TOPEKA–The Kansas Department of Transportation plans to begin work on a concrete replacement project on a section of U.S. Highway 83 in Oberlin the week of July 24.
Maintenance crews will be replacing several concrete panels in both the north and southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 83 near Commercial Street. Access to U.S. Highway 83 from Commercial Street will be closed during construction. Traffic will be reduced to one lane through the work zone and controlled by stop lights. KDOT expects the project to be completed by mid-August, weather permitting.
For more information on the project, contact KDOT area engineer Eric Oelschlager at 785-626-3258 or [email protected].
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.I have waited a few years to publish this case. The administrator involved has retired. And since I have worked with teachers from border to border in Kansas, no one should attempt to guess which school I describe.
She was a veteran biology teacher with 15 years of experience in the Kansas classroom. Her husband worked in a corporate office in the same community. But his corporation moved its offices to another city, still in Kansas. While he transferred to the new facilities over Christmas break, she remained to complete the school year and also to help sell their house.
Fortunately, the high school in their new community had a biology vacancy. This was an opportunity to continue as a biology teacher in a school not far from their new home. And this was not a high-poverty school district.
However, in her job interview with an older male administrator, she was told bluntly: With your track record, you are by far the best teaching candidate. But with 15 years experience, you are too expensive. Several applicants who just finished student teaching would enter at the bottom of the pay scale. But if you re-apply and only claim 5 years of teaching experience, we could afford to hire you.
To refuse the offer could mean taking a more distant vacancy and driving several counties away each day, if such vacancies became available and were not taken by new graduates. She felt she had no choice but to agree to teach at the 5-years-of-experience salary scale.
Kansas salary scales vary but annual pay steps average about $500 per year. So she was receiving approximately $5,000 less in pay per year than her co-workers with equivalent experience. That amounts to about $125,000 less in her 25 remaining years of teaching!
This practice is downright wrong and unethical. I have never heard of a male teacher being asked to claim fewer years of experience. This is a Neanderthal attitude that only men are valued breadwinners. The attitude that work by women is not as important or worthy of equal pay is an 1800’s attitude that should never have seen the light of the 1900’s, let alone survive into the 21st century. The few cases I know have always involved an older male administrator.
Unfortunately, our nationwide, profession-wide gender pay gap is still 17 percent; that is, women receive 83 cents when a man is paid one dollar for equal work and experience. I hope that there are no coercive offers being made today. But without doubt, some women teachers in Kansas classrooms are still being paid less than male teachers with equal tenure due to past coercion to claim less experience.
This inequity should fade away and teacher pay should become equal for several reasons. First, the older generation that included some male chauvinist administrators should be retiring off. In addition, we are seeing more women superintendents; we would hope that they would not resort to this bigotry. And the rapidly growing teacher shortage means that there are no cheap rookies waiting in the wings. Today, a qualified woman teacher is likely to be the only qualified applicant. [However, there is no one in the Kansas Department of Education who comes around to confirm that each districts’ teachers are indeed credentialed and fully paid according to actual experience.]
This inequity across all employment should have ended nearly a half century ago when the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by both the Congress and the Senate. But 38 states still had to ratify the amendment. And I am proud that Kansas was the sixth state to ratify the ERA on March 28, 1972. Unfortunately, the ERA fell short with just 35 states ratifying it before 1982.
Hiring women teachers below salary scale should have stopped by now. But the past injustices continue for the lifetimes of those teachers. To the extent colleagues become aware of pay inequity, this can also become a factor discouraging future women students from entering the teaching field. Fortunately, with the ability to provide retention bonuses, a school that discovers that they have teachers working lower on the pay scale than their experience merits can not only restore the correct pay level, but can increase compensation for those teachers’ remaining careers to partially make up for that injustice.
Make up of denied fair pay—is the right thing to do.
If you weren’t paying really close attention to the oral arguments in the Gannon v. Kansas school funding case before the Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday, you probably missed a little question from Justice Dan Biles about a provision of the new school funding formula that exclusively benefits two Johnson County districts.
“Does the state really want us to strike the entire formula because $2 million went askew in the process?” Justice Biles asked.
There’s a provision in the formula that funnels extra money to the Blue Valley and De Soto districts as though they serve more students from low-income households than they actually do — $2 million of the $23 million intended to bolster programs for academically struggling children statewide.
