LPS Podcast

This week we hear an interview Jason Keese did with Brent Toalson, who is retiring next month after serving as the principal at Southeast High School for the past eight years. As you’ll hear, Brent has a passion for education and Southeast that will be greatly missed but always remembered. 

This week we’ll hear an interview with Azcia Fleming, who recently graduated from Lincoln High. Jason got to know Azcia through her work on a communications diversity advisory committee and the annual MLK Youth Rally. She’s an incredibly thoughtful young woman and is destined for big things – as you’ll hear.

This week we’ll hear an interview with Oscar Rios Pohirieth, the Cultural Specialist and Coordinator for the Bilingual Liaison Program at LPS . Oscar has a fascinating life story and he also talks about some of the many challenges faced by so many of our refugee families here in Lincoln, especially over the last few months.

This week we hear inspiring words from the recent virtual graduation ceremonies for Yankee Hill Education Center and Bryan Community Focus Program. Their ceremonies included speeches from their principals, our superintendent, board of education members and of course, graduating students.

This week we’ll hear an interview with Chris Haeffner, our director of Library Media Services. Chris and her team did an amazing job of pulling together online resources for families during remote learning at the end of the school year. She talks about what they did, how they did it, and what they’re still doing this summer.

This week we’ll hear an interview with Lincoln High Principal Mark Larson. Jason had a chance to talk to Mark about what the last two months have been like as principal of the largest high school in Lincoln. They talked about those first days when COVID-19 reached Lincoln, the challenges of remote learning, potential silver linings from all of this, Zoom meetings and the future of his quarantine beard.

This week we’ll hear an interview that our communications colleague BriAna Campbell did with Carrie Foster. Carrie is one of our special education supervisors at LPS and one of the groups she oversees is school psychologists, who play a critical role in the education of so many of our students. Just like all of our educators, they’ve had to adjust to working with students when they can’t meet with them in person. But as you’ll hear, they’re still working to meet the needs of students and families.

This week we’ll hear members of the Board of Education offer words of deep thanks to our teachers as part of National Teacher Appreciation Week, which was last week.

This week we hear about Matt Rinne, a computer science teacher at Pyrtle Elementary. Matt is creating these amazing 10-minute videos that teach elementary students the basics about computer science and coding. If you’ve ever watched any of Bill Nye’s videos, you can definitely see the influence. We are blown away by Matt’s videos. He spends as much as 30 hours a week making these and you can tell.

Episode 59 — April 27, 2020 This week we’ll hear about how LPS music teachers and students are spreading the joy of music by recording performances of themselves in their homes, which are then shared with local nursing homes whose residents are unable to experience live performances right now because of COVID-19. Inside the New Classroom: Moore Middle School Mickle honored as national Green Ribbon School Facebook: Embryology Week Two Relive: Earth Day 2020 Music students, teachers perform for senior citizens – virtually

Episode 58 — April 20, 2020 After a long break as we adjusted to pandemic-life, we are back! Please accept our apologies for the sound quality — we still have some learning to do on that front, but we’re all lifelong learners right?! Today we get to hear about how our educators are stepping up to the challenge of teaching in this new environment we’ve all found ourselves in, including the continuation of a favorite elementary activity — the embryology unit!

