T r o j a n T a l k T r i C o u n t y S c h o o l s D i s t r i c t N e w s l e t t e r

O C T OB ER 2 0 1 7

R a n d y S c h l u e t e r

The Tri County Public School’s board of education set the tax levy for the district at the September board meeting. The levy for the school district is .557664 for the 2017-2018 school year. The chart shows the trend for the levy for the past five school years. The levy consists of the general levy and the special building fund for the school district. The decrease in the levy for the years from 2013-2016 is the result of the valuation increase for the school district. With the increase in valuation, the levy decreased even though the tax request increased. The increase in tax request was less than the increase in valuation. For the current school year, the district valuation decreased and the levy and the tax request also decreased. The district tax dollars decreased by $608,233 for the 2017-2018 school because of an increase in state aid and a reduction in the cost of personnel. Each year when the budget is developed, there are three dollar figures that drive the changes in the district budget; personnel cost, state aid, and al-lowable budget authority set by the state. The administrative team works together to develop a budget that will maintain a strong and viable curriculum and sustain/improve the Tri County campus. The tax request data from the original planning docu-ment is included for historical purpose only to continue to mark the 50th year of the building.

Year Total Levy General Bond Building

1964-65 0.0273 0.0228 0.0045

2013-14 0.696599 0.64769 0.012784 0.036125

2014-15 0.666619 -4.30% 0.61771 0.012784 0.036125

2015-16 0.615336 -7.69% 0.576744 0.01143 0.027162

2016-17 0.596502 -3.06% 0.588541 0.007961

2017-18 0.557664 -6.51% 0.534611 0.023053

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

1964-65 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

To

tal Le

vy

Year

Total Levy

1964-65

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

$0

$200,000,000

$400,000,000

$600,000,000

$800,000,000

$1,000,000,000

$1,200,000,000

1964-65 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

To

tal

Year

Valuation

1964-65

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

Year Total Change % Jefferson % Saline % Gage %

1964-65 $11,408,271 $3,594,564 $4,031,282 $3,782,425

2013-14 $672,587,141 $308,833,540 $168,984,911 $194,768,690

2014-15 $793,809,394 $121,222,253 18.02% $342,607,579 10.94% $209,138,156 23.76% $242,063,659 24.28%

2015-16 $897,716,410 $103,907,016 13.09% $359,200,080 4.84% $241,999,730 15.71% $296,516,600 22.50%

2016-17 $974,388,311 $76,671,901 8.54% $381,885,535 6.32% $229,542,391 -5.15% $362,960,385 22.41%

2017-18 $936,429,624 -$37,958,687 -3.90% $371,998,704 -2.59% $228,570,481 -0.42% $335,860,439 -7.47%

$0

$1,000,000

$2,000,000

$3,000,000

$4,000,000

$5,000,000

$6,000,000

$7,000,000

1964-65 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

Year

Tax Request

1964-65

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

Year Tax Dollars $ %

1964-65 $311,446

2013-14 $4,634,029

2014-15 $5,291,684 $657,655 14.19%

2015-16 $5,523,968 $232,284 4.39%

2016-17 $5,830,367 $306,399 5.55%

2017-18 $5,222,134 -$608,233 -10.43%

Changes for Lunch at Tri County Tri County is partnering with eFunds to allow parents to pay the lunch balance for their child(ren) online. The program has been very successful with many parents taking advantage of eFunds to deposit money into the child(ren)’s lunch account and to pay other costs for the school district. Parents can also log onto PowerSchool and set a reminder notice to be sent to the parent when their child’s lunch balance reaches a certain level. Another policy change in the lunch program is the change in meal charges for students. The board of education adopted the following changes to policy #3013:

The lunch room staff will remind students at +$10.00 that their lunch balance is getting low when they purchase their daily meal.

The foodservice manager will send an email to the parent(s) when the student has a balance of -$15.00. If email is not available, a letter will be sent home to the parent(s) of the child.

