School District Preparing for Accreditation Visit

It is a combination of emotions that shows how well the Cheyenne County School District No. 1 is teaching its students.

That is how Sheri Ehler describes the coming Advanced Education Accreditation visit.

“It is really exciting, but it is a lot of work,” Ehler said of the accreditation visit.

The visit is scheduled for Jan. 30 through Feb. 1. It is an event scheduled once every five years. It is a peer visit that includes interviews of teachers, administration and students.

“It is very collaborative,” Ehler said.

She said the goal is to be as effective as teachers, and with the educational program, as possible.

“We know where the bar is,” she said of the educational standard.

She said the ongoing effort is to meet or exceed that standard.

In other business, Superintendent Jay Ehler talked about the district finances and the enrollment numbers. He said the student enrollment has maintained much closer to average than was expected when the Cabela’s -- Bass Pro merger was announced. He said the District is down 40 students from January 2018, from 1,281 to 1,241.

“We had more than 40 leave because of new jobs,” he said.

He added the District has admitted many students because of families moving into the area. Monday night, the board also approved two students transferring into the District.

The board also talked about the Rule 10 requirement of a Local District Report Card. The report card as presented explains student performances in Act tests, the Nebraska State English Language Arts Assessment, Math and Science. It also defines how students are doing compared to graduation requirements, and shows a breakdown of student demographics. The average score for the science assessments for Sidney is 112 and 127 compared to the State average of 102 across the board. District students scored above the State averages in Language Arts and Math as well. The report indicates 78 percent of 2017 graduates attended a two-year or four-year college.

Student Demographics show that 38.4 percent of the district’s students are eligible for free or reduced lunches compared to the state average of 45.1 percent. The school attendance rate is 95.1 percent for Sidney compared to 94.2 percent for the State average. About 13.2 percent of the District’s students receive special education services while 14.7 percent of the State’s students receive special education services.