Outdoor warning devices, commonly called tornado sirens, were sounded across Kansas at 1:30p.m. today.

The annual statewide tornado drill is part of National Severe Weather Awareness Week which continues through Saturday.

Students at Washington Elementary School practice their tornado drill three times a year, according to principal Allan Park.

“The students and teachers come out of their classrooms or in from the playground, and go down the stairs in two lines to our cafeteria.  It’s in the basement and also serves as the school’s tornado shelter,” Park says.  “Today it took two and half minutes for 166 people-everybody in the building-to get in the shelter, about an average time.”

The tornado siren nearest Washington School is at Fort Hays State University, south of Lewis Field.  Park has a National Weather Service weather radio in his office which also sounds the warning.

An alarm in the hallway outside the second-grade classroom also beeps as students practice their tornado drill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kathleen Cepelka, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, has been named the 27th recipient of the National Catholic Education Association’s John F. Meyer award for 2013.

 
Cepelka has spent more than 43 years in Catholic education.

She has been principal of four different schools, including Thomas More Prep-Marian, Hays, from 1981-1988, served as a diocesan and archdiocesan superintendent of schools, earned her doctorate in educational administration and taught at the university level, where she was also an associate dean.

 
Cepelka will receive the award April 1, in Houston.

Shana Meyer, currently the assistant vice president for student affairs at Fort Hays State University, has been named vice president for student affairs at Missouri Western State University. She will begin her duties at St. Joseph on April 1.

Meyer has been assistant vice president for student affairs at FHSU since August 2006.

Before coming to FHSU, Meyer served for six years as assistant director of college advancement for student life and director of student life at Kansas State University at Salina. Previously, she was coordinator for academic affairs and residence life coordinator at Kansas State University.

At Fort Hays State, Meyer led the “Student Life Cluster,” including student activities, Greek life, student publications, residential life and many other units. She received a Bachelor of Science in English/Journalism and a Master of Science in Counselor Education from Emporia State University and is working on her doctorate in student affairs in higher education from Kansas State University.

Meyer succeeds Dr. Judy Grimes, who has served as interim vice president for student affairs at Missouri Western since last April.

The Hays Fire Department training planned for today and tomorrow, March 5 and March 6, at 17th Street and Harvest Drive has been postponed. It is rescheduled to March 12 and March 14 at the same location, beginning at 1p.m..

Hays firefighters are practicing procedures this week for attacking a large building fire.

The training is being conducted on Harvest Drive at East 17th Street near Kiwanis Park Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday starting at 1p.m.

Each session involves a crew of five firefighters with two trucks, according to Fire Chief Gary Brown.  “They’re practicing to quickly set up two large fire streams, one from each truck,” says Brown.  “This simulates the work needed to prevent a large fire from spreading to nearby buildings.”

Brown says residents are welcome to stop by and observe the training.

Traffic on Harvest Drive is restricted during the practices.

The HaysMed Foundation is announcing new officers and members of the Foundation Board of Directors.

Board members voted in as officers are : Kim Hodny, President; Pat Parke, Vice President; Ken Johnson, Treasurer; and Jerry Haley, Secretary.

Those elected to their first three-year term included Matt Dreiling of Hays, geologist and geophysicist with John O. Farmer, Inc. and Tonya Staab of Hays, owner of MamZelles, to their first three-year term on the Board of Directors.

The Board reelected Dr. Tom McDonald, Don Bickle and Nancy Talbott who will serve on the Foundation Board of Directors until January 2016.

Retiring from the Board were Marcy Allenbaugh and Jeff Wick.

Ruth Heffel, Executive Director of the Hays Medical Center Foundation explains it was created in 1995, and “supports HaysMed by funding services outside the normal operating budget to achieve a standard of excellence in patient care through quality staff, programs, services, technology and education.”

The HaysMed Foundation is a separate legal entity from HaysMed and is the designated depository and trustee for all current and future charitable gift assets to the Medical Center.

Eighty-five students in third through eighth grades from 75 counties took the stage at 9  this morning for the 2013 Sunflower Spelling Bee in Hays.

This is the first time Hays has hosted the event.  The Sunflower region includes all of Kansas except 30 eastern counties.

Today’s winner will advance to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., the last week of May.

The Ellis County representative is Sally Lushbough, a Hays Middle School 8th grader.

The bee, co-sponsored by the Hays Daily News, AT&T and Sunflower Electric, is underway in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center at Fort Hays State University.

 

The Hays Girl Scout Junior Troop 10247 is hosting its first-ever “Drive-Through Cookie Sale” Saturday until 2p.m.

The troop, with 21 fourth-grade girls, is greeting drivers at Dean Ellner Realty, 25th and Vine Streets.

Cookies are $3.50 a box.  Available for purchase are all the favorites:  Thin Mints, Carmel de’Lights, Peanut Butter Patties, Shortbreads, Lemonades, Thanks-a-Lots, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, and new this year, Mango Cremes.

The annual Girl Scout Cookie Sale continues through March 10.

Eighty-five of the state’s best spellers in third through eighth grades will be in Hays Saturday for the 2013 Sunflower Spelling Bee.

The Sunflower region includes 75 western Kansas counties.  The winner advances to the National Spelling Bee in Washington the last week of May.

The spelling bee starts at 9a.m. at Fort Hays State University’s Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center in Sheridan Hall.

The 85 competitors are their school’s winners of their county bee.  The Ellis County representative is Sally Lushbough, a Hays Middle School eighth-grader.

This is the first time Hays has hosted the Sunflower Bee, which was in Great Bend the past five years.

The Sunflower Bee is co-sponsored by The Hays Daily News, AT&T and Sunflower Electric.