The building level principal will personally contact the student and the parent(s) when the lunch balance is -$30.00. The principal will discuss and develop a plan for the parent(s) to reduce the negative lunch balance.

The superintendent will personally contact the parent(s) when the lunch balance is -$50.00. The superin-tendent will inform the parent(s) that the student will need to provide their own lunch until the negative lunch balance has been eliminated. The superintendent will also inform the parent(s) that failure or re-fusal of parents or guardians to provide meals for students may require mandatory reporting to child protection agencies as required by law.

Parents, please be sure to remain current on your child(ren)’s lunch account during the school year.

Free & Reduced Meal Applications

An application for free or reduced meals can be made at anytime during the year--especially if financial cir-cumstances change. The number of free and reduced applicants is utilized in determining financial abilities of the school district for certain grants, state and federal allocations for special programs, and for state aid calcula-tions.

Weather Notice

Old man winter is not far away. With that in mind I want to remind you that if

school will be closed, we have a late start, or we dismiss early because of the

weather the school will notify parents by our ALERTNOW Notification System

and several TV and radio stations. TV stations notified are: KOLN/KGIN-

channel 10/11 and KLKN-channel 8. Your local cable channel numbers may

be different. Radio stations notified are: KZKX-96KX, KWBE-1450AM-Beatrice

and KUTT/KGMT-99.5 Fairbury. * Also please check the district’s web

site for closing information.

PARENTS--IF AT ANY TIME DURING THE WINTER MONTHS YOU FEEL IT

IS UNSAFE FOR YOUR CHILDREN TO DRIVE OR RIDE THE BUS DUE TO

THE WEATHER, PLEASE REMEMBER ATTENDENCE IS ALWAYS YOUR

CALL. ALSO, IF YOU CHOOSE TO KEEP YOUR CHILDREN HOME PLEASE

GIVE THE OFFICE A CALL.

NONDISCRIMINATION STATEMENT: Tri County Public School does not discrim-inate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, marital status, disability, or age or in admission or access to, or treat-ment of employment or educational programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the School District’s non-discrimination policies: the superintendent of schools, who may be contacted in writing at Tri County Public Schools, 72520 Hwy 103, DeWitt, Nebraska, 68341, by e-mail at randy.schlueter@tricountyschools.org or by telephone at (402) 683-2037.

Tri County Stuff the Trailer – Food Drive

October 19th 7 pm Tri County Football Game

Help Tri County Schools and First State Stuff the Trailer with much needed nonperishable items! Bring these items to the October 19 football game in exchange for a concession stand voucher. All donated items will go to the Beatrice Community Food Pantry. A list of very much needed items currently are hamburger helpers, broth, soups, stuffing, flour, sugar, jelly, pudding, Jell-O, ketchup, pasta, spaghetti sauce, toilet paper, Kleenex, and paper towels.

From the Desk of the Secondary Principal / Athletic Dirctor….

Matt Uher

We have just finished with Parent/Teacher conferences, and the month of October has approached-UNBELIEVEABLE! Even though conferences are complete, I would encourage and high-ly recommend to stay involved with your child(ren)’s grades. Also remember it is not always about grades; find a way to stay involved as your child(ren) move through the school year. We have a lot of activities where most of our students stay busy. I truly believe being actively involved in knowing what your child is doing, is what they are yearning for under the surface. As I know from personal experi-ence, students like it when adults take a true interest in what they are doing. Thanks for being involved!

As we enter the month of October, I would like to remind both our juniors and seniors to take full advantage of their opportu-nities to visit colleges or trade schools. Juniors are allotted two days this year which is up from one in the past, and our seniors have three days to use to visit a post-secondary institution. We even have days off from school where visits can be arranged. I truly believe visits are vital to assisting students in gaining a clearer picture of what might interest them in the future. Juniors and seniors must be aware that time is of the essence in this matter, and getting a clearer picture or narrowing choices will only assist in the process as graduation approaches. Also senior and senior parents, please begin the quest for scholarships. This is something to make sure you stay ahead of and continue to research.

