Lyon County Limelight

In the spring of 2019 for the start of the 2019-2020 school year, Lyon County School District (LCSD) and its Board of Trustees approved and welcomed an expanded online distance education program with Distance Education Coordinator, Stephanie Nice.  LCSD’s online distance education program, LyOnline (LYOL), was created with the anticipation of serving around 14 students in the 2019-20 school year - that number was quickly surpassed. Throughout the 2019-20 fall and spring, enrollment reached 212 students and finished out the year with 159 students. LyOnline serves students in grades 6 through 12 who seek an alternative to the traditional classroom education.  Some of the reasons students come to LyOnline is because they find themselves heavily involved in some activity that requires a great amount of time and would require a large amount of absences from school; they feel they work better at their own pace in online learning environments; their families choose to enroll in dista

If we haven't said it yet, let us say it again - the last half of the 2020 spring semester was strange and unprecedented!  Moving our students and staff to remote distance learning was interesting but doing so created some incredibly unique opportunities for students.  Some of those students include Mrs. Lori Rittenhouse's Pre-Kindergarten classroom from Silver Stage Elementary School.  Mrs. Rittenhouse held Circle Time via Zoom every day because she wanted to try to keep a little stability in the students' lives by having that interaction with each other and with staff.  Plus, she just really wanted to "see" her littles every day because she missed them. Throughout the distance learning time at home, Mrs. Rittenhouse invited many different "guest readers" to read to the students every day.  The guest readers were all ages and included some of Mrs. Rittenhouse's family from all over the United States; family members of her students; differen

A life-long student of Lyon County School District (LCSD) graduated from Fernley High School (FHS) with the incredible accomplishment of perfect attendance since kindergarten.  This is the second student from FHS to walk away with thirteen years of perfect attendance! Aspen Kennison grew up in Fernley where she attended Cottonwood Elementary School, Fernley Intermediate School, Silverland Middle School and most currently Fernley High School. Aspen had been working toward perfect attendance her whole school career with inspiration from her mother who had achieved perfect attendance in her academic career. When asked if there were ever any days in those thirteen years that she just didn't feel 100% up to going to school, Aspen admits that there were a few times, but even so, she realized how far she had come and how close she was to accomplishing this goal that she never missed a day. Senior year sometimes presents student-initiated activities like "Senior Ditch Da

Beginning on March 16, 2020, Lyon County School District (LCSD) students and the students of all Nevada schools were asked to stay home - a measure taken by our government leadership in response to the world health crisis surrounding the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). With the uncertainty surrounding how long the stay-at-home distance learning would be in place, LCSD Nutrition Services and LCSD Transportation quickly devised a plan to keep the children of the Lyon County community fed - this included any child under the age of 18, even if they were not a student of LCSD.  One day later on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, meals were on their way to the children of the community.  For the first few weeks, LCSD Transportation, with the support LCSD Nutrition Services and other LCSD staff, delivered meals to bus stops throughout the county where children would receive their meals.  When restrictions from the government called for stricter operations, LCSD persevered and found a wa

DES receives energy saving information prior to school closures. This year at Dayton Elementary School (DES), Karon Dutcher and Tammy Borremans joined a group called Project Recharge by Envirolutions.  Dusti Houk at Dayton Intermediate School (DIS)also uses this curriculum in her classroom.  The DES duo went through training over the summer and received about $2000 worth of resources to do the lesson plans with their 5th grade students this year.  DES is the first elementary school that has been involved in Project Recharge. The students were able to learn about electricity and other forms of energy - how they're used and their energy efficiency. The goal was for the students to work in groups to develop proposals or Public Service Announcments (PSA) about how to save energy in their homes, schools, communities, etc.  Due to the school closures, the students were unable to complete the proposals in the classrooms; however, several of the students wanted to do the proposals an

13 Years of Perfect Attendance A life-long student of Lyon County School District (LCSD) graduates from Fernley High School tomorrow and will do so with the incredible accomplishment of perfect attendance since kindergarten.  You heard that right, thirteen years of perfect attendance! Austin Handka, a current senior at Fernley High School was able to provide LCSD with some insight into his incredible accomplishment.  He grew up in Fernley where he attended Fernley Elementary School in kindergarten, Cottonwood Elementary School for his remaining primary years, Fernley Intermediate School, Silverland Middle School and most currently Fernley High School. Perfect attendance was not something Austin was actively working toward or even knew he was accomplishing until he reached high school, where he found out he could get a laptop if he had perfect attendance for his four high school years.  "Going to school for all 12/13 is just a bonus!" says Austin. When asked

Please see the following for all of the outstanding accomplishments of Smith Valley, Mason Valley and Fernley FFA at the Virtual FFA State Contest! Two Lyon County students were elected to be Nevada State FFA Officers next year! Smith Valley FFA: Mason Valley FFA: Fernley FFA: