At Monday’s USD 489 BOE meeting, President James Leiker thanked a crowd of around 50 for their “cordial” support.
By KARI BLURTON Hays Post
Washington will close as an elementary school effective May 19 after a decision Monday by the Hays USD 489 board.
In front of an audience of around 50 Washington staff, parents and community members, the board voted 5-1 to approve the closure and re-purpose the building to house Early Childhood Connections.
Board member Greg Schwartz was the lone dissenting vote, stating he wanted more time to evaluate the transition plan.
That plan begins immediately with Washington Principal Allen Park assisting parents and students with pre-enrollment and placing staff in other schools.
Board members echoed the sentiment that the decision was not easy, but in comparison to other schools in the district, the nearly $1,200 more per pupil cost to operate the school could not be ignored.
Washington Elementary supporters await board’s decision at Monday’s meeting.
Board member Sarah Rankin said she could not argue smaller classrooms were better than larger ones.
“I would love if all our schools were section-one schools, but the economics are not there to support that,” Rankin said, adding the board and administration would do its “due-diligence” to monitor the progress of the 117 students moved to other schools — many of whom are English-language learners, minority, migrant or on the free or reduced lunch program.
Board member Lance Bickle agreed and stressed the importance of continuing Washington programs such “Dads and Donuts” sponsored by Messiah Lutheran in which kids bring their dads or moms to eat a free donuts, apple juice and coffee once a month before school.
“Schools are not about the four walls but about the people inside it, the teachers and everybody that make it work,” Bickle said. “I strongly feel if were to get these kids and staff to other buildings, we can still continue to do a lot these great programs.”
Current HMS Assistant Principal Shannon Demel has been named next O’Loughlin Elementary principal.
By KARI BLURTON Hays Post
Hays Middle School Assistant Principal Shannon Demel said she knows she has big shoes to fill as O’Loughlin Elementary’s next principal but is “very honored and excited” for the opportunity.
Hays USD 489 administration announced Monday that Demel will replace longtime O’Loughlin Principal Nancy Harman, who is retiring June 1.
Demel, 35, taught fourth grade at Washington Elementary for eight years and has been the assistant principal at the HMS or two years.
“I have been very fortunate to be in this role (at HMS) for two years … learning the ins and outs of being a principal,” Demel said. “This is just another opportunity, another challenge in my path. I always wanted to be a principal, ever since I got out of college and immediately began my graduate degree … although I didn’t always think it would be this quick.”
Demel thanked Hays Middle School Principal Craig Pallister for giving her the chance to start her career in administration, and thanked Washington Elementary Principal Allen Park for being the first to hire her in the district.
“Without those key people, I wouldn’t be where I am,” she said.
Demel was present at Monday’s USD 489 Board of Education meeting when the board voted to close Washington Elementary and re-purpose the building into the Early Childhood Connections facility.
Demel said she understood the board’s “tough” decision but admitted it was a “bittersweet” moment as a former Washington Elementary teacher.
“I know the staff and Mr. Park helping with the transition of all these students. They will do a wonderful job,” Demel said. “I am confident the other schools within the district will step up to the plate and welcome these teachers, students and families with open arms.”
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is not at all what I expected. The distance between what I expected of “Kingsman” and what I actually experienced is easily among the greatest of such measurements.
“Kingsman” appears to be a film about a young man being trained as a super spy. While that is certainly true, the film’s style and scope far exceeded what I had assumed would be a mix between “The Tuxedo” and “Spy Kids.” The truth is closer to a mix of “Django Unchained” and a “Jay and Silent Bob” movie with perhaps a little “George of the Jungle” thrown in (which, by the way, was hysterical when it came out and is as equally hysterical today). “Kingsman” is self-referential, action-packed, justifiably R-rated and above all, a damned lot of fun.
This film is a love-letter to the fun of going to the movies. There’s far more true love in the globe-trotting adventures of “Kingsman” than there was in “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
5 of 6 stars
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a man who was shot and killed by police last week was a 21-year-old from Kansas City, Kansas.
Police on Monday identified Andres Lara-Rodriguez as the suspect who died after a chase on Friday after he carjacked a pest control truck.
