Superintendent Briefing
November 1, 2018
Positive Team Create Positive Cultures
Positive teams don’t happen by accident. They happen when team members invest their time and energy to create a positive culture; work toward a shared vision with greater purpose; work together with optimism and belief and overcome negativity that too often sabotages teams and organizations. Positive teams take on the battle, overcome the negativity, face the adversity, and keep moving forward. They communicate, connect, commit, and encourage each other. They build relationships and trust that makes them stronger.
People on positive teams have a lot of belief in each other, a lot of love for each other, and a lot of desire to accomplish something great together. They pursue excellence and always strive to get better and make their team better.
Congratulations Jodi!
Jodi Miller
Justin Thompson, American Family Insurance, & Michelle Murdock, NPPS Foundation Board Member
Congratulation to Jodi Miller – Staff Member of the Month
We have a huge influence on our culture and the culture we are creating by what we think, say and do every day. We are creating a culture that is unique and we need to do the hard work to cultivate that unique culture of greatness. We can’t mandate our culture. We can’t force our staff to work in a certain way. But we can set up the environment through organizational design by honoring our values as well as reinforcing and recognizing staff who model our values. Thank you Jodi for modeling what we value!
Greatness occurs when we work collectively as a team. We build positive relationships based on mutual respect, trust, loyalty, honesty, and integrity. We work hard continuously to accomplish our purpose of preparing students to be productive responsible citizens in a schools that are safe, caring and supportive – every day – every year matters. Great things happen when a team makes culture their top priority.
Creating a positive working culture will cultivate the kind of culture that we want. We will do what it takes to make North Platte School District great!
North Platte High School journalism adviser Lori Larson
North Platte High School journalism adviser Lori Larson received the Distinguished Adviser of the Year award from the Nebraska High School Press Association yesterday at the fall conference at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. The NHSPA honors sponsors who have positively influenced their students and programs. They cited her students' many awards, including a Cornhusker for the highest achievement in high school journalism, growth of the number of participating students, and the bond she has with her staffs. Larson shared the credit for the award with her students. "They give countless hours to work on our publications," she said. "I just encourage them to work harder or celebrate their efforts!"
Larson advises the North Platte High School Bulldogger newspaper and North Platte High School Round-Up. Congratulations! -- Dr. Ron Hanson, Superintendent.
Chadron State College Eagles' Athletic Hall of Fame
CHADRON, Neb. -- October 27, 2018 -- Eight former Chadron State College athletes were inducted into the Eagles' Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, boosting the membership to 316. The Hall of Fame was founded 35 years ago by Ross Armstrong. One of the charter members, Chadron native Orin Weymouth, played for the Eagles more than 100 years ago.
Two basketball players who graduated in 2001 were inducted. They are Janelle Hutt Uehling, a native of Grant who now lives in North Platte and works in the central office of NPPS, and Zak Kennedy, originally of Stanton, Neb., and lives in the Chicago area. Congratulations! -- Dr. Ron Hanson, Superintendent.
NPPSD Custodial Staff
Adam's custodian putting his fire extinguisher training in action. He was able to put a small stove fire out and staff and students were safe. Due to his fast action the only damage was the stove itself. Great Job Mike! -- Lori Coburn, Director of Custodial Services.
NPPSD and West Central District Health Department
NPPSD and West Central District Health Department partner to provide dental care to NPPSD students. All of the events can be found at the following link:
Stuart & April
Daisy Clark, April Hodges and Judy Landfried
Stuart Simpson
NPPSD & Sodexo Partnership
Lunch services at Buffalo Elementary -- Stuart Simpson giving a 'helping hand.' Thanks to the Sodexo staff for all the hard work and for ensuring students are cared for everyday -- Stuart Simpson, Executive Director of Finance, Facilities and Operations
Cody Elementary Storage Shed
NPPSD Maintenance Staff
Cody Elementary Storage Shed
NPPSD Maintenance Staff
This month maintenance staff started building Cody Elementary's new storage/garage which will help Cody become more organized and be able to remove their old small shed. The maintenance staff also delivered wood chips to playgrounds throughout the district to help with safety and helped with the Backyard BBQ. All the senior banners have been hung at NPHS commons area. The bus drivers have done an awesome job this month making sure all students and athletes got to their destinations. What a great crew we have here. So proud of them! -- Dan Sims, NPPSD Maintenance Interim leader.
North Platte High School Student Council
October 19, 2018, the North Platte High School Student Council attended the NASC State Leadership Convention in Omaha. Every year, as a council, we put in hours upon hours of work to raise money for the Make-a-Wish foundation and this year, our council raised over $5,000. We received the award as a 2018 Granter, which means as a council alone, we were able to grant a child, and almost two children, their wish. We also received the 2018 Top Fundraising School award, for the fifth year in a row. We were worried we might not receive this award, but I really want to explain why I, as their adviser, was okay with it if they hadn't. This year, we hosted a tailgate for a boy in our community, and while we normally use that as a Make-a-Wish fundraiser, we opted to give it to Kalieb O'Dell's family instead. As a result, we raised over $2,000 dollars to give his family. That was huge. Having that money go back to someone we knew in our community was the biggest reward ever.
We received the 2018 Outstanding Student Council award. Last, but most certainly not least, our very own Jenna Hoover received an Outstanding Student Council Member award for putting her heart and soul into student council. We also had 3 of our members voted in as district officers to represent District 2, which includes our school along with other schools surrounding us as well. Finn Lucas-Secretary, Aleecia Pace- Vice President, and Maggie Lashley- President. Each officer pledged a goal to reach out to other schools in order to build a stronger relationship with other councils to bring forth more school unity and a strong student body community. We also came back refreshed with so many ideas for the future of our council.-- Ashley Werkmeister, NPHS Student Council Sponsor
Colleen O'Shaughnessy, Adams Middle School Business Teacher
Colleen O'Shaughnessy, Adams Middle School Business Teacher, is one of the very elite to have National Board Certification. She is currently the only teacher with North Platte Public Schools to have this certification. Congratulations to Colleen! Colleen is in her second year of teaching at Adams Middle Schools.
National Board Certification was designed to develop, retain and recognize accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing improvement in schools nationwide. It is the most respected professional certification available in K-12 education.
Created by teachers, for teachers, the National Board Standards represent a consensus among educators about what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. Board certification is available in 25 certificate areas spanning 16 disciplines from Pre-K through 12th grade.
The certification process requires that teachers demonstrate standards-based evidence of the positive effect they have on student learning in alignment with the Five Core Propositions. They must exhibit a deep understanding of their students, content knowledge, use of data and assessments and teaching practice. They must also show that they participate in learning communities and provide evidence of ongoing reflection and continuous learning.--Dr. Tami Eshleman, Associate Superintendent.