Niki Deeds, Kearney Public Schools board of education member speaking on Friday, March 7, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — Kearney Public Schools Board of Education member Niki Deeds provided an update on the district during an event hosted by the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce and Leadership Kearney on Friday, March 7.
Deeds said that she, along with Amy Barth and Amanda Smallcomb were all elected to the board in 2024 and will serve four-year terms. The other board members are President John Icenogle, Drew Blessing and Paul Hazard.
She noted that there is a perception that the school district must be growing by leaps and bounds because the City of Kearney is, but over the past several of years only 50 students have been added.
However, there are larger cohorts of students in certain grades that could lead to fuller classrooms. Deeds did note that Horizon Middle School is reaching its capacity, but there would be overflow room at Sunrise Middle School.
Deeds also spoke on state aid history and noted the district received $9,772,197.00 which was two percent lower than last year. Deeds mentioned that if a district’s valuation increases one year, the next year there will likely be a decrease in the amount of state aid.
Moving on toe state test results, Deeds compared the 3-5th grade Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) results and noted that in English and Math, Kearney students were ahead of the state average in every grade level.
As an example, 5th grade Kearney students are 70 percent proficient in English, while the state average is 59 percent.
The same goes for students in 6-8th grades in the NSCAS testing. For example, Kearney students were 76 percent proficient in science, a full 10 points higher than the state average.
Giving a snapshot of the district compared to the state, Kearney has a 94 percent attendance rate compared to the state average of 93 percent and the graduation rate at Kearney is 93 percent compared to 88 percent for the state.
Deeds also noted the KPS Teachers Tomorrow program, a joint partnership between Kearney Public Schools and the University of Nebraska at Kearney to combat the ongoing teacher shortage.
Nine scholarships were awarded in 2024 to start the pipeline, and two scholarships will be awarded to graduate KPS students. The scholarships cover tuition for the students as they receive their education, and the future graduates will be provided with a job at KPS.
Deeds also noted that the district itself is one of the top five employers in Kearney, with staff and teachers at 15 schools and 20 buildings.
She highlighted the three full time school resource officers who help maintain the safety of the schools and build relationships with the students that could pay dividends down the road as the students find a law enforcement officer they can trust.
She called the relationship between the schools and the SRO’s, “invaluable.”
