Summer came early for the students at Callaway Public School this year. After being issued a challenge by school administration last year, the kids not only accepted that challenge - they blew it out of the water.

“During discussions, it was decided that we needed to do something to incentivize students to put forth their best effort. If we just get the kids to put forth their best effort and they don’t score well, that’s ok - we can learn from that,” explained Superintendent J.D. Furrow. “But if kids are going on and not really putting in the effort, how do we know if we are missing stuff or not?”

Several ideas were discussed, but ultimately, it was agreed that the one thing that would likely incentivize kids the most would be to let them out of school a day or two early.

“So when we decided that’s what we wanted to do, we had to come up with a way to measure it,” Furrow said. “We took our winter scores and set up spring goals. The testing instrument tells you what they think you should score at next time, so that’s where our first goal is. We didn’t want this to be one class gets rewarded and another does not - it’s a total team effort.”

Furrow explained that all of the “extra” points that the students were supposed to get on their scores were totaled up, and if that goal was met the students would get one day off from school. However, by doing that it would have had the kids coming back to school for a few hours on a Monday, so they decided to add an additional goal of another two points onto the scores for a second day off.

A visual board was set up in the school last year that allows the students to track their progress, and the kids nearly doubled the goal that had been set. So the administration used that accomplishment as yet another goal, and told the kids if they could beat last year’s score they could get three days off.

“Lo and behold, the kindergartners were the last ones testing and we needed 44 points of improvement from them. They improved over 90 points on that one test and took us over the top,” said a very proud Superintendent Furrow. “It’s a way of celebrating the academic side of things. You’re never going to get all of your kids to put forth their best effort - some kids just aren’t great testers. But, I think we’ve definitely hit the mark on getting kids engaged.”

Furrow credits his principals, Heath Birkel and Brittany Jesseph for all of the legwork on the program.

The accomplishment of the improved test scores was just one item celebrated during the opening of the May 11 meeting of the Callaway School Board. The district was recently featured as a “Spotlight School” by the Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association (NRCThe SA) and has received special recognition for participation in the Character Strong program. We will have more on that in an upcoming issue.

Furrow reported to the board that the school recently had its state visit of the preschool, which is done every three years. He said that went well.

The board was filled in on new safeguards being implemented for the district’s bank accounts and automatic payment methods, and also heard a legislative update from Furrow. One of the proposed pieces of legislation that did not receive approval involves not promoting third-grade students who have not met a particular reading benchmark. That is legislation that is receiving heavy support from Gov. Pillen.

“I don’t think the Governor is wrong. We need to be more responsive to the fact that our kids are not reading at the level that they should be reading at,” Furrow added. “I think the groups working together on this will be able to come up with something that is going to be beneficial for everybody.”

Another legislative proposal that did not pass is a 2 percent hard cap on taxing for municipalities and school districts, which ran out of time this session. Furrow said he is not sure how much support there is for that bill.

“Our school district alone has benefited to the tune of about $1 million last year and again this year because of the property tax credits,” said Furrow. “So there is some relief and there are some good things going on to help taxpayers. But there could obviously be more.”

One of the most lengthy items of discussion on the board’s agenda was a carryover from the last meeting, pertaining to the board’s desire to set measurable goals for themselves. After discussing about a half dozen ideas, they approved four main objectives moving forward. One of those is making the board meetings accessible for those who may not be able to attend in person through Zoom, and then recorded and available on the school website for future reference. Another goal is for the board to become more active at the state legislature, as more discussions being held at that level will likely have a direct impact on districts like Callaway. The third goal is to become more engaged with the students and staff, and the final board goal is to have the administrative team continue to develop their leadership skills.

Finally, new meal prices were set for the 2026-27 school year with a minimal increase of 5 cents per meal across the board.

The next meeting of the Callaway school board will be June 8 at 8 p.m.