Numbers and Random Things

This week's blog is just going to be a compilation of miscellaneous numbers and random things rattling around in my head. Read at your own risk.

Let's start off with some pretty cool information we're proud of regarding our Southeast Nebraska Career Academy Partnership (SENCAP) with Southeast Community College!

SENCAP was designed to provide YHS students opportunities to explore career and educational opportunities while still in high school. Through rigorous college coursework and career exploration, SENCAP and SCC have helped our students focus on a career pathway while saving our students time and money toward the completion of a degree.

Between 2011-2017, we’ve had 257 of our students participate in the Southeast Nebraska Career Academy Partnership (SENCAP). Since 2011, YHS has had 257 students participate in SENCAP and they have completed 488 courses! From 2011-2017, YHS students have earned 1,612 dual credit hours with an average GPA of 3.52 in those courses, which is the highest average of all SENCAP member schools!

YHS students and their families have saved $54,652 in tuition costs for those 1,612 credits earned due to our agreement with SENCAP!

Now, let's move on to our chemical application work certificate program we are so proud of at YHS. This is another exciting opportunity for our students that began just a few years ago thanks to a newly formed partnership with the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture (NCTA), Reinke Irrigation, and Central Valley Ag. In May 2017, we had our first two YHS graduates walk across the state with a high school diploma AND a work certificate in the area of chemical application. This May, we expect to have 5 more graduates do the same.

Our students are able to take the following courses listed below within the friendly confines of YHS, which earns the work certificate that is halfway towards an associates degree. By the way, this comes at ZERO cost to our students thanks to the phenomenal support we receive from NCTA.

* Pest Management
* Ag Chemical Application
* Precision Farming
* Commercial Ag Carrier/CDL
* Crop Science
* Natural Resource Mgmt
* Welding

Next, here are just some random facts and figures that might be of interest.

* There are 1,628 middle school teams in the Vex Robotics Global League. YMS teams are currently raked 270th and 326th in the nation!

* Unfortunately, over 68% of our school district revenue comes from local property taxes. The national average is 29%. Ouch.

* The York TeamMates Chapter has over 160 mentor/mentee matches! We're always on the look-out for more mentors. Contact gayla.knight@yorkdukes.org if you're interested being a mentor.

* Did you know that most states do not allow "option enrollment" like we do here in Nebraska? In most states, you are isolated to the public school within the district that you live but that is not the case here. In fact, over 22,000 students across the state use their "option enrollment choice." YPS has about 32 more students that option in as opposed to optioning out. Our option in/out students come from/go to seven different school districts.

* Did you know that the number of hours a typical K-12 school is in session each year (regular school day, not counting activities) only comes to about 13% of the hours in a given year? That's why parents, families, and guardians should always be the most influential adults in their childrens' lives.

* Did you know that Nebraska public schools have the lowest administrative cost as a percentage of total spending per student of all neighboring states that includes South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming? Nebraska is at less than 5% while all others in this array are between 5.5 to 7%.

* As a direct result, the percentage of public school budgets spent on direct classroom instruction in Nebraska is right at 66% and higher than South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming, who all range between 57-61%.

Have a great week!

GO DUKES!