Fairbury Public Schools Brings Disability Resources for Community and Staff to Fairbury

On Wednesday, August 14th, Fairbury Public Schools in partnership with Three’s Pieces and the Fairbury Community Foundation hosted their second Disability Resource Night.  

The speakers were Mary Phillips, Student Services Director at ESU 6, who spoke about transition services but also spoke honestly about her experience having a child with developmental disabilities who is now an adult and receives adult disability services.  Jen Quaranta, Southeast Nebraska Regional Coordinator for the ASD Network, also spoke sharing strategies for parents on managing behaviors in the home.

Several community members as well as school staff attended, and feedback was very positive.  A very important message for families to hear is that if you think your child might need adult services, you need to apply soon as the wait list is currently 7 years!

On Thursday, August 15th, Fairbury Public Schools offered a full day training on autism and classroom strategies to support students with autism for staff.  Nearly thirty staff members, both general education and special education teachers attended the training.

As a strong advocate for ALL students, but especially students with disabilities, it is really important for me that Fairbury Public Schools offers resources and support not only to our staff but also to our community.  I’m excited about the partnership with Three’s Pieces and am eager to continue offering trainings and resources to both the school staff and the public on a variety of topics related to students with disabilities. I’m hopeful that our partnership will be a model to others in our state so that schools and community organizations can bring resources to families in their own community.  If you have a question or a topic you would like us to consider, please reach out to me.

Dr. Jill Timmons, NCSP
402-729-5041
jtimmons@fairburyjeffs.org

Welcome Back to School!

I seem to say it every year, but alas, it is true….summer has gone by fast!! We have been busy, as usual, this summer! Some of the highlights include the following:

Adopted new Reading/English Curriculums K-12. We made the decision to transition away from Reading Mastery (k-5) to CKLA (k-6) and StudySync (7-12). We are excited for this transition. We believe this will allow us to grow in our skills and foster a love for reading! Our teachers have worked hard this summer in preparing for this year!

We have added nicotine to our Drug Testing Protocol for students participating in extracurricular activities. Just a couple of reminders, schools are not allowed to test all students in school, but only students participating in activities. Mr. Davis, Activities Director will update you at the Fall sports meeting later this month.

We continued making improvements to our facilities this summer! We replaced some concrete areas this summer to improve access or parking areas at Central, Jefferson and the ‘47 Building. We are close to completing our Science/ Special Education expansion and re- model project on-time and under budget!

This project has greatly expanded and improved our Special Education spaces to include a Sensory Room, a Life Skills room (which includes a kitchenette and laundry spaces) and 3 “Special Education Suite” classrooms which each have 2 smaller instructional spaces within the classroom for small group instruction/ activities. This project also expanded our Science classrooms which has increased their class sizes by more than 50%. It is an awesome learning environment for our students! You will be able to see these new spaces at our Open House on August 20th!

We are excited for the new school year to begin on Wednesday, August 21st! See you soon!  Read More

 I look forward to seeing you as the school year gets started!

Go Jeffs!

~Mr. Stephen Grizzle

Farm 2 School ~ We Need Your Help

It is now time to ask for assistance for the upcoming school year for our Farm 2 School program!  We need around $1,300.00 per month for our processing costs of the animals being donated for our school’s lunch program.  Please contact either Jane Rhine or Stephen Grizzle to see how you can donate money or animals for our Farm 2 School program!  Our kids love having locally-raised beef or pork for lunch!

Matsiko Orphan Children’s Choir Coming to Fairbury

ABOUT MATSIKO CHOIR

Born from a heart for every forgotten child in the unreached corners of the world, the International Children’s Network (ICN) began it’s choir program in 2008 with the first US tour of the Matsiko Children’s Choir.  This choir was the first step toward bringing children together from the various countries in which ICN provides sponsorship.  After the choir’s resounding success, the Matsiko World Orphan Choir was created with children from Peru and Liberia, who shared their lives and culture through song and dance, and connected their hearts with audiences across the United States.  This year, children from India were also granted permission to travel with Matsiko, and the choir continues annually with new children auditioning and performing every year. 

Matsiko is a Ugandan word for “hope”.  This word embodies both the children and the songs that they sing.  Through the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, thousands of children will be reached with the hope of a brighter future.  Proceeds generated by the choir tour and merchandise sales go directly to support ICN’s worldwide programs, including life-changing educational sponsorship that affords orphaned children a chance at a university degree. The Matsiko children absolutely love to share the gift of life, love and hope that they’ve received through the support of sponsors — people just like you!

Click here to meet this year’s amazing choir!

National Library Week

Join the celebration! National Library Week is April 7 – 13, 2019.  
This year’s theme, Libraries = Strong Communities, illustrates how today’s libraries are at the heart of our cities, towns and schools.Students at Central Elementary and Jefferson Intermediate enjoyed working together to learn, build, and create through a variety of makerspace activities.  Students also voted for their favorite book in the Nebraska Golden Sower Program.  

Central students enjoying makerspace activities during National Library Week.

Cracking a Coconut in Reading!

This first grade reading group recently read a series of stories about two sisters who were stranded on a deserted island and had to survive by eating fish, coconuts and bananas. In a parallel story they read a nonfiction passage about the layers of a coconut and where coconuts grow. To understand how hard it was for the characters to crack a coconut, these students got to experience it themselves. Using a hammer, each student took turns hitting a coconut until it was in pieces. They identified the different layers of the coconut and had the option to sample the coconut milk and coconut meat. It’s a good thing they weren’t depending on the coconut for survival because only one student liked the taste! 

Fairbury Farm to School

Fairbury has been fortunate to have several donations of pork and beef throughout the last two years.    The DeBoer families donated two beef to kick off our Farm to School Program in the spring of 2018. Since that time, we have had more beef and pork donated by several generous families.  We have also had many monetary donations. Monetary donations are used to help defray the cost of processing the beef and pork. In addition to pork and beef, in the fall we have had donations of fresh garden produce.

The Farm to School Program is great for our school.  It gives our students pride in where there food is produced.  They get fresh from the farm foods. The cafeteria staff does a great job in serving the foods in creative and tasty dishes.   Some of the beef dishes served have been, fresh 100% ¼ lb. hamburgers, roast beef, beef and noodles and beef enchiladas. The variety of pork dishes include: Pork Tetrazinni, Pulled Pork Sandwich, Southwest BBQ Pork Pizza, Roast Pork Loin and Pork Tacos.  Fresh salsa was prepared with some of the locally produced and donated tomatoes and peppers. Fresh cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes have enhanced flavor and color of the fruit/vegetable bars. Nothing is better than a home-grown tomato. Yum…

Donations are accepted throughout the school year.  Please contact Mr. Grizzle at the district office (402-729-6104) for more information on donating beef or pork.   For donations of fresh produce, please call Jane Rhine at the high school cafeteria, (402-300-3094)

A big thank you goes out to everyone for all generous donations. Our students really appreciate all the fresh local food.  

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