Making Hot Air Balloons

The second and third graders had a joint 2 part Library listening and activity. They first listened to Oh, The Places You’ll Go! at Library this week. Before leaving they told where they would go if they could travel anywhere they wanted. The answers were as varied as the students.

They returned for the activity–making a hot air balloon. Working in pairs (a 2nd grader and a 3rd grader) they blew up and tied their balloons. Not an easy task for many. Then, using straws and tape they connected the balloon to a plastic cup. The final challenge came next. Can you move your cup across the table without touching it. Success was measured in inches, but everyone gave it a try.

4-H News

Edit: Corrected dates on the County Wide Project and the Baking Basic.

Clover Buds
The Hay Springs Clover Bud workshop will be held on March 19th from 4:00 – 5:00 pm. Please register for the Hay Springs event with Erika Gaswick by March 17th. Clover Bud members are youth between the ages of 5 and 7 as of January 1st, 2020. These youth will experience teamwork, social interaction, and decision-making skills while participating in hands on activities. Upon participating in these workshops, youth will have Clover Bud projects to display at the 2020 Sheridan County Fair.

County Wide Project
The County Wide Project will be held on March 20th from 1:00 – 4:00 pm. At this workshop, youth are invited to create a project for Design Decisions and enter at the 2020 Sheridan County Fair. Please register by March 18th, by contacting the Nebraska Extension Sheridan County office at (308) 327-2312. This event is open to anyone interested in weaving.

Baking Basics
The Hay Springs February Baking Basics will be held on March 27th. At this workshop youth will prepare pizza. The youth will also continue to work on their sewing projects. Participants will need to pack a lunch. The fee for this workshop is $10. Please register by March 25th, by contacting the Nebraska Extension Sheridan County office at (308) 327-2312. This event is open to anyone interested in baking and sewing projects.

YQCA in person training
Youth for the Quality Care of Animals training must be completed by June 1st for any 4-H member who is planning to take a livestock project (beef, goat, sheep, swine, rabbit, or poultry). Youth can complete the training online at yqca.learngrow.io with their family 4-H online login for $12 or register online for an in person training for $3. Melissa will be conducting in person trainings on March 2nd at the Hay Springs school after school that day, March 11th at Extension Office at 1 pm, and at the Extension Office on April 13th at 9 am.

4th Grade Pollinator Garden

Hello! 4th grade is really looking forward to our big project of beautifying our school with perennial plants that will attract pollinators! We are really hoping our community will give us a list of flowers (ASAP) that can be donated in the spring when people clean up their own gardens. BUT we do need a list of the flowers soon or we will have to purchase and grow from seed what we do not get donated.

We have received a $750 grant to do this and we are working very close with Chaley Jensen and Jade to make this a reality.  Thank you in advance for your help!

Ms. Meeks and the 4th grade class.

Hay Springs Youth Baseball & Softball

It’s hard to believe it’s March and we are already talking about Softball and Baseball. Hay Springs participates in the Highway 20 league for Softball and the Sandhill’s Baseball Association for Baseball. You will begin to see sign-up forms coming home, we need these to determine the amount of teams we have in each age group. Return registration forms to the school office. Here are the Age Groups:

Boys T-ball – Must be 4 before 5/1/20
Girls T-Ball – Must be 5 before 1/1/20
Boys Kid Pitch – Must be 7 before 5/1/20
Girls Pixies – Must be 7 before 1/1/20
Boys Cal Ripken – Must be 10 before 5/1/20
Girls Freshman – Must be 9 before 1/1/20
Boys Babe Ruth – Must be 13 before 5/1/20
Girls Juniors – Must be 12 before 1/1/20
Girls Seniors – Must be 15 before 1/1/20

Cafeteria News

-Magic Plate Winners for Jan. were Grant Wellnitz, Tailyn Starke and Sissy Reina.

-Our St. Pat’s Day Dinner will be Tuesday March 17th. Please RSVP to the office by March 9th at 10:00 am. Thank You for your cooperation! We look forward to seeing you!

-We had a pretty extensive Administrative Review take place this past month and we have a few things we will be changing in the kitchen to better serve you! It was a great learning experience for us! Thank You for your patience and cooperation while we adjust to these changes!

-Happy Spring!!!