We as a staff, are also working diligently at preparing our juniors and seniors for the ACT. The juniors are working this first semester on John Baylor Test Prep and taking part in ACT practice tests being administered by our staff. Seniors and juniors also have the ACT Prep App offered by the Nebraska Department of Educa-tion as a resource to prepare and familiarize themselves with the ACT test format. This is a nice feature offered to our students be-cause each individual can take the ACT practice test, and then the ACT Prep application will find areas of weakness and focus study questions around those areas. Great piece of technology for our stu-dents to enhance their ACT experience.

During the past couple of weeks our student/athletes have been in the process of selling Yankee Candles. This in the past has been a nice fundraiser to assist with the purchase of the HUDL pro-gram. I’m not sure if you are aware of the HUDL program, but it is a video system which assists coaches with scouting and assisting with practices. Coaches upload each game into the HUDL system, and then coaches and athletes are able to view and critique game perfor-mances which can then translate into growth for an individual athlete and the team as well. Coaches and athletes also use the HUDL pro-gram to assist with building personal films/clips that can be sent to colleges for potential scholarship opportunities. Thanks for your contributions!

The month of October also brings an end to several of our fall sports seasons: Cross Country, Golf, and the regular season of Football. I want to say thanks to all involved in making our fall sea-sons a success: parents, athletes, coaches, and fans. Our athletes are always well-fed and well-followed! Trojan Pride is and will always be RELENTLESS! I also want to congratulate our girls volleyball team on their Class B MUDECAS runner-up finish. I would also like to congratulate our individual medalists in both golf and cross coun-try. Our athletes have had a great fall campaign!!

Mrs Smith and Mrs. Steinhoff did a fabulous job directing and getting over 60 students involved in this year’s play titled Pom-padours & Poodle Skirts. Our students do a wonderful with the stage

and their acting. It is always enjoyable watching our students partici-pate in this activity.

As you know, harvest time has arrived in our area. I would caution everyone to please drive with even more care this time of year due to all of the farm equipment on the roads.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful month of October, and I want to encourage everyone to stay involved in school, and I’m looking forward to a great month! Happy Autumn!!

AD Notes for October…

Reminder that if you are over the age of 62 and reside in District

#300 you are eligible for a Golden Age Pass that allows you to

attend all activities at Tri County for free. Please just stop by the

office to collect your pass or call the office @ (402) 683-2015.

If you are someone who is either handicapped or disabled and

would like to park down below next to the football field, please

notify our office that you will be in attendance or have your hand-

icap sticker available for our ticket takers. Thank you for your

cooperation.

All of our fall teams will be competing in either a conference or

district competition during the month of October. Please take

notice of the October calendar for reference to competition times

and places. Our school needs your support, so please find a way

to come out and support all participants. Please check our rSchool

activities calendar for specific dates and times which can be found

on the Tri County website: www.tricountyschools.org

Fall sports will be ending soon, which means the beginning of

winter sports is coming right around the corner. I would like to

remind those winter sport athletes who did not participate in the

fall that you must have a completed physical and consent forms

turned into the office by the first day of winter practice...JUST A

REMIDER!

I would like to wish those individual musicians who are audition-

ing for All State Choir or Band…Sing and Perform Well!

Fall Concert will be Sunday, October 15th @ 2:00pm in the Audi-

torium. Please come and enjoy the great talent we have here at Tri

County.

FFA National Convention is October 24-October 28th in Louis-

ville, KY.

Finally, thank you to all the fall participants in all activities. Your

dedication is noticed and appreciated! Also thanks to all the sup-

porters out there who are willing to come out almost every night

to show that great Tri County enthusiasm! Continue to be RE-

LENTLESS!

Give your best golfers and cross country runners in your district

competitions in early October. We’ll be cheering for state qualifi-

ers in both!! Go TC!!

From the Desk of the Guidance Counselor….

