Greetings, 

I hope everyone had a great and restful break.  The weather has been so nice. 

Good news from the Unicameral.  Senator Walz (an educator) was voted as the Chair of the Education Committee.  This will be a nice change.

Over break, I had some communication with some of the community.  The communication came as a thank you. Thank you for getting our kids in class and keeping them there.  Thank you for letting them participate in activities.  Thank you for everything you are doing.  My answer is always the same.  Thank you, but it is not me.  It is the CPS staff.  They are ROCKSTARS.  The kids are awesome with the protocols.  This is sincerely a group and community effort.  

NDE is allowing us to give some needed breaks due to CoVid.  They gave us 5 days basically.  I do not intend to use 5 days.  We are thinking about January 22, February 16, and March 26.  January 22 is our big wrestling meet that normally happens at the College.  This year CSC have declined to host because of CoVid.  We would like to go ahead and have the meet.  This would bring many to our school.  We would need to start the meet earlier than if it were at the college because of space.  We will use both gyms.  February 16 will extend a break for students.  March 26 is Quiz Bowl at the Middle School, so this helps with capacity  These are days off for kids, not the staff.  

I want to thank you all!!!  Happy New Year.

Great News, free lunch will continue till the end of the school year for all students.   

Early in the school year you saw the memo below.

Greetings Chadron Public Schools Parents, Patrons, and Students:

We are excited to send out some great news:  Starting September 14, 2020 through potentially December 2020, All students regardless of economic status will receive free meals at Chadron Public Schools.  Money is provided by the CARES Act and could possibly be depleted before the end of December.  The USDA has given guidance that schools may extend the Summer Meal Program in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic.  Meals will include both breakfast and lunch served through our school food program.  Seconds and ala carte items will be charged to your child’s account.

This guidance came September 1, 2020 and our application was filed.  Thus allowing us to start this great benefit on September 14, 2020.  I encourage you to have your students eat at school.  Meals served prior to this were charged at our normal prices.   Please continue to fill out free and reduced lunch forms as normal.  These numbers allow us to apply for and reap other benefits. 

Chadron Public Schools hopes that this news comes as a pleasant surprise and helps each family financially through these unprecedented times.

Holiday Season

As we head in to the holiday season, we have much to be grateful for. 2020 has been that strange unprecedented year that I hope we never experience again. I am grateful we have been able to have in-person instruction. We have students, teachers, staff and administrators that have followed our CoVid standard operating procedures to allow us to continue in person learning. I hope we can stay on this path.

The "new normal" school year has been stressful for all. No one likes to wear masks, except at cold football games maybe. Everyone in school needs to be commended for the extra work that has been brought about by CoVid.

I am grateful for the community of Chadron, the School Board and Chadron Public Schools Staff. They have made my transition here an easier one. My family and I embrace our new life here and hope for some social interaction when it is prudent to do so.

The New Year is a natural time for reflection. It’s a moment when we can look back at the highs and lows. We can then decide to embrace them as learning opportunities or we can examine them to bring about a change.  In any case, we need to use these experiences to become better educators. Often in a school, many do not understand all the hats that we have to wear to make our school successful. It can be very tiring and sometimes we wonder if it really makes a difference. I want to thank each and every one of the staff members and parents for ALL you do for the students. An education is the greatest gift that we can give our kids.

Establishing positive relationships with your students and children, while creating an atmosphere where children have positive relationships with each other, will truly benefit any classroom, family or community. Quality relationships will support and increase a positive community where children want to thrive. I am fortunate to work with a faculty that views positive relationships as the most important and strive to nurture those relationships. “A quality teacher-student relationship means more than the combined power of all teaching and discipline techniques known to humankind.” Love and logic Teacher-ism

In 2021, we will continue to build those relationships that will allow our students to be successful in and out of the classroom.

Check Out CPS Public Service Announcement

 Check Out CPS Public Service Announcement

https://youtu.be/SdrdBo_QfIk

Chadron Public Schools CoVid Dial

 Chadron Public Schools CoVid Dial

We know that the "risk dial" continues to move in the Panhandle (and all parts of the state).  We continue to communicate with Panhandle Public Health (PPHD) on  a weekly basis.  We discuss our school protocols, data, and community risks.  We will continue to work on and monitor our School Community Status.  You will notice that it has no correlation with the Panhandle Risk Dial.  Our status does not solely rely on their dial.  If you monitor our CoVid dashboard our cases have lessened.  Through contact tracing, done by PPHD, it has been determined that cases have originated outside of the school.  This gives us confidence that our Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) are working and are keeping our kids safe. In my opinion, staying in school continues to be the prudent thing to do and one of the safest places for our students.   The confirmed cases in our district still remain manageable because we are following our SOP's.  

Wearing masks, social distancing, sanitizing, and hand-washing remain our best defensive.  

