Good morning, Lincoln. Here's what you should know today.
New high schools see rapid growthÂ
At the start of last school year, several hundred students walked through the brand new doors of Standing Bear High School for the very first time, excited to be part of the historic first year of Lincoln’s newest school.
With only around 300 students, there was always plenty of room in the hallways, and class sizes were generally smaller than they are at other high schools.
Now, as school picks back up again this month, enrollment at Standing Bear is growing steadily and is on track to near its capacity of 1,000 students next school year, when the school will officially have all four grade levels among its ranks.
For the 2024-25 school year, which will begin on Aug. 12, Standing Bear is expected to have upwards of 600 students enrolled — double what it had in its inaugural year.
Efforts to get a quiet zone along the rail line that runs along Nebraska Parkway in southeast Lincoln have stopped, but a Lincoln resident is doing what he can to get monitoring systems at those crossings.
Andrew Foust, the state director for SMART Transportation Division, has spoken to the City Council and Railroad Transportation Safety District, and is urging them to invest in technology that would allow residents and emergency responders to see when crossings are blocked by trains.
Two state senators representing Lincoln recently sent a letter to city, Lancaster County and RTSD officials encouraging them to consider installing the technology.
Sens. Eliot Bo-star and Carolyn Bosn said they’ve received frequent contacts from constituents about the increased rail traffic since BNSF Railway resumed service along the rail line that heads east from Hobson Yard to the southeast along Nebraska Parkway out of Lincoln.
That’s it for Monday, August 5. Stay in the know with Lincoln’s longest-standing news source at JournalStar.com and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.