Episode 57 — March 9, 2020 We have a number of schools celebrating anniversary milestones this year and the latest was Roper Elementary. It’s been 25 years for the school in west Lincoln and to mark the occasion they held an open house event on March 1st. We were there and we’ll listen to some of the guest speakers. Thank You Teacher Humann Teacher wins History Nebraska Excellence in Teaching Award Scholastic Arts Awards Ceremony Coming Up This Week It’s Spring Break!! Boys state basketball will be in town, using LPS facilities at Southeast and East high schools along with the Devaney Center and Pinnacle Bank Arena. District Speech will be going on this Saturday Then we’ll be into the 4th quarter! Hold those 4 fingers up high in the air! Episode Transcript Brian Fitzgerald This is stories from Lincoln Public Schools Episode 57 for the week of March 9 2020. Hello from Lincoln Public Schools. I’m Brian Fitzgerald. Jason Keese And I’m Jason Keese. Welcome to Stories from Lincoln Public Schools – our podcast that gives you an inside look at the people, activities and programs that make LPS the amazing place that it is. We have a number of schools celebrating anniversary milestones this year, and the latest was Roper Elementary. It’s been 25 years for the school in West Lincoln and to mark the occasion they held an open house event on March 1. We were there and we’ll listen to some of the guest speakers in a few minutes. But first let’s see what’s making news on lps.org. We announced the winners of the annual Thank You Teacher contest on Thursday during a ceremony at the governor’s mansion. You can read the winning nomination letters, check out photos from the event and even watch a video coverage from the big day. One warning if you do watch keep your Kleenex nearby. A fourth grade teacher from Humann elementary was honored for the creative ways she teaches Nebraska history to her students. Stacey Haney won the History Nebraska Excellence in Teaching Award. Congratulations, Stacey. And on our website, you also can find that which LPS students placed first at the Scholastic Arts Awards ceremony held in Omaha. 39 students earned a gold key award with a chance to move on to the national competition. You’ll also find photos of many of the winning pieces. As always, you can find all of this and much more on any one of our social media platforms. Brian Fitzgerald There’s a lot of great stuff going on this week… actually, I think I just said that out of habit. There’s not a lot of great stuff. Although… Jason Keese … Depends how you define great. Students would define this as… Brian Fitzgerald students would define this as the greatest because it is spring break week. So of course our schools are closed but offices are open so if you still have business to do with LPS we’re here. Boys State basketball is going to be going on the latter half of the week. They’ll be using some LPS facilities will be at Southeast And East. And then of course, they’ll also be at the Devaney Center and Pinnacle bank arena. And then the end the week ends with district speech going on Saturday, and then we’ll be into the fourth quarter. So kind of like the football game, you can hold your four fingers up in the air and finish strong. That’s right. That’s what’s going on this week, Spring Break week at Lincoln Public Schools. You can view our calendars up at lps.org/podcast. Jason Keese Now let’s listen in on Roper elementary is 25th anniversary celebration. You’ll hear from Don Mayhew from the Lincoln Board of Education. Lee, a Roper student, Joy Citta, a retired Lincoln police officer, Tim Muggy, a former principal at Roper, and Cindy Williams, who has taught at Roper for 16 years and before that was president of the school’s first PTO. Don Mayhew Good afternoon. Thank you all for joining us on this beautiful day as we celebrate 25 years of excellence at Roper Elementary. Hulda Roper was such an incredible force for the children in our community, from her work as a police woman, which I think we’ll be hearing about in a couple of minutes. Her role in starting Cedars Home for Children. Her efforts, she started the juvenile court system. All of these things speak to her dedication to our community’s children, especially our kids who have had some big challenges in their life. I had the honor of representing the Roper community on the school board, and like the school’s namesake, Roper Elementary is dedicated to the growth and well-being of all of our children. That was true when the school first opened its doors in 1995 and it’s true today. Lincoln can be be very proud of the work that is happening in Roper’s classrooms. So on behalf of the Lincoln Board of Education, I’d like to thank the students, staff, parents and the community members who all play a role in making Roper Elementary a model of excellence. A school committed to meeting every child’s unique academic, behavioral, social, and emotional needs. Go rockets! Thank you very much. Lane Good afternoon. My name is Lane and I hope you’re enjoying this time. You’re watching Roper. At this time I would have introduced Joy Citta, who was retired captain for the Lincoln Police Department. Captain Citta is an expert on history of the Lincoln Police Department and has gathered a lot of information on Hulda Roper for whom it is named. Joy Citta Good afternoon. My name is Joy Citta. I am a retired Lincoln Police captain. I was with the police department here in Lincoln for 40 years. And I was most recently also the historian, so I have some information on Hulda Roper form whom your school is named. In 1944, Hulda was a Lancaster County Welfare caseworker. She attended a speech given by then chief of police, who would have been Joe Carroll. And he talked about the need for more police women on the department. Hulda was hired that year in 1944 to serve as a police officer and later Hulda was promoted to detective. Your school Roper Elementary is named for Hulda Roper. So you might ask why is that? Why would an elementary school be named for a police officer? Well, it’s because of Hulda’s love for children and her unwavering help that she gave to children here in Lincoln over her entire career and life. Hulda Roper was the 14th police woman on the Lincoln Police Department. She also refused to carry a gun, even though repeatedly, chief Carroll tried to give her one. She would have none of it and continued to refuse to carry a gun, instead wanting to rely on her wits and her conversational ability to handle situations. Hulda Roper was a driving force for the betterment of children in Lincoln, and is certainly a fitting name for your school. Congratulations on 25 years of Roper Elementary, and congratulations on being named after an outstanding dedicated woman for children here in Lincoln area. Tim Muggy In my mind school are much more than the brick and mortar that we have built. Schools are the kids who come every day and who worked very hard. They are the parents who support their kids and their children’s teachers every every day and working in partnership with the school. And of course, they are the staff members who work very hard. Teachers who work very hard, not only teaching reading, writing math, but other skills. Cindy Williams There are so many stories that span 25 years, and anyone who knows me can attest the fact that I love to share them. Roper started out as a medium-sized building with 15 classrooms, small smaller gathering rooms, and not near enough bathrooms to a school today that has more than doubled in size thanks to additions. But Roper is way more than walls. It’s a community — both educators and parents — that stood up and is still standing up to support the children that live in the greatest small town within Lincoln city limits. If you are here as a former staff, or retired member of Roper staff, I say thank you. Thank you for being there for the past 25 years supporting my children and the ones that followed as they learned and grew into the people they are now. If you are here as a student, or a parent of a student who graced the halls and expanded ropers great traditions, I say thank you. Thank you for being a part of Roper’s story. You made it better for being here. If you’re a student, or a parent of a student, now I say thank you. Thank you for continuing the stories. I challenge you to walk proudly as a Roper Rocket from the beginning has grown a wealth of great stories. And I can’t wait to hear the new ones created in the next 25 years. Jason Keese Well, I was at the Roper event and that was a lot of fun. One of the things I really love about these school anniversary events is they bring together neighborhoods. You could just feel it when you were there. There was so much pride at Roper about it being their neighborhood school and a lot of people that are talking about the store, remember so well, 25 years ago what a big deal it was that they didn’t have to walk so far drive so far to a school and that they could just walk, stay in their neighborhood. Brian Fitzgerald I think a lot of times, it’s finally getting a school in an area of town is like a validation like, hey, yeah, we’re here and we’re part of town, right, got our own school. And it’s something that everybody kind of centers around. So… Jason Keese Yeah, definitely. Brian Fitzgerald If there’s anything that you’ve heard today that you’d like to learn more about, there’s links to everything along with full links to our calendars at lps.org/podcast. If you’d like to subscribe and get notified every week when we put up a new episode, you can find us on your favorite service. We’re on iTunes, Spotify and Google podcasts. And you can find links to all those also at lps.org/podcast. And that is all the time we have for today. Thank you for joining us here at stories from Lincoln Public Schools

