B-R plays consolation basketball games today at 2:00 and 3:45

Following losses to Guardian Angels Central Catholic, the B-R boys and girls teams play the consolation games this afternoon in Homer. The girls play Lyons-Decatur at 2:00 pm and the boys play Homer at 3:45 pm.

Bancroft Biz Buzz January 13 at the Pub

The next Bizz Buzz Social will take place on Jan. 13th at the Country Pub at 10am to 11am. All community members are welcome to attend and hear about what is happening in Bancroft.

Five Day Activity Moratorium Dec. 23-27

For five days in December, high school athletes across the Nebraska are required to go through what the Nebraska School Activities Association calls, "a five-day dead period," away from school activities.

The moratorium starts Friday December 23 and continues through Tuesday December 27. Athletes are not allowed to participate in any organized practices, conditioning and/or meetings until Wednesday December 28. The school facilities are not to be used by any school students during the moratorium. Please stay out.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth

Checked out this book through OverDrive this weekend and read through the first 135 pages. This Alexandra Robbins best-seller follows the lives of seven high school students who are part of the "Cafeteria Fringe". Cafeteria Fringe is the label given to people who are not part of or who are excluded from a school's or society's in crowd.

The author makes a case for these students in her "Quirk Theory". Quirk theory suggests that popularity in school is not a key to success and satisfaction in Adulthood. According to Quirk theory, many of the differences that cause a student to be excluded in school are the same traits or real-world skills that others will value, love, respect, or find compelling about that person in adulthood and outside of the school setting. These traits include Individuality, Courage, Creativity,Originality, Freethinking, Vision, Resilience, Authenticity, Self-awareness, Integrity and Candor.

Some examples of successful cafeteria fringe the author uses are Lady Gaga (who I appreciate because for her current campaign against bullying based on her own school experiences) and Steven Spielberg.

There is hope for us Nerds. Don't let others keep you from pursuing your dreams.

Checking out e-books through the Bancroft Public Library

The Bancroft Public Library now has access to e-books through a book source known as Overdrive. Patrons are now able to browse and checkout titles from the digital collection at the Overdrive website. E-books can be checked out for 7 or 14 days (depending on the book). After that time you are no longer able to access them unless you renew it. Most titles can be renewed once. Audio books are also available for download.

Popular books may have a long waiting list (I am on hold for John Grisham's The Litigators" behind 42 other people). You will receive e-mail notification when the book is available. You can also check the website to see where you are at on the waiting list.

Getting started on Overdrive

1. Sign up for a library card at the Bancroft Public Library to get your library patron number.

2. Go to the Overdrive website http://nebraska.lib.overdrive.com (Save this site as a favorite)

3. Click on "Sign in" in the upper right hand corner.

4. Select your library from the list (Bancroft Public Library)

5. Enter your library patron number (Must get this from the librarian).

6. Use the search engine to check for books by title or author. Or you could scroll down and select a particular genre of book you are interested in and see what is available. (I prefer non-fiction)

7. Find the book you want and in the format you want. (audio, ePub, Kindle, PDF)
If it is available click on "add to cart."
If it is not available click on "place a hold."

8. When you are finished "shopping" and have books in your "cart", then you will need to click "Proceed to checkout" to finalize the download.

9. In order to open the book to read you will need to download Adobe Digital Editions which is a free download from Adobe. If you download using a computer other than a Mac, you will probably need to sign up for an Adobe account.

Happy reading!! Hope B-R students utilize this resource to read more books.

Neihardt annual newsletter- The Word Sender

Football District 2012 and 2013

District D2-3

Bancroft-Rosalie
Lyons-Decatur
Scribner-Snyder
Humphrey
Humphrey St. Francis
Lindsay Holy Family

Nebraska School accountability

The Nebraska Board of Education has approved a system for measuring how well schools educate their students. The "accountability model" is a point system the Nebraska Department of Education will use to rank schools based on state test scores and student growth from year to year. The student growth aspect gives schools the opportunity to show how much each student improves from year to the next. I believe this is the best way to measure a schools performance. Now they need to decide on other forms of data besides state assessments which can measure student growth during the school year. I prefer the MAP test (Measures of Academic Performance) for this.

No decision has been made yet on how to deal with the schools at the bottom of the rankings. One bill in the legislature would take away school accreditation if a school is on the lowest-performing list for five years. That bill would have required an intervention team to devise a progress plan for the lowest-performing schools that is reviewed annually.

Nebraska is operating under the No Child Left Behind law that requires all schools to have 100 percent student proficiency by 2013-14. This is an unrealistic expectation that all students will be proficient.