Lawmakers boosted the funding for at-risk kids because, when the justices declared the previous school funding formula inadequate in March, they’d pointed to the disproportionate numbers of minority and low-income children who are behind in math and reading.
To qualify for the extra money, the new formula requires 10 percent of children in a district to be categorized as at-risk. Blue Valley and De Soto don’t meet that threshold. So, the bill’s sponsors said, to make the legislation equitable for all districts, they allocated $2 million to those two districts anyway.
In crafting the bill, lawmakers decided that if this piece of the school funding formula is declared unconstitutional, the whole formula will go down with it.
Kansas Solicitor General Stephen McAllister told the court, momentarily stumped by Biles’ question about the provision: “I don’t think anyone, including the schools, wants to strike down the entire law and stop all funding of the schools.”
“So the state would very much like to avoid that outcome,” McAllister said.
Some Democrats suggested the provision had simply been a way to buy support for the school funding bill from the Johnson County delegation.
Not so, says Rep. Melissa Rooker, a Republican from Fairway. “It is an attempt to provide one more avenue of funding to put directly towards activities that will help those students.”
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, from Overland Park, says, “No doubt it was a Johnson County provision.”
But he also says it’s money the districts need to provide services to their students, so he’s happy with the provision.
“Now if that’s something they (the Supreme Court) want to reverse, we have to live with it,” Denning said.
Hays residents and four members of a delegation from Santa Maria de Fe gathered at the Hays Public Library Saturday afternoon for a presentation and dedication of an art installation “World Apart, Cities Together” honoring Hays’ sister city.
Milciades Ramon Mancuello, tourism coordinator, Erma Elizabetk Del Puerto de Ramirez, director of Institute of Technology, Isabelino Victor Martinez Galiano, manager of Jesuit’s Museum and Derlis Hernan Maidana Zarza, governor of Misiones, are visiting the city in honor of the city of Hays’ 150th birthday.
The group attended many events during the sesquicentennial this week, including the Hays City Commission meeting Thursday night.
Hays and Santa Maria became sister cities in 1976. Although there had been exchanges back and forth since that time, the sister city organization began working in earnest to renew the partnership between the two cities in 2001, culminating with the four dignitaries’ visit to Hays this weekend.
Del Puerto de Ramirez gave a presentation to a group gathered at the library about her home city.
Santa Maria has about 10,000 residents in the surrounding area with an economy that is based on agriculture, meat production, industry and fine arts.
Erma Elizabetk Del Puerto de Ramirez, Director of Institute of Technology, gives a presentation Saturday at the Hays Public Library on her hometown of Santa Maria, Paraguay.
The community has 25 elementary schools, seven middle school/high schools and one technological institute, which Del Puerto de Ramirez is the director.
Max Maximov, Sister Cities board member, has traveled to Santa Maria and said in introductions of the Hays group has tried to help the schools in Santa Maria.
The Santa Maria school district has about 925 students, but only 45 computers, and those are from the 1990s. The Hays Sister Cities group tried unsuccessfully to obtain a grant to buy new computers for the schools.
Students in Santa Maria are studying English, which allows them to take tests that would allow them to study in the United States or the United Kingdom. About 90 students have passed the British Cambridge test, and 178 students are studying English at various level at this time.
Santa Maria hopes to soon have a branch of the state university, Del Puerto de Ramirez said through Maximov, who was interpreting. Transportation proves to be a large barrier for students to reach university branches in other communities.
The technical institute is privately funded. A British journalist traveled to the community and fell in love with the city and its people. She helped set up a charity in Britain that helps fund the institute, which offers classes to its students for free.
The technological institute’s two-year program focuses on food production and packaging. The students are working with the municipal meat packing plant on quality control.
The institute also has worked with local residents to identify and cultivate medicinal plants and vegetables and improve nutrition.
Paraguay produces some herbs that are shipped all other the world. Production has picked up as people have become more aware of the use of alternative medicine.
Del Puerto de Ramirez talks about the Paraguayan brick cooking oven called tatakuas.
Homes in Santa Maria are equipped with brick ovens called tatakuas, which translated into English literally means “fire where.” Del Puerto de Ramirez noted the ovens provide a superior taste in food than a flat top stove.
