February Student of the Month Selections are: 7th Graders Lane Zabokrtsky, son of Jane & Chad Zabokrtsky; Mallonee Biehl, daughter of Taylor & Tony Biehl. 8th Grader, Jackie Deras, daughter of Maritza & Edelio Deras. Students are nominated by their teachers based on their work ethic, attitude and behaviors. Students may win this award only once throughout their junior high years.
Jenna Christiansen, an Alumna from Fairbury is the Vice President of The University of Nebraska at Omaha Pre-Health Professionals Club. What she is doing for rural students is very important. Check it out here:
http://unothegateway.com/video-nebraska-pre-health-getting-high-school-students-involved/
February is Children’s Dental Health Month, Dr. Jason Grant a dentist from Fairbury came and talked to the Second Graders at Central Elementary about their dental hygiene. The students were able to practice the appropriate brushing techniques on stuffed animals that had teeth. They learned the foods that are good for their teeth, the ones to avoid, and how many times they should brush their teeth a day. Dr. Grant stated that kids should brush their teeth at least twice a day. The second graders learned a lot of valuable information from Dr. Grant about dental health.
The Fairbury FFA Chapter had 30 members compete at the 2016 District 5 Career Development Events (CDE) Contest on Tuesday March 1st at Southeast Community College in Beatrice. These 30 members represented Fairbury FFA well by showing how hard work and dedication can pay off. Fairbury FFA was named district champions in the Welding and Vet Science Contests. Fairbury FFA also had three individual district champions with Nathaniel Stapaules placing 1st in Oxy/Acetylene Welding, Dylan Au placing 1st in Gas Metal Arc Welding, and Ryan Umland Placing 1st in Vet Science. Below is a complete list of all the team and individual results for the Fairbury FFA Chapter members that competed in the District 5 CDE contests.
The welding contest consists of a team of three members where one member has to Oxygen-Acetylene (O/A) weld, one member has to Shielded Metal Arc Weld (SMAW), and one member has to Gas Metal Arc Weld (GMAW). Fairbury had two welding teams compete in the district contest with team one consisting of Nathaniel Stapaules who placed 1st in the O/A division, Tyler Heidemann who placed 7th in the SMAW division, and Trevin Likens who placed 4th in the GMAW division. This team was named as the District 5 welding champions. The second team consisted of Tony Grummert who placed 10th in the O/A division, Brandon Reese who placed 13th in the GMAW division and Dylan Au who placed 1st in the GMAW division. This team placed sixth overall in the district 5 welding competition.
The Agronomy team placed 4th overall and consisted Cody Huss who placed 2nd, Patrick Ondrak who placed 21st, Jon Engelman who placed 25th, and Blake Bauer who placed 48th individually.
The Agriscience team placed 6th as a team and consisted of Michaela Buchli and Tori Likens who tied for 10th, Kaylee Sipek who placed 32nd, and Delaney Miller who placed 36th individually. Bryn Livingston also competed in the Agriscience contest and placed 46th individually.
The Ag Sales team placed 4th and qualified for the state contest. The team consisted of Garret Ragland who placed 10th, Ryan Umland who placed 11th, Althea Esteller who placed 15th and Natalie Stapaules who placed 16th individually.
Fairbury FFA was represented by two Meats teams with team 1 finishing in 10th place and consisting of Tony Grummert who placed 26th, Jesse Graves finishing in 28th, Dylan Au finishing in 45th place, and Brandon Reese finishing in 48th place. Team 2 finished in 11th place and consisted of Jake Maschmann who finished in 27th place, Jerod Hughes who finished in 31st place, Brock Barton who finished in 41st place and Carson Bohlmeyer who finished in 43rd place.
The Floriculture team placed 3rd overall and qualified for the state contest. Team members include Shavara Kroeker who finished in 10th place, Paige Livingston who finished in 14th place, Evie Schwab who finished in 15th place and Jordan Ruhnke who finished in 16th place individually.
The Livestock Management team finished 10th place and consisted of Tori Likens, Sarah McCown, Delaney Miller, Michaela Buchli, and Kaylee Sipek.
Fairbury was represented by two Vet Science teams with the 1st team consisting of Ryan Umland placing 1st, Patrick Ondrak and Natalie Stapaules placing 10th, and Madison Black placing 36th individually. This team was named the District 5 Vet Science Champion. The second team consisted of Sarah McCown who placed 13th, Jordan Ruhnke who placed 29th, Paige Livingston who placed 42nd, and Evie Schwab who placed 47th individually. This team placed 8th place overall.
Fairbury FFA had two Natural Resource teams with the first team placing 4th overall. This team consisted of Nathaniel Stapaules who placed 16th, Carson Bohlmeyer who placed 20th, Tyler Heidemann who placed 26th, and Trevin Likens who placed 32nd individually. The second team placed 8th overall and consisted of Brock Barton who placed 21st, Jesse Graves who placed 25th, Jake Maschmann who placed 27th, and Jerod Hughes who placed 35th individually.
The last team that competed for Fairbury FFA was the Food Science team that placed 4th overall and consisted of Garret Ragland who placed 5th, Blake Bauer who placed 22nd, Althea Esteller and Madison Black who placed 24th individually. The Fairbury FFA Chapter had a day to remember! It was a great day to be a Jeff.
Each year, FFA chapters around the country celebrate National FFA Week. The week-long tradition began in 1947 when the National FFA Board of Directors designated the week of George Washington’s birthday as National FFA Week in recognition of his legacy as an agriculturist and farmer. The first National FFA Week was held in 1948.
