PBIS Winners October 2022
Student Assistance Program
Life is hard. Sometimes it’s just too much. Students and their families deal with a variety of issues on a daily basis. School counselors, teachers, and parents are among the most important adults in a child’s life. Sometimes, when a child or teenager is dealing with a specific issue, it helps to have someone outside of the school that they can talk to, someone who can serve as an “unbiased party” in the eyes of a child.
As a parent/guardian of a Fort Calhoun student, your student and your family are eligible for counseling sessions through Arbor Family Counseling. The district-funded student assistance program provides 2 free sessions. Arbor Family Counseling provides professionals seasoned at helping children and teenagers and their family members deal with pressures and issues that arise.
Here are a few areas Arbor Family Counseling can help with:
ADDICTIONS ADHD ANGER ANXIETY BULLYING PTSD
DEPRESSION FINANCIAL STRESS GRIEF/LOSS PARENTING SUICIDE/SELF-HARM LOW SELF-ESTEEM PEER/SCHOOL ISSUES
To set up an appointment please call: 402-330-0960
*When calling simply state you are a parent/family member of a Fort Calhoun Schools student in order to receive your 2 complimentary sessions.
If you have questions please contact your building principal or guidance counselor:
JR/SR High–Dr. Nick Wemhoff, Ms. Marie Adams, Mrs. Micki Hernandez
Preschool/Elementary-Mr. Drew Wagner, Ms. Marie Adams
Online Parent Support Group and Mentoring Program
Are you parenting a child who is dealing with anxiety, depression, ADHD or some other emotional disturbance? You are not alone!
The SOC Parent Mentor program will soon begin offering an online support group for parents. This is an opportunity to join with other parents in similar situations to share information, encouragement and hope. The group will be led by Leslie Byers. We will launch this group on August 23, 2022 with a presentation by Leslie and her daughter Megan.
See the flyer below or click this LINK for more information.
Parent Peer Mentoring Program
Is your child living with depression, anxiety, ADHD or any other serious emotional disturbance and struggling in school and/or with life in general?
Do you feel isolated and overwhelmed in trying to get your child’s needs met?
No one understands this better than a parent who has been there themselves. Parent peer mentoring can help parents navigate systems more effectively, learn from the experiences of other families, feel less alone, and gain hope, ideas, and information.
If you would like to learn more, contact SOC Lead Family Coordinator Eve Bleyhl at 402-680-8624 or evflicR6@gmail.com
See the flyer HERE or the image below for more information
Welcome Back Letters and School Supply List 2022-23
See below for important information regarding the upcoming school year.
District
Junior High/High School
Elementary
Meal Benefits Update
School districts have been notified that the USDA does not have the authority to extend waivers that allow no-cost meals to all students. In light of this, Fort Calhoun students will pay for school meals. To alleviate some of the financial hardship this may cause, a waiver was put in place that allows schools to use the benefits that were on file from the 2019-20 school year to grant a 30 day carryover of the benefits from that time. This will allow families extra time to file meal applications for 2022-23.
If you have already received notification of 2022-23 benefits granted through direct certification, your student(s) will begin receiving them on the first day of school. If you have not, we urge you to complete the necessary paperwork immediately if you believe you qualify. Students will have to pay for meals until such time this is received. School board policy states “The district’s policy on charged meals is: “If a student has no funds available to pay for a meal, the student will be permitted to charge up to five meals. Thereafter, if a student has no funds available to pay for a meal, no food will be provided.”
If you have any questions, please contact the District Office at 402-468-5591.
PAC Summer Camp Goes Green
In the first week of PAC summer camp, the students had the chance to learn about the different parts of plants, how they grow, and the different types. They got to “dissect” a flower to see the different parts. They had fun painting their own pots and planting grass in them. The pot was the face and the grass was the hair! Every day we did a different STEM and Art Project related to plants. Then at the end of the week, we went to Lauritzen Gardens. What a fun week!
