Superintendent Press Release February 25, 2022
Dear Cedar Bluffs Families,
Just a reminder that our open house is March 2 from 5-7pm for any new families interested in attending Cedar Bluffs Public School. Pass the word! We have our Kindergarten roundup Friday February 25th, but in case you missed this or can’t make this date, please feel free to contact our school and or attend on March 2nd.
Our Cheer and Dance team went to the Nebraska State Cheer and Dance Championships last week in Grand Island and came home with a State Championship. We are all so proud of our students and coaches. This is the 5thState Championship since 2010 for our Cheer and Dance Team, continuing aproud tradition at Cedar Bluffs Public School.
Our Winter Sports season wrapped up last week and now students are gearing up for spring sports. Look for information about youth baseball and softball as well as middle and high school track and boy’s golf. Please contact Jeff Beckman at the school, if your youth child has interest in any of the spring or summer offerings.
The new 2022-2023 school calendar for Cedar Bluffs Public School was approved at the last board meeting. The start date in August is still earlier than I would like but we finish a week earlier in May than most surrounding schools and we have a really nice long break over December and January for the Holiday Season. A lot goes into the construction of the calendar, most importantly and the biggest driver is the meeting of instructional hours required by the Nebraska Department of Education to meet Rule 10 to be an accredited high school. Not only is there an hourly requirement, which most school meet pretty easily but a calculation of instructional units that takes the number of days times the minutes per class in high school to make sure each high school is offering enough classes in all subject areas required by State Statute. Classes at the high school are required to be taught by a teacher that is certified in a specific discipline. This calculation can be difficult to meet in small schools that have limited instructors, especially when you have a block schedule with classes that meet every other day. For instance, a 50-minuteclass that meets for 180 days according to the calculation equals 10 instructional units. While an 80-minute class that meets 90 days is calculated to equal on 8 credits. In the Elementary and Middle School, there are requirements for instruction in core and non-core classes as well but since elementary teachers are certified to teach all subjects, it is much easier to meet subject specific hours.
2021-22 TOTAL POSITIVE: 76-Students, 52-Parent(s)/Family Members, 11-Staff
THIS WEEK POSITIVE: -Students, -Parent(s)/Family Members, 0-Staff CURRENT QUARANTINE:
This week we had zero reported cases of COVID among our students, staff and parent/family members. I truly hope this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. I know hospitalization always trail infections, but from what I am reading, hospitalization rates for COVID patients are also on the decline.
Our 7-day rolling average for ALL absences was 34.71 students per day absent for all illnesses that equates to 7.35% of our student population. Still much too high! I hope everyone can get healthy over this 3 day weekend, rest and recover and we see less absenteeism in the coming weeks. This number, although an important number as this pandemic comes to a rolling stop, is also very important financially to our school. State Aid is calculated, in part, on our average daily membership and when students are gone, it affects our overall State Aid. #WildcatPride