Nebraska Public School Advantage News

Nebraska Public School Advantage News

On the Otherside of the Firewall: Behind-the-scenes with Wilber-Clatonia’s Armando Perez

On the Otherside of the Firewall: Behind-the-scenes with Wilber-Clatonia’s Armando Perez

November 26, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren Armando Perez will tell you the brunt of his work at Wilber-Clatonia Public Schools is behind-the-scenes, but that doesn’t mean the network and systems administrator’s service goes unnoticed. Oh, far from it, said superintendent Justin Petersen, who called Perez one of the district’s many unsung heroes. “We’re spoiled with Armando, without a doubt,” Petersen said. “I’ll text him...Read More

The Sup and the Scribe: Bertrand’s Nicole LeClaire

The Sup and the Scribe: Bertrand’s Nicole LeClaire

November 25, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren First-year Bertrand Community School superintendent Nicole LeClaire’s voyage into education began as another noble journey ended. It really is funny to be sitting here, she almost laughs, behind the superintendent’s desk in a small school in the middle of rural Nebraska. If you’d have told her 10 years ago (heck, a year ago) that this was in the cards, she’d never have believed...Read More

Cultivating Culture: The best of three proud communities come together at Summerland Public School

Cultivating Culture: The best of three proud communities come together at Summerland Public School

November 19, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren Intro Autumn’s colors are spectacular along Highway 275, which takes form north of Fremont, runs through Norfolk and climbs north all the way to the foot of The Sandhills in O’Neill. In between, there are a handful of charming and proud small towns that beckon for a quick pit-stop and a friendly conversation with a smiling store clerk or coffee shop regular. Clearwater comes...Read More

Entertaining O’Neill: The Soundsational Singers and a song that spans generations

Entertaining O’Neill: The Soundsational Singers and a song that spans generations

November 12, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren The Soundsational Singers have carried a tune for 34 years, since a young music teacher named Molly Jennings joined the staff at O’Neill Elementary and expanded the school’s Special Choir. Jennings has led this room and this unique program since 1990, and her colorfully-decorated walls pay homage to the nearly 1,000 Singers who built this program into what it is today: a...Read More

Rock County’s New Horizons: A small town school in the Sandhills headed towards a big future

Rock County’s New Horizons: A small town school in the Sandhills headed towards a big future

November 6, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren Rock County didn’t as much receive a facelift this past summer as it did a total reimagining, and you almost have to see it to believe it. Built in 1961 and added onto in 1990, the school in the scenic Sandhills town of Bassett remained relatively untouched for more than 60 years. Principal Nickie Ebert, a 1998 Rock County graduate herself, recently found eerily similar...Read More

Untapping Potential: Students blossom in ESU 4’s Student Leadership Academy

Untapping Potential: Students blossom in ESU 4’s Student Leadership Academy

November 1, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren There’s 43 students from seven different districts in ESU 4’s Student Leadership Academy this year. That’s 43 bundles of ingenuity, creativity and potential the academy’s organizers are eager to tap into. Lori Broady, who recently retired from the service unit and began working part time for the Nebraska State Bar Association, launched the academy in 2021 with precisely these...Read More

Next in Line: Potter-Dix's five fire cadets and the boots they fill

Next in Line: Potter-Dix's five fire cadets and the boots they fill

October 28, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren Every story has a start. Downtown Potter is relatively quiet on this wind-whipped Friday morning in October. School’s not in session, having wrapped up the first quarter the day before. Besides a few locals shooting the breeze outside of The Potter Sundry, where the famous Tin Roof Sundae was invented, the scene is comfortingly calm and plucked straight from a small town...Read More

Sliding into an Exciting Future at Beatrice Elementary: An Epicenter for Modern Learning

Sliding into an Exciting Future at Beatrice Elementary: An Epicenter for Modern Learning

October 23, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren If you’re lucky enough to take a tour of the brand new and quite dazzling Beatrice Elementary, you’d be doing yourself a favor by taking the following three tips to heart. First off, allot more time than you’d think you’d need. For many years, Beatrice’s elementary students were scattered across town in four different buildings that deserved their retirement, if you catch my...Read More

The Sup and the Scribe: Wilber-Clatonia’s Justin Petersen hits the ground running

The Sup and the Scribe: Wilber-Clatonia’s Justin Petersen hits the ground running

October 15, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren It’s mid-morning on a crisp Friday in October and Wilber-Clatonia superintendent Justin Petersen sits down at his desk, grinning ear-to-ear. It’s not uncommon for Petersen’s mornings to put him in one of these moods. He’s intentional about spending the first couple of hours of each day out and about, spending time with teachers and kids, and, aside from developing relationships...Read More

Room 109 Reimagined: Welcome to The Jeffs’ Den

Room 109 Reimagined: Welcome to The Jeffs’ Den

October 9, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren Room 109 flanks the entrance to Central Elementary in Fairbury, an unassuming space that has housed study halls and make-up exams in years past. The small room blended in quite ordinarily with all the rest, rarely drawing as much as a second glance from passers-by. As Kim Roberts was preparing for her first year as principal of Central Elementary this past summer, she did...Read More

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