Paraprofessional position opening at Bancroft-Rosalie

2015 Synopsis

Bancroft-Rosalie Community School General Information - Class of 2015 had 14 graduates, earning $428,840 in scholarships. - 244 students K-12 and 31 preschoolers - Co-oped junior high sports with Lyons-Decatur. Beginning in 2016-17 we will be cooping high school sports with them, the B-R-L-D Wolverines. - Purchased the Country Pub building for Youth Center and Preschool - Started an after school program that has an attendance from 15-30 students a day - Put a new roof on the Rosalie gym Academics - B-R Elementary nominated by State for the National Blue Ribbon School award. Elementary School proficiency- 96% in Reading; 94% in Math; 93% in Science and 89% in writing. - Our Positive Behavior Support program is viewed as a model program by the Department of Education. - Offered 31 dual credits in social studies, english, math and Health science. Next year we will be adding college classes in computer aided drafting, physical geography, and medical terminology. All taught by our teachers. - Seven freshmen completed Algebra II and will be taking College Algebra and Trigonometry as sophomores - Ashten Reil artwork selected for display in Washington DC congressional building - Elementary School is the first school in Nebraska to utilize an online science program- the Discovery Education Techbook. Activities - Boys basketball team was State runner-up, conference regular season champions and tournament champions - Speech team was state champions, qualified 9 events for state, Brianna Wegner- STATE CHAMPION Persuasive; Chase Bonsall, Kylie Cole, Austin Bruning, Ian Nottlemann, Jerrica Tietz- STATE CHAMPIONS- Oral Interpretation of Drama; Suzanne Ras- STATE RUNNER-UP Informative; Austin Bruning and Ian Nottlemann- STATE RUNNER-UP Duet Acting; Kylita Gomez- THIRD PLACE Informative; Suzanne Ras- FOURTH PLACE Humorous Prose; Kylita Gomez- FIFTH PLACE Persuasive; Brianna Wegner- SIXTH PLACE Serious Prose - The Powerdrive team won the standard class state championship for the second year in a row, the program is being discontinued. - The track team had three state qualifiers and jerrica Tietz placed seventh in the triple jump. - The football team qualified for the state play-offs for the 11th year in a row. - Added a school musical this year and students are practicing for next years production of “Beauty and the Beast”. - Adding girls golf, FFA, and SkillsUSA programs next year. Retirement Anita Bray- 33 years teaching/ 11 at B-R

Summer School

Summer School will be held on the following dates: July 20-23, July 27-30, and August 3-6. School will start at 8:15 am and finish at 11:45 am. Parents with children that are recommended for summer school will receive a letter this week describing what their student will be doing in summer school. Most recommendations will be for an entire group to come to summer school to finish a reading or math level, or to catch another group.

Career/Technical Education Programs of Study at Bancroft-Rosalie

The following Nine Courses of Study meet the course requirements of the Nebraska Department of Education. The program of study is listed under the Career Cluster that it applies to. Skilled and Technical Services 1. Production- Standard Woods 2. Manufacturing- Basic 3. Drafting 4. Basic Construction Human Science and Education 5. Education and Training- Teaching 6. Education and Training- Early Childhood Health Science 7. Health Science Communication and Information Systems 8. Information Technology Business, Marketing, and Management 9. Financial Management

Early Childhood/ Preschool Teacher

Early Childhood Educator Bancroft-Rosalie School is seeking applications for a Preschool Teacher. Nebraska teaching certificate with an early childhood or a preschool disabilities endorsement required. This position will be considered the Director of Early Childhood Education, which requires 9 hours of Early Childhood classes. Send letter of application and credentials to: Superintendent, Bancroft-Rosalie School, Box 129, Bancroft, NE. 68004.

