Principal Donner Monthly Newsletter

What an impressive first quarter of the school year we had! Our students have been busy putting in the work in the classroom and outside the classroom. On the field of competition as well as other in other arenas our students have been exemplifying our HUSKY commitment (Honor, Unity, Scholarship, Kindness, You Matter)

Some highlights:

Alexis Wetjen qualifying for Girls State Golf Tournament

Varsity football going 8-0 and back to back District Champions

Varsity volleyball going 20-9 on the regular season and finishing as CRC Tournament Runners-up

Varsity volleyball finishing as CRC regular season Champions

Blue River Softball team going 20-8 on their season and earning SNC Conference Championship

JH Volleyball "A" team going undefeated on their season

Kasey Fischbach and Nevaeh Martinez selected for All State Choir

A few more highlights to note! We had nearly 60% attendance for our fall P/T conferences held on September 17. Nearing the end of the 1st quarter our middle school and high school students had 97% of assignments completed. Our ICU program has and the multiple checkins Mr Kubik and teachers are doing have greatly improved our assignment completion. We celebrated Homecoming the week of September 29 - October 3. Our 7th grade students were winners of the MS float parade and our Seniors were winners of the HS float parade. Danica Watts and Kreyten Zimmerman were crowned our 2025 Homecoming Queen and King.

Our Senior class is currently beginning their Work Based Learning (WBL) opportunities. They will be taking part in this WBL opportunity each Wednesday during the 2nd and 3rd quarter. If your student has yet to bring home a signature page or show you the email of information here is the link to the packet:

(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B0wNbVBkdzp3zFR2dEr3LdEdU4knQXt1ecAutyoE9sw/edit?tab=t.0)

Overall I am looking to continue the success that we have experienced thus far to start the year. Students continue to set your standards high and parents continue helping your children meet those standards! We are achieving great things in the middle school and high school and our MAP scores are showing the same! Let's celebrate these positives and strive to continue to bring our best each and every day!

One thing to keep in mind and look for improvement as we enter 2nd quarter, ATTENDANCE MATTERS! Currently we are sitting at or above 93% attendance mark for all classes 6-12, however we do have some students that are approaching that 8 day mark or tardies that have exceeded 4 for 1st period. Let's work hard to be here on time and be here each and every day! As 2nd qtr comes to a close I am going to compare 1st quarter attendance with 2nd quarter attendance, if students show a significant gain, maybe there might be an opportunity for a reward heading into break!

Finally one more positive note, our PBiS Rewards system has been a bright spot for staff and students. At the moment students are earning points that they can they turn and redeem for candy bars, Hometown Table certificates, Food Truck option for lunch and early out for seniors (skipping advisory). We had nearly 6100 points awarded first quarter and I am hoping to see us eclipse 6500 during 2nd quarter!

School started Wednesday, Aug 13th and we have been rolling since! Our 6-11 grade students completed the MAP assessments during the week of Aug 25th. Our students did a phenomenal job making gains from fall 2023 assessments and many showed tremendous growth overall. Teachers were very complementary of the students efforts and are excited to see where this year can take them academically!

Our enrollment continues to be steady. We have 120 students in the 9th-12th grade and we have 92 students in the 6th-8th grade. Our overall attendance for grades 6-12 ranges anywhere from 96.1% to 98%. Attendance is a large factor in academic success. Tardies have greatly decreased at the beginning of the day with our implementation of requiring a cell phone to be turned into the office for the day if a student is tardy for the 8:10 am bell. I want to commend students for their punctuality to begin the school year.

We have implemented two new initiatives at the MS/HS level. The first being our PBiS HUSKY Points. HUSKY stands for Honor, Unity, Scholarship, Kindness, You Matter. To date our staff has awarded our students 2407 HUSKY Points. We are committed to promoting the positive things our students are doing and giving them the opportunity to redeem those points through tangible rewards (candy bar, coffee, Husky "drip" and other rewards). The 2nd initiative that we started this year with the MS/HS was our CharacterStrong Mondays. Each Monday our advisories will be meeting to talk about a CharacterStrong session. This session time will allow students to build their personal social/emotional toolkits as well as receive advice in how to succeed in school. The response from the first two ChracterStrong Mondays has been positive!

Our Fall activities are having great seasons to this point and we are looking forward to their continued success as the season progresses. Of note our Varsity Football was recently rank #1 in D1 Coaches Poll with a 3-0 start to the season. Our Varsity Softball team has had some stellar performances currently sitting at 11-5 on the season. Our volleyball team is also off to a great start going 6-1 and sitting 15th in power points. The Girls Golf team continues to find fairways and greens as their season progresses and they gear up for district competition. Also our One Act cast and crew are busy with early morning practices as they begin prepping for their fast and furious performance season later in the semester. We also had great representation at the NE State Fair with our middle school student entries receiving the top honors! We also had many students submitting static exhibits and showing animals that positively represented our SRC FFA Chapter!

10/23 - 1st Rd FB Playoffs vs Boyd County (4:00 pm)

10/24 - NO SCHOOL (Fall Break)

10/25 - Youth Basketball Skills (9:00 am)

- Trunk or Treat (3:00 pm)

10/27 - National FFA (Day 1)

- VB Sub Districts (TBD)

10/28 - National FFA (Day 2)

- VB Sub Districts (TBD)

10/29 - Early Out (1:30 dismissal)

- Sophomores Pre-ACT

- National FFA (Day 3)

10/30 - National FFA (Day 4)

10/31 - National FFA (Day 5)

- 2nd Rd FB Playoffs (TBD)

11/1 - Youth Basketball Skills (9:00 am)

- VB Districts (TBD)

11/3 - Unified Bowling @ Sun Valley Lanes (11:30 am)

- Fall Activities Banquet (7:00 pm)

11/4 - STUCO Blood Drive (11:00 am)

11/5 - Health Science Field Trip @ Omaha

- MS Quiz Bowl @ Seward (9:00 am)

- NSAA State VB (Day 1)

11/6 - NSAA State VB (Day 2)

11/7 - NSAA State VB (Day 3)

- One Act @ York

- FB Quarter Finals (TBD)

11/8 - One Act @ Cross County

11/10 - One Act @ Archangels

- Unified Bowling @ Westbrook Lanes (9:30 am)

- JH G BB vs Osceola (4:00 pm)

- JH B WR @ York (4:00 pm)

11/11 - Veteran's Day Program (9:00 am)

11/12 - FFA District Livestock Judging

- Quiz Bowl @ Central City

11/13 - Unified Bowling @ Westbrook Lanes (10:00 am)

- JH G BB @ High Plains (4:00 pm)

11/14 - CUNE National Honor Band

- JH B WR @ David City (4:30 pm)

- FB Semi Finals (TBD)

11/15 - One Act @ Fairbury

- JH G BB vs Twin River (9:00 am)

***Please excuse accidental errors and omissions - SUBJECT TO CHANGE***