Chance School – Page 2 – Fairbury Public Schools

School Closure

Message From Stephen Grizzle, Superintendent of Fairbury Public Schools –

Last night, around 9:00 pm, Gov. Ricketts made the declaration that schools must remain closed to regular operations and continue their alternate learning methods until the end of this school year. Officially, our region is not under the Direct Health Measures declaration that 56 Nebraska counties are under.

This is a precautionary public health measure; local health and school officials are monitoring the COVID-19 situation in Southeast Nebraska closely. We will continue our district’s plan for learning for this school year. Tomorrow morning, Friday, I, along with our High School counselor, Mrs. Biehl and our HS Principal, Mr. Anderson are meeting with the senior class. We will be covering several topics important to their Graduating Class of 2020. I am confident, together, we will be able to develop creative strategies to give them the sendoff and celebration they so richly deserve!

Thank you for your partnership and commitment to keeping our students and our community as safe as possible. I appreciate your patience and understanding. I have the utmost concern for your child and our community at heart. Thank you and have a great day!

Stephen L. Grizzle, Superintendent
Fairbury Public Schools
“It’s a GREAT day to be a Jeff!”

EDUCATORS ANNOUNCE NEBRASKA STRONG LEARNING LAB

March 18, 2020 – The Nebraska State Education Association (NSEA) today announced it will offer educational programming for elementary and secondary students that will be available free to all Nebraska children beginning Monday, March 23. NSEA is partnering with News Channel Nebraska and Lincoln Public Schools on the project, with financial support from the National Education Association.

NSEA President Jenni Benson said four hours of daily live programming will be available through nearly every video and cable TV service, as well as online or via mobile app from Flood Communications News Channel Nebraska.

“Our 28,000 members care deeply about their students and want them to continue their learning during these school closures,” said Benson. “We are pleased to partner with News Channel Nebraska and Lincoln Public Schools to make this educational programming available statewide.”

Many Nebraska schools are closed due to the Novel Coronavirus pandemic. More school districts are expected to close in the coming weeks.

“During this time of unprecedented challenge to maintain educational continuity for the students of our city and state, I am most appreciative of the leadership of NSEA to organize a delivery system that will reach many of our students,” said Dr. Steve Joel, Lincoln Public Schools superintendent.

“We are working with our members to coordinate this educational programming,” said Maddie Fennell, NSEA executive director. “From read alouds to learning games to instructional lessons with teachers, we will work to support our students and their families as we navigate this pandemic together.”

Benson said that educational programming for elementary students will air from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and for secondary students from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

“And, because we know every family’s schedule is different, all the live content our members create and provide will be captured and available for on-demand playback at any time,” said Benson.

“The NSEA represents the teachers who change lives everyday throughout Nebraska. During this difficult time, thanks to the NSEA, children can continue learning and their parents will see firsthand some of the magic that happens in our classrooms every day,” said Andy Ruback, CEO Flood Communications/News Channel Nebraska.

There are multiple ways to watch this new educational programming. Families can live stream NCN at www.newschannelnebraska.com, download the NCN app on any mobile device, or access the programming through their local cable provider, NCN on Amazon Fire, Apple TV, and Roku apps. Those living in Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Beatrice, Norfolk, Columbus and South Sioux City can also use an over-the-air antenna to access the live presentations. NCN will share the programming with its 300,000 social followers.

The programs will also be available on-demand through NSEA’s website at nsea.org and NSEA will provide an online forum for questions and supplemental educational resources.

Cory Schweitzer Receives Jeffs’ Best Award!

The Jeffs’ Best Award was created by the Fairbury Public School Board of Education to highlight and celebrate the great work of our staff.

On behalf of the Board of Education, I would like to congratulate Mr. Cory Schweitzer as our first recipient of the “Jeffs’ Best” Award!!

Congratulation Cory! Some example statements from his nominations, include “Cory works to meet and greet each student every day and students are laughing and smiling after interacting with Cory.” Another exclaims that “Cory has touched every student with a simple hello, high five and smile.”

We want to thank everyone for their nominations! The BOE will making a new selection prior to the January meeting. There will be a short presentation at each month’s board meeting. Cory will receive a $25 gift certificate and will be eligible for the Jeffs’ Best of the Year Award in May!

Anyone in Jeffland is invited to nominate any Fairbury Public Schools Employee by filling out the form below:

http://bit.ly/2DPRwG1

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

Cora Tatro – Big Red Stars Winner

Cora Tatro was selected as a Big Red Stars winner. She was nominated by her teachers and coaches based on leadership, scholarship and character. She attended the ceremony sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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.

Parent Pyramid Model Series

There has been an extension on the registration deadline for the Parent Pyramid Model series in Fairbury due to low registration. Registration is open until this Friday, October 19^th with the first class starting on Monday, October 22.

This parenting series is free to register and dinner and childcare are provided at no cost each night. This is a wonderful opportunity being offered to parents in Jefferson County and feedback from last year’s class was very positive.

Building a Tower of Books

CHANCE kids have been fostering the joy of reading by building a Book Tower – One book made for each book read!