Betsy Spilker

Students are having several opportunities this fall to ex-plore careers and colleges. Mr. Sand and Mrs. Spilker took students from the Industrial Technology program to SCC-Milford on September 19 for an interactive tour of the various departments on that campus. September 26 Sophomores and Juniors attended the Explore It Career Fair sponsored by the Nebraska Dept. of Labor. They lis-tened to panels in the varying career areas discuss their jobs and visited booths set up by various employers in the Gage County area. On October 4th the Juniors and Seniors will attend the Beatrice area College Fair at SCC Beatrice. It is 45 minutes of intense quick visits with around 50 different colleges. The Freshman class will tour Doane University on Octo-ber 10. The Juniors have a choice to tour University of

Nebraska- Kearney, or University of Nebraska-Omaha/Creighton, or SCC-Lincoln/Nebraska Wesleyan. All of this is generating excitement about student’s futures and helping them understand their options. October 24 we will host our annual “Apply2College” day for the Seniors. The morning will be spent filling out col-lege applications. RJ Vega from Education Quest will be here to assist in this process. When we are done filling out applications RJ will do a presentation about Financial Aid for the Seniors. This presentation will be at 10:00 if any Senior parents want to be present. The Juniors have the opportunity to take the PSAT test on October 11. There are national scholarships available to students that do well. It is also gives them experience at taking college entrance exams.

The ACT is an exam used by colleges and universities as an entrance requirement. Colleges/universities set a minimum score for students for acceptance attend their institution. The ACT uses a 36 point scale with 36 considered a perfect score. Prior to the spring of 2017, the ACT was not required of students not attending a four year postsecondary institution. The table above shows the data for the Tri County students who took the ACT the past two years. The class of 2018 represents the first class in which every student was required by the NDE to take the ACT. The required ACT replaces the Nebraska Stand-ards Assessment all juniors were taking. The 2017 figures repre-sent data of students who voluntarily took the ACT.

Tri County district scores exceeded the state in the composite average by 1.3 points in 2018 when all Juniors in the state were required to take the ACT. In 2018, when all students were re-quired to take the exam, Tri County students surpassed the state average in all four of the subject-area tests. The change in data shows the steps the school district has taken to prepare students for the ACT. Tri County offers the John Bay-lor ACT Test Preparation class, teachers implement ACT test-taking strategies in their classrooms, sample questions are pre-sented to students throughout the year, students take sample tests and review them in class, and an off-site testing site was provided to all Juniors when taking the ACT.

The state of Nebraska continues to use the Nebraska Standards Assessment (NeSA) for students in grades 3 through 8. The students at Tri County consistently score at or above the state average in almost all subject matter and at grade levels. The NeSA scale score is a 300 point scale used to assess student proficiency in the area of English/Language Arts, Math, and Science. Each fall, the staff

members at Tri County use the data from the previous spring assessment to help determine curricular decisions for their students. Starting in the spring of 2018, the as-sessment that students in grades 3 through 8 will be differ-ent from the current NeSA format. Teachers at Tri County Public Schools are reviewing the current standards adopt-ed by Nebraska and aligning their curriculum to the stand-

Grade ELA District ELA State Grade Math District Math State Grade Science District Science State

3 200 202 3 115 113 3

4 197 205 4 118 113 4

5 201 198 5 117 111 5 113 106

6 197 197 6 122 108 6

7 207 198 7 108 106 7

8 205 199 8 98 102 8 114 105

ACT Tested English Math Reading Science Composite

Graduation

Year Dist/State Dist/State Dist/State Dist/State Dist/State Dist/State

2018(Jr) 18/21,647 19.3/18.4 21.4/19.4 20.5/19.5 20.5/19.5 20.6/19.3

2017 15/18,993 17.7/20.9 20.6/20.9 20.8/21.9 19.1/21.5 19.7/21.4

ACT Data for Tri County Juniors

Nebraska Standards Assessment (NeSA)

What is this MAP thing anyway?

