ACT test day

All juniors and seniors took the ACT test this morning. The test was given at B-R for the first time. The test is a paper/pencil test. Grades 7-10 attempted the pre-Act test called Aspire. We tried the on-line test and experienced some major problems with students logging and and also with the program quitting in the middle. We decided to stop testing in the middle and figure out why we are having connectivity problems. Testing will be completed at a later date.

Four new EMT's in Bancroft

Daniel Bridges, Corey Engel, Mike Oltrogge and Aaron Peirce completed the requirements for Emergency Medical Technician. All four live in Bancroft. That is a nice addition to Bancroft Fire and Rescue.

Softball team wins East Husker Conference Tournament

The Wisner-Pilger/Bancroft-Rosalie/Lyons-Decatur softball team won the conference tournament beating Logan View/Scribner-Snyder in the first round, knocking off Tekamah-Herman 10-4 in the semifinals, and defeating Twin River 2-1 in the championship game. Suzanne Ras pitched all three games.

Sales Tax and Economic Development Plan on the November ballot in bancroft

In order to implement the local sales tax and plan, both ballot questions must pass. This requires a yes vote for each of the two questions.

EducationQuest Awards Grants to 22 High Schools

EducationQuest Foundation
NEWS RELEASE

Funds will help increase college-going rate

(LINCOLN, Nebraska, September 22, 2014) – EducationQuest Foundation has selected 22 Nebraska high schools as recipients of College Access Grants – a program designed to increase the number of students who go to college. The high schools will share $670,000 in grant funds over the next four years. The amount each school receives is based on enrollment.

Lincoln High School, Lincoln Southeast High School, Omaha North Magnet High School, and Omaha South Magnet High School will each receive $20,000 a year for four years.

Columbus High School, Norfolk Senior High School and Omaha Benson High School will each receive $10,000 a year for four years.

Crete High School will receive $7,500 a year for four years.

Central City High School, David City High School, Logan View Public School, North Bend Central High School, Raymond Central High School, and West Point-Beemer High School will each receive $5,000 a year for four years.

Bancroft Rosalie Community School, Blue Hill High School, Diller-Odell Secondary School, Garden County High School, Harvard High School, Kenesaw High School, Santee High School, and Weeping Water High School will each receive $2,500 a year for four years.

The high schools use the grants to fund programs and activities such as college visits, financial aid sessions, scholarship searches, career exploration, ACT test preparation, and completion of college applications. The grant program also promotes involvement with families and businesses to help ensure the program’s success.

Eric Drumheller, EducationQuest Assistant Vice President of Grants and Scholarships, said the recipient schools have set goals to increase their college-going rates by approximately 10 percentage points over the next four years.

EducationQuest awards College Access Grants to Nebraska high schools every two years. Eighty-one grants have been awarded since the program began in 2006.

In 2016, EducationQuest will select additional Nebraska high schools to receive College Access Grants funding.

EducationQuest Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization with a mission to improve access to higher education in Nebraska.  Headquartered in Lincoln, EducationQuest provides free college planning services, need-based scholarship programs, grants that help high schools increase their college-going rate, and outreach services for community agencies statewide. For more information, call 800.303.3745 or visit EducationQuest.org.

Rosalie Gym roof includes pitched metal roof over cafeteria

Body Mass Index Screening

Last week the Omaha World Herald printed a story on the Health and Human Service requirement to screen for Body Mass index during school health screenings. It is not a requirement to send this information to parents. 

At Bancroft-Rosalie our school nurse, Mrs. Munderloh, handles the school health screenings. The State of Nebraska only requires a health screening in certain grades, but here at BR we do a health screen on each student each year.  This keeps students aware as to what their height, weight and Body Mass Index are each year. Mrs. Munderloh visits with each student about their screening during the first couple months of school. The screening monitors all areas of the students health from teeth to hair condition, skin condition, vision, etc.

 

All students are screened individually at BR. It takes longer than group screening but it gives the student a chance to talk individually with the school nurse and ask any questions they may have.

All of the screening information is provided to the parents at report card time in October. Any parents that have questions or concerns about the screening results should contact Linda Munderloh. She welcomes communication with parents regarding student health and welfare.

Big Bad Musical Pictures

Scribner-Snyder Volleyball Tournament Schedule

Rosalie gym update

Pictures of the front entrance to Rosalie Gym. The gym is used for junior high volleyball practices and high school basketball.