Episode 56 — March 2, 2020 Thursday is Nebraska Teacher Appreciation Day, so on this episode we’ll listen to the latest Superintendent Spotlight. Steve Joel talks about the powerful impact that teachers can have on students, families and communities. ‘Really cool science’ at Park Middle School Southeast hosts 9/11 survivor, honors theater’s namesake High School Design Preview Coming Up This Week Monday  3/2 Boys Basketball districts wrapping up Monday and Tuesday 7pm – LNS N Live (also Tuesday) 7pm – LSE/Irving Showcase Concert Tuesday 3/3 7:30pm: LNE Theatre present The Bat by Mary Robert Rinehart at the LNE Drama Center Continues through Friday Wednesday 3/4 7pm: Singing Knights, Knight Sounds — LSE Thursday 3/5 Girls State Basketball starts, continues through Saturday Games happening at Southwest, East, Devaney and Pinnacle Friday 3/6 Last day of 3rd Quarter and Beginning of Spring Break Sunday 3/8 Daylight Savings Time starts! Episode Transcript Brian Fitzgerald This is stories from Lincoln Public Schools Episode 56 for the week of March 2 2020. Hello from Lincoln Public Schools. I’m Brian Fitzgerald. Jason Keese And I’m Jason Keese. Welcome to stories from Lincoln Public Schools. Our podcast that gives you an inside look at the people, activities and programs that make LPS the amazing place that it is. Thursday is Nebraska Teacher Appreciation Day, so in this episode, we’ll listen to the latest Superintendent Spotlight. Steve Joel talks about the powerful impact that teachers can have on students, families and communities. But first, let’s see what’s making news on LPS.org. Speaking of great teachers, we just posted a story and video about a Park Middle School teacher who’s piloting some cutting edge science curriculum, as he says “It’s really cool.” LPS released the initial designs for the two new high schools. We have a special web page where you can check out the site-plan documents and watch a rendered fly-through video of what’s inside of the new schools will look like. And we also have a story about a great event hosted recently by Southeast High School. A 9-11 survivor spoke to students about his experience in New York City that day. His talk held special significance for Southeast. The school’s theatre is named after Jennifer L. Dorsey-Howley, a 1985 graduate who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Family and friends of hers also spoke at the event. And as always, you can find all of this and much more on any of our social media platforms. Brian Fitzgerald Here’s some things going on this week at Lincoln Public Schools… Boys Basketball districts are wrapping up Monday and Tuesday. Also Monday, March 2 at 7pm, we have LNS N live up at North Star and also 7pm Southeast and Irving are having a showcase concert. Tuesday the 3rd at 7:30pm Northeast Theater presents The Bat by Mary Robert Reinhardt at the Northeast Drama Center and that continues every night through Friday. Wednesday, the 4th at 7pm we have Singing Knights, Knight Sounds over at Southeast. And on the 5th, girls state basketball starts and that of course continues through Saturday. At the time of recording. Northeast, East High, Lincoln High and Southwest are still in contention for that but we’ll see who’s going to be making it to the finals there. And games will be happening at Southwest, East, Devaney and at Pinnacle. And then on the 6th is the last today of the third quarter and of course the beginning of spring break comes with that. And Sunday, March 8th, remember daylight savings time starts and so we spring ahead. This is the one where you lose an hour so… Jason Keese Boo Brian Fitzgerald Boo? But you get the evening sunlight which I cannot wait for so that’s some of what’s going on this week and Lincoln Public Schools you can view links to more academic, activity and athletic calendars at lps.org/podcast. Jason Keese Now it’s time to listen to the latest episode of Superintendent spotlight, which shines a light on the power of public education and the impact of a good teacher. Mindy Burbach Hello, I’m Mindy Burbach, communications director for Lincoln Public Schools. Welcome to Superintendent spotlight an opportunity to sit down with Dr. Joel twice a month and hear about the latest going on in our district. Welcome, Dr. Joel. Dr. Steve Joel Thank you, Mindy. Mindy Burbach And we have a lot to celebrate this week. This week is National Public Education Week. Public Schools week. Next week we get to honor Nebraska teachers on Tuesday. Its Nebraska teacher recognition day and the next Thursday, we are honoring five of our teachers with one of my favorite events: Our Thank you teacher event where we invite teachers in and we get to recognize them at the governor’s mansion. We have selected five award winners. And so let’s start with National Public Education Week. Why is public education so important, not only for our community but for our state and for our nation. Dr. Steve Joel Well, you know, as a history major, I always go back to a quote that Thomas Jefferson said years and years and years ago, you know, when we’re trying to form this country, and that is that the backbone of democracy is going to be education. And so you know, when you build it off of that premise, the most important thing that a society can convene or conveyed to their children is an education so that they become better citizens, they can become an educated electorate, they can realize their dreams in terms of what they want to do with their life. Without education, you know, you don’t have any of that. So, you know, fortunately in this country, we have continued to be the backbone doesn’t mean that we’re not being challenged by you know, certain issues and you know, very, very often when there’s a something that has to be addressed as a society, education is often given the instructions on you know what people think we should do to that, but at the end of the day, it’s reading and writing and arithmetic. Now we’re throwing 21st century skills, you know, collaborative collaboration, communication, critical Thinking, decision making, you know, all of those things are important too. So, you know, we do a great job and LPS, you know, our kids get our high quality education. I often say when I speak at graduation, this diploma carries some weight. I mean, you, you have you have a high degree, we have a high degree of graduation requirements. And we often hear from our students that have gone off and done some really good things that they’re prepared for college. Mindy Burbach And you’ve heard that I mean, you’ve talked about that before, where you go out every time you go out into the community and you run across a student, you ask them about their school experience, or where they went to school, and you’ve heard how it’s prepared them for the next step. Dr. Steve Joel And you know, about the only negative that I get sometimes we my wife and I were out to eat, or about two weeks ago, and waitress came over and I just said, So did you go to an LPS school which I was there and you know, Linda rolls her eyes kind of like, Oh, here we go again. And she said, Yeah, I did. And she told me the high school and I said, Well, how do you feel that it’s prepared you knowing that she’s waiting tables, and she said, You know, I wish I would have taken better advantage of the opportunities that I had, and so many of her friends have gone off and done some things and she was she was in her mid 20s. So she’s trying to go the non-traditional route. So I really think it’s one of those things. We’re trying to work hard with our children to say take advantage of what you got it because this is a golden opportunity to get a tremendous education from some of the best instructors in the entire country. Mindy Burbach And part of the strategic goal and the goal the board has set forth is that 90% on-time graduation rate, and we’re striving to it. What efforts are we doing to get there? Dr. Steve Joel Well, it comes down to one to one relationships, right? So you know, we have an awful lot of children that are dealing with challenging baggage and you know, latest poverty rates 45 or 46%. And we have high