A huge congratulations to our Panther Cross Country runners who competed at the NSAA State Cross Country Championships on Friday! ❤️💙 Ella Desh finished 16th overall, while Grady Vasa earned 37th overall! Competing at the state level is an incredible accomplishment, and these two represented Panther Nation with determination and heart! We are so proud of Ella, Grady and our entire cross country program for an outstanding season! The future is bright for Panther Cross Country! 🐾

A big congratulations to Hayden Gruber on being named to the 2026 All-KMAland Nebraska Girls Golf Team! 🏌️‍♀️ What an incredible recognition of Hayden’s talent and dedication to the game! We’re proud to see her hard work recognized and even prouder to have her representing Panther Nation! 🔗 https://www.kmaland.com/sports/presenting-the-2026-all-kmaland-nebraska-girls-golf-team/article_466e9e05-4670-4a4c-a9ae-663abf9c85b4.html

Our Palmyra FFA Horse Evaluation Team has earned a GOLD MEDAL at the 99th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis! And the individual results are just as impressive! 🥇 Sydney Wood – GOLD 🥇 Josie Johnson – GOLD 🥈 Lydia Van Meter – SILVER 🥈 Madeline Wood – SILVER Sydney also received her NHJTCA Equine Management Certification! Competing against some of the best FFA members in the entire country, these four young women have represented Palmyra High School with excellence! PANTHER NATION, let’s hear it for these girls and their advisor, Mrs. Beach! We are SO proud of you! 💙💛🐾

The lights. The band. The cheerleaders. The packed stands. The familiar faces. Our little Panthers and their friends. Tonight is our LAST HOME GAME of the season! The weather is beautiful and there’s no better place to spend a Friday night than cheering on our Panthers. Let’s fill those stands, bring the energy and make one more Friday night under the lights a memorable one! 🔥 Our Panther football team put together a little something to get you fired up for tonight! Check out their hype video: https://youtube.com/shorts/CqqZfk3ZdIg?feature=shared #OnePantherFamily #PantherPride

Our 3rd through 5th graders are serving up some fun in PE! Under the direction of Mr. Wemhoff, students have been learning the fundamentals of volleyball and putting their new skills to the test! After practicing the basics, our Panthers are taking their skills to the court with a fun twist on the traditional game… BEACH BALL VOLLEYBALL! It’s a great way to build teamwork and coordination while having a whole lot of fun! 🏐🐾

Today, Bennet Elementary was filled with orange as our Panthers came together to celebrate Unity Day and send a powerful message: Everyone deserves to feel safe, accepted, and included. Students proudly signed our Unity Day banner while teachers led meaningful conversations about kindness and the importance of standing up for others. Throughout October, Mr. Lahmon has also been helping students better understand bullying prevention through lessons in guidance class. Our hope is that the lessons learned today extend far beyond our classrooms. That our students choose kindness when no one is watching. That they stand up for someone who needs a friend. And that every Panther knows they belong. #OnePantherFamily #PantherPride #UnityDay

Best of luck to our Horse Evaluation team of Josie Johnson, Lydia Van Meter, Sydney Wood, and Madeline Wood as they represent Palmyra High School at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis! We’re cheering you on, ladies!

🧡 Tomorrow is Unity Day! 🧡 Bennet Elementary is wearing ORANGE on Wednesday, October 21st, to stand together against bullying and show that kindness is always in style! Let’s fill our hallways with orange and make kindness the norm! 🧡🐾

Students in Mrs. Beach’s Ag classes recently traded their textbooks for some feathered friends during a chicken lab! Students explored basic chicken anatomy, learned about proper nutrition and discussed safe handling techniques. Beyond learning about chickens, experiences like this help students develop practical skills, build confidence around animals and gain a better understanding of the care and responsibility involved in raising livestock. Agricultural education is about so much more than what happens in a classroom. It’s about connecting knowledge to real-world experiences, and Mrs. Beach is giving our Panthers opportunities to do just that!

Take a moment to read our weekly district newsletters! There's a lot going on for students over the next month!

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Behind every great school are some pretty incredible people, and we think it’s time you got to know ours! We’re kicking off a new Thursday tradition here at District OR-1! Each week, we’ll introduce you to two members of our Panther family, one from Bennet Elementary and one from Palmyra Junior-Senior High School. Why? Because we want our families to know the people who make our schools so special! We want you to recognize their faces in the hallways, learn what inspires them, and discover just how fortunate we are to have them working with our kids. Who knows? You might even get to know your child’s future teacher before they ever step foot in their classroom! 📚 Mrs. Rachel Greenfield | Bennet Elementary Mrs. Greenfield knew she wanted to be a teacher when she was just six years old, and now she’s inspiring the next generation of little Panthers! She recently earned her Master’s Degree in Reading and has a special passion for helping her first graders experience those exciting “aha!” moments as they become confident readers. We love having educators like Mrs. Greenfield who are always learning and finding new ways to help our students succeed! 💙 🏐 Mrs. Amanda Malone | Palmyra Junior/Senior High School With 10 years of teaching experience, Mrs. Malone is passionate about making a lasting difference in the lives of her students, just as her own teachers once did for her. She believes being a lifelong learner is part of being a great educator and is always looking for ways to grow so she can better serve her students. Whether she’s in the classroom or coaching volleyball, her goal is simple: to be the best teacher she can be for every student who comes her way! 💙