Parent Technology Survey - Will close Wednesday morning

Parents are asked to complete a technology survey to assist the school in planning for future technology needs. Pasted below are Bancroft-Rosalie Schools parent questionnaire links. There is no link for parents who have students in both elementary and high school, but those parents are free to take both questionnaires if they wish to do so. elementary -- http://www.bbyt.es/EC8KP high school -- http://www.bbyt.es/823EP

Bancroft-Rosalie graduates 14 tonight at 6:30 pm

Fourteen graduate tonight. Here is what they plan to do. Class of 2015 Derek Samuel Ahlers, son of Tim and Sandy Ahlers, plans to attend University of Nebraska Lincoln, majoring in Mechanized Systems Management. Kenneth James Appleton, Jr., son of Crystal and Kenneth Appleton, Sr., plans to attend Haskell Indian Nations University, majoring in Business. Kylita RaVae Gomez, daughter of Kyle and Rita Gomez, plans to attend Wayne State College, majoring in General Education. McKenzie Michael Lyons, son of Gabe Lyons and Stephanie Lyons, plans to enter the work force. Arthur Anthony Marr, Jr., son of Michelle Sheridan and Arthur Marr, Sr. and Crystal & Kenneth Appleton Sr., plans to attend Little Priest Tribal College, majoring in General Studies. Ian Michael Nottlemann, son of Michael and Melinda Nottlemann, plans to attend University of Nebraska-Lincoln, majoring in Athletic Training. Damion Dakota Otteman, son of Dawn Twohig and Byron Osten, plans to attend Northeast Community College, majoring in Sound/Music Tech. Suzanne Elise Ras, daughter of Gerard and Ronda Ras, plans to attend Morningside College , majoring in Education. Christopher John Snyder, Jr., son of Christopher Snyder Sr. and Shari Patton, plans to attend Army. Jaeliesa Arlaina Switzer, daughter of Lori Ann Switzer, plans to attend Wayne State College, majoring in Pre-Veterinary Science. Carsten D. Tietz, son of Brent and Teresa Tietz, plans to attend Northeast Community College, majoring in Diesel Tech. Jerrica Ann Tietz, daughter of Duane and Sheryl Tietz, plans to attend Concordia University, majoring in Pre-Veterinary Science. Easton Charles Weborg, son of Brian and Renee Weborg, plans to attend University of Nebraska Lincoln, majoring in Mechanized Systems Management. Brianna Christine Wegner, daughter of Mike and Barb Wegner, plans to attend Northeast Community College and then transfer to the University of South Dakota majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders to become a Speech-Language Pathologist.

May Bizz Buzz- Bancroft is Couming County Community of the Year

Bancroft-Rosalie School Board news

The Bancroft-Rosalie Board of Education met Monday, May 11, 2015 at 7:30 pm in Bancroft.

Superintendent Cerny presented the April transportation report, expected enrollment for 2015-16, a NeSA assessment Report, and a summary of the new AQuESTT accountability system. Principal Sjuts reported on semester tests, senior sneak trip, and graduation.

In old business the board approved a cooperative agreement with Pender for Fall Golf and approval to discontinue the softball cooperative with Wisner-Pilger for one year.

 In new business, the board accepted the resignation of Lindzie Munderloh. The board reviewed the preliminary budget for 2015-16, summer training and workshops, and set wages for bus drivers and classified staff substitutes. The board also approved replacing the condenser for the walk-in freezer.

May 11 School Board Agenda

Bancroft-Rosalie Community School

Regular Board of Education Meeting Agenda

Monday, May 11, 2015 --- 7:30 p.m. in Bancroft

1.             Call to Order

2.            Open Meetings Act

3.             Roll Call

4.             Read and approve the minutes of the April 13, 2015 Board Meeting.

5.             Treasurer’s Report

            A.             Approve the Bills

            B.             Financial Review

6.             Review Agenda

7.             Public Hearing

8.  Administrator’s Reports:

            A. Superintendent’s Report

            B.            Principal’s Report

            C. Board Committee Reports

                        1. Negotiations

                        2. Citizenship/Instruction/ Americanism

                        3. Personnel

                        4. Buildings and Grounds.

                        5. Transportation.

                        6. Insurance.

                        7. Reorganization

9.            Old Business:

            A. Approve cooperative agreement with Pender for Girls Golf.

10.            New Business:

            A. Accept resignation of Lindzie Munderloh

            B. Annual review of financial needs- Preliminary budget study.

            C. Review budget amount for training and workshops.

            D. Review major purchase requisitions for ensuing year.

            E. Set wages for activity bus drivers and substitute cooks.           

11. Executive Session-

12.            Future Planning- Next scheduled meeting- June 8, 2015 at 7:30 pm in Bancroft.           

13.            Adjournment.

Digital books could be the next frontier

From website
http://hechingerreport.org/digital-books-could-be-the-next-frontier-in-getting-more-books-into-the-hands-of-disadvantaged-children/