mobility and so, you know, we have kids that are adjudicated in the court system. So you know, we now pinpointed you know who those students and aren’t making it — what can we do to help them make it but you know, at the end of the day, school is hard, right? So you know, you can’t come to school and be a chronic, be be enrolled and be a chronic truant. We have an awful lot of kids that miss 20 or more days. And it’s very, very difficult for teachers to be able to get them caught up. So you know, what we’re trying to do is what are agencies that we can partner with in the community that can help us get these children and we know we get them here, we can create relationships for them, but I’ll tell you down the road, what we’re really starting to look at our focus programs, that we’re going to be able to introduce kids to their, to their interests, and perhaps help them explore different ways for them to express their creativity. And I think that’s going to be exciting. I’m looking forward to April, when we put these focus new focus program packages together, and we’re able to talk about these great community partnerships. Hopefully, some of our students that are less inclined to achieve academically may be inclined to achieve, you know, working with their hands or working in technology or, you know, aviation at North Star, which isn’t any secret. So, you know, we get a lot of good things on a plate, but you know, at the end of the day, students have to come, parents have to be accountable for getting them here. And then, you know, we got six and a half hours to work with them, you know, so it’s, it’s this onus on us, Mindy Burbach And so it takes our staff and we have a lot of dedicated staff that work with our students and build those relationships. Our teachers play a really important role in providing those opportunities for our students. Why do you think it’s so important that we honor teachers in their work as we’re planning to do next week Dr. Steve Joel The most important function that we have some classrooms, right? So all of all of the rest of us are our job is to support instruction. If we didn’t have great teachers in front of our kids, that we wouldn’t have the results we have. So we’re very, very thankful that, you know, LPS is a destination location, meaning that a lot of these young people are graduating from colleges in the area, want to come to Lincoln Public Schools, and as we look at our, you know, 30-year litany of employees, many of them stay. And so I was looking at a statistic the other day where 40% of the teachers in America — in America — that start a first year don’t see a fifth year, and so I went down and Dr. Webber’s office I you know, where do we compare here, I always think we’re better while we are 11%. So you know, people come here, they just stay. We hear constantly from teachers that we support instruction, better from whence they came if they came from another district. But you know, as you know, there’s there’s always financial challenges with that to a class sizes are really good. But at the end of the day, you have to have a skilled practitioner in front of that classroom who loves kids, who meets kids where they are, that are culturally proficient than our content masters, and have multiple strategies to deliver instruction, and when I go visit schools on a regular basis, that’s what I see. Mindy Burbach Wonderful. So do you remember a particular teacher that made an impact on you? Dr. Steve Joel Yeah, it was Mr. Adler, my sixth grade kind of math science teacher and he was… and in I grew up kind of want to be a police officer and major league sports player and he was the one that told me Ds in math are not going to even get me the major leagues. And so I always… he was a motivator. You know, he was one of those guys that taught you a hard yelled at you in class, but at 3:30 went in the gym and would beat you up on the basketball court. And it was all about kind of teaching us how to become young men. And, you know, so he’s somebody I always look back on and say, you know, thank you for that. And then I lost track of him. Funny side of that story is he didn’t like… I didn’t know until I got my master’s degree and became a principal that he hated administrators while he was a teacher. He just felt like they got in the way at too many rules. And when I got my master’s degree, I just sent him a copy of it. And I said, I just want to say “thank you” and he sent it back to me with his picture sitting in his classroom. And he said, the next time you you pick on a poor teacher, that’s just working their tail off, I want you to look at the smiley face and remember me because quite frankly, we need more teachers and less administrators. I never forgot that either. It didn’t stop me from, you know, pursuing my journey. But he was just one of those guys that kids meant everything to him, and you know, and broke the rules. And he didn’t he didn’t worry about the ramifications of breaking the rules. Mindy Burbach Sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing that story. Well, now so the favorite part of our program where we get a question from one of our students, this one comes from Eva, a sophomore at East High School. Student My name is Eva. I’m a sophomore at East. And if you could teach any subject for any grade, what would it be? Dr. Steve Joel Well, either that’s a great question. I’m a I’m a history, political science kind of major-minor. And I can tell you that teaching Junior Achievement right now, I’m not doing a very good job of following the scripted materials because there’s so much happening in our world today, that when you teach history teach PoliSci or you teach economics, you have the ability to take what’s happening as we speak, meld it into a lesson. And at the end of the day, hopefully your students, like yourself Eva, are becoming critical consumers of information so that you can make your own educated decisions as you begin to process what’s happening. And I think that’s really our role in school and we have to try to do it in an unbiased way. Which sometimes it’s very, very difficult because you know, we we are informed, but I would, I would walk into any political science class history class, economics class, tomorrow and and just have a ball. Mindy Burbach Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thanks, Eva, for your question. That’s all the time we have for today. Thank you for joining us. Jason Keese Well, I really liked Eva’s question Brian, so I’ll throw it to you. If you could teach any subject, any grade level, what would it be? Brian Fitzgerald You know, I think I would probably go towards some sort of, you know, computer programming, computer applications Jason Keese Very on-brand. Brian Fitzgerald Right, right. You know, I’ve, in the past been able… to have the opportunity to do some things with our , what used to be called the ITFP program, the focus program, and it was so fun to work with those students to do some digital design. So I think that’d be a fun thing to do all the time. How about you? Jason Keese Oh, I probably have an obvious choice like you did probably a journalism advisor, something like that. Plus, I feel like you know, when they’re in a when they choose to take journalism, they’re probably they probably already have a maybe not necessarily a passion but an interest in that. So I, I would question my ability to inspire students unless they were already interested in what I was teaching. So all this all this is probably just a way of saying that it’s, it probably worked out well that I’m not a teacher. Brian Fitzgerald Well thank you to all of our teachers. If there’s anything that you’ve heard today that you’d like to learn more about, there’s links to everything along with links to our full calendars on our podcast page at LPS.org/podcast. Also, if you’d like to subscribe and get notified each week when we push up a new episode, you can find us on your favorite podcast service. Links to all those are also at LPS.org/podcast. And that is all the time we have for today. Thank you for joining us here at stories from Lincoln Public Schools.

