WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The closure beginning next month of the hospital in the southeast Kansas community of Independence is highlighting problems faced by rural health care providers in states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs.
Mercy Hospital spokeswoman Joanne Smith says the climate of health care is very challenging. That is particularly true for small rural hospitals that are facing decreased reimbursements and declining populations. She says the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid was not the deciding factor in Mercy’s decision to close its Independence hospital, but it was certainly significant.
Medicaid expansion would have brought in $1.6 million annually to the Independence facility.
The National Rural Health Association estimates 55 rural hospitals across the nation have closed since 2010, and 283 more are at risk of closure.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas has officially approved a procedure to handle possible violations of the university’s social media policy.
The university has struggled with the issue since September 2013 when journalism professor David Guth posted a tweet criticizing the National Rifle Association.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports a policy enacted by the Kansas Board of Regents in 2014 did not include a procedure for reacting if someone was suspected of violating the policy.
The University Senate was told Thursday the process for handling such cases was approved over the summer. The process calls for the university to form a three-member panel to determine within a week whether evidence suggested the employee might have violated the policy. If so, another panel would decide if the employee should be disciplined.
Listen to Mike Cooper interviewing CardioVascular Surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Ashworth; and Cardiologist Dr. Arbin Katwal; from from the DeBakey Heart Institute at HaysMed, by clicking the link above and then clicking the play button
It’s not hard for Dr. Mirta M. Martin to tell her students about the benefits of being a member of a university Ambassador program.
Martin, president of Fort Hays State University, was an ambassador during her college days at Duke University in the early 1980s.
Closer to home, Lisa Karlin is even more familiar with FHSU’s VIP Student Ambassadors. Karlin, assistant to the president and director of marketing, was a student ambassador at Fort Hays State in the 1990s.
Students go through an application and interview process before they are chosen for the current ambassador program, begun in the late 1980s. Those chosen are responsible for working at official university functions.
“This is a great program,” Karlin said. “These students have opportunities to meet people they would never meet.”
Last year’s ambassadors got the privilege of working the inauguration of Martin, who was named FHSU’s ninth president in May 2014.
“That’s definitely not a common thing we would do,” said Shelbi Wiles, a Beloit senior majoring in organizational leadership. “We got to meet so many important people there.”
Breanna Bezona, a senior health and human performance major from Johnson, a small town in southwest Kansas, agreed.
“Getting to spend time with President Martin and important people and not just feeling like a number is great,” said Bezona, who, like Wiles, is in her second year as an ambassador. “Being an ambassador has really helped with my networking skills and making connections with people outside of the university.”
Ambassadors work from nine to 10 total events, or about one a month, throughout the school year, ranging from athletic events to formal dinners. The university provides formal suits and a polo shirt to each ambassador.
“Being an ambassador is being the face of the university,” Martin told the group at a meeting during the first week of school. “When parents come to visit, they want to talk to you. They want to hear why Fort Hays State University was your destination of choice.”
Martin was quick to say that “it’s important for every student to understand they are an ambassador of the university, 24/7. This group just has more opportunities to represent the university.”
In the spirit of every student being an ambassador, three students in the same family — and born on the same day — are all ambassadors for FHSU in one way or another.
Kenneth Iheme, a Wichita junior and part of a set of triplets in their fourth year at Fort Hays State, is a member of the Tiger football team. And one of his sisters, Chelsea, is a familiar face at the Student Service Center in the Memorial Union on campus.
But Krystal likes to tell her siblings she has one up on them, as a VIP Student Ambassador. “This is so nice because you get to see people you don’t get to interact with on a day-to-day basis,” Krystal said.
Krystal Iheme and Hays senior Alexyss Leiker, both biology majors, were among the group of ambassadors helping out in the president’s box of Hubbard Press Box at Lewis Field Stadium during FHSU’s football home opener Thursday.
Athletic events are some of the most popular, Karlin said, and Iheme and Leiker — both second-year ambassadors — got in some extra time Thursday because the start of the game was delayed nearly two hours because of lightning. Both said it was more fun than work, though.
“President Martin and Lisa Karlin are so supportive and great to work with,” Leiker said as she handed out a name tag to a guest. “It’s so much fun.”
This year’s new members could hardly wait to get started. They were bubbling with enthusiasm while breaking into small groups during their first meeting in August. The 23 ambassadors were asked to give their name, hometown, major and something exciting they did during the summer.
