Dr. Schwartz finishes first year

members if you count our substitute staff and more than 23,000 students,” Schwartz said. “We have three main comprehensive high schools and each has their own story, their own contexts around history, their own culture, and it all kind of fits under the umbrella of the culture of our school district, and just the magnitude of that and building those relationships and understanding that context, I would say is the biggest challenge,” he said.

To achieve this goal of understanding the district as a whole, Dr. Schwartz has made it his mission to attend as many community events as he can.

our strategic plan, we have three strategies,” he said.

These three strategies come in the form of adapting to Millard’s changing demographics, maintaining Millard’s status as a destination district, and engaging the community with Millard’s story. For the first part of the plan, a focus was put on changing Millard’s way of doing things to better benefit its changing students.

“How do we capture our changing demographics as an opportunity to best serve all of our students,” Schwartz said, “As we have more kids coming into our community that need to learn English, how do we help provide those services in a way that’s enriching for not only those students, but it grows the experience we have across the entire district,” he said.

The second part of Millard’s strategic plan is about enticing new families and staff to the district to make up for Millard’s static enrollment.

“From a student standpoint,” Schwartz said, “how can we continue to provide opportunities that give students a competitive advantage and help them figure out who they want to be when they leave our schools and develop skills,” he said.

special,” he said.

With his diverse background and experience, Dr. Schwartz comes to Millard with the knowledge necessary to guide such a diverse district.

With the retirement of Dr. Jim Sutfin last year, a new superintendent stepped up to carry the torch: Dr. John Schwartz. Schwartz, a former social studies teacher and superintendent of Norris Public Schools, was unanimously approved by the Millard Public School Board at the end of last school year. Whether it be teaching political science at Doane or administering as a principal, Dr. Schwartz has learned many things from each stop along his career.

“Getting to know our students or families, figuring out how to support staff,” Schwartz said, “is something that I have learned from every stop. It’s really the people that make school

“Every district has different needs, different priorities, different variables, different historical context that influences how people think about issues,” Schwartz said, “which is why I work so hard to be visible in our different buildings and in different community activities to get to know people to listen and learn and understand what it is that’s important to them,” he said.

Dr. Schwartz has had to take on the task of smoothing out the transition between superintendents. As he is an out of district hire, his biggest challenge was getting to know the community and culture.

“We have 35 schools and almost 3000 staff

“One of the best parts of being a superintendent is just being able to see all the amazing things our kids do.” Schwartz said. “Watching the Girls basketball team win a state championship was amazing. It was also really great to go up to South to the cultural fair, it was incredible. The stories were amazing. And the musicals and the plays that I’ve had a chance to see and just the array of activities, and kids are doing amazing things,” he said.

Dr. Schwartz also has been very future facing in devising the strategic plan of the district for the next five years.

“Millard has had a knack for being focused over time,” Schwartz said. “You can’t chase every good idea. And so it’s really trying to figure out what are the critical issues for that school district, in this case, our school district and what do we need to do to get better? And so within local competition. It’s not like just anybody could be there. People worked tremendously hard and wanted to be there, so we wanted to represent Nebraska well.”

The district has been focused on being a destination district for some time, which is why some Millard schools have specific programs to boost enrollment.

“Millard South, part of the many things that it does really, really well is an early college program,” Schwartz said, “About 25% of Millard South students will be graduating this year with an Associates degree,” he said.

The final part of the strategic plan revolved around having Millard tell its own story.

“How do we engage with our community in ways that help them to see that work that we’re doing here,” Schwartz said, “and what are the opportunities to improve and how do we tell that story with our community,” he said.

Overall, Dr. Schwartz is focused on continuing the success of Millard Public Schools and leading it into the future.

“What it really boils down to is how can we maintain a culture of stability, where from one year to the next, we provide predictable excellence,” Schwartz said.

“The hardest part for me was that there was downtime but no rest,” Jackson said. “You’re always doing something whether that’s competing, going on excursions, getting ready to compete or helping other people compete. Events can go until 11 at night so you are getting very little sleep and you are walking everywhere. It is a lot of fun but it can get especially tiring over 6 days.”

They paved through the difficulty however, and achieved this great success.

“I think it’s the hard work,” Jackson said. “Being able to work and study hard, put your nose down and really work through everything that you need to do. I took around 10 practice tests and that really helped.”

“I think it’s the hard work,” Kilzer said. “The school doesn’t know a lot about it so it can be hard to keep up the motivation and work ethic, but we did a good job of that. Now people are excited for us and people realize the hard work we put in. It was definitely worth it.”

“I’m so proud of their hard work,” Robinson said. “They work very hard. They’re a family that supports each other. People like to tease DECA that we are the trip club are we go have fun, and yes, we do have fun, but we also work really hard and we study really hard.”

Typical teen by day, designer by night

After hoping to start a business for years, junior Nick Barajas finally released his clothing brand, “Society 16.”

“I just always wanted to start my own business,” Barajas said. “I just thought that working for yourself would be a pleasure.”

The junior explained the meaning behind his brand’s name.

“So my brand is called Society 16 because it represents a society, meaning a group of people, and 16 meaning the age group and young adults in that area,” he said. “I wanted to make the focus around teens because that’s where I’m at. That’s where my age group is. And I think that I can relate to that group the most.”

Barajas added that teens around the age of 16 are in a period of stress, struggling with themselves, and having so many things on their plate.

“It can be hard with all those factors against you,” he said. “The future is right around the corner, and it’s just supposed to represent that light, that peace.”

The teen explained how he was able to get his business up and running.

“I looked to YouTube,” he said. “YouTube is a great resource. It helped me through a lot of questions,” Barajas said. “I also looked to my dad,” he said. “He knows a lot of things about finance [...], and I’ve learned a lot from him.”

Barajas explained his parents’ first reactions to his idea of starting a business.

“I would say they were reluctant at first, but after seeing the progress and the work I put in it, they support it now completely.”

Barajas mentioned that his parents now motivate him a lot. The junior also mentioned that his friends “definitely played a part” in the design process of his brand.

In order to finance his business, Barajas explained that he had side hustles, such as freelance graphic design and photography.

Currently, Barajas sells hoodies for $60 on his website ‘society16clothing.com’.

“I think hoodies are really comfortable. And, you know, they’re able to be trendy. So, yeah, that’s what I’m doing right now. And then I’ll soon be selling shirts,” he said.

The young entrepreneur explained his plans for the future.

“As my business progresses, I definitely want to scale as much as I can, get to a level where I am financially free,” Barajas said. “But in the near future, I want to reach out or expand my network,” he said. “And just build my business as big as I can before college.”

Barajas hopes to attend Creighton University and become a business major. But for now, he still has other clothing plans in the works. Barajas simply wants others to know, “I got hoodies out right now. So go check it out.”