In this episode we listen to the latest episode of Superintendent Spotlight, where Steve Joel and Director of Operations Scott Wieskamp discuss next steps now that the bond issue has passed. 2020 Bond Issue Learning Lunch — We the People Jaime Bodecker, Nuernberger Education Center interview Coming Up This Week Monday  2/24 7pm – LSE Jazz Bands Concert 7pm – LSW Band and Orchestra Concert Tuesday 2/25 PLC Day – Early Dismissal Wednesday 2/26 6:30pm – LSW All Choir Concert Thursday 2/27 State Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday and Friday: Devaney Center 6pm: The Jungle Book Kids at Everett Elementary 7pm: LHS Theatre: The Music Man 7pm: LNS Theatre: Matilda 7pm: LSE Orchestra and Lefler Orchestra Concert at LSE Friday 2/28 All Day: UNL Honors Strings All Day: UNO Jazz Festival 7pm: LHS Theatre: The Music Man 7pm: LNS Theatre: Matilda

Jason Keese interviews Jaime Boedeker, the principal at Nuernberger Education Center. Jaime talks about his journey to LPS, what they do at Nuernberger, misconceptions about their students and how he deals with the stress of such a demanding job. 2020 Bond Issue U.S. education official lauds LPS special education, early childhood programs Moore sixth-grader wins LPS spelling bee Coming Up This Week Monday  2/17 President’s Day – Schools in elementary schools are not in attendance 7pm: East high bands concert at EHS 7:30pm: LSE Percussion ensembles and wind ensemble concert Tuesday 2/18 12pm: LPSDO Learning Lunch: We the People — The Citizen and the Constitution. Jaci Kellison, K-12 curriculum specialist for social studies will be discussing the opportunities that LPS Government students have to showcase their civic and constitutional knowledge through the “We the People” program and competition. 5:45pm: Girls Basketball LSW at LHS 7:30pm: Boys Basketball LSW at LHS Wednesday 2/19 7pm: LSW Jazz Band Concert Thursday 2/20 State wrestling at CHI Health Center in Omaha (Through Saturday) Friday 2/21 Speech tournament at EHS Saturday 2/22 LPS Vocal/Instrumental Solo and Ensemble Contest at LSE

In this episode we listen to a couple performances from this year’s African-American Read-In event held at LPS District Office. You’ll hear a North Star High School student perform the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and a group of students from Belmont Elementary School read parts of the poem “The Undefeated,” by Kwame Alexander. African-American Read-In Service learning fairs Community Partnership Award Ghost Boys Coming Up This Week Saturday  2/8 Southwest Showdown Show Choir Contest at LSW 9am: Wrestling: LHS Invitational w/ LSE, LSW and Papillion-LV South  Tuesday 2/11 7pm: Lincoln East Orchestra Cadenza Concert Thursday 2/13 District musicians will be participating in the Wesleyan Honors Festival through the 15th Swimming and Diving: Heartland Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships 7pm: Nite of Knights Variety Show. Over 60 years of Singing, dancing, light shows, comedy, short plays, rock bands, and skits 7:30pm: Girls Basketball: LSE at LHS Friday 2/14 Valentines Day Swimming and Diving: Heartland Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships 5:45pm: Girls Basketball: LSW at EHS 7pm: EHS Theatre: Cabaret: A Tribute to Theater 7pm: Nite of Knights 7:30pm: Boys Basketball: LSW at EHS

