November Newsletter

We had a great first quarter and we had a high percentage of parents attend the Parent/Teacher Conferences. Thanks for coming and as always for partnering with us to help provide your children a good learning experience.

It has been fun to watch our students compete this fall in their many activities. Congratulations to Collin McCoy for qualifying for the State Cross Country meet that was held on October 25th.

Educator Coffee

I am continuing to try and meet with retired Fillmore Central staff periodically for coffee. We have done this a quite few times and hope to meet each quarter during the school year. It is great for me to be able to connect with people who know the history and traditions of Fillmore Central. It is also fun to share some of the things that are going on at school. If you or someone you know is a retired staff member and you’d like to join us please call (402) 759-4955 or email Kenna in my office and give her your email contact information. Her email is kenna.marchand@fillmorecentral.org. We’d love to have you. Again, please contact Kenna if you or someone you know should be included.

Severe Weather

The decision to have a late start or to cancel classes is difficult and often there are people that have differing opinions on the severity of the weather or road conditions. Please remember that you ALWAYS have the ability as parents to decide to send your child to school late or even to keep them at home due to road or weather conditions. We are in a large school district that covers many square miles. Weather and roads can vary a lot from one side of the district to the other. Our families that live on gravel roads often have different conditions than our families that live in town. Please make the best decision for your family on these days.

We will alert you to late-starts/closings through our social media – website, Facebook, automated calls, and our text alerts. We will also call 10/11 news and have it on their closing alerts.

Sometimes we may have a late-start to give us more time to make a final determination on canceling classes for the entire day. If we announce a late start, it is still possible that we could announce a closing prior to the late-start time.

Town Route Pick-up

There may be times due to road conditions that we will only pick-up and drop-off students in towns. On these days, students that live in town will follow their regular pickup routine. Should we ever need to call for a town route pick-up we would not pick-up students on our gravel roads, but they could get on a bus at the following stops. Grafton route students would be picked up at the Grafton Post Office at 7:00 am on a regular start and at 9:00 am on a two-hour late start. Fairmont route students would be picked up at the middle school at 7:20 am on a regular start and at 9:20 am on a late start. Ohiowa route students would be picked up at the Ohiowa City Auditorium at 7:00 am on a regular start and at 9:00 am on a late start. We hope to have the buses at those sites 5 minutes prior to their leave times. We would be unable to pick-up Geneva route students on a town route day. The shuttles would still run between the middle school and the elementary and high school. Town route pick-up days and snow days will follow the same notification procedures.

Busing

We continue to need help driving school buses. We have nearly had to cancel/postpone field trips due to our lack of drivers. If you know of someone that might be willing to be trained and possibly drive a morning route, afternoon route, or both – please let them know we are hiring. Drivers start at $24.88 an hour.

Other Staffing Needs

We have an opening in our kitchen staff now and we’ll need a long term sub this spring.

We also are always looking for substitute teachers, para educators, and kitchen staff. If you or someone you know might be interested, please contact us. We’d love to connect with you.

402-759-4955.

I am excited for November and all of the fun activities and events that take place during 2nd quarter. We’d love to see you at some of our events.

Josh Cumpston

The Fillmore Central School District is pleased to introduce a new program called e~Funds for Schools. This program offers various options for parents/guardians who choose to make payments online and is extremely user friendly. Not only will you have the ability to pay for breakfast and lunch payments electronically withdrawn from your checking account or charged to your credit card, you also have the flexibility to make a payment at any time through the school's website. The e~Funds for Schools service is offered to you by a third-party service provider and they charge for processing your payment(s), similar to other online banking services. The district does not request or keep records of family checking or credit card account information. Cash and checks will still be accepted in all three buildings.

Elementary parents, please note that elementary milk money will not be able to paid through e-Funds. Please bring cash or check to the Elementary.

The e~Funds for Schools electronic payment service is provided to the school by a third-party service provider. The service provider has a nominal fee for their service. There is a $1.75 transaction convenience fee for each electronic checking payment that you make. The system carries a Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) charge if the payment is “bad.” For payments made by credit or debit card, there is a convenience fee of $2.95 per each $100 increment in the transaction. When you set up your account, please review your options carefully.

• Wednesday, November 6th, 1:05pm Dismissal

• Monday, November 14th, BOE Meeting @ 7:30pm

• Friday, November 22nd, Mid-Quarter Reports Sent Home

• Tuesday, November 26th, Monthly Assembly

• Wednesday, November 27th, No School

• Thursday, November 28th, No School

• Friday, November 29th, No School

Medication For Students

Please do not send medications to school with your child. Medications must come to school with the parent/guardian and given directly to the school office. Thank you for your help ensuring the safety of our students.

Cold Weather

Cold weather and snow will be here soon. Please send appropriate seasonal clothing (hats, gloves, boots) so your child can fully participate in outdoor recess. It is helpful to have items marked with your child’s name or initials so they can be returned if lost.