Officers pursued the truck for about 30 minutes from Kansas into Kansas City, Missouri, and then back to Kansas. The chase ended when the suspect crashed into a fence at a church in Kansas City, Kansas. Police say he showed a gun and a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper and three Kansas City police officers shot him.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The murder trial of the leader of a Kansas commune that lived off the life insurance payouts from dead members is wrapping up this week.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday in the trial of 55-year-old Daniel Perez. He faces more than 35 charges, including first-degree premeditated murder in the 2003 drowning death of 26-year-old Patricia Hughes at the group’s compound in the Wichita suburb of Valley Center. Her death was considered an accident for several years.
During the trial, several women testified that Perez, who was called Lou Castro, coerced them into sexual encounters when they were underage. Others testified about millions of dollars in life insurance policies sold to people associated with Perez who later died.
The Fort Hays State University Foundation has announced a $10,000 gift to establish a new Center for Language and Culture Study Abroad Fund. The FHSU Center for Language and Culture is a collaborative effort of several campus units to offer support in the areas of foreign language improvement (including English as a second language) and education abroad advising assistance.
The goal of the new fund is to provide financial assistance for living expenses to FHSU students who participate in faculty-led study-abroad programs. It is estimated that the initial gift will benefit approximately 70 students.
FHSU alumna Brenda Reeve, Garden City, made the initial contribution.
“Study abroad is a fantastic way to further a student’s education, not only by attending classes but also by experiencing life in a different country,” said Reeve.
She is a longtime FHSU supporter as well as an FHSU Foundation board member. She was inspired to give toward travel-related student expenses because of the role that travel has played in her life and in her daughters’ lives.
“Two out of my three children studied abroad and came back with such a different outlook on other cultures,” she said. “Their eyes were opened in so many ways! I also believe a student who has had this experience will be amazed to find that future employers are impressed by their willingness to take chances in life and stretch beyond their boundaries.”
Some of Reeve’s other contributions to the university include funds for student travel for the FHSU Office of Student Affairs’ Learning Communities. A learning community is a group of first-year students who live on the same residence hall floor, share common interests, take classes together and often travel together.
Kansas Speciality Dogs Service, Inc. of Washington, Kansas, will offer a special program and demonstration Thursday in Hays to learn and see first-hand how service, guide and facility dogs help those in need.
We will have a service dog, guide dog and facility dog who will all do demonstrations. Guide and service graduates will also attend with their dogs to talk about the KSDS training for them and their dogs
There will also be a couple puppies in training for those interested in becoming a puppy raiser.
The one-hour meeting starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, at St. Nicholas of Myra Church, 2901 East 13th Street.
For additional information, contact Sara (Newell) Gustin at KSDS (785)-325-2256.
KSDS is a non-profit charitable organization celebrating its 25th anniversary this year to promote the independence and inclusion of people with disabilities as fully participating and contributing members of their communities and society.
Sen. Jim Denning, left, and Sen. Ty Masterson, right, look over documents during a Ways and Means Committee meeting with David Fye of the Kansas Legislative Research Department.-Photo by Dave Ranney
By Dave Ranney
It looks like the state won’t be spending more money on its four hospitals for people whose disabilities or mental illnesses prevent them from safely caring for themselves. Budget committees in the House and Senate have adopted Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan for keeping the hospitals at their current spending levels through fiscal year 2017.
The committees each have forwarded their flat-spending recommendations to their respective chambers. The state’s two hospitals for people with severe developmental disabilities are in Topeka and Parsons.
Its acute care facilities for Kansans with severe and persistent mental illnesses are in Larned and Osawatomie. In recent months, federal surveyors have cited Osawatomie State Hospital for being overcrowded and not doing enough to ensure proper medical care or prevent suicidal patients from harming themselves.
Hospital officials have submitted a plan to correct the deficiencies in an effort to avoid losing millions of dollars in federal Medicare payments.
Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Republican from Parker whose district includes Osawatomie State Hospital, on Monday proposed adding $500,000 to the facility’s budget in fiscal year 2016, which begins July 1. Her proposal was driven by “the hardships the hospital has been running into,” she said, adding that the latest findings had “created quite a stir” among hospital employees. Tyson withdrew her motion after the committee’s chairman,
Sen. Ty Masterson, a Republican from Andover, suggested that she instead recommend discussing the additional funding during omnibus budget deliberations. Tyson heeded Masterson’s suggestion, and her altered motion passed. Committee members did not discuss recent reports that renovations in the hospital’s deficiency correction plan were expected to cost $3 million.