Today, we’ll listen to the latest episode of Superintendent Spotlight, our biweekly online interview show with Superintendent Steve Joel. He talks about the power of public education as we celebrated I Love Public Schools Day this week, and he answers a series of questions from students. LPS, LES partnership powers valuable physics lesson Three world language teachers named best in the state Coming Up This Week Saturday  2/1 5PM: Reception for FiberFest Exhibition by Arts and Humanities at Lux Center for the Arts Show runs through February Spartan Spectacular Show Choir Event at East Speech contest at LNE Debate at LHS Tuesday 2/4 5pm: Wrestling: EHS and LSW at LNS 5:30pm: Swimming/Diving: LHS at LNS 5:30pm: Swimming/Diving: LNE at EHS Wednesday 2/5 12-1pm: African-American Read-in at LPS District Office Thursday 2/6 5:30pm: Swimming/Diving: LSW at LSE Friday 2/7 5:45pm: Girls Basketball: LNE at LNS 7:30pm: Boys Basketball: LNE at LNS Transcript Brian Fitzgerald This is stories from Lincoln Public Schools Episode 52 for the week of February 3 2020. Hello from Lincoln Public Schools. I’m Brian Fitzgerald. Jason Keese And I’m Jason Keese. Welcome to stories from Lincoln Public Schools. Our podcast that gives you an inside look at the people, activities and programs that make LPS the amazing place that it is. Today, we’ll listen to the latest episode of Superintendent spotlight. Our biweekly online interview show with Superintendent Steve Joel. He talks about the power of public education as we celebrated I Love Public Schools day this week and he answers a series of questions from students. But first, let’s see what’s been making news on LPS.org. Something we just posted yesterday. There are nearly 900 wind turbines operating in Nebraska providing more than 14% of the state’s energy. Now thanks to a partnership with Lincoln Electric System, a group of physics students at North Star High School recently learned firsthand what it takes for a turbine to produce all of that energy. LES provided physics teacher Karen Koval and her students all of the supplies necessary to construct and test energy produced by miniature turbines. Students use supplies such as paper plates, compact discs, construction paper and masking tape to create blades they attach to a turbine roughly 12 inches tall. It’s one example of the many partnerships LPS has with businesses and community organizations. Three LPS world language teachers were honored as the best in the state. The Nebraska international languages Association honored Jamie Holbein Swanson from northstars, the 2019 Spanish teacher of the year. Sasha Van Zandt from Southwest High School was named the 2019 French teacher of the year, and Kelleen Browning, a German teacher at Southeast High School won the 2019 New Language Teacher of the Year award which recognizes someone who shows great promise during their first five years of teaching. Remember, you can find all this and much more on any one of our social media platforms. Our colleague, BriAna Campbell does a great job and she’s constantly adding new content to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Brian Fitzgerald A lot of things going on the calendar this week. Starting Saturday, February 1… Can you believe we’re in February already? 5pm there is a reception at the Lux Center for the Arts. And there is a show being done by arts and humanities called FiberFest. It’s an exhibition there. That’s going to be running the entire month of February. So if you can’t be there Saturday, don’t worry. You can catch it all through the month. But there’s a reception there – 5pm Saturday afternoon. There is a show choir event called the Spartan Spectacular going on at East. There is a speech contest at Northeast and debate at Lincoln High School. That is all going on Saturday the first. Then we’re going to jump to Tuesday, the fourth — we have wrestling — East High and Southwest at North Star — so a three school wrestling meet there — 5pm on Tuesday. Then two swimming and diving meets at 5:30pm. We have Lincoln High at North Star and Northeast at East High. Wednesday, the fifth right here at the LPS District Office on O Street. At noon, we have the African-American read-in and it’s a great event that happens every black history month every February, where we have folks from all around the community come in and share some of their great some other favorite African-American pieces of literature. So please come and join us for that. Thursday, the sixth 5:30 in the afternoon swimming and diving that’s Southwest at Southeast. Then at the end of the week, Friday, February 7, we have a pair of basketball games. Both are Northeast at North Star. The girls are playing at 5:45 and the boys are playing at 7:30. So that’s some of what’s going on next week at Lincoln Public Schools, you can view more of our academic, athletic and activity calendars at lps.org/podcast. Jason Keese Now it’s time for the latest episode of Superintendent spotlight, which includes Steve Joel answering a series of student questions. Let’s take a listen. Mindy Burbach Good morning. Welcome to Superintendent spotlight. I’m Mindy Burbach, communications director, and this is an opportunity every two weeks where we get to sit down with Dr. Joel to talk about hot topics around the district. Welcome. Dr. Joel. Dr. Steve Joel Thanks Mindy! Great to be here. Mindy Burbach Thank you. So today we have a special show. We’re going to do mostly student questions. But first, I have to ask you, you’re wearing a Lincoln High shirt and we’re celebrating I Love Public Schools Day. Tell us about the shirt. How did you get it? Dr. Steve Joel Well it worked out very, very well. I visited Lincoln High today. I met with faculty at 7:15 till about eight. And then they presented me with the shirt, which I appreciate principal Larson doing that and it fits very well. I do have a lapel – I Love Public Schools. I was wearing that on my coat. And then I had an opportunity to meet with about seven or eight of the students that wanted to talk to the superintendent, which I always do when I visit secondary schools including middle. We just had this great conversation about education and what LPS meant and what Lincoln High meant, and it never fails to motivate me even more to the best job I can, when I want to have a chance to interact with young people that are consuming what it is that we offer. They have had success. They love their teachers, you know, Lincoln High is a special place because of the, you know, the cultural openness that they have and the diversity that is represented by the student body. And I asked them questions like, how did you make the decision to come to Lincoln High? I mean, it was just Dr. Bob Rauner was with me, and we were both just mesmerized with how intelligent these young people are and really how important LPS has been to them and how complimentary they are to our schools. Mindy Burbach I love going out and especially when you I’ve been with you when you’ve talked to students and listening to those tough questions that they have for you as well. It’s not just the questions you have for them, but they ask you some tough questions as well. Dr. Steve Joel They really do and we got a couple today. I mean, you know, it’s honestly about recruiting diversity in our adult ranks that came up and I shared with them, you know what our efforts are. That’s part of our strategic plan and, you know, the challenges that come with that. And then I said to every one of them in the room that you all need to be teachers. I mean, this will help us a lot in our diversity numbers. But a couple said, “Well, I’m thinking about it.” So I, you know, these are just great interactions. And you know, I know that most people really believe public education is excellent in Lincoln, and you know, but I, but I can tell you this, that gets reinforced many, many times when you start talking to the students that are going to be graduating, and each one of these kids are going to go off and do some incredible things. Mindy Burbach And why is I mean, you mentioned public education. Why is public education so important to not only our community, but our state and our country? Dr. Steve Joel Well, you know, as we say, many, many times here all means all. So every young person that makes it their way in our schools, they get the very, very best of what we have. And when a student has a high school diploma, particularly from Lincoln Public Schools, it carries a lot of weight, and it opens up a lot of doors, you know, and it used to be that you didn’t need a high school education in order to get an entry level position someplace. But that’s not the case anymore