Today, FFA Week always runs Saturday to Saturday and encompasses Feb. 22, Washington’s birthday. The Fairbury FFA Chapter celebrated this week in a fashionable and fun way. Each day was a specific theme for the staff and students of the high school to show their FFA pride. The theme for Monday was America Day as students were able to dress in their best American pride clothing. Tuesday’s theme was FFA/farm shirt day as FFA members dressed in their red FFA shirts and the rest of the school wore their favorite farm shirt. This was also the day for the annual FFA Ag Olympics convocation.
FFA members entertained the student body with multiple activities throughout the afternoon. The first event of the day was the Hay Bale Relay where a team of four competed to claim the prize of best straw bale hauling team. The second event was corn shucking where 6 individuals pulled the husks and corn kernels from two ears of corn. The third event of the afternoon was a search and find contest where six individuals looked through buckets of corn and candy to find a small cow figurine and claim their prize. The fourth event of the day was name that country song where six individuals competed to name an older or current country song. A small part of the song was played and the first person to write down the correct answer was the winner. The fifth event was the egg roulette competition where six individuals competed against each other by hitting eggs over their head. Each dozen of eggs had ten hard-boiled eggs in them and 2 raw eggs. The first person to crack a raw egg over their head lost and did not move onto the next round. The last event of the afternoon for the Ag Olympics was the food tasting contest where six individuals ate Chicken in a Biscuit, Pickled Eggs, Pork Chop, Pork Liver, Steak and Beef Tongue. The person that ate all six food items was crowned as the food tasting champion.
Wednesday’s theme was blue and gold/official dress day as FFA members dressed in official dress and were served pizza for lunch. The rest of the school wore their best blue and gold clothing to represent the colors of FFA, which are National Blue and Corn Gold.
Thursday’s theme was Ford vs. Chevy vs. Dodge day as students represented their favorite brand of truck by dressing in their favorite Ford, Chevy, or Dodge apparel for the day. This was also the day that the FFA members cooked breakfast for all of the teachers and staff of the Fairbury Public School District and also for any FFA Alumni/supporter. Members of the FFA started cooking breakfast at 5:30am in the Ag Shop and fed over 60 people throughout the morning. This is an annual tradition for the Fairbury FFA Chapter that the members enjoy doing because it helps them remember that being of service to others is the main focus of the National FFA Organization.
Friday’s theme was Jeff Pride day as students wore their best crimson and gold apparel for the day. February 22nd through the 26th was a very busy week for the Fairbury FFA members but all of them enjoyed the fun activities and experiences of the week.
The third-graders at Jefferson Elementary School got onto the school bus – books in hand. Their mission: to simply brighten the day of the residents at the Heritage Care Center.
On February 25th, Mrs. Shinn’s class brought joy to the residents by sharing their love of reading and singing.
The Soaring Jeffs Quiz Bowl Club participated in their first competition for 2016, January 24, at the ESU #5 Tournament held at Thayer Central Intermediate Schools. Two teams from Jefferson Intermediate, all 6th graders, answered questions through 6 round robin matches followed by a single elimination tournament. All matches were 16 questions from the subjects of social sciences, language arts, science, math, fine arts, sports, misc., and year in review (current events). Both teams did a fabulous job competing with teams from BDS, Diller/Odell, Freeman, Meridian, and Thayer Central, with our own Fairbury A team, consisting of Zane Grizzle, Alex Buxton, Caleb Trimm, Noelani Cervantes and Haidyn Carstens taking home the gold hardware. The Fairbury B team, consisting of Rorik Blatny, Steven Aden, Alissa York, Ericka Kroeker, and Brigham Scheetz, also competed hard but fell short of the medal round.
The Soaring Jeffs Quiz Bowl Club is comprised of 5th and 6th graders and Co-Sponsors Angie Judd and Tammy Klaumann. We invite next year’s 5th and 6th graders to think about joining this club. Ask any of its current members or sponsors for details.
Students and teachers caught a wiff of good smells drifting through the halls of school this past week! Students in the Foods and Nutrition classes prepared a meal for the high school staff to eat prior to Parent Teacher Conferences on Thursday, Feb. 11th. The classes researched and chose the theme “ A Souper Bowl for Super Teachers” and planned a menu to fit the theme. Foods prepared for the night included cheeseburger soup, chicken noodle soup, stromboli, fruit cup, cinnamon bread twist hearts, and an assortment of dessert bites, including decorated sugar cookies, mini cheesecakes, cake balls, and chocolate dipped strawberries. The meal was held in the FCS room, and students decorated the tables with cut out hearts. The students enjoyed making the foods for the staff and teachers always appreciate and enjoy eating their work!
February is Teen Dating Awareness Month. In an effort to help educate our Junior High students about dating violence and domestic violence, Mandy VanLaningham of Hope Crisis Center gave presentations to the students on February 8 and 10. Students learned that people are abusive because they want to be in control of someone else. The abuse forms can be verbal, emotional, sexual, physical, financial or through social media. Statistics show that 25-30% of women will be abused in their lives, but there really is no sufficient data on males. All types of people regardless of financial status, race or religion may deal with some type of abuse. Statistics also show that 1 in 3 teens know someone who has been in an abusive relationship. Students learned that if they know someone who has been abused, their job is to be a supportive listener. Individuals from the Hope Crisis Center also plan to chalk the front sidewalk of the high school to help bring awareness of the abuse that can happen. If anyone should need to contact the Hope Crisis Center their contact information is as follows: 1-877-388-HOPE (4673) or www.hopecrisiscenter.org.
