FHSU University Relations

Teams from five universities will join a team from Fort Hays State University on the FHSU campus this weekend for the first Collegiate Leadership Competition in the Heartland Region.

Arrival and check-in will be from 6:30-7 p.m. Friday, April 13, in the Memorial Union’s Black and Gold Room.
“The Department of Leadership Studies at FHSU was honored to be asked to serve as a host site for the Collegiate Leadership Competition,“ said Dr. Jill Arensdorf, chair of the Department of Leadership Studies.

“Hosting has been not only a unique opportunity for the FHSU team to participate in the competition on their home campus, but also for other Midwestern schools to get to experience the innovative and beautiful Hays campus and city of Hays,” she said.

The other competitors are the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs; Dodge City Community College; Emporia State University; Iowa State University, Ames; and Washburn University.

“Developing skills through multiple hands-on learning opportunities is a best-practice in education,” said Arensdorf. “FHSU chose to have a team in the competition to give students a skills-based learning experience about leadership.”

The competitions, which involve a series of activities, each followed by a debriefing session, will be Saturday, April 14, in the Black and Gold Room. The activities involve groups and their appointed leaders solving simple physical problems under conditions that make the tasks much more involved.

“The activities for the individual competitions are kept under wraps, even from the host campus’s logistics coordinator,” said Kaley Klaus, instructor of leadership studies at FHSU, who is also the logistics coordinator for the competition.

“So I can’t really say much about them,” she said. “But the competition is grounded in the idea of ‘deliberate practice.’ You practice how to drive, play a sport, cook, how to do math, etc. This competition gives students the opportunity to deliberately practice the leadership skills we teach them in academic leadership programs.”

Collegiate Leadership Competition is a nonprofit college leadership program founded in 2015. The CLC’s regions are the Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, New England and Ohio Valley.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

A homework assignment turned in this week by a student at O’Loughlin Elementary School led to a parent notification and police investigation.

Superintendent John Thissen said a very young student turned in a homework assignment Wednesday that said he wanted to be a school shooter when he grew up. O’Loughlin parents were notified of the investigation Thursday afternoon.

The district notified the police to investigate and brought in counselors to work with the child.

Police determined there was no immediate danger to the students at the school.

Citing student privacy rights, Thissen did not elaborate on what disciplinary action was taken against the student or if the student would remain at O’Loughlin. The student was not identified.

The school released the following statement via email.

“I just wanted to let you know there was a concern with a homework assignment that was completed by a student at OES. Due to the seriousness of the completed assignment, it was reported to a law enforcement official, was fully investigated, and no credible threat was found. We appreciate staff working together to provide a safe environment for all our students.”

 

Thissen said the district wished to let parents know about the incident because of issues that arose over a threat at Hays High School earlier this year.

A student at the HHS made a verbal threat against the school. Parents were not notified of the threat until five days later. In the meantime, rumors swirled about a possible gun at the school and further threats. Parents were so concerned about the rumors that about 50 parents kept students home from school.

The district is set to consider changes to its parental notification policy in the administrative handbook at its next meeting on April 30.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man left partially paralyzed when gunfire erupted as he and three others were robbing a suburban Kansas City gun shop has been sentenced to life in prison for killing the shop’s owner.

De’Anthony Wiley, 23, won’t be eligible for parole for 25 years under the sentence ordered Thursday. He says he’s “deeply ashamed.”

He pleaded guilty in February to first-degree felony murder and other charges in the 2015 death of 44-year-old Jon Bieker.

The robbery of Bieker’s Shawnee, Kansas, gun store turned deadly when one of the robbers punched his wife. Bieker then emerged from a back room with a gun. Bieker was killed and three of the robbers wounded in the ensuing gunfight.

Wiley was the final robber sentenced to life imprisonment.

UPDATE: At 12:25 p.m. Thursday, Anne N. Haver, 38, of Ellis was traveling east on Interstate 70 five miles west of Ellis when she fell asleep, veering over and sideswiped a semi, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Haver’s Dodge Nitro rolled coming to rest on its top on the shoulder of the eastbound lane.

Haver was taken to Trego County-Lemke Memorial in WaKeeney for treatment.

The driver of the semi, Crystal D. Arasteh, 37, of Goodyear, Arizona, was not injured.

Traffic stayed open on both lanes of the highway while officials worked the wreck.

Both drivers were wearing their seat belts.

 

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Kansas Highway Patrol is on the scene of a rollover accident at about mile marker 140 eastbound on Interstate 70 in Trego County.

What appeared to be a maroon SUV rolled on its top.

Traffic is still open in both directions on Interstate 70 as officials work the accident.

The accident was originally called out about 12:30 p.m. as an injury accident, but it is not known if anyone was hurt in the accident or their condition. The name of the driver has not been released.

Watch Hays Post for more information as it becomes available.

USD 489

USD 489 received a $48,440 grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation to cover all of the costs for a pilot summer reading program for at-risk students and students who are performing below grade level in reading and writing.

Overall, 120 students will be selected by the district to participate in the pilot summer reading program in June 2018.

Each of the four elementary schools at Lincoln, O’Loughlin, Roosevelt and Wilson will have 30 students who have completed kindergarten, first or second grade during the 2017-2018 school year participate.

USD 489 will work with parents to identify students who will most benefit from additional reading, comprehension, and verbal sharing with other students.

USD 489 believes the summer reading program will positively impact these students who are below grade level by maintaining reading skills that have been learned throughout the school year, and in some cases, increase the reading skill sets of some students.

All of the 120 participating students will be able to take four books to read at home during the summer, which will help bridge the gap of access to books at home.

The schedule for the summer would include three days a week during the month of June from 9 to 11 a.m.

Parents will be given the opportunity to evaluate the summer reading program and provide feedback to the teachers regarding the students’ experiences through a survey.Parents will be allowed to rank and comment on their child’s experiences. The information collected from the parents will be used to re-evaluate the summer school reading program for the next school year.

The grant was written by Shanna Dinkel, Laura Gaughan, Kay Shippy, Mary Straub, Sarah Wasinger and Amy Woydziak.