TRI COUNTY CURRICULUM AND INTRUCTION NEWS

I want to take this time to shed a little light on a tool we use at Tri County called the MAP Growth. You may have heard your student talk about taking the MAP at school, but what is it? Why do students take it? What do teachers do with the results? The MAP Growth assessment is a tool teachers at Tri County use to measure the growth of their students in grades 2-11. This tool provides teachers with information to help them deliver appropriate content for each student and determine each student’s academic growth over time. The unique thing about MAP Growth is the way the test adapts to each student’s learning level. Each student’s testing experience is different. Test questions are based on student responses to previous questions. As the student responds to questions, the MAP responds to the student by adjusting the difficulty of the questions (more or less difficult). MAP provides questions based on each student’s academic knowledge, skills, and abilities to find out where each student is academically at that point in time.

Results are delivered instantly in the form of a RIT score. The RIT score reflects the student’s academic knowledge, skills, and abilities. The score is like marking height on a growth chart. You can tell how tall your child is at various points in time and how much they have grown between one stage and another. The great thing about the RIT score is that it doesn’t change regardless of a child’s grade level. Each grade level has typical grade level ranges for RIT scores, just as a doctor has a chart showing the most common heights of people at certain ages.

MAP Growth helps the teachers at Tri County know what your student is ready to learn at any point in time. Teachers can see the progress of individual students and of their class as a whole. Since students with similar MAP Growth scores are generally ready for instruction in similar skills and topics, it makes it easier for teachers to plan instruction. MAP data is often used at “Late Start Wednesdays” to help make good instructional decisions. Recently, the state of Nebraska adopted MAP Growth as their tool to measure school accountability and will replace the NeSA assessment given in the spring. This spring, students in grades 3-8 and will take a MAP assessment instead of the NeSA. I hope this provided you with a little background about MAP Growth and how teachers use the information. If you ever have any questions regarding MAP Growth, please contact me at Tri County! Ryan Clark Curriculum Director

MAPS GROWTH PARENT TOOLKIT

Go To:

https://www.nwea.org/parent-toolkit/

From the Desk of the Elementary Principal….

Jesse Gronemeyer

Fall is finally here and one of the best times of the year. Fall is exciting because the weather is turn-ing, the ninety degree days are gone and we have many fun learning opportunities in school for our kids.

One of those fun learning opportunities is Red Ribbon/Reading Week. This be-gins on October 16th and concludes October 20th. This year, the student council planned all the activities for the week. The activities relate to the importance of reading and the importance of saying no to drugs. One of the biggest events is a visit from chil-dren’s author Carmen Agradeedy. This is always a neat and exciting event for our stu-dents.

As I mentioned last month, Tri County has officially been accepted and has a Tri County Teammates chapter. Remember, Teammates is a mentoring program for students. If you would like to be a mentor, please contact me (Jesse Gronemeyer) at the school. To be a mentor there is an initial training and background check. Again if you are interested, please contact me at the school.

This year at school we have used the motto TC PRIDE. Teachers, para educators and counse-lors have lessons with students about the meaning of TC PRIDE. Every student has received a free TC PRIDE t-shirt this year purchased by the PTO. If you as a parent/patron would like to purchase a TC PRIDE t-shirt, please contact me at the school. Look below for the meaning of TC PRIDE.

P - roblem solving R - espect I - ntegrity D - ependable E - ffort

A big thank you to all that purchased books and helped at this year’s PTO book fair. All pro-ceeds from the book fair go to the PTO which directly comes back to the students at Tri County Elementary. Thank you PTO for a wonderful fundraiser!

Thank you to all parents that attended your child’s parent teacher conference. I hope you were able to get a good snapshot of your child’s education and progress during the first quarter. If you have any questions beyond your child’s conference, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. We want to make sure the communication is open between you and the teacher. If you were unable to make the confer-ence, please call the teacher and reschedule.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, never hesitate to call the school.