Superintendent’s Notes

Things continue to happen rapidly on a daily basis at Hay Springs School. Our elementary students and staff have just celebrated our 100th day of school and the winter sports seasons are drawing to a close as we prepare to end our third nine weeks. Students continue to be involved in activities outside of the classroom and away form the sports fields and gyms for a few days. The music program has had several students qualify for advanced musical opportunities and experiences. Hay Springs speech team has hosted a very successful speech competition where our team placed second overall. Our FBLA and FFA students are competing in district competition with hopes of qualifying for state. FFA members have completed National FFA Week activities and will be competing in the final district event in Kimball March 4th. We are planning our Greenhand degree ceremonies on March 12th, so please mark this date on your calendar if you have an FFA member. We will have students competing in state competition in both FBLA and FFA in April.

Along with the fourth nine weeks comes the track, golf and branding seasons. As you plan your spring events please consider the fact that we operate on a four day school week and that to the best of our ability we all need to have our students in school as much as possible. Along with this I need to mention that if students are missing school for school activities or other reasons they may need reminded that it is their responsibility to be sure that they get their work made up in a timely manner. As we turn the corner toward the home stretch and the final nine weeks of the academic year please encourage your students to kick it in and finish the academic year as strong as possible. Positive support from those who love and care for them can never be too extreme. Your support for them in their activities and academics helps them realize that you believe in them, and that what they do is very important. As we move forward we will soon be looking at student academic testing so we are in the final stages of pushing students towards total preparedness for academic success. I realize that we have students with academic challenges and the staff at Hay Springs is willing to assist your students with additional support in any way we can, but the student is the one who must take advantage of this additional support. While visiting with your students about their challenges and successes, if they express concerns we can assist with at school, please contact their teacher, coach or the school administration. We are all here to support your student success in any manner that we can.

As we look ahead our seniors will be completing many things for the final time as Hay Springs Hawks. As they look forward to graduation, I would like to thank all of these students for the time and effort they have dedicated the past four years to academic success, sports competition and all intra and extracurricular activities they have been involved in. Successful high school programs have outstanding senior leadership and Hay Springs has always been fortunate to have our seniors step up and be leaders for underclassmen. Senior members of our teams your leadership will be greatly missed.

I would also like to thank the parents and guardians of these seniors for their efforts, time, dedication and commitment to the Hay Springs academic and activities program during the past four years. As the seniors near the completion of their high school academic career at Hay Springs High school I encourage them to finish strong and work toward completion of the best semester of their career during high school. As they go through the stress of college applications and visits and the financial aid process they need our understanding and support.

I realize that we have had a lot of winter weather already, with it beginning in October, yet we have time for a lot of winter weather before spring. It is my hope that if we have the need for school delays or cancellations, that each of you have been getting the information in a timely manner. If we are having school and as parents or guardians you are not comfortable with road conditions and having your children traveling to school please contact the school and excuse them.
As the district superintendent my door is nearly always open and never hesitate to give me a phone call. I am always willing to listen to your concerns, however our policy dictates that the first order in the resolution of a problem is direct communication between parent and/or the student with the teacher and/or coach about your concerns. If we are going to hold true to our mission, vision and goals for the district we truly have to continually work together in this effort.

Mission Statement
The Mission of Hay Springs Schools in cooperation with families and community, is to empower students within an emotionally supportive and physically safe environment with the academic, social, physical and technological skills to achieve success as responsible, self-disciplined citizens of a global society.

Vision Statement
“Empower Students to Achieve Lifelong Success.”

Hay Springs Goal
80% of Hay Springs School students will meet projected growth and/or 80% of students will be proficient on NWEA MAP assessments in Math, Reading, Language Arts and Science.

Please know that the employees at Hay Springs are very dedicated to providing your children with the best possible opportunities to learn. If we do not have some struggling students, then we clearly do not have the bar high enough. It is my hope that the majority of our students are academically challenged on a daily basis. With challenges comes the additional need for encouragement and support from staff and parents.

It continues to be one of my goals to help our entire staff and student population focus on the many blessing we have in life and support each other in positive ways as we work together to pursue our Mission, Vision and Goals at Hay Springs School.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support of our educational system.

Mr. Lechtenberg
Superintendent

Quiz Bowl Help Needed

Quiz Bowl Season is here. This year we will be the host school for the Panhandle Conference Tournament on Friday, March 20th. Both High School and Middle Level will be competing in the competition. High School will have two teams and the Middle Level will have one team. The students will be preparing to compete with practices over the next two months.

However, with six teams in the conference and nine games going on at one time we will need many others to make this tournament a success. If you are willing to help as a reader, timer, or scorer contact Brad Bounous or Carole Matthews at school.

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