More than $250 million worth of electronic books will soon be provided to children in low-income communities.
Nine major book publishers will partner with nonprofit organizations to provide free e-books to community libraries, according to last week’s announcement from the White House. And more than 30 cities, including Chicago, Baltimore and San Francisco, signed on to the president’s challenge to sign more children up for library cards.
The announcement was the latest update to President Obama’s ConnectED program, which seeks to improve teaching and learning through expanded access to digital materials and new technologies. Commitments from the federal government and private organizations are estimated at $10 billion over the next five years, according to the White House.
The free books and a push to put more library cards into the hands of children were just part of last week’s announcement. It also included efforts to make sure the digital books are easy to reach and attractive. For instance, volunteer librarians from the Digital Public Library of America will work with the New York Public Library to increase access to age-appropriate titles. And graphic artists will work with an organization called Recovering the Classics to improve fonts and designs in books to make them more attractive to children.
Digital books tend to be cheaper than traditional print versions, creating a potential cost-savings in an expensive line item in many library and school budgets. But advocates say that’s just the start of what is possible.
Some organizations are working on electronic school textbooks that go beyond reproducing the simple text experience in a digital format. They offer embedded video and interactive features that could improve teaching and learning. And some say open-source textbooks could further change the textbook market dynamic because they offer high-tech textbooks for a hard-to-beat price: free.
It’s not a quick fix.
Digital textbooks require a digital device and Internet access, both often lagging in low-income communities. And if a child lacks Internet access at home, he or she might not be able to make much use of digital books unless they are at school or the library. About 70 percent of public libraries report they are the only source of a free Internet connection in their community, according to the White House announcement about the new digital books.
The program will offer about 10,000 books to children. Tools to distribute the books are being developed through partnerships with public libraries and private organizations, according to the White House. No date was given for when the books would be available to children – nor any word on whether the digital books come with the tradition of a library return due-date.

Bancroft-Rosalie: Farm to School Capitalizes on School’s Rural Setting

By Sandra Renner on April 30, 2015 - 3:17pm
Access at http://www.cfra.org/news/150430/bancroft-rosalie-farm-school-capitalizes-school%E2%80%99s-rural-setting

March Madness was in full swing at Bancroft-Rosalie Community School this year. The school, located in Bancroft, Nebraska, participates in the Center’s pilot Farm to School program. Naturally, there was a Farm to School twist on their brand of March Madness. Each year, kindergarten through 4th grade students choose their favorite breakfast menu item and invite guests to eat at school. This year’s competition was called “Pennies for Produce.” Becky Wortman, Food Service Director at the school, said the promotion motivated the kids to save up for a special purchase of their favorite fruit. Each class made “deposits” to a penny jar in the lunchroom – voting for the fruit they most wanted for their “Madness” breakfast. The classes enjoyed bringing the pennies to the kitchen and watching as the jars filled up. A chart on the wall showed each class’s progress throughout the month. One first grader commented, “We used teamwork to raise money.” A classmate agreed, “We needed to get rid of pennies anyway!” Kitchen staff enjoyed the fun activity too. Parents learned more about the Farm to School effort when they attended breakfasts throughout March.

Bancroft-Rosalie was an early Farm to School supporter. Bancroft is about 12 miles from our hometown of Lyons. We have worked closely with Superintendent Dr. Jon Cerny and his food service team on setting goals and implementing them in the school cafeteria. Concerns about seasonality and local procurement are common in Nebraska. The Bancroft-Rosalie school reached out to a local vegetable and fruit producer, D&V Produce, to find out how they could work together to bring seasonal produce to the school. The partnership went well. Watermelon, tomatoes, and cucumbers will be back on the menu this year. Becky has also explored other ways to “go local,” connecting with local sources for eggs, honey, and milk. Last December, Bancroft-Rosalie hosted a Farm to School Food Service Workshop. Attendees from 9 rural northeast Nebraska schools learned about local food procurement, implementing taste tests, and purchasing through wholesale distribution. Becky is implementing much of what she learned, including how to write local procurement bids with their food distributor to trigger a local foods purchase.

