Nebraska Public School Advantage News

Nebraska Public School Advantage News

93 Counties and Beyond: Tyler Vanderheiden Memorial Run honors superintendent’s son, brings awareness to mental health

93 Counties and Beyond: Tyler Vanderheiden Memorial Run honors superintendent’s son, brings awareness to mental health

February 19, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren No matter where he went, Tyler Vanderheiden always came back with a story to tell. “You’ll never guess what happened!” For Tim and Shannon Vanderheiden’s son, every day was an adventure, and every adventure came with a story, all of which were told with a sparkle in his eyes and a contagious energy you might as well not even try to shake. His mom and dad loved those stories...Read More

To Tell You the Truth with Nebraska Educators: Auburn's Jerica German and Pawnee City's Hadley Sejkora and Aeden Gyhra

To Tell You the Truth with Nebraska Educators: Auburn's Jerica German and Pawnee City's Hadley Sejkora and Aeden Gyhra

February 13, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren Introduction There are over 24,000 public school teachers in the state of Nebraska. They’re the gatekeepers. The curators of hopes and dreams. Together, they light the fire and keep it burning. And Judy Blume was right, their fingerprints never fade from the lives they touch. They’re teachers, and they’re as critical to the future of this state as anybody. We’re in the business...Read More

Wide Eyes, Goosebumps and Jaws on the Floor: "Simply captivating" Adams Central sixth-grader Ava Bonifas chases a dream

Wide Eyes, Goosebumps and Jaws on the Floor: "Simply captivating" Adams Central sixth-grader Ava Bonifas chases a dream

January 30, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren Little Ava Bonifas came into the world carrying a tune. By the time she turned two, the eldest child of Michael and Kelly Bonifas was dancing and belting out America’s favorite Disney songs. By the time she turned five, Ava was playing Whitney Houston’s famous Super Bowl XXV performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” on loop, her young but mighty voice doing its best to match one...Read More

Guerrero returns to teach at alma mater as GIPS hires its first PathBack recipient

Guerrero returns to teach at alma mater as GIPS hires its first PathBack recipient

January 26, 2024
By Kelli Mayhew, Grand Island Public Schools Letters and class photos were sprawled across the table in Rebecca Waind’s Kindergarten classroom at Stolley Park Elementary. A handmade drawing, depicting Mrs. Waind with green hair, looked as though it was given to her that day. The paper edges were crisp and the crayon strokes were vivid. Mrs. Waind kept this drawing, along with other pictures and...Read More

The Magic of Music: Elementary students share their gift with Kearney community

The Magic of Music: Elementary students share their gift with Kearney community

January 22, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren It was sometime around the holidays several years ago when a conversation Lisa Miller shared with one of her best friends, a nurse in Kearney, kick-started one of the more heartwarming traditions across Nebraska. Joy is seemingly everywhere you look that time of year, ringing like a bell through every single television commercial and every other radio station on the dial. But on...Read More

Under One Roof: "Bulldog Buddies" brings Friend Public Schools students and staff together with a 30-minute blast of fun

Under One Roof: "Bulldog Buddies" brings Friend Public Schools students and staff together with a 30-minute blast of fun

January 11, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren It’s the first Friday morning after the holiday break, and the hallways of Friend Public School sit quiet. That’ll change when the clock hits 10:15. This is the calm before the storm. Principal Liz Stutzman is in her office, gushing over the school’s “Bulldog Buddies” program that was developed and launched in October of 2018. She covers its history, the impact it’s made on the...Read More

Finding the Spirit of the Season: Kimball goes big for holiday celebration

Finding the Spirit of the Season: Kimball goes big for holiday celebration

January 2, 2024
By Tyler Dahlgren It’s a new year at Kimball Public Schools, but the Longhorns didn’t turn the page on 2023 before holding a holiday celebration fit for the most festive of seasons. The party started early on Wednesday, Dec. 20 at Mary Lynch Elementary, whose bustling gymnasium was filled with excited students seated around dining tables by 9 a.m. for a family-style holiday breakfast. The...Read More

Holiday Baskets becoming a December tradition at DC West, and it's all-hands-on-deck

Holiday Baskets becoming a December tradition at DC West, and it's all-hands-on-deck

December 21, 2023
By Tyler Dahlgren The faculty at DC West Elementary is flying around the school’s main corridor on a Friday afternoon in December, assembling care packages for students and their families during a planning period they unanimously chose to forgo. Those famous Holiday Baskets aren’t going to pack themselves, after all. “This one needs a box of cereal.” “That one could use some vegetables.” “Don’t...Read More

From Campeche to Crete: Perla Jaimes’ incredible journey to principalship

From Campeche to Crete: Perla Jaimes’ incredible journey to principalship

December 4, 2023
By Tyler Dahlgren Crete Middle School principal Perla Jaimes fell in love with school in Denison, Iowa some 23 years ago, but her story begins thousands of miles south of there, in the Mexican port city of Campeche. It was December of 1999 when Perla, nine-years-old at the time, boarded a bus with her mother and embarked on a journey that would ultimately shape the rest of her life. The ride to...Read More

On World Kindness Day, Freeman's Wellness Crew sets students on a weeklong "Goosechase" for good deeds

On World Kindness Day, Freeman's Wellness Crew sets students on a weeklong "Goosechase" for good deeds

November 29, 2023
By Tyler Dahlgren You may or may not have heard, but November 13th was World Kindness Day. And while the international observance is growing in popularity across the globe, and rightfully so, nobody celebrated it in 2023 quite like the Freeman Falcons. The district’s Wellness Crew, a group of 30 students in grades 7-12, used World Kindness Day to kick off their second week-long “Wellness...Read More

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