because of how society has evolved. So even more importantly, students have to, I mean, they just don’t have much chance of being successful without it. And, you know, it’s a community responsibility. I mean, you know, it goes back to Thomas Jefferson days when he said, education is the backbone of American democracy. Right? So you know, we still are and and so every community and every state has as a primary responsibility of making sure that education is well funded, and that the doors are open for every single student. And it’s changed so much over the years, right. I mean, we can look at specialized departments, we can look at, you know, new accountabilities and requirements. And, you know, at the end of the day, it’s about each student being successful. Mindy Burbach That’s great. And now, as promised, it’s our favorite part of the show where we have student questions. We have five student questions for you today. Some of them might be a little tough. All right. The first one is from Emerson fourth grade student from Arnold Elementary. Emerson from Arnold Hi, I’m Emerson. I’m in fourth grade and I go to Arnold Elementary School and I wanted to know if you’ve ever gone ice skating before. Dr. Steve Joel Oh, great question Emerson. So I grew up in New York where, where my dad was this big New York Ranger fan. And, you know, every winter when the ice was thick enough, we found a pond and we went out and played and I thought I was pretty good hockey player actually, was going to try for the high school hockey team decided not to. And then I tried and I when I left, graduated high school, never never ice skated again. And then about three, four years ago, I put skates on with my granddaughter’s down in the Haymarket, and I couldn’t walk for about a week. So you know, my ice skating career is over. I love ice skating, being outdoors. Lot of fun, thanks for the question. Mindy Burbach A lot of great things to do even in the wintertime in Nebraska. Thank you, Emerson. All right. Our next question is from Reise. He’s a fifth grade student student at Belmont. Reise from Belmont My name is Reise and I’m a fifth grade scholar at Belmont. My question is what challenges did you face growing up? Dr. Steve Joel So challenges that I faced growing up were, I was a pretty shy kid. Primarily because my, my dad had such a dominant personality. And as I look back, and and so trying to come out of that shell was probably the most difficult thing for me. Fortunately, sports was kind of my gateway. And, you know, and that opened up a lot of doors. other challenges where, you know, I recognize pretty quickly, I was really good in certain subjects, and I wasn’t so good and other subjects. And so I had to figure out how to become better in subjects that I wasn’t very good in, because I wanted to be the very first child in my extended family, not just my immediate family to go to college. And so, academics was a little bit tough for me, particularly math and science. But I excelled in language arts and history, and I became a history teacher. Mindy Burbach So you found a way to overcome those overcome those challenges. Dr. Steve Joel I found a way to covercome them. Mindy Burbach Thanks, Reise. Alright, our next one is from Carlos, an eighth grader at Park Middle School. Carlos from Park Hi, my name is Carlos. I’m in eighth grade and I go to Park Middle School and what I want to ask you is How did football help out your career in the future? Dr. Steve Joel So that’s a great question. Thank you. I don’t get asked that very much. I discovered football in midget leagues back in New York. I mean, that was the one thing my father let me participate in. And I absolutely love the sport, not only from the standpoint of you can go out there and, and tackle people, but from the standpoint of what a team sport, when you think about 11 people that either have to move the ball forward or move the ball or stop the ball from moving forward. It created this synergy that I couldn’t replace anywhere in my life. So, you know, I decided early on I think I was a better baseball player in high school and it was a football player. And I had more scholarship offers in baseball, but I thought when the football opportunity came, I wanted to continue with that sport, and so my best friends today are my high school football mates and my college football mates. And while we’re a whole bunch older now and of course the stories are more vivid. The end of the day is the experience of what we had working together as a team to solve issues and solve problems is something that I’ve been able to take with me throughout every step of my career. Mindy Burbach And football is the reason why we have you here in Nebraska now. Dr. Steve Joel Yep, yep. Football scholarship. Doane College, 1972 from New York, radical move. That’s a whole other interview someday but best thing that ever happened to me. Mindy Burbach Great. Thank you, Carlos. Alright, our next question is from Taniiya, a Belmont fifth grade student. Taniiya from Belmont Hi. My name is Taniiya and I’m a fifth grader and I’m from Belmont Elementary School. My question is to you since your job is so time consuming, when do you get free time and what do you do with it? Dr. Steve Joel I love that question. Thank you. You’re Right. This time of year, there’s not a lot of free time we’re actively engaged in, in messaging a school bond issue. But what I like to do in free time, I’ll just give you my Saturday, Saturday mornings on my best day. I wake up typically early. I read the paper, I’m not rushed to get to work or a couple of cups of coffee, I go to the gym for about an hour and a half. Come back, you know, my wife and I always create this little list of things we want to accomplish on weekends, try to get through those as quickly as possible. I like to watch sports on TV. I’ve got about three books that I’m halfway through that one of these days I’m going to finish. So I spent a lot of time my grandkids when I can, in fact, this weekend, you know, I’m going to get some grandkid time. So I am able to say that while it’s not entirely balanced, I do make sure that I step away from the job enough that I enjoy what my family life offers, but also the things that I like to do personally Mindy Burbach Important to find that balance. Thanks Taniiya. All right, our last question is Omar, a fifth grade scholar from Belmont Elementary? Omar from Belmont Hi. My name is Omar and I’m a fifth grade scholar at Belmont. My question is, what’s the hardest part of your job and why? Dr. Steve Joel Omar, that is a really, really good question. You know, I love the work that I do. So I would say that on any given day, there’s one or two challenges that I have to try to meet and overcome, that. I might have said, boy, I really wasn’t ready for that one today. You know, it could be could be the calling of a snow day it could be, you know, could be an angry patron. That’s, that’s having a bad experience with Lincoln public schools. Those are hard. But I am so fortunate with what I’m doing. But I can honestly say this, I have never gotten up in the morning not wanting to come to work. In fact, sometimes over long weekends, you’re not going to want to hear this as a student. I really wish we had school because I get a little bit bored at home. So I love the work that I do. But the tough things that I have to do is when I have to say No to people, or I can’t give somebody you know the solution or the answer that they’re hoping for and you know, that happens pretty frequently. Mindy Burbach Well, thank you for your time today and answering these student questions. We appreciate it. And thank you for joining us. We’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. Jason Keese Be sure to check out the next episode of Superintendent Spotlight on Wednesday, February 12. Brian Fitzgerald And if you’re following us on Facebook, that might pop right up on your phone saying hey, we’re live so stop whatever you’re doing, tell your boss you’re busy and catch Superintendent Live. If there’s anything you’ve heard today, you’d like to learn more about, there’s links to everything along with links to our full calendars on our podcast page at lps.org/podcast, of course, a lot of those stories that Jason talked about earlier right up at LPS.org. If you want to subscribe and get notified each week when we put up a new episode, you can find us on whatever your favorite podcast service is. If we’re missing, let us know and we’ll get it up there too. Otherwise, you can find links to that lps.org/podcast. That’s all the time we have for today. Thank you for joining us right here at stories from Lincoln Public Schools.