2012-13 Football classifications- Eight man

Here are the classifications for D-1 and D-2 for the next two years.

School Board summary

The December meeting of the Bancroft-Rosalie School Board was held Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:00 p.m. in the school library. Dr. Cerny presented the November transportation report and informed the board that Monday March 12 will be a teacher workday.

In new business the board approved the audit and the annual report. The staff Christmas gathering at the Country Pub was set for Thursday, December 22. A bid from Bleacher Solutions was accepted for bleacher maintenance and repair. The bid opening for the new addition were tabled until the January 9 board meeting to allow the contractors more time to finalize their numbers.

In old business the board approved the cooperative agreement with Pender and West Point Beemer Public Schools for baseball in 2011 and 2012. A resolution was passed dissolving the golf cooperative with Pender due to the high numbers of golf participants at each school. Bancroft-Rosalie will have its own golf team this spring.

School Board Meeting tonight

The bid opening on the agenda for tonight will be tabled until the January meeting to allow the bidders more time to get bid numbers put together.

Bancroft-Rosalie Community School
Regular Board of Education Meeting Agenda
Monday, December 12, 2011 --- 9:00 p.m. in Bancroft

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call

3. Read and approve the minutes of the November 14, 2011 regular board meeting.

4. Treasurer’s Report
A. Approve the Bills
B. Financial Review

5. Review Agenda

6. Public Hearing

7. Administrator’s Reports:
A. Superintendent’s Report
B. Principal’s Report

8. Old Business:
A. Approve baseball cooperative agreement

B. Dissolve golf cooperative agreement

9. New Business:

A. Approve the 2010-11 audit.

B. Approve the 2010-11 annual report.

C. Approve amount for staff Christmas

D. Open bids for the building addition.

E, Approve bid for bleacher maintenance

10. Discussion Items

A.

11. Executive Session.
12. Future Planning- Next meeting- Monday, January 9, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
13. Adjournment.

Makala Muller signs wih Briar Cliff University

Last Monday, Briar Cliff Head Volleyball coach Jill Muhe came to the Bancroft-Rosalie School gym to sign Makala Muller for volleyball next year. Makala informed me that she is currently undecided about her college major at Briar Cliff.

Why does Nebraska need more college graduates?

This information is from the "LB 637 Study of Dual Enrollment and Career Academies in Nebraska: Current practice and recommendations for the future," Prepared by Nebraska’s Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education in December 2011.

"A recent report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows that, as the economy slowly recovers, there will be a growing disconnect between the types of jobs employers need to fill and the numbers of Americans who possess the education and training required to fill them.

The report, Help Wanted: Projecting Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018, forecasts that by 2018, 63 percent of all jobs will require at least some postsecondary education.

In Nebraska, that need is projected to be even greater, with 66 percent of jobs requiring postsecondary education by 2018 – the seventh-highest percentage among all states. Within the next six years, that translates to 56,000 new jobs in Nebraska that will require postsecondary education. (Carnevale, Smith,& Strohl, 2010)

Even though progress toward Nebraska’s higher-education goals is generally in the right direction, it is not aggressive enough to meet the state’s long-term needs and goals – including this growing need for a more educated workforce. As indicated in the state’s 2011 Higher Education Progress Report, produced by the Coordinating Commission, data indicates that:

• The college-going rate of Nebraska high school students continues to improve, but is not high enough to place the state among the top 10 nationally;

• Freshmen retention rates have risen only slightly since 2004, and college graduation rates also are only slightly higher. Furthermore, graduation rates are significantly lower for Hispanics, blacks, and Native Americans compared to white and Asian undergraduate students; and

• Nebraska’s needy students – particularly males – are enrolling and succeeding in higher education at much lower rates than their higher-income classmates.

Nebraska must address this issue through a comprehensive set of strategies that encourage our young people to graduate high school, advance to postsecondary education, and earn credentials that prepare them to be productive members of the state workforce, as well as more informed, involved members of their communities. Furthermore, these efforts must target not only high-achieving students – as has
been the case traditionally in this country – but our underrepresented student populations, such as minorities and those from low-income families. Dual-enrollment and similar programs should be a part of this effort."

NSAA releases Enrollment figures to be used for 2012-13 classifications

After looking over the enrollment figures, it appears that Bancroft-Rosalie will be D-2 next year for Fall and Winter sports, and probably D-1 in speech and play production. Track and golf will be Class D, softball class C, and baseball Class B.

Football districts should be released in the next week.