Majors ranged from health to agriculture and everything in between, and the list of summer activities was just as broad. There were the usual activities like teaching swim lessons and helping with harvest, and the unusual — hiking cliffs in Ireland.
While the ambassadors know being a part of an organization always looks good on a resume, most said they joined for other reasons.
Hays senior Jenna Ball has been accepted into medical school at the University of Kansas and is headed to Lawrence after graduating next spring. But she wants to make the most of her final year on the FHSU campus, and part of that includes being a VIP Ambassador.
“I’m so excited,” Ball said, “hearing about all the events we get to attend.”
Andrew Flax, a senior agricultural business major from Brownell, usually goes home every weekend to help farm and thinks being a VIP Ambassador will give him the chance to be a little more connected to campus life.
“I was intrigued about getting the chance to work with dignitaries,” Flax said. “I think the networking could open some doors for me.”
In all, seven students are returnees this year.
“That really speaks well of the program,” Karlin said. “They enjoyed it so much they came back.”
The ambassadors have an official recruiting period at the start of the second semester for the following school year. More information can be found online at www.fhsu.edu/vip.
Two other biology majors besides Iheme and Leiker are returning ambassadors this year — Brian Fisher, Bucklin junior, and Brooke Ostmeyer, Grinnell junior. Also back for her second year as an ambassador is Morgan Soldan, Salina junior, an elementary education major.
Newcomers to the program this year besides Flax and Ball, listed with their majors: Newcomers to the program this year besides Flax and Ball, listed with their majors: Misael Banderas, Garden City sophomore, technology studies. Macy Becker, Cheney junior, communication. Drew Clarke, Ness City senior, accounting. Kylee Davis, Haven sophomore, health and human performance. Shelby Dinkel, Hays junior, accounting. Matthew Kaiser, Winfield senior, biology. Gabby Makatura, Lakewood, Colo., senior, international business. Hallie McCall, Smith Center senior, biology. Kade Megaffin, Hays junior, political science. Shelby Stewart, Hill City junior, organizational leadership. Grace Suter, Hutchinson junior, psychology. Shannon Toll, Morland junior, social work. Jenna Witteman, LeRoy junior, art. Sophia Young, Lenexa senior, communication. Maggie Zody, Ellis senior, nursing.
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.
On September 8, the Kansas State Board of Education approved cut-off scores for new state assessments in math and English language arts. By an 8-to-1 vote, they celebrated supposedly moving away from an era of No Child Left Behind teaching-to-the-test to embrace a new framework of accountability and standards.
Unfortunately, the changes they passed constitute an even more severe round of blaming teachers and further standardizing the curriculum our Kansas children will take.
The Board’s first action was to approve the proposed cut scores that ranged across five levels with scores providing supposedly fine grain measurements from 220 to 380. These tests would supposedly ascend above mere multiple choice and require higher thinking skills, a claim that has been made for previous iterations of testing. The new standards would supposedly be too broad to teach-to-the-test. And maybe someday, the computer administered tests would even be adaptive.
KSDE staffers explained all the problems with the earlier decade of testing that narrowed the curriculum. The Board nodded in agreement during discussion of how well Kansas teachers could drill students and make scores go up each year by teaching-to-the-test when indeed there had not been overall general intellectual growth.
The new standards ranks students into Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4. The State Board accepted the claim that teachers could now use these fine-grain scores to advise parents on just where their child was academically deficient. Not one remembered that competent teachers used to provide diagnostic information in parent conferences before the “standards era.”
Nor did any Board member ask about the reliability of the scores and the variation that is to be expected if Suzie takes the test on a good day or a bad day. The fact that today we have digital equipment that can assign scores of 273 and 278 to two students does not in any way prove that a student who scores 278 is academically better at that skill than the student with a 273. There are so many variables in a student’s life that a teacher recognizes—and a computer does not.
Even MisterRogers could have asked: “Children, can you say ‘mathematically insignificant’.” There is just something about numbers that make folks think that they are being scientific.
After approving the new cut scores, the State Board examined how Kansas ranked on the most recent assessment tests. Since the new standards are obviously harder than those easy old state standards, Kansas students would of course not score very high. And indeed, that is what the charts showed.
Considering that QPA required Kansas schools to establish standards well before the Bush NCLB era, and that every education reform since then has claimed to move to more rigorous standards, there appears no limit to how easy those first standards were, or how much more rigorous the standards will be when they are again revised after 2020.
