LCC Board accepts three teacher resignations

COLERIDGE – Teachers were a topic of discussion during the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Public Schools Board of Education’s April 11 meeting.

Each year, board members consider and approve the continuing teacher contracts for current certified teachers, which they did during the meeting.

“We have received signed contracts from each of our current teachers, with the exception of those who have resigned or retired,” Superintendent Jeremy Christiansen said. “I recommend approval of the teaching contracts for 2022-2023.”

Board members also accepted three teacher resignations:

-First grade: Karla Pippett is retiring after a 39- year teaching career with the school district.

-First grade: Katrina Beckman has accepted a kindergarten teaching position with Norfolk Public Schools.

Beckman has served Laurel-Concord-Coleridge as both a special education teacher and a firstgrade teacher during the past seven years.

-Elementary special education: Christy Koehler has accepted a third-grade teaching position with Osmond Community Schools.

Koehler has served Laurel-Concord-Coleridge as a special education teacher for the past two years.

After advertising and recruitment, the school district has received numerous applications for the following positions:

-First grade: Seven applications were received, and interviews were conducted with five candidates.

Christiansen recommended Jenna Tanderup for a first-grade teaching position, which the board approved.

Tanderup has taught second grade for three years for Whiting Community Schools in Iowa.

She graduated from Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, and has endorsements and experience in elementary teaching, reading, English as a second language and coaching.

-Elementary special education (two positions): Four candidates have been interviewed. Conditional offers have been extended to two candidates.

In other news, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge recently participated in an important phase of the continuous school improvement process.

Over a span of two days, March 22-23, the school district hosted an external team visitation, as per the “Nebraska Framework,” a handbook to help schools in the school improvement process.

The external team included six education professionals from Nebraska who have experience and expertise in key components of effective school systems.

The purpose of the external team visitation process is to apply an objective lens during a snapshot visit for a school system to reflect on its plans, initiatives, progress and needs.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge’s visit included interviews with stakeholder groups, such as students (5-12), faculty and staff (PK-12), parents and community members, the Continuous School Improvement team and board members.

At the conclusion of the visit, the external team presented a brief, oral exit report to highlight overall strengths and commendations, as well as to provide insight into their recommendations for the school district to consider moving forward through the continuous improvement process.

Following the visit, the external team completed its formal report, which has now been finalized and submitted to the Nebraska Department of Education as evidence of Laurel-Concord-Coleridge’s commitment to the continuous school improvement process.

In regard to the school construction and renovation project, the beginning signs of construction were seen at the Laurel campus this past week when demolition of a ceiling area by the electrical room was completed. The next steps include electrical work and masonry to enclose that space.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge is continuing the development progress of both a summer enrichment program and a before-and-after school program using federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding for program startup funding.

The Summer Explorers is a five-week program will be offered to Laurel-Concord-Coleridge students in grades K-6 in support of academic enrichment and highinterest engagement.

Jean Granquist will serve as the director of both the academic skills summer school program as well as for Summer Explorers.

Enrichment sessions will run two hours per day (10:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.), four days per week (Monday-Thursday).

A key strength of this program is the high level of community involvement from local experts and organizations.

For the before-and-after school program, an advisory board will be formed to review and finalize program goals, structures and procedures, prior to presentation for board approval this summer.

One of the program’s goals is to provide both academic support and enrichment opportunities for K-6 students outside of the regular school day.

Another goal of this program is to support local efforts to relieve challenges with quality childcare by providing additional opportunities for school-age children.

School board members are invited and encouraged to attend commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2022 to be held at 2 p.m. May 14.

There will be a designated area with reserved seating for each board member plus one guest.

Board president Dr. Carol Erwin will be seated on stage and will assist as diplomas are awarded to graduates.

Other board members will stand just off of the stage and will be able to congratulate to Laurel-Concord-Coleridge graduates.

The school board’s next regular meeting will be at 7 p.m. May 9 inside the school board room at the Laurel campus.

Other Business:

In other business on April 11, the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Public Schools Board of Education heard about the following items:

-Veterans of Foreign Wars color contest winners: On March 16, VFW Post 4504 provided secondand third-grade students with its annual coloring contest.

Congratulations go to Tenlie Christiansen, Aizlynn Kossler, Evey Specht, Hadley Nordby, Hannah Detlethsen and Rhett Eggers on being selected as the color contest winners.

-Kindergarten roundup: On March 18, the kindergarten teachers welcomed 23 new soon to-be kindergartners to the school district’s annual roundup.

The students engaged in fun activities while their parents were provided with a tour and presentation regarding the transition to kindergarten.

Each new student was screened for both speech and hearing concerns.

-Literacy Night: The school district’s third annual Literacy Night event will be held on May 3. This year’s theme is “Zoo.”

-Scholastic Book Fair: Laurel-Concord-Coleridge’s Parent-Teacher Organization will be supporting efforts by bringing in the Scholastic Book Fair for May 2-6 and allowing every student who participates an opportunity to find their own book.

-One School, One Book Initiative: Students finished the book “Holes” for the school district’s One School, One Book Initiative at the middle school.

On April 1, the movie version of the book was played for students as a way to give them a mental break and to celebrate the book with students.

-All-State Band: The Class C Junior High All-State Band was held on March 19 in Kearney. Participants were Faith Galvin, Dillon Olson and Emma Sohler.

-Fire and tornado drills: The middle school participated in the statewide tornado drill on March 23 and completed its monthly fire drill on March 15.

-Middle School Quiz Bowl: On March 15, seventh- and eighth-grade quiz bowl teams competed against Homer and Emerson-Hubbard in a quiz bowl competition.

The seventh-grade team earned first-place honors and one of the eighth-grade teams earned runnerup honors.

-Middle School TeamMates Party – The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge TeamMates Program will have a party for the middle school students 10 a.m.-noon April 23 at Wildcat Lanes, Wayne’s bowling alley.

-Junior high sports: The junior high track and field team has been training since March 22.

Weather has been a bit difficult at times requiring many practices to be held in the middle school gym.

Due to weather, the team’s first meet, which was a triangular at Randolph, was postponed until April 21.

Junior high athletes had their first track and field meet on April 11 in Hartington.

There is a total of 52 studentathletes on the track & field roster (22 boys and 30 girls).

-Middle School March Madness: Each of the middle school teachers, staff and students received a NCAA men’s basketball bracket to fill out for an opportunity to win some candy prizes.

A total of 70 brackets were turned in and completed. Sixthgrader Dreyson Puppe was overall champion in the schoolwide contest.

-National Honor Society: The National Honor Society hosted its induction ceremony on March 15, welcoming seven new members: Aaron Bloom, Jackson Hall, Kayton Hall, Delaney Johnson, Izabella Kock, Chelsea Potts and Abigail Tasler.

-State speech: The state speech contest was held on March 17 in Kearney. Qualifiers included: Maddy Graham, Izabella Kock and the Oral Interpretation of Drama team (Maddy Graham, Delaney Hall, Ella Hartung, Sarah Karnes).

-Art show: The Lewis and Clark Conference Art Show was hosted March 24-28 by Wayne State College in Wayne. Best in Category Awards went to River Jelinek, Dillon Olson, Hope Swanson and Jordynn Urwiler.