Checking in with the Commissioner

Dear Nebraska Administrators,

One of the greatest pieces that I have seen come out of this is the collaboration across the entire state, regardless of location or size.Your leadership has supported teachers, families and students in ways we never imagined possible. Thank you for proving that we are one state united in providing access to all students.

Dear Teachers,

There aren’t enough words to thank you for flipping your learning to an alternative learning environment overnight. What you did was nothing short of amazing and proves that teachers are some of the greatest and most adaptive people out there!

Dear Families,

Thank you for stepping into a role of teacher/tutor/tech support with little notice. We know that you were balancing so many things during this time and it wasn’t always easy to do it all.

Dear Students,

Thank you for your persistence, dedication and patience with us as we figured this all out. Your lives were interrupted and celebrations were modified. This doesn’t make the accomplishments any less impressive. YOU are the reason we are here and we have missed you every day.

If I could go back in time and talk to the person who was reading that first message about the change in boys state basketball, what would I tell her? I would start by saying stock up on hand sanitizer and buy some shares in Zoom. Then, I would say to take a deep breath, it is going to be a wild ride. I would recommend phoning a friend early and often. No one got through this alone, we are getting through this because we utilize our networking systems like NCSA, our national organizations and informal networks that we have across the state. I am proud to be a member of an organization that has focused on educating all students.

While we know this is not the end or even the hardest part of this situation, the lessons that we have learned will move us forward and continue to prove why Nebraska is such a great place. ■

ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE THROUGH PARTNERSHIP IN THOUGHTFUL DESIGN

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ELKHORN VALLEY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Checking in with the Commissioner By TYLER DAHLGREN, NCSA Communications Specialist

The Commissioner of Education reflects on the timeline of how this played out, this world-altering pandemic that forced schools to seal their front doors shut with next-to-no notice and sent students and staff into quarantine two months before the final bell was supposed to ring.

Even now, on the morning of May 28, two-and-a-half months after COVID-19 turned the world upside down and only a handful of hours before he was set to join Governor Pete Ricketts and Dr. Andre Kalil on a Live Town Hall broadcast by NET, Dr. Matt Blomstedt nods and raises his eyebrows slightly when asked about the abruptness of it all.

Dr. Matt Blomstedt

The Nebraska Department of Education had the coronavirus on its radar as early as February 28, and around that time Blomstedt began to hold conversations with the governor centering on plans if the situation were to escalate. Escalate, it did.

“By the next Monday, I was asking our team to build a COVID-19 response website, which went live (shortly after),” said Blomstedt. “By Wednesday (March 4th), we were being briefed by Dr. (Gary) Anthone and the epidemiologists from the Department of Health and Human Services.”

Dr. Blomstedt attended a show choir event at Lincoln Northeast the following Saturday.. He spent much of the day on the phone and held conversations with Fremont superintendent Mark Shepard, whose community had experienced the first outbreak, and the governor’s office. Blomstedt hasn’t had a free moment since.

“I was involved in every single positive case that was being identified in that first week,” said Blomstedt, who was also involved in the decisions being made regarding the state basketball tournament.

On March 11, Dr. Tom Osborne came to speak with the NDE staff. In the early stages of the whirlwind, the Hall of Fame coach’s words touched Blomstedt, and continue to influence the leadership he’s provided through adverse circumstances.

“It was a stressful day, but oddly enough, sitting there and listening to Dr. Osborne speak to our staff, it reinforced the notion of values-based and values-driven decision making,” Blomstedt said. “Everything we’ve done since, not that it’s perfect and not that everyone always agrees completely with everything, but it’s been focused on people and safety.” After the floods of 2019, Dr. Blomstedt is no stranger to leading through uncertainty. This threat, one of an ‘invisible enemy’, is different, but schools have shown the same kind of resolve over the last few months as they did then.

“It’s remarkable what schools, what administrators and teachers, have done,” he said. “They shifted an entire system to feed students, to respond to the social and emotional needs of families and kids, and they’re still doing that every single day. I wouldn’t trade being in Nebraska for anything.”

The challenge for school administrators now, said Dr. Blomstedt, is waiting for directives to come from the state level. At the state level, meanwhile, the challenge has been waiting for directives to come from the federal level.

“Hopefully, what we’re seeing by the time we are in July, is the decision-making process returning to folks at a local level with state guidance and support,” said Blomstedt. “In any crisis, it’s going to be the local leaders and the local response that makes a real difference. It’s important for people to understand the threat, the challenges and the needs specific to their town, to their area. We’ll provide the best guidance we can, but it’s not going to be perfect for everyone and they’re going to have to adjust for very specific local circumstances.”

NDE has continuously offered resources to school districts since early March, including the Launch Nebraska website, which offers tools and support for unfinished learning and restarting schools. The website (www.launchne.com) is a comprehensive guide for school districts to utilize as fall approaches.

“The intention behind Launch Nebraska is to scale the knowledge base around this environment and to help provide a resource for schools to make solid decisions at a local level,” said Blomstedt, whose NDE team collaborated with the Department of Health and Human Services and the University of Nebraska Medical Center in building the expansive site. “It’s a combination of our best state and local thinking around how to address moving forward.”

NDE will make changes based on local areas, said Blomstedt, and will strive to give districts flexibility when it comes to handling specifics.