The most appalling testimony came from a staffer who stressed the continued importance of holding teachers “accountable” to meet the new goals as the scores went up. Anytime we hear the term “accountable,” we can substitute “blame” because that is exactly what this system continues to be about: blaming teachers who don’t get students’ scores up.
So how does that avoid “teaching to the test”? Well, supposedly these wonderful new standards are too broad to be “taught to.” But teachers don’t teach to the standards; they teach to the test. And as soon as the prior test items become available, that is what will drive this next round of supercharged NCLB.
To call these “standards” is an error. What we are looking at is “standardization” where all students are expected to master the same common curriculum. But students come into the classroom unique and they should go out unique.
So the most important skill for teachers who want to remain in the classroom continues to be gaming the system by teaching to the test. That system just got more complicated.
At its meeting next week, the Hays After 5 Club will present Lois Ann Groves, Golden, Colo., grand prize winner of the Pillsbury Bake-off.
Groves will speak about “Life so Full, Yet Heart so Empty.” The dinner will be held Monday at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Banquet Hall, 2250 E. Eighth, east of Hays. Groves is the wife of a physician who went through intense emptiness when life was outwardly great. She will share a humorous story on her former fear of public speaking.
Also featured is Hannah Norris, musician and songwriter from Hays, who will present folk music for the fall. The cost for the meal, tax and presenters is $12.50. Call (785) 202-1036 as soon as possible for reservations.
HUTCHINSON – A house fire Friday sent one person from that residence to the hospital for treatment.
Hutchinson Fire Department reported they responded to the 1900 block of North Jackson just before 7p.m. and found heavy fire and smoke coming from the southwest corner of the residence.
The fire was controlled in approximately 20 minutes with units on scene for two hours.
Preliminary damage is estimated at $55,000 with damage contained to one bedroom but high heat and smoke damage was sustained throughout the rest of the residence.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The one occupant of the home was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center for treatment. A family pet was lost in the fire.
As part of his trip to revitalize Paraguay’s 4-C program, similar to the 4-H program in the United States, Deryl Waldren participated in several interviews with media, including a live radio interview in Spanish in Limpio, Paraguay.
By KATIE ALLEN K-State Research and Extension
COLBY – All 4-H members in the United States know what the four Hs represent – head, heart, hands and health. Similar youth programs exist across the globe but are known by other names. In Paraguay, the program is called 4-C, with the Cs standing for cabeza, corazón, capacidad and cooperación. These mean head, heart, capacity and cooperation.
“There has been a strong partnership with Paraguay in Kansas through the Partner of the Americas program,” said Deryl Waldren, 4-H specialist for K-State Research and Extension’s northwest area in Colby. “Kansas and Paraguay were linked up, because they are similar in that both are relatively flat, have no mountains, have good agricultural land and don’t have access to water.”
Waldren completed a two-week trip to Paraguay in August to perform a needs assessment of its 4-C program. The program was started in 1949, he said, and has gone through many changes over the years. Many in the country want to revitalize the program and make it more accessible and relevant for youth throughout the country.
Waldren started by meeting with stakeholders, including some of the country’s top agricultural leaders, and 4-C clubs to observe and answer questions. Among the top areas in which the 4-C clubs wanted to engage members was service learning projects that benefited local communities, such as community gardens.
“A lot of these gardens that I observed were attached to the schools, and that was helping with food security – making sure families have enough to eat,” Waldren said. “If there’s excess food, they were able to sell it to the community and make money for the school or to do more for 4-C.”
Other service projects of interest to 4-C clubs, he said, depended on a local need. One club did some landscaping and beautified a local park to make it a place where kids would want to go. Another club plans to build an athletic field. Another built fishing ponds that will be stocked to grow fish to sell to members of the community. This project also teaches entrepreneurial skills to members.
“We like to see kids learning that they need to give back to the community in community service projects,” Waldren said. “The best way is to look at the local needs and develop a plan or a project that will give back to the community what that community needs.”
“Obviously 4-H around the world is based on local needs, but there are certain things we hope 4-H is teaching, which is life skills through these and other projects,” he added.
Two organizations helped organize Waldren’s meetings in Paraguay, including Committee Paraguay Kansas (Comité Paraguay Kansas or CPK) and the Center for Information and Development of Resources (Centro de Información y Recursos para el Desarrollo or CIRD). CPK is a volunteer organization that promotes development between Paraguay and institutions in Kansas, while CIRD is a non-governmental organization that facilitates programs and grants to develop Paraguay.