The city of Santa Maria is also known for its rich cultural history and fine arts. Santa Maria was established by Jesuit priests in 1631. Isabelino Victor Martinez Galiano, is manager of Jesuit’s Museum, which was created with a donation by Marianna Beach.
Today the museum preserves many of the religious artifacts from early Santa Maria. Martinez Galiano showed photographs of the museum and its art, which included life-size statues of the early priests, a nativity, angels, and complete statuary depiction of the passion of Christ.
Donations were taken for the museum during the art dedication Saturday.
Early Jesuit art of Santa Maria.
The art installation is in the lobby of the Hays Public Library. It includes photos taken in Santa Maria by Cody Custer. The installation also includes examples of hand embroidery and a scroll documenting both the histories of Hays and Santa Maria.
Martinez Galiano talked about his impressions of Hays.
“We have found a lot of calm and a lot of tranquility and humans that are very similar to our own ,” he said through a translator. “We have seen that the city is very connected to the land … to agriculture. People are very proud of their work and have good organization.”
Martinez Galiano met with members of the art department during his visit.
He said there are many people in Santa Maria who have art inside them, but they do not have the opportunity to let it out. In Hays there is an opportunity.
He said the biggest difference between Hays and Santa Maria is its approach to education.
“Education is so much present here that it is first importance, second importance and third importance,” he said.
He said he hoped the two cities can continue to cooperate culturally, and there would opportunities for both young people and adults.
Martinez Galiano said he has learned about the history of Hays, which is very different than that of Santa Maria. Santa Maria was indigenous and then religious. Hays went through many different levels of development and was influenced by different cultures.
Ramon Mancuello said he thought Hays was a small community like Santa Maria, but was impressed by its size when he arrived.
Hays Street in Santa Maria
“We have met kind people, very friendly people and everybody knows each other,” he said.
Ramon Mancuello said in this way, Hays is very similar to Santa Maria.
WAKEENEY–The Fisheries Division of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism is conducting a public meeting to provide supporting background information regarding a proposal to change the minimum length limit on the harvest of walleye at Cedar Bluff Reservoir in Trego County beginning in 2018.
The meeting will be held Thu., July 27, at 7 p.m. in the Western Electric Cooperative Association Community Room, 635 S. 13th Street, WaKeeney.
This event is free and open to the public.
For more information, call the Cedar Bluff KDWPT Area Office at 785-726-3212, or Lynn Davignon, Region 1 Fisheries Supervisor, at the Hays KDWPT Regional office at 785-628-8614.
JACKSON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal fireworks accident.
Just before noon Friday, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from a victim of an apparent explosion at 15530 150th Road in rural Mayetta., according to a media release.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputies entered the residence and found the caller and victim, 11-year-old Colby Harris dead.
Jackson County authorities asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Scene Team to assist with the investigation.
They determined that Colby Harris had been experimenting with fireworks and other minor explosive devices. He was home alone for a very short period of time prior to making the 911 call.
An autopsy was performed Saturday in Kansas City and the manner of death was determined to be accidental and the preliminary cause of death is due to massive blood loss caused by shrapnel.
TOPEKA – Kansas Securities Interim Commissioner John Wine has announced the opening of the 2017 investor education grant cycle. The deadline for applications to be received by the Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner (KSC) is August 15, 2017.
The Securities Commissioner’s Office develops and implements financial literacy and investor education initiatives to inform the public about investing in securities and the prevention of securities fraud. As part of this mission, the KSC regularly collaborates with organizations interested in expanding investor and financial education in the state. Applicants are encouraged to apply for grant funds for purposes relating to investor education or financial literacy.
“We appreciate and support the efforts of community and state-wide partners in providing education to Kansans on personal finance,” said John Wine, Interim Commissioner of the Securities Commissioner’s Office. “Grants will be awarded based on several factors, including project applicability to informing Kansans about investing and securities fraud, proposed outcome measures, and creativity and ingenuity of the proposals, among other measures.”
To learn more about the grant process, visit www.ksc.ks.gov/grants or contact Shannon Santschi, Director of Investor Education, at [email protected] or 785-296-1055.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mike Moustakas homered twice, and Salvador Perez, Brandon Moss and Jorge Bonifacio also went deep to lead the Kansas City Royals over the White Sox 7-2 Saturday night, extending Chicago’s longest losing streak in two years to eight games.
