Nebraska Public School Advantage News

Nebraska Public School Advantage News

Waverly's "Beef it Up" program, the brainchild of eighth-grade student, brings locally-sourced beef to cafeteria trays

Waverly's "Beef it Up" program, the brainchild of eighth-grade student, brings locally-sourced beef to cafeteria trays

February 28, 2023
By Tyler Dahlgren Kolter Wellman is as easygoing as he is ambitious. No stranger to interview requests, he politely introduces himself and takes a seat, ready to tell the story of how an eighth-grader essentially put locally sourced beef on lunch trays across Waverly’s School District 145. He’s well-measured and thoughtful in his responses. There is, after all, a purpose behind his passion...Read More

A Conversation with O'Neill Elementary's Jim York, Nebraska's National Distinguished Principal

A Conversation with O'Neill Elementary's Jim York, Nebraska's National Distinguished Principal

February 10, 2023
By Tyler Dahlgren Each month, O’Neill Elementary students and staff gather in the school gymnasium to celebrate four weeks of student successes and classroom triumphs before flipping the calendar page and embarking on another. And make no mistake about it, said principal Jim York, there’s a lot to celebrate at the school sitting on the northside of a town dubbed the “Irish Capital of Nebraska.” “...Read More

Becoming a CNA the Wood River Way: School nurse, ambitious students pilot program in first semester

Becoming a CNA the Wood River Way: School nurse, ambitious students pilot program in first semester

February 6, 2023
By Tyler Dahlgren When Wood River made the decision to develop and launch a Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) Class this semester, there wasn’t much deliberation over who would lead the program in its pilot year. They only had to look down the hall to school nurse Shelby Allan, a 2010 Wood River graduate with a wealth of real-life nursing experience. Though teaching high school students is no...Read More

York General hosts first Rural Health Day

York General hosts first Rural Health Day

February 2, 2023
(This article was originally published by the York News-Times on Jan. 31, and is appearing on Nebraska Public School Advantage as a guest piece. The photographs are courtesy of the York News-Times and the author, Naomy Snider.) By Naomy Snider Twenty-nine York middle school students attended York General’s very first Rural Health Day. The students had the opportunity to discover a wide range of...Read More

Leaning into Purpose with Nebraska Administrators: Mike Meyerle and Brent Hollinger

Leaning into Purpose with Nebraska Administrators: Mike Meyerle and Brent Hollinger

January 25, 2023
By Tyler Dahlgren Author's note: This piece was written for the NCSA Today Magazine, and was originally published in the Winter 2023 edition. Leaning into Purpose with Nebraska Administrators was a four-part series that ran over the course of the last year. There’s a parallel in the career arcs of Mike Meyerle and Brent Hollinger, the subjects of this installment of Leaning into Purpose with...Read More

Cross County Staff Stunned by School Board's Surprise Visits: "Having people thank you along the way, sometimes that's the fuel you need to keep going"

Cross County Staff Stunned by School Board's Surprise Visits: "Having people thank you along the way, sometimes that's the fuel you need to keep going"

January 18, 2023
By Tyler Dahlgren Part One: Surprise, Surprise! Teachers at Cross County are no strangers to classroom drop-ins. We’ve written about the district’s instructional rounds and profiled their school improvement team, too. Professional development, most of it peer-driven, is taken to the next level here. Even when unannounced, having a colleague sneak through the door for 15 minutes of observation...Read More

Desh the Halls!: Dragons put a bow on another December to remember

Desh the Halls!: Dragons put a bow on another December to remember

December 22, 2022
By Tyler Dahlgren There’s so many directions we could have gone with the headline. “Deshing Through the Snow….” “You know Deshler and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen….” “Desh the Halls….” The latter, albeit predictable, was the least of a stretch, not to mention incredibly accurate. Throughout the month of December, Deshler’s Dragon lair is overflowing with seasonal flavor. And that’s to be taken...Read More

Cozad begins building for the future the "Haymaker Way": "There's a terrific sense of ownership in this community, a drive to be the best we can possibly be"

Cozad begins building for the future the "Haymaker Way": "There's a terrific sense of ownership in this community, a drive to be the best we can possibly be"

December 21, 2022
By Tyler Dahlgren Before he was the interim superintendent of Cozad Community Schools, James Ford was a part of a legion of basketball coaches who swear by an age-old adage: Look good, feel good, play good. Ask any athlete. The mantra is tried and true, and it extends well beyond any field or court. “Same thing goes for learning,” said Ford. “If you’re comfortable in the learning space, if it has...Read More

Building a Kingdom of Wellness: "Wellness 4 All" model gives students in Seward County districts a comfortable space to center

Building a Kingdom of Wellness: "Wellness 4 All" model gives students in Seward County districts a comfortable space to center

December 14, 2022
By Tyler Dahlgren Early in the first semester of his senior year at Milford High School, Alec Shook learned a lesson as valuable as anything a dozen years of curriculum could possibly offer. “It’s healthier to speak about your problems than to let them build up,” Shook said. For years, Shook had done the latter. He’d stash worries and file burdens until the coast appeared clear, figuring an “out...Read More

Veteran and longtime school administrator Ramon Otero shares a powerful message at South Central USD 5's Veterans Day Program

Veteran and longtime school administrator Ramon Otero shares a powerful message at South Central USD 5's Veterans Day Program

November 29, 2022
I snuck in the side of Sandy Creek's gymnasium halfway through Ramon Otero's speech, crossing the stage as quietly as I could. It was Friday, Nov. 11th, and South Central USD 5 in Fairfield was holding its annual Veterans Day Program. The gymnasium was packed, with Otero, the husband of the district's superintendent, at the podium. I was there to spend some time with the school's digital media...Read More

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