Last week, in honor of Be a Teacher Day, we turned the tables and gave our students the opportunity to recognize some of the teachers who have made a difference in their lives. Check out these two videos of our students celebrating some of the amazing educators who make District OR-1 so special! Favorite Teacher Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/cbNev9_30m0?feature=share Teacher Appreciation Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/LO7sX1ZCnV4?feature=share

Our 6th grade art students are putting their own fall-inspired spin on one of the most famous paintings in history, Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night! Before picking up their art supplies, students learned about Van Gogh’s unique artistic style and how he used art as a way to express himself and cope with life’s challenges. Then it was their turn to get creative! Students used oil pastels to create their Starry Night Pumpkins before adding layers of watercolor paint to bring their masterpieces to life. And we have to say, these pumpkins are looking pretty gourd-geous! 🎃🌟

We are excited to share that a team of Bennet Elementary educators was invited to present at the Nebraska Department of Education’s annual NeMTSS Conference! Our team shared how Bennet Elementary is developing and implementing proactive systems through Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to meet the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs of all students. This approach focuses on using data, collaboration, and intentional scheduling to ensure students receive the support and opportunities they need to be successful. One way Bennet Elementary puts MTSS into action is through WIN (What I Need) time, a dedicated part of the school day designed to give students targeted support in reading and math. It’s just one of the ways we’re working to help every Panther grow! We are incredibly proud of our staff for their continued commitment to building and strengthening systems that support every student, every day! It is exciting to see the great work happening at Bennet Elementary being shared with educators from across the state! Drop a comment congratulating Mrs. Linke, Ms. Peterson, Mrs. Borg, Mr. Haag, Ms. Swartzendruber, and Mrs. Greenfield!

Get a head start on your holiday shopping while supporting local makers, small businesses, and the Palmyra Post Prom Committee! With plenty of vendors to shop from, a bake sale, raffle, and concessions, it’s the perfect excuse to grab a friend and spend the afternoon shopping! 🗓️ Sunday, November 8, 2026 ⏰ 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM 📍 Palmyra High School | 425 F Street 🍁Interested in being a vendor? There’s still time to join the fun! Email craftfairpalmyra@gmail.com for more information.

Our elementary school counselor spent lunch recess on the four square court today, proving once again that he’s willing to do just about anything for our Panthers. Even if that means risking his dignity against a group of VERY competitive 4th graders. 😜 All jokes aside, this is exactly why we love Mr. Lahmon! He has a special way of connecting with our students, making them feel valued, and showing up for them in ways big and small. We’re lucky to have him on our team! 💙🐾 Now, whether he actually won a round of four square is another story. 😂

A HUGE thank you to Bennet AND Palmyra's Fire & Rescue squads for making this morning’s High Five Friday one our Panthers won’t soon forget! With this week being Fire Prevention Week, the timing couldn’t have been better! After the high fives were handed out, the Bennet crew stuck around to teach our students about battery and charging safety. Then it was time for a little friendly competition! Students cheered as firefighters raced to put on their gear and competed to fill buckets with water. The morning wrapped up with an up-close look at the fire truck and ambulance! We are incredibly grateful for the men and women who volunteer their time to protect and serve our communities. Thank you for answering the call when our communities need you and for showing our young Panthers what it means to serve others. We couldn’t ask for better hometown heroes for our students to look up to. We’re so lucky to have you in our corner! #OnePantherFamily #FirePreventionWeek #PantherPride

Happy Be a Teacher Day! Palmyra FCCLA students celebrated by recognizing their favorite teachers and dressing up like teachers for the day! We also loved recognizing our students who aspire to become teachers. We are so thankful for the amazing educators who make a difference every day and we are excited to see the next generation of teachers! Be A Teacher Day is dedicated to encouraging people to consider a career in teaching and highlighting the impact educators make. Stay tuned tomorrow for more highlights from today's celebrations! #TeacherDay #PantherPride #EducatorsInspire

The Palmyra Marching Band will be performing TODAY at 1:00 PM at the Olson Complex, and we’d love to give our musicians a BIG hometown crowd! The weather is absolutely beautiful, so take a late lunch and come spend part of your afternoon outside! Let’s fill the stands and cheer on the Palmyra Marching Band! 💙 📍 Olson Complex | Palmyra ⏰ 1:00 PM TODAY

Thanks to the Bennet Elementary Boosters, every student at Bennet Elementary got to choose a FREE book from this year’s Scholastic Book Fair! Our students browsed the shelves, made their wish lists, and picked out a book of their very own. We especially loved watching our 4th and 5th graders help our preschoolers find the perfect book. Parents, inside each book is a special tag reminding students that it was a gift from the Boosters. We hope that little note — and the book it belongs to — is something they’ll hold onto for years to come. Thank you, Bennet Elementary Boosters, for putting 338 new books into the hands of our Panthers! #OnePantherFamily #PantherPride #BennetBoosters