Countdown to Eclipse

The countdown to the Eclipse is on and Exeter is right in the path.  On August 21st Exeter will experience 2 minutes and 35 seconds of total solar eclipse and darkness. All graphics are courtesy of NASA.

Exeter-Milligan Challenged through HUMANeX

Exeter-Milligan faculty and staff posed for a photo at the HUMANeX conference in Kalamazoo, Mich.  Pictured from the left are: Denice Kovanda, Laura Kroll, Marla Weber, Katherine Roemmich, Laura Steuben, Treven Cerveny, Lisa Soukup, Shelli Mueller and Paul Sheffield.

Two years ago Exeter-Milligan Superintendent Paul Sheffield “had a gut feeling that things just didn’t seem right” with the staff, faculty and students in the school district.

Around that same time Sheffield was at an administrator’s day and was introduced to the vendor HUMANeX which help companies and schools evaluate their relationships and community.

HUMANeX examines the entity and according to their proposal objective they are “creating and driving sustained excellence in organizations through expert education, equipping and execution to impact key outcomes in a significant and sustained manner.”

The district hired the company to come into both the elementary, middle and high school and Sheffield and Exeter-Milligan Principal Laura Kroll are both enthusiastic about the work that HUMANeX has done at Exeter-Milligan.  Kroll explained, “They evaluate the culture of your school and help you to find a direction and set goals each year.  The biggest help for us is the survey they do of all the staff, not just the teachers.  They collect information and from that information tell you where you areas of need are and where your strengths are.”

HUMANeX doesn’t just evaluate and spit out reports.  They have been very hands on in their evaluations according to Kroll, “They meet with the staff without the administrators there to talk about the things that are their concerns and the directions they want to go.”

HUMANeX has designed surveys with over 100 questions that the faculty and staff have answered during professional development time.  Kroll shared that the information from the surveys really “opens up the conversation, and creates a dialog and a partnership.  This creates a change of culture so everyone understands and is working toward the same goal.  It also gives everyone an opportunity to voice their opinion.”

Fourth grade teacher at Exeter-Milligan, Shelli Mueller, feels the district has benefited with the HUMANeX experience, “I think there was some disconnect there (between administrators and faculty).  This has narrowed our focus as a group and helped us see what needs to be worked on.  It really showed what our strengths are and what we need to work on especially with new staff in Milligan.”

Last year, between teachers resigning and changing campuses, four new teachers were hired for the Milligan campus. 

Mueller added, “Having two sites it is important to see how we can improve our communication.  We met at the end of the school year and HUMANeX was impressed with the improvement in our numbers, but we told them we could do better.  We are a motivated group.”

“It’s really a way for us to get a pulse on the organization as a whole and makes improvements,” explained Sheffield.

Kroll noted that communication was the primary goal that “rose to the top through the survey.  The K-6 goals were that ‘Our team effectively communicates with each other’ and ‘I feel in on things that are happening at E-M public schools.’”

Similar goals were revealed through the 7-12 survey’s with them sharing the top goal of effectively communicating with each other.  Their second overall goal was ‘I am on a team that encourages each member to surpass expectations.’

These goals are those that HUMANeX found through the survey given to all of the teachers.

HUMANeX seems to have enjoyed the relationship with Exeter-Milligan as well and invited the administrators to their annual conference in Kalamazoo, Mich.  “We were first invited as participants and then HUMANeX met with some of our elementary staff and they wanted all of them to come to Kalamazoo.”

In June, nine teachers and staff at Exeter-Milligan took the HUMANeX sponsored trip to Kalamazoo as well as Sheffield, Kroll and Guidance Counselor Denise Kovanda presented at the conference.  Sheffield emphasized that the positive responses he received from representatives of large corporations after the presentation confirmed that the district was seeing the results of their interactions with HUMANeX.

While the Exeter-Milligan administrators presented at the conference, the teachers served as a panel for the session.  Mueller enjoyed fielding questions from the audience.

Mueller thought the Kalamazoo leadership conference was “amazing.  We listed to awesome speakers. It was one more way to bring our district together. We were one of the few groups from a school that brought nine.”

Recently, the Exeter-Milligan school board completed a survey tailored to their relationships and trust level.  In the next phase, Exeter-Milligan will utilize HUMANeX with their coaches and student athletes.  The long term goal, according to Sheffield is to do a community survey, “We would love to be a pilot school and community for HUMANeX.  They haven’t done an entire community yet.”

Kroll agreed, “I think it’s a great way to get everybody on the same page working toward the same goal and making sure that your school is growing.”

During the conference HUMANeX recognized the progress at Exeter-Milligan calling Sheffield on stage and presenting him with a set of John Gordon books.

“Our ultimate big picture goal is helping Exeter-Milligan be the place to be  We want people from the outside say, ‘I want my kids to go there or I want to go there,” explained Sheffield.  “This has helped with growing our culture and the internal growth and at the same time knowing that you can’t be complacent.”

Exeter History: Yates

This photo was found at the Exeter Public Library and on the back reads, "Mrs. Emory Yates and daughter Anna take 1900 Lincoln, Nebr.

Fillmore County Development Corporation Summer Newsletter

ODEGEO Leadership Class in Fillmore County Courtroom

Odegeo leadership class members hearing about the Courts in the Fillmore County courtroom.

