Atkinson
Atkinson is a community of approximately 1250 residents located on the north end of the beautiful sandhills in Nebraska. The small community is comprised of industries designed to support agriculture and livestock operations. Atkinson prides itself in being innovative, entrepreneurial, and sustainable through supporting local business.
With the nearest semi-metropolitan area being 90 miles away, Atkinson is very self-sustaining and able to provide many services to its community members who do not have to travel far to get what they need. Some of the amenities include a full service hospital, two medical clinics, pharmacy, eye clinic, dental clinic, law firm, chiropractic office, both independent and assisted living facilities, three banks, two hardware stores, a grocery store, coffee shop, nursery and greenhouse, three gas stations, auto parts store, several automotive shops, several hair salons, senior citizen center, several restaurants, a motel, and a Case IH farm implement dealer and service facility just to name a few.
South of town is the majority of ranch and cow/calf operations as well as hay farmers. North and east of town is mostly irrigated farm land where the major crops are corn and soybeans. Atkinson is also surrounded by other major agriculture facilities such as high volume pork and beef facilities as well as a large potato farm and an ethanol plant on the outskirts of town.
Atkinson prides itself in its annual celebration of "Hay Days". Occurring in mid-August, Hay Days consists of a fun run, parade, duck races, turtle races, ranch rodeo, and a coronation dance where the hay king and queen are crowned. We encourage you to stop by some time and check out the fun.
West Holt Public Schools
West Holt Public Schools covers approximately 900 square miles of Holt County in north central Nebraska. Our campus is located in city limits of Atkinson, NE. The West Holt Public School District serves approximately 447 students PK-12 and employs 75 staff members.
In 2008, a bond was passed with 85% approval to construct an elementary school attached to the existing high school to create one K-12 campus. Several renovations and additions have been made since that time to include a separate agricultural education building, an improved music classroom, an updated Industrial Arts workshop, and relocation of the Art classroom. To improve the services provided and retention of students in the district, a preschool program and building addition were added in 2011 that is now at capacity. Finally, in 2016, four classroom and two office additions were completed. This addition created new 6th grade classrooms as well as an elementary guidance office, Title I office, and SPED life skills room. All of these additions were necessitated by the fact that since 2009, West Holt Public Schools has gained nearly 140 students on campus for a growth of 45%.
At West Holt Public Schools, our vision is Educating the Whole Person through Relationship-Based Education. Our students strive to become well-rounded citizens and are provided with many experiences and technology to prepare them for the future.
WHPS - Demographic Data
Student Membership - West Holt Public Schools has shown steady enrollment in the past five maintaining a PK-12 enrollment of between 430 and 440 students on average.
Student Race and Ethnicity - West Holt averages just under 90% of students who are white, with hispanic students being about 8% and the other 2% being made up black or African American and students of two or more races. In the past ten years, we have seen the hispanic numbers double due to an increase in corporate cattle producers and the addition of an ELL program.
Highly Mobile Students - Since 2019, this percentage has fluctuated. However, in the last two school years, we have seen a decrease in highly mobile students.
Teacher Data - The teaching population at West Holt is slowly getting younger. We currently have a veteran staff who are beginning to retire at a higher rate than years previous. This has increased our turnover rate; however, the number of teachers who leave the district on a year to year basis, not due to retirement is usually 1-2 teachers per year.
Approximately 58-60% of our teachers hold a masters degree.
Average years of experience is 21 years, 7 years higher than the state average.
Average salary for certified teachers is $60,854, just above the state average of $60,377.
100% of our teachers are white.
The percentage of teachers defined as "inexperienced" by the NDE has increased from 5% to 11% in that past 4 years.
One teacher is currently teaching on a provisional/transition to teach certificate.
The percentage of teachers who teach out of their field of certification is 9-10%. This is due to needing to cross instructional lines to offer particular opportunities for our students. This is slightly above the state average of 7%.
WHPS - Program Participation Data
English Learners Program - Although there has been an increase in hispanic students, West Holt has seen a decrease in participants in EL programs. Our part-time EL teachers still assist a couple of students.
Free and Reduced Lunch Population - Free and reduced lunch populations are consistently between 40% and 50%. Our lunch bookkeeper does well to get as many students to apply as possible. In the last few years we have dropped below the state average, due to that average increasing greatly. Our current FRL percentage for 2024-25 is 40%
High Ability Learners - West Holt Elementary began a HAL program in the fall of 2023. Students in grades 4-6 could qualify based off of classroom assessment and MAP and NSCAS scores. The program known as Elevate, had its first group of 8 students for the spring of 2024. Students met once a week on Wednesdays and did academically accelerated STEM projects.
Special Education - WHPS did show a decent increase in the number of students with disabilities in 2023-24, the equivalent of just over 7 students. Our current SPED % for 2024-25 is 14%.
WHPS -Other Statistical Data
Graduation Rate - West Holt continues to maintain a high graduation rate. We are regularly above 94% with a low of 88% and a high of 100% in the last five years. We consistently average about one student per class who decides to not continue education to high school graduation.
Dropout Rate - As stated above, we consistently have one student per class that chooses to drop out. We encourage continual participation in school, but often times these students have fallen far enough behind, they would not graduate with their classmates. We have offered other opportunities like online credits and such. We have had few participants in those programs.
Attendance Rate - the attendance rate has remained high and consistent for WHPS. In the last five years the low was 94.5% and the high was 96.7%
Chronic Absenteeism - This category tends to be an issue for the administration at our school. Although we continue to be below the state average, we have seen increasing trends. COVID-19 created a lot of absenteeism, and we rebounded well from that. However, in 2023-24 we saw another drastic increase. This is a focus area for our administration and staff.
School Mobility Rate - WHPS has seen a significant drop in the past 5 years in mobility. This could be due to many factors; however, difficult economic times, and elevated housing prices discourages relocation.
Graduation Requirements - Two hundred forty hours of credit are required for the general diploma.
Minimum requirements
Forty Credits of English - Ten Credits of Speech or One-Acts may be
substituted for ten credits of Senior English.
Thirty Credits of Math
Thirty Credits of Science - Physical Science and Biology are required.
Thirty Credits of Social Studies - Geography or World History is
required freshman or sophomore year; American History and Modern
Problems are required Junior and Senior Year.
Ten Credits of Physical Education
Five Credits of Financial Literacy