Here is our CoVid page on our school website:  https://www.chadronschools.org/covid-19

Ginger Meyer

Mask Wearing

It is about education.  Whether you believe that one should wear a mask or not is not the question.  As we continue to get guidance from our local health department and those of the Governor our CoVid Standard operating Procedures (SOP) are more relevant than ever.  I feel it is my charge from the board to keep in-person learning and extra-curricular activities happening at Chadron Public School.  To avoid large numbers in quarantine our SOP will help with that.  No one wants to return to the education that we experienced last spring.

From PPHD September 29, 2020

"Keeping kids in school is the goal

School has now been in session for up to six weeks in many Panhandle communities. Several area schools, administration, and boards have worked hard to implement increased precautions during the COVID pandemic to keep children and staff safe. These include things like:

Spacing students out in the classroom and at lunch to allow for effective distancing.

Mask wearing in accordance with the Panhandle risk dial.

Staggered passing times to decrease the number of people in the hallways and staggered recesses.

Increased handwashing and sanitizing points throughout the school.

Staying home when a student or staff member is experiencing even minor signs of illness.

“These are all key to slowing the disease spread,” said Kim Engel, Panhandle Public Health District Director. She added, “When these increased precautions are being implemented, it significantly reduces the amount of students that are required to quarantine due to close contact resulting in kids staying in school.”

In some situations, the health district has seen one confirmed COVID positive student or staff member and upwards of 38 others that are then required to quarantine, as required by the Governor’s Directed Health Measure, when contact tracing has been conducted. Factors that are considered in the disease investigation:

Close contact is considered less than six feet for a total of 15 minutes or more.

Were masks worn by the positive individual and the close contacts?

In a classroom where everyone is masked, including the initial positive case, the initial positive case will isolate at home, and the remainder of the school-aged individuals will self-monitor for symptoms.

In a classroom where the initial positive case is not masked, the initial positive case will be isolated at home, and any school-aged individual who had close contact will quarantine at home.

In a classroom where the initial positive case is masked but others are not, the initial positive case will isolate at home, those school-aged individuals without masks and had close contact with initial positive case who are exposed will quarantine at home, and the remainder of the classroom will self-monitor for symptoms.

In a classroom where no school-aged individual were masked, the initial positive case will be isolated at home, and any school-aged individual who had close contact with initial positive case will quarantine at home.

Seating charts for the classroom, lunch room, and transportation

marking where each student sat and if they wore a mask

distance between desk

attendance for the date(s) in question

If a school-aged individual has close contact during an outdoor extracurricular event or in an indoor space where all individuals are spaced six feet apart, the school-aged individual(s) may self-monitor in lieu of quarantine.

Taken from Jon Gordon’s Blog.  

How to Overcome Negative Thoughts and Fear

“Do you struggle with Fear?”

Every hand in the audience went up when I asked the question.

“Do your negative thoughts come from you?”

Most said “Yes.”

“Are you sure,” I asked? “Who would ever choose to have a negative thought?” Eyes widened, some heads shook and a few people smiled. They were having an Aha moment.

I then explained that your negative thoughts don’t come from you. They come from consciousness. They pop in at random times or, for some, more frequently. They are like an unwanted surprise guest that show up at your front door to tell you how weak, unworthy, insignificant and incapable you are.

But here’s the deal. Like any unwanted surprise guest you decide whether or not to entertain them. A thought’s power only comes from the power you give it. You don’t have to give your negative thoughts power. You can ignore them. You can see them for what they truly are: lies, lies, lies.

Always remember that just because you have a negative thought doesn’t mean you have to believe it.

Fear is a liar and if you struggle with fear and negative thoughts, it’s because you believe the lies that they tell. Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear looks and feels true but it isn’t.

Fear says you aren’t strong enough, good enough, successful enough, wealthy enough, happy enough, smart enough, talented enough. Well, I say enough with fear. Instead, know the truth. You have everything you need inside you to be successful. You weren’t meant to be average. You have a desire to be great because you were created and born to go great things. You have a purpose. There’s a plan for your life. You may be going through a hard time now but the best is yet to come.

When fear and negativity pop in your head you can ignore them or speak truth to the lies. That’s what I do and I was thrilled to hear that’s what the singer Jewel does as well. I was recently listening to an interview she did on The Finding Mastery Podcast and she said she makes a list of all the lies fear tells. Then she writes down the truth next to the lies. She said it has given her a lot of power and freedom.

It can do the same for you. There is a tremendous amount of freedom in knowing that negative thoughts are not coming from you. There’s a ton of power in knowing that you don’t have to believe the lies. You can know and live the truth and just keep moving forward with belief, optimism, faith and grit.

During the Australian Open Championship a few weeks ago, Roger Federer lost the first few games of the 5th and deciding set to Rafael Nadal. Federer said that at the time he thought “It’s probably not going to happen for me tonight.” A thought popped in and then it popped out. He didn’t energize it. He just kept playing one point after another and eventually won the set and the match.

You can do the same. No matter what thoughts come your way, you have everything you need to accomplish your task. Thoughts will come and go but you just stay in the game and keep moving forward. The truth is that the best is yet to come. Do you believe it?

- Jon