Author Patricia Bremmer at Neihardt Center Sunday December 11

Fall Sports All-state recognition

Four B-R volleyball players and three football players were recognized as all-state honorable mention. The volleyball players are Jessica Tietz, Makala Muller, Allie Vogt and Carly Tietz. The football players are Eric Browning, Anthony Bonneau and Shieler Bolen-Greve.

Nebraska Statute 79-210 School Attendance

Nebraska Statute 79-210 requires all public schools to notify the County Attorney if a student (ages 6-18) misses twenty or more days of school. Bancroft-Rosalie School will comply with the statute and report all students that are absent more than 20 days to the County Attorney in the County in which the student resides. The School will include in the letter any information on illnesses or other extreme circumstances that have impacted the student’s ability to attend school.

I have attached copies of the letters that will be used to contact parents regarding their child's excessive absences. The school must report the number of students with excessive absences to the state and also how many students were referred to the County Attorney.

Nebraska bill would require the Pledge of Allegiance in schools

Nebraska State Sen. Tony Fulton says he will introduce a bill in January that would require that the Pledge of Allegiance be said in each public school classroom. The bill would also require that each classroom display an American flag. The hope is that reciting the pledge will teach students patriotism.

Now, schools are required only to have an American flag prominently displayed. Many Nebraska classrooms say the pledge each school day even though it's not required by state law.

The Nebraska bill would be modeled after a Massachusetts law that does not compel
students to participate in the pledge.

The Supreme Court has ruled that requiring the pledge in schools is unconstitutional
unless it provides for parents or students to opt out.

I have two concerns with this bill. First, what are the consequences if a classroom does not say the Pledge of Allegiance? Does the teacher get charged with a crime? Second, the bill would require ALL public classrooms, including college and University classrooms (Good luck enforcing that).

I have not observed that Nebraska students are lacking in patriotism. But I am willing to accept this bill, should it pass, as long as the Pledge can be said once together as a school at the beginning of the day, and that the requirement ends after high school. And add an amendment that the State Legislature says the Pledge before each hearing and legislative session.

College-Going Rate for Bancroft-Rosalie School for the High School Class of 2009-2010

The report "College-Going Rates for Nebraska Public High Schools for the High School Class of 2009-2010" presents the estimated college-going rates for each of Nebraska’s 276 public high schools that awarded regular high school diplomas in 2009-2010. These estimates are based on data obtained from the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) and the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC).

Bancroft-Rosalie School reported 22 graduates and 16 attending college from the class of 2009-10. That is a 72.7% attendance rate. That places us above the state average of 71.9%, but not at our goal of 100% college attendance. Other area school rates for 09-10 include Pender- 86%, Wisner-Pilger- 79%, West Point-Beemer- 75%, and Walthill 8%.

In 2007-08 the rates were Bancroft-Rosalie: 78%, Lyons-Decatur: 78%, Pender: 80%, West Point Beemer: 76%, Wisner-Pilger 78% and Walthill 0%.

The National Student Clearinghouse is a not-for-profit organization that serves as a central repository of postsecondary student enrollment, degree and diploma data voluntarily submitted by more than 3,300 colleges and universities. In total, these institutions enroll more than 90% of the college students in the United States.
The National Student Clearinghouse is currently the only reliable source of data for estimating the college continuation rates of all of Nebraska’s public high schools. The data obtained from the Clearinghouse are not perfect because some Nebraska high school graduates go to colleges that do not submit their enrollment files to the
Clearinghouse. These would include several beauty schools and some technical colleges like ITT. However, the estimates based on Clearinghouse data are the best available.

B-R 2011 Cohort Four-Year Graduation Rate 96.0%

What is a Cohort Four-Year Graduation Rate?
This is the way that graduation rates for high schools in Nebraska are now being determined. (Previously schools self-reported drop-out's and graduates).
A cohort represents the set of students sharing an expected graduation year. The expected graduation year is determined by adding four years to the school year when the student reaches 9th grade for the first time and remains unchanged. The 2011 graduation cohort is the group of students who entered 9th grade for the first time in the 2007-08 school year.
The Cohort Four-Year Graduation Rate is calculated by dividing the number of students in a cohort who graduate with a regular high school diploma in four years or less by the number of students in the Graduation Cohort.

The cohort is “adjusted” by adding any students transferring into the cohort and by subtracting any students who transfer out, emigrate to another country, or die during the time before the expected graduation year.
The High School Diploma Recipients count does not include certificates of achievement/attendance, alternative awards or General Education Diplomas (GED), those students remain in the denominator.

Why is this important?
High schools that are below a 75% Cohort graduation rate will be identified as a low achieving school.