BEATRICE – The Beatrice Board of Education has approved the school calendar for the 2025-2026 school year.  Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jackie Nielsen says the calendar has the school year starting on August 12th and finishing on May 15th. For the first time in recent memory, the semesters nearly match up in the number of days….85.5 in the first semester….86.5 in the second semester.


Nielsen says a first day for new teachers will transition into a first day for all teachers.
"We are bringing back all staff on that 5th (August). So that will be a nice way to get other resources in the building rather than just the administration and secretaries. So they will have plenty of people to go to...plenty of people to collaborate with as they enter into the Beatrice Public School system."


September 2nd of the coming school year is planned as a professional development day. "We also have a lot of different things we are looking at putting in place in the middle school and high school to really build our systems and to make sure that we are providing interventions in our classrooms for academics and for behavior."


The district will also be working with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and ESU Number Five during that development day.  May 6th during the 2026 part of the school year is planned for kindergarten roundup…and there will be no classes on that day.  Calendar adjustments were implemented following a committee-level meeting of the board and after obtaining staff feedback.


Meanwhile, the decision to install a geothermal heating and cooling system for the new Beatrice Elementary School is paying off, in the form of a big energy rebate.


Superintendent Jason Alexander told school board members Monday night that the system is not only resulting in energy savings, but a big rebate check to the district through a federal grant effort.


"We are anticipating any time in the near future to receive $1.2 million rebate on our geothermal system. I can also tell you in the amount of time...the small amount of time of comparison that we've had...in the cool weather months comparing our old utility bills to our new utility bills with the geothermal system...our utility usage and expenses are down by about seven to ten thousand dollars a month. It will be interesting to see as we go in the next few weeks after we have more cold weather how that shapes up. But, we're tracking it all and that appears to be good news."

BPS Superintendent Jason Alexander
BPS Superintendent Jason Alexander  

 
With all good news, often comes a little not-so-good. Alexander says with an increase in property valuation the past year of about 13-percent within the district and a decrease in the district’s tax rate to about 99-cents per hundred dollars valuation…Beatrice Public Schools will lose some state support.

"The downside of that is when your valuations go up...and you've heard me preach about this for years...then your state aid comes down. So, next year we will see a reduction under the current model of about $944,300 due to that. We also lose the two year school adjustment which will be a factor, as well."


During this new Nebraska Legislative session, lawmakers are debating possible adjustments in how public schools are funded…in the area of foundation aid to school districts.