader Quinn Theesen. “It’s really fun to learn new things.”

Word is spreading quickly. Five years ago, summer school attendance was dwindling. Now, it’s surging, with 26 percent of incoming kindergarten students enrolled in Beyond 175. This summer, 166 students are enrolled in at least one class. That’s 33 percent of the student body, a far cry from five years ago. Thirty percent of students receiving special education services signed up for Beyond 175 this summer.

“When you can successfully incorporate enrichment with academics, I believe that’s what keeps bringing kids in,” said assistant principal Shannon Nepple. “Mrs. Lollman has done a phenomenal job with creating and organizing the program. It’s been so great for our community and for our kids, and it’s so fun to watch how creative our teachers are.”

That’s the key cog to the Beyond 175 machine, said Lollman. A large percentage of Beyond 175 teachers are employed by the district, though they happily welcome and encourage guests with wisdom to impart and hobbies to share.

“That’s a highlight for me, because I don’t always get to see that in the classrooms when they’re teaching on a normal school day,” Nepple said. “Our teachers have so many talents, and at the end of the day it’s our hope that we’re guiding students towards interests that someday might lead to a job. Whether that’s to be a chef, or an engineer, or to attend cosmetology school. It’s fun to see and it’s fun to think about.”

Lollman, the varsity volleyball coach for the Patriots, gets creative herself when recruiting teachers. When an idea pops in her head throughout the year, she makes a note. This year’s cosmetology course, for example, was led by a former four-year starter on the volleyball team and current cosmetology school student who’s in town to ref summer league on Monday nights.

“She brought all of the heads from school and they practiced braiding, curling and all the things that girls love to do,” Lollman said. “It’s been fun to see what we can do and how creative we can get with it.”

Brad Lindblad spent 28 years in the healthcare industry before making a career switch to education last year. He’s a teacher in nearby Grand Island now, but his Adams Central roots run deep. His wife Susan is the district’s Early Childhood Director, and their four children all graduated from Adams Central.

When they asked if he’d be interested in teaching a Beyond 175 class, Lindblad did them one better. He offered to teach two: Chess and Frisbee Golf.

“I chose to be here because I just want to keep building relationships with kids,” Lindblad said over the clanking of frisbee golf basket chains. “I love to interact and to help them grow. It’s so fun getting to teach them something new and different.”

Perhaps no group of students stand to benefit more from Beyond 175 than incoming kindergarteners. For them, it’s an opportunity to become familiar with and comfortable in their new surroundings before there’s 500 additional students filling the halls.

“That’s been a huge part of it,” said Lollman. “We’re always looking at the hierarchy of needs, the social and emotional support we can provide, and getting them here and comfortable and excited is all going to benefit them. They’re going to be ready to learn on day one in the fall.”

Lollman credits the Adams Central Foundation for being “second to none” in their support for Beyond 175. The community, she continued, was curious at first. The more they learn about Adams Central’s innovative take on summer school, the more they cheer it on.

“The people and the kids are what make Adams Central such a special place,” Lollman said. “We’re not a small school, but we’re a school that’s not connected to a town. Sometimes people talk about how hard it is to build a community feel given our location, but I think we’ve achieved that here.”

With 40 years of perspective, Lukow is quick to echo Lollman’s sentiment.

“It’s the families,” she said. “The families are the backbone of all of our education here because they support it, they love it, and that makes teaching the kids so much easier. They make it a joy.”

Lukow’s music room, warm and welcoming with a lot going on, embodies this place and this program. When a student walks in, she lights up. When all five have arrived, they get to work.

“Music is fun,” Lukow said. “Some of them are powerhouse musicians, and some of them just enjoy being here and learning together, and that’s perfectly fine. Some of them struggle, and some of them don’t, and that’s the beautiful thing about education.”

Before they know it, the hour’s up. Time flies when you’re having fun. 

Especially on a sunny Wednesday morning in the middle of June.