By Tyler Dahlgren For years, Plattsmouth’s logo came in a variety of shapes and sizes. There were the classic Blue Devils, the modern Blue Devils, logos that came from who knows where, varying shades of blue, and an assortment of horns, tails and scripts that shifted depending on which Facebook page or jersey you happened to see. In a high-energy assembly at Plattsmouth High School last Monday...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren Walthill students started spilling out of their old school on the hill around 1:15 last Thursday, taking various routes to the corner where 2nd Ave runs into Broughton Street. There they gathered, at the edge of town around a massive pile of dirt, for a groundbreaking ceremony that was several years in the making. “It’s been forever coming,” superintendent Seth Sackmann said. “...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren Educators near and far are familiar with the intersection of Education and Technology. They travel those crossroads every single day, often at blazing speeds in order to keep up with the crowd. In this day of Artificial Intelligence (AI) emergence and an ever-changing technological landscape, schools really have no other choice. “Every district embraces AI differently,” said...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren Dr. Aaron Plas, Dr. Bary Habrock, and Travis Lightle sat down for lunch in a downtown Elkhorn barbecue joint recently. In charge of three of the fastest-growing school districts in Nebraska, the three superintendents had plenty to talk about. On this side of the Metro, life moves fast, and Bennington, Elkhorn, and Gretna have become the gold standard for managing suburban sprawl...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren Get SET Nebraska, a collaborative effort between the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools (CYFS), and ESU 13, was born from unique collaboration. And that’s exactly how the statewide mentorship and professional development program designed to retain special education...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren Millard South High School buzzed with an infectious kind of energy on a sunny spring Friday, as two gatekeepers of that special culture took a seat in one of their school’s conference rooms. Molly Kaldahl, a senior, and Ava Nkwocha, a junior, are Millard South Patriots through and through. They’re leaders, on this campus and beyond. Way beyond. Kaldahl is the National Student...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren The little gymnasium inside Fairbury’s Central Elementary fell silent just after the clock struck 10 Tuesday morning. It was so quiet, the 160 or so little kids sitting so still, that you could hear Sara Forsgren walking down the hallway, unsuspecting of the celebration that awaited. When the special education teacher came through the door, the gym erupted with applause for Mrs...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren The Cottonwood Fire burned to the south of Brady, a fast-moving wall of heat driven by relentless winds that put homes and ranches and livestock in immediate danger overnight. The blaze, the largest in Nebraska history, jumped roads and threatened the Sandhills. Brady Public Schools superintendent Ann Foster received a call from a community member on the fire’s front lines on...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren Five miles separate Seedling Mile Elementary and Grand Island Senior High, a 10-minute bus ride that Lee Jacobsen used for one final rundown before the district held a large-scale school reunification drill. The first of its kind for GIPS, the drill was a carefully coordinated practicum, a live-action stress test of a five-year safety evolution. As an intruder moved through the...Read More
By Tyler Dahlgren Cara Holtorf gives a top-notch tour of Wilber-Clatonia’s Lambert Zoubek Agriculture Science Center, a facility that houses everything from an industrial kitchen to a walk-in freezer to a state-of-the-art greenhouse. There’s rabbits, chickens, sheep, a few goats and other barnyard animals, too. Then the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser opens a door and looks to the south. It’s...Read More