Bancroft-Rosalie School Board members recognized

Three Bancroft-Rosalie School Board members were recognized at the area Nebraska School Board Association meeting Wednesday night. NASB is a private, nonprofit organization that serves the needs of Nebraska public school districts and Educational Service Unit board members. Board Members from across the state may participate in board development training throughout the year by attending workshops and conferences to help strengthen their role in governance, legislative advocacy, and stewardship of district resources in support of student achievement.

Naomi with Executive Director John Spatz

Mike with NASB President Marilyn Bohn

 In recognition of their volunteer time and commitment to education, the Association commends continued participation and growth in knowledge and best practice governance. Level I awards went to Mike Nottlemann and Scott Hansen. A Level VIII went to Naomi Brummond.

Nebraska Department of Education discusses new school classification system

Some probably started reading this thinking it would be about sports classifications. instead, NDE is considering a rating system for Nebraska Schools and School Districts. This would replace the current ranking system. The four classifications would be Excellent, Great, Good, and Needs Improvement/Priority. As I look at the 6 tenets below, Bancroft-Rosalie School would score very well.

Rosalie Gym gets a new roof

Magnum Builders of Fremont, Nebraska is putting a new seamless steel roof with insulation on the Rosalie Gym.The cafeteria roof is also getting a steel surface.

Saturday C team volleyball tournament schedule in Wisner

Discovery Science IPads are in use

Thirty IPad mini's are being used for elementary science in grades 2-6. The mini's are also available for other elementary classes during the day. This science program follows a "blended learning" format, which consists of some teacher instruction and some digital learning on the mini's. Students are presented an "opener" about what they will learn and do that do, then the follow a list of activities to perform on the mini.

New Accountability Framework Raises the Bar for State Special Education Programs

The following information describes the federal government expectations for special education students. The Bancroft-Rosalie School "Response To Intervention" system is the type of program the feds like to see. Where data and pupil performance is used to make decisions about students.
 
Information copied from website-   
http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/new-accountability-framework-raises-bar-state-special-education-programs

To improve the educational outcomes of America’s 6.5 million children and youth with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education today announced a major shift in the way it oversees the effectiveness of states’ special education programs.

Until now, the Department’s primary focus was to determine whether states were meeting procedural requirements such as timelines for evaluations, due process hearings and transitioning children into preschool services. While these compliance indicators remain important to children and families, under the new framework known as Results-Driven Accountability (RDA), the Department will also include educational results and outcomes for students with disabilities in making each state’s annual determination under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

“Every child, regardless of income, race, background, or disability can succeed if provided the opportunity to learn,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations and have access to the general curriculum in the regular classroom, they excel. We must be honest about student performance, so that we can give all students the supports and services they need to succeed.”

October is Farm to School Month in Nebraska!

Proclamation to Governor Heineman- signing Thursday September 10 at State Capital

 We are seeking recognition for the month of October to be celebrated as Farm to School Month in the state of Nebraska:

• WHEREAS Nebraska will annually celebrate Farm to School month during the month of October; and
• WHEREAS the Nebraska Farm to School program, charged by the Center for Rural Affairs of Lyons, Nebraska, with funding from Nebraska Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program– Farm Bill will offer a statewide Farm to School Summit on October 22, 2014 in Aurora, NE, gathering community, school, and agriculture stakeholders together in an effort to bring local and healthy foods to schools; and
• WHEREAS the Nebraska Farm to School program, charged by the Loup Basin RC&D Council, in partnership with the Center for Rural Affairs, with funding from USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant Program, will bring the farm to school and the school to the farm throughout the month of October with multiple activities in multiple schools; and
• WHEREAS the following schools/communities have committed to Farm to School programs in partnership with the Center for Rural Affairs, with funding from the USDA Farm to School grant program: Aurora Public, Bancroft Rosalie Public, Diller Odell Public, Fremont After-School Program, Fremont Summer School Program, Lyons-Decatur Public, Niobrara Public, Norris Intermediate, Scribner-Snyder Public, Winside Public, Verdigre Public along with other area schools who are showing interest; and
• WHEREAS only 2% of youth eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and Farm to School programs increase children’s participation in the school meals program on average of 9%, all while increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables; and
• WHEREAS, healthier kids means smarter kids, as research indicates healthy students perform better on testing and are absent less often; and
• WHEREAS students demonstrate a willingness to try new foods when they come from local farmers; and
• WHEREAS Nebraska ranks #22 for adult obesity with 28.6% of adults obese in 2012 (more than doubling from 11.3% in 1990), and one-third of all U.S. children are obese or overweight; and
• WHEREAS in 2011-2012, $3,006,167,550 was nationally spent on school food, and $385,771,134 of those dollars were spent locally. In Nebraska, $36,670,220 was spent on school food, and $3,724,561 of that was spent on local foods; and
• WHEREAS there are 345,20 public school students in Nebraska, and spending $1 per student per month would mean $3,106,800 of school food dollars going directly to local producers; and
• WHEREAS Farm to School increases market opportunities for farmers, ranchers, and other food producers, with an average benefit of a 5% increase in income from Farm to School sales; and
• WHEREAS positive relationships develop with the school district, parents, community, farmers, and students because of farm to school

