The Future of OPS
The Omaha Public Schools 160th Anniversary mural, displayed in the foyer of the Teacher Administrative Center, consists of six panels that recount a 160 years of OPS history. The final two panels envision the future. They capture students’ and the community’s perspectives of the future of Omaha Public Schools from now through the year 2040. The panel depicts both challenges and potential opportunities to consider in the years to come.
Future Challenges
As OPS approaches ways to overcome future challenges, the district will continue it’s long-standing history of dedication to students, education and community.
Future School
Students from Saddlebrook Elementary broke ground on a new school at 156th and Ida. The school opened in the fall of 2009. Through a joint-use arrangement with the YMCA, the school represents trend for future OPS schools that share space with the community.
Community Connections
OPS will increase access to education through better communications with non-English speaking students and parents. This will align with a global trend toward a more connected world in which people collaborate to increase better outcomes in their neighborhoods, businesses and government.
Developing Students to Impact the Future
Providing students with access to early childhood education helps increase pre-reading literacy, which sets the stage for a students entire educational journey.
OPS focuses on developing each student’s unique gifts, including those whose strengths involve creativity and physical movement. The continued teaching of the arts will lead communities to envision and work toward cultural changes for a better future.
One illustration on the mural depicts a sculptural portrait of a graduate near colorful ribbons and keys. The ribbons identify the attributes of a graduate while the bird and keys represent an annual tradition that Lake School Principal Emma Whitmore began in 1882. Students would plant trees on the school’s campus regularly. At graduation, the class would bury a box with all of their names in it underneath a tree. The key to the box was fastened around a pigeon. The pigeon would fly away, carrying the key to an unknown place. The artists reimagined this activity in the futures panel.
OPS will shape students to be strong, principle-centered leaders. Good leadership is like a sea captain who charts a course to a destination. The captain keeps a clear map of the reefs along the way, uses true north values and understands the consequences of ignoring true principles.
STEM education will likely increase to provide students with enhanced foundational science, engineering, technological and mathematics education that helps equip them to later create scientific advancements.
The Environment and Sustainability
OPS continues to invest in the Green Schools Initiative, which has already decreased significant greenhouse gas emissions (nearly 160,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, cumulatively). The district has earned national awards through the program. As of Fall 2020, ten schools earned Green Ribbon Awards since the start of the program.
OPS involves students in working toward a healthier world through recycling and other sustainability practices. These educational opportunities inspire graduates to explore innovation in areas such as new battery technology and electric vehicles, advances in food production and engineering environmentally-sustainable architecture.
| 1859-1899 | 1899-1939 | 1939-1979 | 1979-2019 | Future |