Bikes/Scooters

Many students ride bikes or scooters to school throughout the school year. Please ensure your child can safely handle this responsibility. Although children often enjoy riding bikes/scooters and their travel time can be lessened, walking on the sidewalk may be a safer option for some.

Homework gives your child an opportunity to practice the skills she is learning in school. But did you realize that it also teaches important life lessons?

When your child completes homework on her own, she learns:

• Responsibility. Your child learns the importance of fulfilling her obligations. She also learns to hold herself accountable for her mistakes and successes.

• Perseverance. Most parents want to protect their kids from frustration. However, making your child's life easier now will only make it harder in the future.

• Time management. Learning how to manage her time in order to get her homework finished is one of the most valuable skills your child can learn.

• Initiative. Homework can help your child learn how to be self-motivated. When she chooses to complete spelling assignments a few days before they are due, she is showing initiative.

Reprinted with permission from the November 2013 issue of Parents make the difference!® (Elementary School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2013 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: J. Rosemond, Ending the Homework Hassle, Andrews & McMeel Publishing Company.

The NHS/StuCo Panther Cub Mentor Program started at the beginning of October. Several juniors and seniors will eat lunch with their 4th grade Panther Cub once a month throughout the school year. We're excited to start year two of this awesome mentoring program.

What is Early Development Network Services Coordination?

Services Coordination helps families of children with special needs below age three:

• Find services to meet developmental, educational, financial, health care, child care, respite care and other needs

• Work with multiple providers to make sure services are provided as needed

Why is Service Coordination Needed?

Nebraska families of children with special needs have found it difficult to locate needed services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and then to coordinate the services with the providers.

Who is Eligible for Services Coordination?

Eligible families are those with an infant or toddler below age 3 who has a disability or developmental delay and qualifies for special education through the public schools.

Year round services coordination is provided.

There is no cost to families.

How Can Families Apply?

To request Early Development services for your child or to refer a child, call the local number below. With prior parental permission, referrals may be made by anyone who suspects a developmental delay in an infant or toddler.

Thank you to all the grandparents and special friends who joined us today for Grandparent's Day! It's always a fun and special day for everyone.

The fifth grade students who reached their AR (accelerated reader) program for the first quarter celebrated with a movie and snacks! Great work students!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Wednesday, November 27 – 29 – Thanksgiving Break

Wednesday, December 4 – Early Dismissal

Monday, December 16 – 7th-12th Grade Winter Concert

Thursday, December 19 – K-6th Grade Winter Concert

Friday, December 20 – Last Day of the First Semester - Early Dismissal at 1:20pm

Parent-Teacher Conference

It was great to see so many parents in attendance at the fall parent-teacher conferences, held on October 23rd. Research has shown that students, whose parents take an active role in their child’s education, are more likely to graduate from high school and experience success in their career. If you were not able to attend the Parent-Teacher Conferences, I encourage you to continue to communicate with your child’s teachers throughout the school year and check PowerSchool regularly.

Red Ribbon Week & Bully Free Schools
Red Ribbon & Bully Free Schools Week was held the week of October 28 – November 1 to educate our students on the importance of being bully free and the dangers of illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco use. Activities were held throughout the week to reiterate to students the dangers of drug and alcohol use; and saying no to drugs.

Early Release-Professional Development

Wednesday, November 6th there will be a 2 hour early dismissal for students. These early-dismissals allow teachers to participate in professional development opportunities designed to improve student performance and meet our school improvement goals. For middle school students, the 2-hour early dismissal time is 1:20 PM. Athletic practices will not be held for Middle School student-athletes on the days that we have scheduled early dismissals.

Seasons Changing

Now that fall has arrived, we can count on cooler weather quickly approaching. Students may need to bring a few clothing options (sweatshirt, jacket, coat) that will allow them to be comfortable while inside or outside during the day. By dressing appropriately for each day’s weather, your student will be more comfortable before school, during school, during recess, and after school.

Thanksgiving Break

Fillmore Central Middle School will be closed from Wednesday, November 27 – Friday, November 29 for Thanksgiving break. Classes will resume on Monday, December 2, 2024.

Mrs Schiermeyer's 5C science class had an opportunity to hear from local Fillmore County 4-H STEAM program leader Kristina Woods and 4-Her Wesley S. about the upcoming Weather Balloon Launch. The students were able to taste official NASA dehydrated foods. The class also participated in collecting germs. The students swabbed their hands and the inside of their mouths. Then the swabs were inserted into test tubes. The test tubes were launched by a weather balloon this past Saturday. The weather balloon has been retrieved and now the swabs will be observed on petri dishes to see If germs survive after transport.

Fall Activity Season Thank You

The fall athletic season has come to an end. I would like to thank everyone who helped to run events this season. It really does take an enormous amount of help to host as many events as we do. We receive numerous compliments from opposing teams and officials about how well run our events are and how professional the people who work these events are.

