Eagle Newsletter - August 25, 2010

Parents and Teachers of Eagle had their first meeting of the school year and as a 501c3.  There were lots of new faces.  There were about 43 people present.  This included parents, teachers, Superintendent Dr. Bill Heinmann, Eagle Elementary Principal Dottie Heusman and retired teachers.  The agenda was long but PTE President DeeAnn Retzlaff stayed on track and got through it very well.  There was a lot of discussion that happened tonight but tabled till the next meeting to be voted on.  It looks like it's going to be a very busy year!

Adult Co-Ed Softball has begun!!

No Playground for Early Morning Recess

Superintendent Dr. Bill Heinmann and Eagle Elementary Principal Dottie Heusman held an informal meeting Monday, August 23 in the library at Eagle Elementary.  All parents and patrons of school district 145 were invited to attend this meeting.  Mrs. Heusman gave a well done power point presentation.  She stated several times during her presentation that her main concern is the safety of the children.  She does not believe that it is a safe environment for the kindergartners to be playing on the same playground as the older children.  She also stated that they have problems with sibling rivalry and not enough staff to help with bumps and bruises.  During the last couple months of the last school year it was marked down when a child presented to the nurses’ station.  There were 65 such visits which is about 1 per day (some days there were none while other days were busier).  There is no school nurse from 8:00am to 8:20am.  There was one broken arm last year but it was mentioned that was actually during a morning recess not a early morning recess. 

Mrs. Heusman and a few teachers are working to try and come up with clubs for the children to join.  A few of the clubs listed are a new walking/reading club, a coloring club, a breakfast club.  These are a few ideas and Mrs. Heusman is trying to work out the details before starting them.  She was unable to give any kind of a timeline but mid September was mentioned.

With only a few days notice close to 25 parents came to the meeting and voiced their concerns about their children standing or sitting on a chalk line from a few minutes to up to 15 or more depending on how soon they get there.  Parents wanted to know why options were not set up at the beginning of school. While the presentation given was good I don't feel as though it answered very many questions.  Several parents asked a few questions several times in different ways.  But no answers as to why the big safety concern.  Most parents voiced that they thought children learned from many different kinds of situations good and bad.  While no one wanted to see anyone get hurt they were ok with kids learning to work things out among themselves.  It was mentioned that maybe the 5th graders could actually learn some leadership and role model skills during this recess time.  One of Mrs. Heusmans examples of other schools included a segregated playground.  Some thought this might be somewhat of a compromise.

Dr. Bill Heinmann listened intently during the meeting and wrote lots of notes.  When asked about the time line of what will happen next he told the parents that he and Mrs. Heusman would go over all the feedback and look at all the options.  They will then send out a plan of what they are looking at and wait for the parent feedback before implementing any new changes.  

I will continue to report what I know.  If you would like to add anything, please send me your comments and concerns.  There is also a Letter to the Editor tab under What's New.  It will continue to take parental involvement to stay on top of things.  By improving the communication between parents, teachers and administration we can only improve our children’s learning environment.  This is one step towards better communication.  Let's not let it stop here.  RTP and leveled math are still among the issues that parents want discussed.

Letter to the Editor

I love the newsletter and enjoy seeing all the photos and hearing what is new.  I am sure it is a lot of work so thank you!  

I never knew there was a school meeting about the changes at the elementary school, but I agree that this change to not allow the kids to play at the playground in the morning seems a bit over the bend.  Sure if we let our kids play they may get bumps and bruises.  Maybe one of them will break an arm or get their feelings hurt, but that’s life.  So there isn’t a nurse on duty.  You could throw a rock at the fire station and the on call EMT’s from the playground. 

At this point my children are so protected from the real world I am afraid of what will happen to them when they actually have to join it.  Now instead of letting them play on the playground and get some exercise we are telling them to line up and wait.  Without the playground equipment to keep them occupied I am sure none of them will get in trouble (dripping sarcasm)

This change is just plain silly and it makes our administrators look even more unprofessional when they make the changes last minute without an alternate plan in place.

Heather H. Sams

Parent to seven kids – six of whom lived through playing on the playground before school without a nurse.  Some of whom were probably tortured by their older brothers and sisters and lived to tell about it!

Jr. Cheer Clinic performs at Waverly Scrimage Football Game!

The need is constant

The gratification is instant

Give Blood!

 Eagle Community Blood Drive

Monday, September 13, 2010

The American Red Cross Bus will be outside the community center from 3:00pm - 6:30pm

Call Chris at 781-2177 or log onto

www.redcrossblood.org for an appointment! 

WHERE:  Across from the Barrier-Free Playground
                 Antelope Park (near 30th & A) in Lincoln, NE

WHEN:    Registration and Festivities begin at 8:00 a.m.
                Walk started at 9:30 a.m.

WHO:     This is a family event, so strollers and wagons are welcome.
                No pets, bikes, or roller blades are allowed.

The link to make $ pledges to TEAM BUBBA. https://www.dsafnebraska.org/pledge.php?team_id=162 for every $150 that is donated under his team name (up to 3) there will be a sign put up along the walk with a fact about Down Syndrome and his little picture on it. So every little bit helps. Donation jars have been placed around town in order to collect.