The work continues
Waldren, who has also worked in youth development programs in Australia, Asia and Europe, said it’s important to understand other programs similar to 4-H worldwide. The relationships can create great learning opportunities and be mutually beneficial.
Specifically in Paraguay, he hopes more extension staff will join him to meet three proposed goals based on expressed needs. The first is to train extension staff in Paraguay in positive youth development and how to implement more 4-C clubs. The second is to find relevant, succinct curriculum materials they can use within the clubs that could be easily translated to Spanish. The third is to match Kansas 4-H clubs with Paraguay 4-C clubs to increase the exchange of information and help one another.
“We look forward to having more communication to see what their needs are and putting together different ways and more people to help them,” Waldren said.
He added that it’s also important to have representatives from Paraguay visit Kansas to see 4-H in action. Two representatives from CPK will be at the Kansas State Fair on Saturday, Sept. 12, to see 4-H exhibits, meet 4-H members and their families, and visit with 4-H staff as part of an eight-day tour of Kansas.
MANHATTAN – An additional arrest has been made in connection with a series of robberies and a theft that were reported in the central portion of Manhattan on September 4, that prompted the campus lockdown at Kansas State University.
Detectives with the Riley County Police Department on Friday at approximately 10:30 AM arrested Johnathon Elliott, 20, of Manhattan, for two counts of Aggravated Robbery, Contributing to a Childs Misconduct and Theft. Bond was listed as $130,000.00
Detectives have also identified two additional suspects in this investigation. Both suspects should be considered armed and potentially dangerous.
Janir Vega
The Riley County Police Department is looking for information on the whereabouts of Carson Buckley, 16, Manhattan, and Janir Vega, 17, Manhattan. Both subjects have also been reported as runaway juveniles.
Buckley stands approximately 6 feet 1 inches and weighs approximately 240 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes.
Vega stands approximately 6 feet 2 inches and weighs approximately 160 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.
Police are advising the public to not approach or attempt to apprehend these subjects.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Carson Buckley or Janir Vega are encouraged to contact RCPD at 785-537-2112 (call 911 if it is an emergency) or the Manhattan Riley County Crime Stoppers785-539-7777 or online atwww.ManhattanRileyCountyCrimeStoppers.com. Crime Stoppers is an anonymous service and could qualify you for a cash reward.
Earlier this week police reported that Sean Johnson, 20, of Manhattan was arrested on September 9, 2015 on two counts of Aggravated Robbery, Robbery, Contributing to a Child’s Misconduct and for Theft. Bond for Johnson was listed at $150,000.
Local state legislator Travis Couture-Lovelady has something to celebrate during the Legislature’s downtime as he recently became engaged to local business owner Carly Miller.
Miller is a co-owner of Paint the Towne, 810 Main, the third location for the business, with two others in Wichita.
While Miller’s current job is a far cry from political office, she has been involved in politics as well, and the couple met while they both worked for Kansas State Treasurer Ron Estes in 2012.
“That was the start of it,” Couture-Lovelady said, as they both were a part of a small staff and frequently had to work closely together. “Even on weekends, we were forced into events together.”
“All the political stuff we ended up doing together … In Topeka, there’s always the dinners and it’s nice to go with someone,” Miller said.
“Then I wrapped Travis into a dance class with me,” she said with a laugh. “He is a much better dancer than me.”
As for popping the question, Couture-Lovelady kept the affair simple.
“The plan was to get these flowers I had grown for her. I cut them and brought them with the ring,” he said. “We’re public enough as it is. A public engagement probably wouldn’t have gone well.”
With two politically minded people, it would be easy to believe differences could be a strong point of contention for the two, but they both agree their political leanings are staggeringly similar.
“As far as the issues go, we pretty well agree,” said Couture-Lovelady, a Republican from Palco.
“It wouldn’t work otherwise,” Miller said.
This agreement allows for Miller to give input to Couture-Lovelady, especially about matters occurring in Wichita, as Miller was active in politics while she attended Wichita State University.
“We agree so much politically, it’s just support,” Miller said.
The couple has not set a date for the wedding, but hope to have the ceremony early next year to give the couple time to enjoy before the election season.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The closure beginning next month of the hospital in the southeast Kansas community of Independence is highlighting problems faced by rural health care providers in states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs.