Melky Cabrera had his second four-hit game in a week and gave the White Sox a 2-0 lead with a home run in the third inning and an RBI double in the fifth.
In a game that began with a 99-degree temperature and 112 heat index, Mike Pelfrey took a two-hitter into the sixth but put leadoff man Lorenzo Cain on with his sixth walk. David Holmberg (1-3) relieved, retired Eric Hosmer on a flyout, then gave up three homers in an eight-pitch span.
Perez’s two-run homer tied the score, Moustakas homered two pitches later, Alcides Escobar grounded out and Moss homered for a 4-2 lead, a drive that would have gone 436 feet unimpeded. Whit Merrifield added an RBI single off Juan Minaya.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A former Lawrence school district para-educator has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for having sex with a student.
Thirty-four-year-old Teri Lynn Johnson, of Baldwin City, was sentenced Friday. She was convicted in March of unlawful sexual relations and sexual exploitation of a child, both felonies, and promoting obscenity to a minor, a misdemeanor. Johnson must also register as a sex offender.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports the crimes occurred in fall 2015 when the victim — then 17 — was a student at the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center’s Day School. Prosecutors say the conduct lasted until December of that year.
Senator Roberts doing interviews following this wee’s Senator trip for lunch with Pres. Trump
JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts is working with fellow Republicans on legislation to overhaul health care even as fellow Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran grabs national headlines for helping to stall the effort.
Roberts acknowledged during an Associated Press interview that he’s not happy with parts of the latest version of the bill to replace the Affordable Care Act.
His staff said he’s been working with the plan’s drafters on provisions protecting financially stressed hospitals and a home health program for rural states.
Roberts said Congress needs to move quickly because delay allows conditions in the health insurance market to worsen.
Moran jumped into the spotlight by tweeting early this week that he couldn’t support the latest version of the GOP plan, denying it a vote that it needed to pass.
Jesse Aldrich left a fiancé Casey and their son Weston-photo courtesy Alden-Harrington Funeral Home
BASHOR, Kan. (AP) — A Basehor man has been sentenced to a year in jail and probation for a crash that killed two relatives who were to be groomsmen at a wedding the day they died.
Leavenworth County Attorney officials say 22-year-old William Wilson was sentenced Friday for involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol.
The charge stemmed from a June 2015 crash near the Kansas River that killed 29-year-old Jesse Aldrich and 34-year-old Justin Wilson.
The Leavenworth Times reports prosecutors say William Wilson had a blood-alcohol level of .09 after the accident. He was 20 at the time and the legal limit for a driver under 21 is .02.
Justin Wilson left a young son-photo courtesy Alden-Harrington Funeral Home
William Wilson and the two victims were to serve as groomsmen at Wilson’s brother’s wedding in Basehor the day they died.
Bieker, a Garder Kansas resident spent most of his early life in Trego County
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — One of four men charged in the shooting death of a Kansas gun store owner will have to serve at least 33 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
Londro Patterson III was sentenced to life in prison Friday for the January 2015 fatal shooting of Jon Bieker at the She’s a Pistol gun store in Shawnee.
Bieker and his wife, Becky Bieker, owned the store. He was shot when he exchanged gunfire with suspects during an attempted robbery.
The Kansas City Star reports prosecutors say another man fired the shot that killed Bieker but the four men were all charged with murder because they allegedly participated in a robbery that led to the killing.
Surveillance image from pool video of the crime
Another defendant is awaiting sentencing, while the other two are awaiting trial.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A Leavenworth woman has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for beating her mother to death.
Sixty-year-old Victoria Smith was sentenced Friday for intentional second-degree murder in the July 2016 death of Anna Maria Higgins.
The Leavenworth Times reports prosecutors say Smith hit Higgins several times with a flashlight and a three-pound mallet at a home where Smith lived.
Friday’s hearing began with District Judge Gunnar Sundby denying a defense motion to allow Smith to withdraw her no contest plea.
Family members said before sentencing that Smith had a history of abusing Higgins.
Smith told the court she intended only to scare her mother and then “snapped” but she believed she should be sentenced for manslaughter, rather than second-degree murder.
KDOT
