Student success depends on him

Jerry Bergstrom, Pershing principal, wins 2008 national award

by Lindsey Tederman

December 8, 2007 | Lexington Clipper-Herald | Lexington, Nebraska

 

Pershing Elementary School principal, Jerry Bergstrom, center, is surrounded by his students.

Pershing Elementary School principal, Jerry Bergstrom, center, is surrounded by his students, who he affords every opportunity. Although Jerry Bergstrom won the 2008 National Distinguished Principal from Nebraska, he believes every staff member, student and parent from Pershing Elementary are the real winners.

"You can only lead when you have followers," Berg-strom, Pershing's principal, said. He attributes his success to the united effort of many. "As I look at the award, it has my name on it, but it is a reflection of all educators."

The needs of the children are number one on Bergstrom's principal's priority list. His rapport with the students is evident, but he says he pushes them pretty hard too. "I'm a maximizer," Bergstrom describes himself. "Every student should grow and improve with their own gifts and abilities."

When he meanders into the cafeteria, kids are anxious to talk with him, being in a photo with him seems to be the thrill of their day. He doesn't mind being a little noisy with them too.

In education for over 30 years, Bergstrom is qualified to make some noise. His educational impact has been felt locally, statewide and even nationally. His success in acquiring a grant from the Institute for Educational Inquiry and his Together for Children program have both helped create this spotlight. He and his staff have been able to involve immigrant parents, community people, businessmen, clergy, politicians, high school students, college professors and school staff in "study circles" to determine needs of Pershing Elementary and the community. "We wanted to engage the community in the public and democratic processes," Bergstrom said.

What transpired from these six years of meetings was an action plan with tangible outcomes. Lexington's Welcome Center was established, an immigration specialist was hired and an 18-member Multicultural Commission will soon be part of the Lexington city council.

His efforts took him to the National Study Circle Resource Center Conference in Chicago and to the Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle, where he spoke on the successes. From that, Pershing Elementary garnered more awards, the Nicholas Michelli Award for Promoting Social Justice.

Awards are nice, but Bergstrom said his focus is to increase parent engagement by instructing them on how to support their children's education and how to fully integrate into a democratic society.

"Parent engagement equals student achievement," Bergsrom said.

Through Bergstrom's labors, Pershing Elementary School is surviving a 50 percent student increase and is even thriving. When he arrived 19 years ago, the school had 211 students and 97 percent were Caucasian, English was the primary language (statistics of English Lanuage Learners, ELL students, were not kept at that time). Today, the school is home to 320 students, of which 81 percent are non-white and approximately 28 percent are ELL students. This influx caused test scores to dip fairly dramatically. However, in Bergstrom's tenure, writing scores have increased from the 40th to the 93rd percentile, math scores are improving. Bergstrom says reading scores are lagging a little, but he has wasted no time digging into that issue. He implemented a Response to Reading initiative that was done successfully at Morton Elementary. Direct assessments and data are used to determine the student's progress on a week-to-week basis.

"This way we don't wait," Bergstrom said. "It's a wonderful way of getting the children what they need, when they need it."

Opportunities are what Bergstrom is all about. He believes by extending every opportunity to every child, each child then has every opportunity to succeed.

Bergstrom's lives and leads by that philosophy. He refers to John Duey, an education philosopher, who said, what the wisest parents want for their child, so should we want for all our children.

Bergstrom received a bachelor degree in business psychology, a master degree in psychology and counseling and an endorsement in administration, all from the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK). He was a counselor at the Amherst and Overton schools for 13 years, taught summer and night courses at UNK for two, before starting work in Lexington. He was a counselor at Lexington Middle School for one year before he moved to Pershing. There, he has worked in various capacities as director of special services, a P.E. teacher and the principal. For the past 14 years, he has been the full time principal.

Bergstrom will be recognized as the 2008 National Distinguished Principal from Nebraska in January during a presentation ceremony at Pershing Elementary. He will also represent Nebraska principals in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2008.

http://www.lexch.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19095885&BRD=284&PAG=461&dept_id=558509&rfi=6

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