Hays Regional Airport

Hays Regional Airport has teamed with Fort Hays State University Informatics Capstone students to give its website a new look and feel to serve flyers better.

Along with the changes to the website, Hays Regional Airport is receiving a variety of videos that include a few commercials and testimonial pieces. These commercials and testimonial videos focus on promoting the convenience and ease of flying out of Hays Regional Airport, while also stressing the cost of customer’s time saving while using the airports services.

Ian Blankinship, Fort Hays State University senior and leader of the Capstone team, first was referenced to the Hays Regional Airport website project by City Manager Toby Dougherty, who put Blankinship in contact with Rick Rekoske, director of Hays Convention and Visitor Bureau.

“I was excited and eager to get the opportunity to work on a project for the city. Knowing that I would be able to give back to the city before I left was good motivation for the effort we put into the project,” said Blankinship.

One of the Hays Regional Airport’s major requests for the updated website was to focus on their True Cost Calculator, which is displayed on the home page. The old website’s True Cost Calculator was a stable image that presented the average round trip ticket prices and other fees that correlate with traveling to other airports instead of flying out of Hays Regional Airports. The new True Cost Calculator has become interactive and allows the user to input ticket prices of competing airports and automatically calculates others fees in order to more accurately show the price difference between flying local or elsewhere.

“I think it works a lot better than the old site and is more accurate in figuring out the cost savings of flying out of Hays Regional Airport,” said Blankinship. “It really shows the difference in time and money that you save by flying out of Hays.”

Another major change to the website is how it is viewed on mobile device. The new website is now mobile-friendly and can be easily used on all mobile devices.

The commercials and testimonials videos will be available on the website and on the Hays Regional Airports social media platforms.

The new Hays Regional Airport website can be found at https://flyhays.com.

The students involved with the project include Ian Blankiship, Wichita senior, Aaron Wondra, Wichita senior, Maggie Walters, Galva senior, and Yanira Ojeda, Salina senior.

By Sarah Wasinger
Hays USD 489

Brad Rahe will be interviewing for the position of superintendent with the board of education on Tuesday evening.

Rahe is the second of four candidates that USD 489 Hays board of education will be interviewing. Candidates were selected for interviews based on their fit with desired characteristics that were developed with input from focus groups that were utilized throughout the search process.

Rahe is currently serving as the USD 463 Mulvane superintendent. Rahe has served in his current position since 2009. Rahe has also served as superintendent of USD 336 Holton and USD 258 Humboldt. Rahe has also served as a middle school principal in Wellington and Valley Center and an assistant middle school principal at Independence, Rahe began his career as a seventh-grade language arts teacher in Great Bend.

Brad Rahe Schedule

May 18, 2016

• 9:30 a.m. Arrive at Rockwell Administration Center.
• 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Meet with Superintendent Katt for coffee. Receive schedule for day and information prepared by clerk for all candidates.
• 10:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Roosevelt Elementary School – facility tour and meet and greet
• 11:00a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Hays Middle School – facility tour and meet and greet
• 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Lunch with building administrators
• 1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. Hays High School – facility tour and meet and greet
• 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Rockwell Administration Center – facility tour and meet and greet
• 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Community and Parent meet and greet – Toepfer Board Room
• 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Free time for the candidate (the district will provide transportation to and from the motel for the candidate and/or guest.
• 5:30 p.m. Begin interview with the board (only)
• 6:15 p.m. Dinner with candidate and their guest
• 7:15 p.m. Interview continues

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

The first of four candidates for the superintendent position at USD 489 spent Monday meeting staff and residents, along with a formal interview with the Board of Education.

John Thissen currently serves as the Herington USD 487 superintendent, a district of about 450 students southeast of Salina.

During his meeting with community members, he spoke about how his experience – especially a series of bond issue elections – could suit the Hays district.

“At Herington, when I was hired there nine years ago, they were in the process of studying (a bond issue),” Thissen said.

There were three bond elections in 18 months, ultimately securing $15 million in funding for a new elementary school, he said.

“It was fun. It really was,” he said, but acknowledged how challenging a bond issue is.

Thissen had positive things to say about the Hays school district, calling it “really amazing.”

“I knew that Hays had a very good district, that was where the interest was,” he said.

While Thissen has never lived in Hays, he said he is familiar with the area, as many of his family members graduated from Fort Hays State University, including his wife, Kelli, who also works in education as a physical education teacher in Junction City.

Thissen also served as a principal at Great Bend Middle School.

During his community session, he also spoke about the success his district has had with putting graduates on track for good-paying jobs, even without a four-year college degree.

“There’s so many of them, they’re not going to go four years in college, they’re not going to go six years in college and we changed our plan,” he said, “(to) courses after high school that allows you to get a job. If it’s 12 months, if it’s 18 months, if it’s an electrician, a plumber, but the idea is getting them a job and a good one,”

He said Hays is well-geared for those types of programs, as well.

The second candidate will interview with the district is set for Wednesday, with a community session again planned for 3:30 p.m. in the Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th St.

Check Hays Post for more on superintendent candidates as details are released by the district.

 

 

 

 

By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

The 3-mile zone surrounding the city of Hays, its regulation and enforcement of those regulations have caught the attention of the Ellis County Commission.

Earlier this month, the commission asked the county administrator and county counselor to evaluate a number of zoning issues. The commission reviewed the memo Monday.

