Year brings increased enrollment, student success at Sidney schools

Classes at schools throughout Sidney ended for the academic year on Wednesday, and students will now be on summer break until mid-August.

Sidney Public Schools Superintendent Jay Ehler said the past year has been punctuated by student successes, rising enrollment and new projects offering increased opportunities for the city’s youth.

“A few of the big projects that have gone on the past year, we did get a new bus,” he said. “That’s about 10 years past due, and we’ve been saving for it the past few years.”

The travel bus, which was delivered earlier this month, will be used to transport activity groups to games and competitions.

Ehler also discussed the high school’s house construction project. Throughout the year, students in construction and design classes renovated a home on Maple Street.

“That was a big success for our construction class and our design decisions class that was led by Kim Castner and Beau McConnell,” the superintendent said.

Bids are being accepted on the house this week, and proceeds from the sell are going toward $45,000 in scholarships for seniors who graduated last weekend and the purchase of another house for next year’s students to flip.

The superintendent said numerous local businesses and individuals provided donations to support the renovation.

“We’re going to continue the housing project, and, eventually we’ll probably try new construction, also,” Ehler said.

The initiative has numerous benefits: teaching skills to students, funding scholarships and transforming properties into homes for the community, he added.

District activity and athletic groups also found success on the state stage.

“We had great activities this year,” Ehler said. “We had several state qualifiers. Second place in basketball was great, second straight year of football playoffs and we had huge numbers qualify for all-state academic.”

Band and vocal groups, as well as the school play and one act plays were also successful, he added.

While students enjoy their three-month break from school, staff and contractors will be busy preparing district facilities for next school year.

A new scoreboard will be installed at the football field – paid for by anonymous donors, Pepsi and Security First Bank and Security First Insurance – and a door, window and heating and cooling system replacement project started at the middle school last year will be completed.

Following a technology infrastructure upgrade at schools last year to improve wireless Internet connectivity and security and backup capacity, new mobile labs will be rolled out over the summer.

The portable labs will contain Chrome Books and iPads for students and teachers to use for instructional purposes.

When students return to school in August, they will also be greeted by some new faces. Every year, there’s a certain amount of teacher and staff turnover. Ehler said teaching positions within the district are already fully staffed for next year.

“We’re losing some great teachers, but I really feel like we’re lucky to have some really quality people coming in,” the superintendent said.

The hiring process started earlier and went smoothly, he added.

“Overall, it went really well,” Ehler explained. “I was really happy with the principals and other school leaders getting it done.”

Student enrollment throughout the district was up 105 from two years ago, and by the start of school, it would likely be up another 20-40 students, he said.

“Some of that is just simply that the senior class of 76 graduated and for incoming kindergarteners, we already have 89 signed up,” Ehler said.

From September through May this year, the district gained nine students.