Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUNDUP: Blood Drive At DPS This Monday, Superintendent Search Underway

Thursday, March 3, 2016

NEWS ROUNDUP: Blood Drive At DPS This Monday, Superintendent Search Underway

Blood Drive This Monday At School: Donating blood is one of the most selfless acts. When you donate blood, there's no telling who you'll be helping. Maybe a mother, a father, a son or daughter. A baby. Maybe a person involved in a car accident. Perhaps one of your own loved ones or friends. There will be a blood drive at the Dorchester School this coming Monday, March 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Those interested in donating blood can call the school (946-2781) or you can just walk in on Monday.

DPS Superintendent Search Underway: In January, we informed readers that Dorchester Public School Superintendent Mitch Kubicek would be resigning from DPS at the end of the school year. Kubicek has been part of the DPS community since 2008, just as the new school building opened its doors for the first time. Replacing him will be a difficult task, but school board members on Wednesday night met to review the nearly 30 applications that DPS received from those interested in becoming Dorchester's next superintendent. The word we've received is that the applicant pool has been narrowed down to just a handful of individuals and a new hire will be made soon.

Upkeep Of Dorchester's Paved Streets: Paving may be a dirty word to some residents when it comes to Dorchester's streets. But we can all agree that Dorchester should and must maintain the paved streets we already have. This year, most of Dorchester's paved streets turn 37 years old. (Main street is older.) While our town's gravel streets get new gravel and are maintained every year, paved streets are largely neglected. Now they're showing major wear and tear -- from crumbling intersections to uneven surfaces -- thanks to the disproportionately high amount of traffic they get. It would be great to see village leaders compromise and make plans to resurface and upkeep our main arteries and vital street infrastructure. (Another suggestion: Perhaps intersections could be paved further back so that gravel doesn't flow onto our paved streets after heavy rainfalls.)

Politics In The Classroom: This week, we heard firsthand from a woman in a neighboring community who said her granddaughter's 8th grade class was told by their teacher that a certain Republican presidential candidate was "just like Hitler." It's sad how political our country has become. Perhaps we should not be surprised when this polarization creeps into the classroom. But school officials and school boards (and parents) are duty-bound to guard against the politicizing of the taxpayer-funded classroom. The Supreme Court has ruled that school boards may adopt policies that prohibit employees from discussing personal political views with students during instructional time. Moreover, if the employee is engaging in political activities during his or her working hours instead of performing work, the school district can take disciplinary action. Ask your kids if their teachers have discussed the election (which is completely appropriate, by the way) and what the teacher has said about the candidates. Educators are paid by hardworking taxpayers of all political stripes; teachers should be encouraging developing minds to fairly consider all sides and issues, not exerting their political influence.

2 comments:

AnonymousMarch 3, 2016 at 4:46 PM
I don't know why it would be controversial to discus finishing the three unpaved blocks on 11th st
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cynical richardMarch 4, 2016 at 3:01 PM
............. i submitted my name to be superintendent ................................. i'd whip those kids into shape so fast ........................................... recess held in the cow pasture every afternoon .............................. only thing going home in the backpacks would be cow chips .......................... promise you .................. pick me board members ................................
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."