Here are some K-12 education accomplishments and leadership worth celebrating! 

  

  

  

Mayor Mike Fahey's efforts in creating a solid after-school experience for disadvantaged children and youth in Omaha have been praiseworthy. He hosted a breakfast for more than 100 elected officials, after-school program directors, educators and others to review the accomplishments of the $2 million federal grant the City of Omaha received in 2005. Purpose: to  provide free after-school programs for 900 students in six middle schools in the Omaha Public Schools. The federal grant was matched by the Sherwood Foundation, run by Susie Buffett, daughter of financier Warren Buffett. Fahey is also involved in the after-school tutoring and mentoring efforts of Building Bright Futures. (October '08) 

  

The Kiwanis Club of Omaha Westside donated an automated external defibrillator to Paddock Road Elementary School, which school staff used to save the life of a student who collapsed in front of the school office. It was the first time it was used. (October '08) 

  

  

Three cheers for Phil and Harley Schrager, brothers who've done about as much for children as anyone in the state. They founded the Pacesetter Corp. Reportedly, Phil Schrager is ill, and this fall the Pacesetter Academy, which has served more than 350 disadvantaged students over the past 15 years, has closed. The program offered free mentoring, citizenship, tutoring, college visits and test preparation services. It will continue to fund college scholarships for all those now in college, or involved with the academy for two years or more. (October '08) 

  

  

These five students in the Class of 2008 got perfect ACT test scores: 

  

Sarah Ferguson, Omaha Central (perfect SAT as well) 

  

            Ross DeVol, Bellevue East (twin Brian had a perfect SAT) 

  

            Kirsten Miller, Milllard North 

  

            James Morin, Lincoln Pius X 

  

            Madison Rezaei, Elkhorn 

  

These six students overcame very tough obstacles to excel in school and move on with life. They were honored at the D.J.'s Hero Awards Luncheon in spring 2008 sponsored by the Salvation Army in memory of D.J. Sokol, who lost his battle with cancer at age 18. Each student won a $5,000 scholarship: 

  

Matt J. Brandl, Seward, parents killed by a drunken driver, plans to become a trauma nurse 

  

Mary Cecilia Daly, Omaha Duchesne, tutored impoverished Native American children in Winnebago, Neb., and Detroit, and has gone on several mission trips while helping care for her disabled father and brother. 

  

Brittany Haga, Kearney, fought to save her mother's life and her own when a man invaded their home and stabbed them; also testified at the trial of her father, accused of abusing her; several awards for service to others. 

  

Stacey Mitchell, Omaha Street School, parents died within months of each other; plans to become a pastor. 

  

Nikita Robinson, Grand Island, overcame a meth addiction, volunteers at city mission to help others with domestic problems, wants to become a counselor. 

  

Amanda Steele, Omaha, was homeless but stayed in school and is a flight student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Aviation Institute. 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Twenty-eight businesses, organizations and individuals in western Douglas County donated more than 750 dictionaries to third-graders through the "Words For Thirds" program of the V.E. Grange organization. (1/23/07) 

  

Nine homeschooled students from the Omaha metropolitan area won second place out of 66 teams in the LEGO engineering building tournament at Iowa State University. Their project focused on nanotechnology and paper batteries. They were coached by Kit and Brian Fox. (1/23/07) 

  

Riley Barger of the North Platte area won the youth novice division of the Colorado Rocky Mountain Fiddle Championship in Denver. He attends a Class I country school which has four students. (1/23/07) 

  

Two Nebraskans were among winners in the 2006 National Handwriting Contest sponsored by Zaner-Bloser: Haley Classe of St. Margaret Mary School in Omaha, and Erin Elise Plambeck of Silver Lake School in Rosedale, Neb. (1/23/07) 

  

Zach Norwood, a senior at Papillion-LaVista High School, scored a perfect 36 on his ACT college admissions test. (1/16/07) 

  

More than $80,000 in college scholarships for 51 inner-city boys and girls was distributed at an awards luncheon held by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Omaha. Donors included John and Harriet Wiebe, longtime Omaha philanthropists. (8/4/06) 

  

Gail Werner-Robertson has raised $700,000 to help the University of Nebraska Medical Center's autism efforts at its Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders. She has organized an annual benefit dinner and golf tournament; this year's event is scheduled for June 3-5. Ms. Werner-Robertson, whose family owns the Werner Enterprises trucking firm, holds a law degree from Creighton University, serves on Creighton's Board of Directors, and is one of the nation's most important wealth managers through the company she founded, GWR Wealth Management LLC. She also has two sons with autism. (2/20/06) 

