Lyon County Limelight

Nevada Teacher of the Year Finalist in LCSD In September, 2020, Lyon County School District was proud to see one of its own as a 2021 Finalist for the Nevada State Teacher of the Year award – Mrs. Lynn Jeka from Yerington Elementary School (YES).  The recognition comes months after she was nominated to apply for the Teacher of the Year award.  Jeka’s incredible abilities as an educator are rooted in her educational philosophy.  She believes that “education should be equitable for all students, regardless of race, gender, language, abilities, previous experiences or geographic location,” that “education should serve a purpose in developing college or career ready, informed citizens and address every student’s needs and interests” and that “schools should be working towards development of the whole child, not just instilling academic content knowledge.”   Jeka came to Lyon County School District (LCSD) in 2004 after completing her second Bachelor’s Degree in Eleme...

 Have you ever wondered what would it be like to be Principal for a Day?  For Saxon Madsen at Dayton Intermediate School this question became a reality this week.   Saxon was the top seller in a popcorn fundraiser where he raised over $1000 for the Parent Faculty Club and the top prize was switching places with the Dayton Intermediate School principal Mr. Kranjcec. While Saxon was busy running a school, Mr. Kranjcec was in Saxon's class taking his place and re-living his time in junior high school. Saxon said his favorite part of his day was delivering donuts to his staff!

  Lyon County, NV, September 14, 2020 – Lyon County School District’s (LCSD) Superintendent Wayne Workman has been named the 2021 Nevada Superintendent of the Year by the Nevada Association of School Superintendents (NASS).  NASS is a statewide nonprofit educational organization which strives to provide support to leaders of Nevada’s eighteen school districts and more than seven hundred and twenty public schools.   Workman was appointed as LCSD Superintendent during the November 2014 board meeting and began his tenure on July 1, 2015.  Workman launched his twenty-two year career in education after graduating from Utah State University in 1998 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical/Health Education and Athletic Training.  He later earned his Master’s Degree in Administration and Leadership from the University of Phoenix in 2006. As part of the LCSD, Workman has served two years as an Assistant Principal, three years as a Principal, one year as the Human Resources D...

The War Veteran's Memorial Association donates $1,000 to FIS.  Led by Mr. Richard Cook, FIS graciously accepts here.  Mr. Perry FIS leadership teacher, Julie Shoemaker long time friend of the Association along with Mr. Wilson's class, posed for a great moment at FIS. A Fernley High graduate, Bryan Peterson, gives Fernley students a fly-by while they lined US 95A in Fernley. More from the  FIS 9/11 Heroes and Patriot's Day Commemoration: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yerington Elementary School (YES) 1st Graders ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Baptist at YES prepares a lesson plan around Rick Rescorla: The "Fire-Drill" Hero of 9/11.  Rick Rescorla took fire-drills and other emergency drills very seriously. He insisted that those who he supervised treat every drill like it was the real thing, and made...

Lyon County, NV, September 8, 2020 – Tuesday, September 1st, marked the first day students were able to return to their schools for in-person instruction since the March 16th state-wide transition to distance learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Today, the second cohort of students returned to their beloved schools, classes, educators and peers.  This much anticipated return to in-person instruction comes after months of planning, preparing, adjusting, planning and preparing again. LCSD Student Information Systems (SIS) Administrator, Sam Felix, works in tandem with school counselors to create school calendars, among many other tasks.  He states, “One thing that is not common knowledge is that I [normally] start creating the following year [in the Infinite Campus portal] starting in January of the current year. Counselors start building schedules shortly after, sometimes not completing them until August. With the changes that happened this year, the schedules h...

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...

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 ...

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 t...

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 as...