• THEREFORE, the state of Nebraska declares October as Farm to School Month, recognizing the nutritional, academic, and economic opportunities local food and school partnerships provide for Nebraskans.

MAP Reading testing this week

Students and parents who want to know how their students are performing in reading, here are the MAP cut scores corresponding to College Readiness Benchmarks.

Grade 8      227     (70 percentile)

For grade 9, use the grade 10 score

Grade 10    232     (73 percentile)

Grade 11    236     (77 percentile)

As you can see, nationally only 23-30% of students are going to score at the college readiness level.

Option Enrollment Report

Bancroft-Rosalie has 244 students in grades K-12. Fifty-nine (59) of the students are optioned in from other school districts. That is 24% or 1/4 of our students.

We try to recognize the difficulties that parents/guardians have with student transportation when they have to make multiple 10+ miles to school each day. The after-school program is one way the school is trying to accommodate parents with transportation issues.

School Board Meeting Summary

The Bancroft-Rosalie Board of Education met Monday, September 8, 2014 
at 7:30 pm in Bancroft. Two public hearings were held prior to the regular 
monthly meeting. The first hearing was the 2014-15 school budget hearing, 
followed by the Property Tax Request hearing.

During the regular board meeting, Superintendent Cerny presented the August 
transportation report, 2015 valuations, and the Enrollment Option report

In new business the board approved the 2014-15 school budget as published with 
a total property tax request of $100,000 less than 2013-14. The General Fund 
tax rate was set at 0.7175, the Bond Fund levy was set at 0.0124 for the 
9-12 Bond levy and 0.0015 for the K-8 levy and the Qualified Purpose Fund 
levy was set at 0.0028.

The purchase of a used 10 passenger van with less than 15,000 was discussed.

Volleyball- Cedar Bluffs Tournament Schedule

Monsanto Grant presentation Tuesday during Volleyball Triangular

A Monsanto representative will present the $10,000 check to Bancroft-Rosalie School for the Discovery Science Program. The presentation will be after the Bancroft-Rosalie vs Winside volleyball game which starts at 5:00 pm.

September School Board meeting and hearings agendas

Federal AYP- Annual Yearly Progress

What is Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)?

As a condition of receiving federal funds under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), all states are required to define a process for identifying groups of students, schools, districts and the State as being in need of improvement. This requirement is called adequate yearly progress or AYP. It is an annual status check of identified data elements to determine whether or not buildings and districts are meeting State AYP progress goals. 

What are the state AYP goals?
The chart below shows the state goals in math and reading for each of the past 5 years. Notice that 2013-14 goals were that 100% of students would be proficient in both math and reading.
  
Bancroft-Rosalie School met AYP for 2012-13 in both Math and Reading in the elementary and Middle School, and high school.

Unfortunately, we did not have 100% of our students scoring proficient in reading or math in 2013-14. I would be surprised if any school met the 100% goal.

What happens to schools and districts that do not “make” AYP?
The NCLB consequences for not making AYP targets apply only to schools and districts that have a Title I program.  The federal law prescribes graduated sanctions for Title I schools beginning with the second consecutive year of not making AYP. 
Title I schools must provide students with the option to transfer to another school in their district in the first year of “school improvement”. In the second year, supplemental educational services must be provided in addition to the option to transfer. Additional sanctions apply the longer a Title I school does not make adequate yearly progress.

Proposed Tax Levies of area schools

East Husker Conference schools shared budget information they are proposing at the September budget hearings. Bancroft-Rosalie will have a lower total tax levy than most other schools in the conference. Some schools did not submit information yet.

Farm To School Produce Program

Bancroft-Rosalie School is piloting a Farm To School food program. This program allows the purchase of fresh produce from local merchants. Although some items may be more expensive, we feel that it is important to support our local producers and also to provide fresh fruit and vegetables when possible.

Today the foods are:

 Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Cantaloupe from Vernon Dean Produce Farm, Highway 51, Bancroft

Fresh eggs from C and C Egg Company (Cale and Callie Kai, Matt Kai)  Bancroft