  

Omahan Paul Filipi, 88, has donated $10,000 for students who attended the low-income Conestoga Elementary School in inner-city Omaha who need scholarship assistance to enroll at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Filipi, retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has been a volunteer reader for third- and fourth-graders at Conestoga for six years. His gift, the Golden K-Conestoga Scholarship Fund, is through the University of Nebraska Foundation. "I want the children to realize that someone cares about them," he said. "Some of these kids really got to me." (2/14/06) 

  

Many thanks to the Salvation Army, which collected school supplies for 9,000 needy and homeless children in the metropolitan Omaha area to equip them for back-to-school time. It's awesome to know how many many people care about our most vulnerable young citizens, and wish them well for the school year. 

  

The arboretum at the Bellevue Public Schools' headquarters at Highway 370 and Fort Crook Road features hundreds of plants, trees, shrubs and perennials native to Nebraska, a trickling stream, a prairie area, and a one-mile trail open the public. It's the scene of fabulous hands-on learning experiences for preschoolers on up. More than half of the funding came from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the Omaha Public Power District, the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, and the Nebraska Department of Roads. 

  

Womenade of Elkhorn, a volunteer group led by Mary Wellendorf, raised $3,000 to provide school suppies to 140 pupils from K-8 whose families were experiencing financial difficulties or medical problems. The children were able to "shop" for their list of back-to-school items an choose their own backpacks, notebooks, pocket holders and other supplies. 

  

Omaha is proud of these high-school seniors who posted a perfect 36 score on their ACT tests. Hats off to: Sam Weitkemper of Elkhorn Mount Michael, and Tianlu Yuan and Adam Karnik of Creighton Prep. Note that those are both private high schools. Although public education is strong and productive in Nebraska, private education is often a step ahead. 

  

Kudos to the Lozier Foundation, Susan A. Buffett Foundation, Holland Foundation, and William and Ruth Scott Foundation: they donated $6 million to make all-day kindergarten possible for low-income children in the Omaha Public Schools. 

  

Ann Mactier, elected to the Nebraska State Board of Education and a former member of the Omaha Public Schools board, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to bring Spalding Phonics training to teachers in OPS. The tried-and-true style of reading instruction is making a remarkable impact on test scores, teacher morale, and student self-esteem, thanks to her almost single-handed dedication to quality reading instruction. 

  

The late Patti Clark, founder and owner of the Phoenix Academy in Rockbrook Village in central Omaha, has probably done more to prevent and ameloriate learning disabilities in children than anyone in the state. 

   

Linda Weinmaster, formerly of Millard and now of Lawrence, Kan., helped found the Millard Core Academy with back-to-the-basics instruction after her son was about to be labeled as learning disabled in that suburban district. He learned how to read with "old-fashioned," traditional methods at the Phoenix Academy and an inner-city school, the former St. Agnes School, recently closed. Rather than turning her back on the public schools which initially failed her son, Mrs. Weinmaster devoted countless volunteer hours to start the Core Academy, which is so popular it has had a waiting list for years. 

  

The William and Berniece Grewcock Foundation has been one of the major builders of Omaha's educational and cultural institutions, with leadership-scale donations to the Lutheran schools and the establishment of an outstanding teachers' college at Omaha's Grace University, among many other education-related gifts. 

  

The Alan J. Bruner Scholarships were created in memory of a Burke High School graduate who died while saving a girl from a Gulf of Mexico riptide. For information, call 398-0047. 

  

Arlington (Neb.) Public Library volunteers received the Marian Wilkins Community Service Award from the Arlington Education Foundation in summer 2005 for raising $80,000 for the new library in that small town. The library was built without government funds. 

  

150 volunteers, including members of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, helped prepare the lower level of a former junior-high school at 108^th & Grover Streets in midtown Omaha for Abundant Life Lutheran School to move in for 2005-06 school year. 

  

Life-changing scholarships have come from: 

  

The Peter Kiewit Foundation: http://www.pki.nebraska.edu/studentinfo/financialaid.php  

  

The Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation, www.buffettscholarships.org  

  

The Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben, www.aksarben.org  

  

Ron Brown Scholarship Foundation: www.ronbrown.org