Fall Activity State Qualifiers

This fall we have had one individual qualify for their respective state events. Collin McCoy qualified for the NSAA State Cross Country Meet which took place on October 25th at the Kearney Country Club. Collin finished the race in 18:11.8, which was good enough for 66th place. Additionally, this time gets Collin on the FC record board with the 3rd fastest time run at the state meet.

Attendance

As we have just completed the first quarter of the 2024-25 school year, it is time for my annual attendance reminders. I think it goes without saying, but if kids are going to be successful in school, they need to be here, and be here on time each day. With that being said, I do understand that there will be times when kids are going to be absent. Generally speaking, students are allowed 10 absences each semester. If a student misses school for a medical appointment, we kindly ask that you as a parent or guardian provide documentation from your medical provider so that we can mark that accordingly in PowerSchool. Please refer to the student handbook for our full attendance guidelines and feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

GO FC!!!

Ryun Theobald

On October 8th the FC volleyball team was able to pull off a big win against Diller-Odell for the Pink Out game! Also, the three seniors each hit a milestone and were able to celebrate it in their home gym! MaKenna McCoy has over 550 digs, Addie Ekeler has over 520 kills, and Hadley McCoy has over 530 digs and over 1,100 service receptions for their careers so far. These three seniors have battled the last four years to get every one of those stats and their work is really paying off. Also it is important to note that our student section/ fans provided a very exciting atmosphere! Thank you to everyone that showed up to support our girls.

Activity passes are $75 per person. Activity passes are able to be used at any regular season games.

Fillmore Central Fans that are 65 years or older are free. Please contact Dawn to make sure you are on the list or to be added.

For questions contact Dawn Temme at 402-759-3141 or at dawn.temme@fillmorecentral.org

Fillmore Central is looking for a cook. We have a position available beginning immediately.

Location: Middle School, Fairmont, NE

Duration: Monday - Friday, August - May.

Wage: Based on assignment and experience
Requirements: Must pass a background check

Benefits:

• 80% paid Blue Cross Blue Shield Single Health Insurance

• Personal days

• Paid sick leave

• State retirement

Questions: Call 402-759-4955.

Applications are available here, or in the Superintendent’s Office, 1410 L Street, Geneva, NE 68361.

Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. EOE

Would you like the flexibility of driving 2.25 hours in the morning, 2.25 hours in the afternoon, or both for a total of 4.5 hours a day? This might be the opportunity for you!

Duration: Monday - Friday, August - May with multiple routes and activities available.

• Two positions and routes available – We will pay for training

• Starting wage: $24.88 per hour, with increases based on experience

• Benefits: 80% paid BCBS single health insurance, personal days, paid sick leave, state retirement

Applications are available here, or in the Superintendent’s Office, 1410 L Street, Geneva, NE 68361.

Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. EOE

Contact our Transportation Director, Jac Marchand, at jac.marchand@fillmorecentral.org for more information.

Come and be a part of the Fillmore Central Music Program! We are looking for someone to accompany our choir and choir members between 5 and 15 hours a week. This position would run September through early May. Our choir practices daily from 9:10 am to 10:10 am (approximately). Concerts, contests, and preparation for each may increase hours during some weeks. Opportunities to work with middle school choir may be available.

Duration: 5-15 hours a week, Monday - Friday, September - May.

Wage: Based on assignment and experience
Requirements: Must pass a background check

Questions: Call 402-759-4955.

Interested? Applications can be found at https://www.fillmorecentral.org/page/careers, or from the Superintendent’s office at 1410 L Street, Geneva, NE 68361.

Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. EOE

Fillmore Central is looking for Substitute Teachers for the 2024-2025 school year! This is a great way to be involved in our district with a flexible schedule.

Day Rate: $145.00

Don’t have a teaching certificate? No problem! Local Substitute Permits are available through the Nebraska Department of Education. More information can be found on our website.

Applications can be found at https://www.fillmorecentral.org/page/careers.

Questions: Call 402-759-4955.

Fillmore Central is looking for substitute cooks for all buildings. This is a great way to be involved in our district with a flexible schedule.

Questions: Call 402-759-4955.

Interested? Get an application at https://www.fillmorecentral.org/page/careers or from the Superintendent’s office at 1410 L Street, Geneva, NE 68361.

Submit application materials to josh.cumpston@fillmorecentral.org or 1410 L Street, Geneva, NE 68361.

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. EOE

Fillmore Central is looking for substitute para-educators for all buildings. This is a great way to be involved in our district with a flexible schedule.

Questions: Call 402-759-4955.

Interested? Get an application at https://www.fillmorecentral.org/page/careers or from the Superintendent’s office at 1410 L Street, Geneva, NE 68361.

Submit application materials to josh.cumpston@fillmorecentral.org or 1410 L Street, Geneva, NE 68361.

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. EOE