The commission cited a reported lack of enforcement of the zoning regulations inside the 3-mile zone, which was created in 2007.

Commission Chair Dean Haselhorst said he would be in favor of a reduction in the boundary, calling for it to be 1-mile on Monday night. Haselhorst said he believes the city of Hays does not enforce the zoning regulations in the area surrounding the city and the county does not have an enforcement officer.

“I’m thinking 1-mile,” said Haselhorst.

Ellis County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes said the two commissions would need to meet and discuss the jurisdiction, instead of having the county planning commission looking into the issue, as Haselhorst had requested.

“The issue of the city of Hays’ extraterritorial jurisdiction and what the proper limits of that would be is really more of a conversation between, ultimately, (the county) commission and the city of Hays,” said Smith-Hanes.

One of the options presented to the commission by Smith-Hanes was to hire a zoning enforcement officer at the cost of between $60,000 and $80,000 per year.

The county is also looking into making changes to the regulations for the minimum number of lots in a new subdivision, currently the limit is eight lots.

“If you are preserving a policy of preserving the rural character of unincorporated Ellis County then subdivisions of few lots might make more sense than those of more lots,” Smith-Hanes said.

Smith-Hanes said they also looking into whether new subdivisions should have private roads. The subdivision regulations were approved in 2006 and have not had a significant rewrite since the county adopted a comprehensive plan in 2012.

Staff believes, according to Smith-Hanes, there needs to be some updates to the regulations. The process would start with the Planning and Zoning Department.

“All those things need to just be looked at to reflect what Ellis County is doing now,” said Commissioner Barb Wasinger.

The commission directed Smith-Hanes to draft a letter instructing the Planning and Zoning department to look at the issue presented in the memo.

In other business:

• Ellis County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Ring presented the commission with a report of the severe weather that occurred on May 7.

• Health Administrator Butch Schlyer presented his monthly health report for the month of April.

• Commissioners met in three separate executive sessions to discuss non-elected personnel issues. No action was taken.

Funding aimed at increasing teacher pool for underserved districts, hard-to-fill subject areas

FHSU University Relations

A grant designed to increase the number of highly qualified elementary teachers in underserved Kansas regions was awarded to Fort Hays State University’s Department of Teacher Education.

The In PLACE Education Project — Innovative Pathways to Licensure and Competency in Elementary Education — will receive $104,033 from the Kansas Board of Regents through its competitive Kansas Teacher Education Grant Program.

The one-year grant, with opportunities to apply in subsequent years, includes $55,000 dedicated to scholarships for In PLACE elementary teacher candidates (students) who commit to teaching in underserved districts. The grant ties directly to efforts by FHSU’s Department of Teacher Education to meet the critical need for quality Kansas educators.

“This project directly addresses the elementary teacher shortage in Kansas by increasing accessibility and removing barriers so that high-quality, place-bound teacher candidates can earn certification,” said Dr. Teresa M. Woods, In PLACE project director and an assistant professor of teacher education at FHSU.

Four other teacher education professors are also on the team. Dr. Lorie Cook-Benjamin, associate professor and co-director; Dr. Sherri Brantley, assistant professor and co-director; Dr. Beth Walizer, professor; and Dr. Janet Stramel, assistant professor.

“I commend Dr. Woods and the rest of the In PLACE team as their efforts affirm our department’s continued commitment to providing quality, pre-service teacher education programs while also being mindful of the needs of our students and Kansas communities,” said Dr. Chris Jochum, newly appointed chair of the department.

Underserved geographic areas of Kansas are defined by the Kansas State Department of Education as districts that have difficulty filling teaching positions. These, said Woods, are certain urban districts (in Kansas City, Kan., Topeka and Wichita), and all districts in the State Board of Education District No. 5, which includes most of western Kansas.

“We have students in all these urban and rural areas, and we wanted to leverage our strengths in online education to reach more of them,” Woods said.

The program is designed for students who live, work and are invested in their local communities. The In PLACE team hopes to recruit 15 new elementary teacher candidates, all committed to teaching in underserved areas, for the first year, 2016-2017, and an additional 20 the following year.

“They are likely somewhat place-bound, usually non-traditional students, often needing to work full time to maintain their income,” said Woods.

She said the students include parents with school-age children, homeowners working in the community, spouses of farmers or ranchers, or para-professionals already employed by a local school district. One pathway, Woods said, is virtual. Students complete courses online and serve their internships in their local districts.

Another pathway is the Residency Program, which she described as a “grow-your-own program for districts with talented but unlicensed staff, usually para-professionals, who want to earn elementary teaching licenses.”

These school employees complete their coursework online in an “immersion” model fashioned after medical clinical residencies, leveraging their field experiences in schools.

“By virtue of FHSU’s strengths in delivering online coursework, we can especially recruit place-bound teacher candidates,” she said. “This is an exciting and, up to this point, small pilot project, our Residency Program, which will be scaled up and expanded.”

“So through the grant,” she said, “we are investing in our pathways for place-bound students, in our students themselves through scholarships and in our field partners — teachers and districts.”

“We are excited for this chance to expand our educational offerings to our students,” said Dr. Paul Adams, dean of the College of Education. “The In PLACE Education Project is a wonderful opportunity to meet the needs of place-bound students using an innovative model of the residency program.”

For more information, see the Teacher Education website, www.fhsu.edu/te, or contact Woods at [email protected], 785-628-5845.