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INNOVATIONS:
A Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) program has initiated, which required
the entire school to read for one period three days a week. This
program is designed to improve reading skills and to emphasize the
importance of reading as a life long activity. Reading is the central
theme of our school improvement plan and several additional programs to
improve the skills will be utilized.
Saturday school began last year to assist students with academic
deficiencies and well as a discipline tool for misbehavior. This time
is to be spent in academic activities. The program was established to
operate Saturday mornings and is staffed by the teaching staff on a
volunteer basis.
AWARD WINNING AT THEDFORD:
Our school has been recognized as a leader in the state and through the
efforts of staff and students in the area of FCCLA and Student
Councils. In recent years we have had the honor of receiving the
AK-SAR-BEN Ike Friedman Community Leaders Award for both an individual
and an organization. Just this year National Honor Society was
reinstated. The students at Thedford for the last five years have places
in the top 1/3 at the Chadron State Scholastic Contest and have
consistently had students place in the top 10 at the Mid Plains Contest
in North Platte. We have been recognized also by the fact of the high
number of option enrollment students choicing in to the Thedford system,
Parents desire to have their students in a positive learning environment
such as the Thedford schools.
HOLDING THE LINE:
Over the last five years at Thedford the salaries have risen 8% on the
base and many staff members have completed advanced degrees, insurance
costs have risen and the cost of general operation of the school has
increased. Even with these increases, Thedford has held the spending
nearly level over the last five years. This was accomplished through
increased efficiencies and wise planning, the goals, we believe of the
citizens of the state. We believe we are doing our part and would only
ask that the Extreme Remoteness of our district and the necessity of our
school due to the location, be a higher priority in the calculation of
the state aid and that the broad swings in aid be leveled so we can plan
for our future.
THE FUTURE:
The Legislature passed LB 126 this year which if completed as scheduled
will cause Thedford Rural High School, Thedford Elementary School and
Brownlee will become a new Class III district June 15, 2006. Litigation
in progress may stall, modify or change the law depending on the Supreme
Court of The State of Nebraska. I would foresee no change in the
attendance centers, only the combined budgeting, policy, and the Board
of Education makeup and how the district assets and liabilities are
arranged.
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