Today, you’re in for a real treat. Our fellow communications team member Caitlin Lukin rang in the new year by visiting lunchrooms in schools across the city. She asked students from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade about their hopes and goals for the new year and the new decade. Topics included martial arts, unicorns and ninjas who fight garbage! Eighth-graders experience Jr. ROTC focus program Scott Middle School honors community leader Nate Woods Students ‘Walk Together’ to honor MLK’s legacy Coming Up This Week Saturday  1/25 All Day: Speech contest at LSW All Day: Debate at LNS 9am: Wrestling (multiple schools) at LNE 3:15pm: Girls Basketball: LHS at EHS 3:30pm: Girls Basketball: LNE at LSE 5pm: Boys Basketball: LHS at EHS 5:15pm: Boys Basketball: LNE at LSE Sunday 1/26 3PM: Winter Winds Festival at UNL’s Kimball Recital Hall arts.unl.edu/music Monday 1/27 PLC Day: Early Dismissal Thursday 1/30 5:30pm: Swimming & Diving: LHS at LSE Friday 1/31 5:45pm: Girls Basketball: EHS at LSE 5:45pm: Girls Basketball: LSW at LNS 7:30pm: Boys Basketball: EHS at LSE 7:30pm: Girls Basketball: LSW at LNS

Today, we’ll listen to the latest episode of Spotlight Superintendent, in which Steve Joel shares some important information about the upcoming bond election on February 11th. Scott Middle School honors community leader Nate Woods at annual MLK event Irving students step up for service learning project 2020 Freedom Breakfast honors Martin Luther King Jr. Coming Up This Week Saturday  1/18 8am: Spartan Debate Invitational at East High 10am: Lincoln High Swimming and Diving Invitational Monday 1/20 Martin Luther King Jr. Day — Schools not in session Martin Luther King March and Rally Rally 9am at UNL Union Ballroom March from UNL to Capitol around 11:30 https://mlkweek.unl.edu/ Tuesday 1/21 5:30pm: Swimming and Diving: EHS at LHS 5:30pm: Swimming and Diving: LSE at LNE Wednesday 1/22 7:30pm: Wrestling: LSE at LSW Thursday 1/23 5pm: Wrestling: LNE and EHS at LHS 5:30pm: Swimming and Diving: LNE at LNS 6pm: Bond Informational Session at LNE 7:30pm: Boys Basketball: LNE at LSW Friday 1/24 East is participating in the UNL Winter Winds Festival 5:45pm: Girls Basketball: EHS at LNS 7:30pm: Boys Basketball: EHS at LNS 7:30pm: Girls Basketball: LNE at LSW

Today, we’ll listen to an interview with Marco Pedroza, the principal at Scott Middle School. Marco talks about his non-traditional path to the principal’s office at Lincoln’s largest middle school. He’ll also answer one of the most confounding questions of our time: would he pick super strength or the power to be invisible. One hour at Dawes Northeast special education students open thriving snack business for staff The ride of a lifetime Coming Up This Week Saturday  1/11 Midwest Cup Show Choir Contest at UNL 7pm: LSW Varsity Concert Choir doing a joint concert with Nebraska Wesleyan Choirs at First Plymouth Sunday 1/12 3pm: Lincoln Youth Symphony fundraiser “LYS Goes to the Movies” at the Rococo Theatre. Learn more at lincolnyouthsymphony.org Tuesday 1/14 Learning Lunch: information session about the bond issue featuring Liz Standish, associate superintendent for business affairs. Happens in the board room at the District Office near Cotner and O. Will also be live-streamed on Facebook and our website. Thursday 1/16 7pm: Boys Wrestling: East at Southeast Friday 1/17 4:30pm: Swimming and Diving contest at Lincoln High School