Angela de Rocha, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, said the agency had not yet determined how much the renovations are likely to cost.
“We have not put anything out because we do not know,” she wrote in an email to KHI News Service. “The $3 million is a very rough estimate, could be more.”
The renovations, she said, include replacing the ceilings in every patient area; refitting the bathrooms; installing new beds, closet doors, door handles, light fixtures and vents; and replacing glass mirrors with stainless steel mirrors. Also on Monday, House Majority Leader Jene Vickrey, a Louisburg Republican whose district includes many hospital employees, said understaffing is to blame for many of the facility’s shortcomings.
The hospital is understaffed, he said, because many of its direct-care workers quit after being required to work multiple overtime shifts. “That’s been our struggle for years,” he said.
Vickrey said he and other area legislators last month asked KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett to put together a plan to reduce staff turnover. “There needs to be a strategy to meet the needs we have now,” he said.
Implementing the plan should not cost the state more money, Vickrey said. Instead, he said Bruffett should be able to “move the funds around within” the agency’s budget. Rebecca Proctor, executive director at the Kansas Organization of State Employees, a labor union that represents many of the hospital’s front-line workers, said Vickrey’s expectations are unrealistic. “If there’s going to be a plan, it’s going to have more money in it,” Proctor said.
“That’s the only way it’s going to work. These are chronic problems that have been going on for years. “You can’t be in this rural setting where there aren’t that many people to begin with, and then you make them go for years without a raise, and then you make them work all this mandatory overtime,” she said.
“Then you wonder why you can’t get people to work there?” Vickrey said he and Sen. Molly Baumgardner, also a Republican from Louisburg, plan a public forum where hospital employees, patients’ family members and community leaders can weigh in on the hospital’s future. “We need to get some key issues out in the open, and I very much believe in there being open communication, in there being a dialogue,”
Baumgardner said. “I was at a legislative forum Saturday, and I have to say that, right now, the No. 1 concern of the people in my district is whether the state is going to close the state hospital.” KDADS officials, she said, will attend the forum — tentatively set for the evening of March 2 or 3 — and stand for questions. According to budget documents, the hospital has 483 full-time employees. Its annual budget is $29.9 million.
Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
A windy day is expected along with temperatures in the 40s and a chance of snow showers across central Kansas. #kswx
Today A 50 percent chance of snow showers, mainly before 4pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 41. Windy, with a north northwest wind 6 to 16 mph increasing to 18 to 28 mph in the afternoon. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Tonight Partly cloudy, with a low around 16. Wind chill values as low as 5. Northwest wind 8 to 14 mph. Wednesday Mostly sunny, with a high near 35. Wind chill values as low as 4. North northwest wind 9 to 13 mph becoming northeast in the afternoon. Wednesday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 18. Northeast wind around 9 mph becoming southeast after midnight. Thursday Mostly sunny, with a high near 46. South southeast wind 8 to 13 mph. Thursday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 23. Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 50.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says the Justice Department will appeal a federal judge’s ruling which temporarily blocked President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas issued a temporary injunction, giving a coalition of 26 states time to pursue a lawsuit that aims to permanently stop the orders. The ruling puts on hold Obama’s orders that could spare as many as five million people who are in the U.S. illegally from deportation.
In a statement early Tuesday morning, the White House said Monday’s ruling “wrongly prevents” the president’s “lawful, commonsense policies” from taking effect.
The White House said that the Justice Department, legal scholars, immigration experts and the federal district court in Washington have determined that Obama’s actions are well within his legal authority.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Juwan Staten made a layup with 4 seconds left to lift No. 23 West Virginia to a 62-61 victory over No. 8 Kansas on Monday night.
Staten finished with 20 points to give the Mountaineers (20-6, 8-5 Big 12) their first 20-win season in four years.
It was Staten’s first field goal over the final eight minutes after he had gone to the bench with leg cramps.
After Staten made a spin move around Frank Mason III and hit a left-handed layup, the Jayhawks’ Perry Ellis caught a long pass but missed a layup between two defenders just before the final buzzer.
Ellis finished with 19 points, Mason had 18 and Kelly Oubre Jr. added 14 points for Kansas (21-5, 10-3).