Pic:  Sarah Johnson, Renae Marks, Mitch Schlemilch, Ashley Risseeuw, Angela Ruhl, Eric Kamler, Katie Gnuse, Tracey Kresak

J & J Car Wash Robbed

The Exeter Police Department and the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Department are investigating a string of burglaries in the area.  The most recent of which was at the J & J Car Wash in Exeter.  The self-car wash machine was robbed sometime the evening of July 18^th or early morning of July 19^th and an undisclosed amount of cash was taken.  An investigation is underway with both departments following up on several leads.  If you have information on this crime contact the Exeter Police Department at 402-266-5331 or the Fillmore County Sheriff’s office at 402-759-4411.

Exeter-Milligan School Board Meets Discusses Volleyball Home

Exeter-Milligan School Board President Sharon Kuska opened a policy hearing  on student fees just prior to Tuesday evenings Exeter-Milligan School board meeting.

 

Superintendent Paul Sheffield gave a brief presentation on the student fee policy explaining, “Exeter-Milligan does not charge any student fees. Students are only charged for book orders, student projects, and t-shirts.  If a student cannot afford a project we have small projects that they can do at no cost. There is no fee to participate in any activity.”

After a call for public comment to a silent crowd Kuska closed the hearing on student fees and opened the hearing on parental involvement.  

Sheffield again outlined the changes in the policy, “We are making a few changes on the policy based on what our lawyers have recommended.”

Sheffield went on to explain that the majority of the changes include adding the phrase "parent or guardian." 

Information on the National Assessment of Educational Progress was included in Policy 5017. This test is randomly administered and parents are notified if child is chosen but individual results are not received.

With no comments offered from the audience, Kuska closed the hearing and then called to order the regular monthly meeting. She thanked the visitors for coming and welcomed their input and concerns.  

The board dove into the consensus agenda starting with the Treasurer’s report.  The board approved both the treasurer’s report and the June minutes along with the work session minutes.

The curricular report was the next topic and the board heard the results of a survey they had recently taken which was evaluated by HUMANeX. 

Two representatives from HUMANeX , Nick Hovermale and KatieDiediker gave a presentation on the results and commended the board on their results.  This summer HUMANeX invited Exeter-Milligan faculty and staff members to Kalamazoo, Mich. to present at their conference.

Hovermale explained that they try to “look at the school board as a team.. Relationships are the key to making most decisions.  Your relationship items are all high in general."

After the brief presentation the board approached the old business items starting with a project update on the locker room renovations.  Sheffield shared the update information along with some photos of the changes especially in the shower areas.

The one update that will affect students is on the girls side of the locker rooms.  The high school and junior high girls will switch sides because the new high school side has an additional shower stall.

Kuska asked about the budget status on the renovation and Sheffield assured the board the budget is “right on.”

Other summer work Sheffield reported was a redo on the flooring in Milligan in the fourth grade classroom along with the flooring in front of the bathrooms in Milligan. In Exeter, the gym floor is done and reopened. 

Kuska gave a brief recap of the boards’ recent work session.  “We discussed efficient class scheduling at the high school. .  expanding curriculum , specifically ag based.”

The next piece of old business was establishing the home site for volleyball games which was tabled from the June meetings. Board member Tim Pribyl asked President Kuska her thoughts on the issue since she was on the school board when the schools consolidated.

Kuska replied, “I would like to see us make Milligan gym our home by doing some practices down there in the afternoon.  We could run the girls down a couple days a week and start working with that gym.  This is my initial reaction until we have to co-op which we don’t see coming for a while.”

 

“I was distressed to hear we try not to get home meets.  We need to promote ourselves as well as our facility. It’s a gym where we have raised some championship teams.”

Board member  Adam Erdkamp commented, “I can see with the investments we have made here it would be something to consider to bring it here.”

Board member Kendra Jansky commented that “having a triangular in Milligan is tight.”

There was a motion by Board member Tim Pribyl  to keep volleyball in Milligan and then there was discussion on the proper wording of the motion..  The board did pass a motion to keep the volleyball matches in Milligan.

The Board congratulated Exeter-Milligan 9^th grader Caitlin Murphy who recently competed at the National FCCLA convention in Nashville, Tenn  FCCLA advisor Mary Lou Vossler reported that Murphy scored 98.66 out of 100 and was the top scorer in the state of Nebraska in her category of life events.  Vossler praised Murphy’s “self-motivation.  She was pretty calm and practiced her heart out. There were 90 star projects competitors from the state of Nebraska and over 7000 at the conference.”

The board briefly reviewed the policy updates and approved them unanimously as a group of policies. 

The board moved on to new business which included approving the changes made in the student and staff handbooks.  

Also approved by the board were the guidelines used for the free and reduced lunch.  Sheffield reminded the board, “Since we technically do not participate in the federal free/reduced lunch.  We still utilize the federal guidelines as the Exeter-Milligan guidelines.” 

The board discussed the August meeting which will include budget planning.  Sheffield expected to have the budget materials ready before the meeting.

The board noted that the school open house will be held on August 10^th from  5 – 7 p.m. with the first day of school Tuesday, August 15^th.

Sheffeld noted that the village has let the paving project out for bids. “We will be doing some paving to piggyback that, we will do some more angled parking (on the East side of the new addition).  My concern is the time of year they will do the paving especially with the high school boys going to the football field.”

President Kuska entertained a motion to excuse board member Kendra Oldehoeft.

The Board set the next regular meeting for Monday, August 8 at Milligan at 8 p.m. Board member Oldehoeft arrived as the board adjourned.