Summer Food Services Program
The Nebraska Child Nutrition Program is still providing free meals to children ages 1-18 through the Summer Food Services Program. Fort Calhoun is not an SFSP site this year but you can still use the program by following the link below to find a site near you. Put Fort Calhoun Nebraska in the search box, and extend the area to 15 miles. A list of sites in the area will appear.
Forensic Science Class 2021-22
The inaugural year of Forensic Science at Fort Calhoun High School was full of inquiry, labs, and fun! During the first semester, students learned the ins and outs of the investigative process, types of evidence, crime scene processing, and the role of forensic science in the courtroom. The second semester was spent digging deeper into various analysis techniques used when investigating blood, ballistics, arson, toxicology, decomposition, entomology, and anthropology. To top it off, the Forensic Science class welcomed an Omaha Forensic Technician to come to talk about real-world forensic science experiences.
Welcome Back Mr. Wagner
What a surprise!
Students and Staff gathered in the Elementary gym Thursday morning thinking they were going to have a Zoom call with Mr. Wagner to wish him safe travels back home. Little did they know that Mr. Wagner would be surprising them by walking through the doors instead. Mr. Wagner has been serving our country abroad the last serveral months in the United Arab Emerates. He was able to greet the students and answer several burning questions including “what animals did you see?”, “were there sand storms?” and “how is your day?” He has earned some time off and will be rejoining our staff next Fall. Welcome Back Drew!
Elementary HAL Students Present Rube Goldberg Machines
The HAL presentations on Friday, May 6th was their final step in a project centered around the creation of a Rube Goldberg Machine. These Rube Goldberg Machines originated from some of the ideas of the famous newspaper cartoonist, Rube Goldberg, and his silly machines. A Rube Goldberg machine is a chain reaction machine that completes a simple task but does so in the wackiest of fashion. The project’s task was to design and construct a Rube Goldberg Machine using at least three simple machines, use at least two energy transfers, and have a minimum of five working steps all while contained in an area of four square yards. During the project the students used the Engineering Process to identify the problem, brainstorm ideas, make models, test their machines, and finally reflect on their work.
The students were presented with the project and were asked to first start by researching about the six different types of simple machines and what is an energy transfer along with the different types. This was followed by the students working with others in their class to design different sketches of machines based on completing different final tasks such as pouring water into a cup, popping a balloon, and ringing a bell but were not limited to just these. They then took one of these sketches and started to bring them to life by bringing items from home and tried putting their machine together. “Other peoples’ ‘trash’ is becoming our treasure!” is what some of the students started to say during this process. After many trials and errors, the students got to the point of having a final machine that worked, some of the time. Then, they started to prepare for their presentation. Mr. Mallette, Mr. Green, and Mr. Wagner were the Rube Goldberg “judges” who provided detailed feedback for each of the groups. We also invited the entirety of the Elementary School as well as guardians of the HAL students to attend. Some of the project tasks included painting abstract art, pouring liquids, taking selfies, and turning a page in a magazine.
I am very proud of each of the HAL students throughout this entire process of this project. We spent about eight class periods working on these machines and they worked their tails off in each of these classes from start to finish. Countless conversations, sketches of ideas, and trial & errors were completed during these times. It was amazing to see these students build on their 21st century skills through collaborating with peers, communicating ideas, thinking outside the box, and persevering through “failures” with a growth mindset! Hearing the kids’ comments of “this is the best project ever!” “whoa, I can’t believe it worked!” with so much excitement and ownership in their work reassured me that they enjoyed the project at a high level! It was gratifying to also see the confidence and excitement these HAL students portrayed while presenting their machines to all of these individuals on their presentation day! I wanted to say thank you to all of the elementary students, staff, and guardians who visited and provided excitement and positive feedback to all of the HAL students, who I now can call official “Rubers” for designing and completing a Rube Goldberg Machine.