Catching up with the NCSA Ambassadors BY TYLER DAHLGREN

Catching up with the NCSA Ambassadors

By TYLER DAHLGREN, NCSA Communication Specialist

It had been awhile since we sat down with the traveling trio of NCSA Ambassadors, who are back on the road advocating for Nebraska’s public schools and sharing successes one stop at a time.

They spread the good word. In fact, many stories featured on the Nebraska Public School Advantage website are discovered by the ambassadors on their travels.

Our three “semi-retired” school superintendents cover the state presenting to civic groups, school boards, and district staff, and were plugged into just about any and every kind of meeting held during the pandemic. We asked Dr. Cinde Wendell, Dr. Keith Rohwer and Kyle McGowan to share some of their observations from that period of time, and to briefly reflect on the last five years of being an NCSA Ambassador.

Q: The NCSA Ambassador program and Nebraska Public School Advantage just eclipsed the five-year mark. What a journey it’s been. Do you remember what drew you initially to the NCSA Ambassador program back in 2016?

Cinde: “Being able to stay active in schools, to be able to be involved with what they’re doing, and the thought of advocacy was a draw for all of us. That’s what we’re all about, advocating for public schools.”

Keith: “When Mike first talked to me about this job, I had no idea what it was going to be, but the idea of advocating and promoting public schools seemed like an amazing job. It has evolved into something even greater than I had ever imagined it to be.”

Kyle: “When you’re a superintendent, an important part of your job is always being an ambassador. For your school, your children, and across Nebraska. When I was approached about the position, I thought that it was fantastic. I’m passionate about Nebraska schools and students and it was a great opportunity.”

Q: What an unprecedented last 20 months. You’ve each expressed that you’re glad to be doing this work right now as opposed to the tall tasks ahead of school administrators, who navigated such uncertainty in really an admirable way. What inspired you about the way our schools stepped up and pulled us through this pandemic?

Cinde: “We are so very proud of everything our education system in Nebraska has done. They had a will to keep going and a desire to make sure there was great things happening with their students and their families.”

“We cannot say enough how thankful we are for our administrators, our teachers, our students and families to keep things going like they did.”

Keith: “What we saw was every conversation we were sitting in on over that time revolved around COVID. And every question answered raised another question. In the midst of that, collaboration was really key to what has happened. Collaboration between school leaders, ESU leaders, NDE, all those things helped us move forward through this time. That’s been the bright spot.”

“It did not matter what size of school you were, we all faced the same challenge. That’s one thing that was unique about this. Everyone was at the table trying to answer the same questions.”

Kyle: “Nebraska’s handling of the pandemic was a perfect example of why this state is so successful. It was a commonsense approach, and the first thing administrators did was ask ‘How do we keep children safe?’”

"All the facts weren’t out there, but I’m sure the people reading this were having meetings daily trying to answer that question. This is where local control was so important. It looks different in a school that has 500 kids versus a school that has 50. Every educational leader met, found out facts and did what they could do to keep kids safe.”

“What we learned, and what we really already knew, is that kids do better when they have a real teacher, a live person in front of them. I think Nebraska set the model for the rest of the country.” ■