Bancroft-Rosalie is a great example of a rural school making the most of existing relationships. For example, D&V Produce had offered part-time jobs to students in the summer to help prepare fresh items for farmers markets. The next step of bringing this food into the cafeteria was a natural progression. Students gained a lot from this relationship: acquiring new food-related skills and learning about growing food and working in local food systems. Who knows – these Farm to School activities may spur future entrepreneurs, creating a hands-on exercise in business development.

Travel U.S. Route 83 with Author Stew Magnuson at Neihardt Site Sunday May 17

The Neihardt Foundation encourages travelers and historians alike to take note of the May “Sunday Afternoon at the Museum” program. Author Stew Magnuson recently released The Last American Highway: A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83: Nebraska Kansas Oklahoma, (Court Bridge Publishing) a travel-history book that uncovers stories along the road that bisects the United States from north to south, and will be at the John G. Neihardt State Historic Site in Bancroft on May 17 at 5:00 p.m. for a presentation and book signing. Descending 1,885 miles down the center of the United States from Westhope, N.D. to Brownsville, Texas, U.S. 83 is one of the oldest and longest federal highways that has not been replaced by an Interstate. Magnuson takes readers through the Nebraska Sand Hills, the Smoky River Valley in Kansas and the singular Oklahoma Panhandle. Along the route are the stories of the famous, infamous, and the forgotten. Buffalo Bill Cody hunted these lands, but what about Buffalo Jones, who set out to save the American bison from extinction? This is where the ruthless, but now largely forgotten bank robbers, the Fleagles, committed their most heinous crime; where the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia met George Armstrong Custer and Pussy Cat Nell dispatched the corrupt Sheriff “Bushy” Bush with a shotgun blast. U.S. 83 ties President Eisenhower, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and author Truman Capote together.

Future Ready Schools Summit and Mastery Learning

I attended a high school that used Mastery Learning in English, Science and some Math classes. Student’s moved at their own pace through the curriculum. At the beginning of each unit, we took a pretest. If we scored high enough, you didn’t have to do the assignment for that unit and moved on to the next unit. I was able to take independent science courses by myself at my own pace. The courses I took were Electricity, Microbiology, and Anatomy and Physiology.  I would read the book, completed “packets”, and got the lab supplies and performed the labs independently. If I needed anything, the teacher was in the room to help.

My understanding and appreciation for the benefits of Mastery Learning helped as Bancroft-Rosalie transitioned to the elementary Reading, Language and Math programs we now use. So how do we incorporate Mastery Learning into the secondary school? Computers have the potential to assist teachers in organizing their classes based on Mastery of the content. This is one of the ideas we are exploring at the FutureReady Schools Summit in Chicago on June 14-17. Staff members attending are myself, Mrs. Nolting, Mrs. Zwygart, Mrs. Henry, Mr. Elsasser and Mr. Sundleaf. Other schools attending (we are going on a chartered bus provided by the Department of Education) are Cedar Bluffs, Walthill, and Pender, along with staff from ESU2 in Fremont.

Cuming County recognized for helping low income children up the income ladder

I received this from Jon Bailey today.

Findings from a new study by Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren has huge consequences on how we think about poverty and mobility in the United States. The pair, economists at Harvard, have long been known for their work on income mobility, but the latest findings go further. Now, the researchers are no longer confined to talking about which counties merely correlate well with income mobility; new data suggests some places actually cause it.

Consider Cuming County, Neb.
It’s among the best counties in the U.S. in helping poor children up the income ladder. It ranks 2,462nd out of 2,478 counties, better than about 99 percent of counties.

Here are the estimates for how much 20 years of childhood in Cuming County adds or takes away from a child’s income (compared with an average county), along with the national percentile ranking for each.

Work begins on Neihardt/Black Elk sculpture for Neihardt Site in Bancroft

Herb Mignery has started working on the Neihardt/Black Elk sculpture. A generous donation of $25,000 from the family of Maxine Kessinger brings the total of donations to $100,000 of the $150,000 needed for production and delivery of the sculpture to Bancroft, Nebraska. The Neihardt Foundation officers determined that it was time to begin the sculpting process so that the sculpture is completed in time for the 2016 Neihardt Day on August 7, 2016. The Neihardt Foundation has one year to raise the additional $50,000 plus funds to install the sculpture and the landscaping around it.