By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Lincoln Elementary School Principal Elaine Rohleder was named January’s USD 489’s Best of the Best at a school board meeting Monday night.

Rohleder was nominated by Monica Dreiling, fifth-grade teacher at Lincoln.

“Elaine Rohleder is an exemplary administrator,” she said. “When teachers want to implement new projects and ideas within their classrooms, she is supportive and provides resources when necessary. Elaine’s demeanor encourages staff and students to do their best each day. Guidance is provided in a caring and supportive manner.”

Rohleder takes time to get to know each student and their families, Dreiling said.

“She understands the importance of making these connections with students, parents and staff, resulting in excellent rapport. She is genuinely interested in building relationships,” Dreiling said.

Mariella Dreiling, Lincoln student, continued with the nomination letter, saying Rohleder had an open-door policy and is available to hear concerns and successes whenever she has a free moment.

“She gives authentic praise, demonstrates extreme patience and has high expectations,” she said. “Mrs. Rohleder understands the unique challenges of working in education and provides support in meeting these challenges.”

About a half dozen of Rohleder’s colleagues attended the meeting Monday in support of her nomination.

Marla Stecklein, Lincoln second-grade teacher, also offered kind words about Rohleder.

“I appreciate all the support that I receive each and every day in doing my job at Lincoln with the students, and she is very deserving of this award,” she said.

Rohleder thanked her staff.

“I am so blessed to be a part of USD 489, especially Lincoln Elementary School. The staff there is so dedicated to not only their students but to their families. Being a part of USD 489 has been a blessing for 24 years. I think the community needs to realize how fortunate the community is to have their children come to a school in USD 489, because everybody from the classified staff to the certified staff to the administration, their heart and soul is there every single day. They are giving their very best to make sure the students are great citizens and continue to serve on boards like you guys do.”

The student award winner of Best of the Best for January was Carter Werth, a Wilson Elementary School fifth grader.

He was nominated by Wilson Principal Anita Scheve.

Werth is a role model at Wilson. The job of these students is to help students get to class.

At the beginning of the school year, a kindergarten boy was having difficulty leaving his mother. Werth bent down to talk to the student, comforted him and offered to walk him to his classroom. He did this for about a month, until the student felt more comfortable.

“Carter made that transition very smooth for that kindergarten student,” Scheve said, “and he did that all on his own. I really felt that Carter took a little extra time and showed what it meant to be a role model — a true role model — and a good citizen of Wilson, caring, concerned and connected to others.”

The Ellis County Spelling Bee champion Mackenzie Hagerman, seventh grader from Hays Middle School, was crowned Tuesday night at the Beach Schmidt Performing Arts Center.

Hagerman won the competition by correctly spelling the word excruciating.

Second place went to Carson Brooksher, eighth grader at Hays Middle School.

The Fort Hays State University chapter of National Student Speech-Language Hearing Association sponsored the event.

Students from Hays and Ellis both public and Catholic schools competed in the contest.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

What was supposed to be a discussion at Monday’s Hays school board meeting about the purchase schedule for student computers morphed into a larger debate about the necessity of the district’s one-to-one technology initiative.

To avoid a large budget spike to replace all the devices at once, the district’s Technology Committee was charged with creating a schedule for the replacement of those computers over a four-year period. That schedule would cost an average of about $225,000 per year, starting with the high school computers in 2018-19.

This makes the per-student cost of the program about $75 per year, or 43 cents per day, Superintendent John Thissen said.

However, board member Greg Schwartz raised concerns about the validity of the one-to-one program. Schwartz asked Thissen what the goal of the one-to-one program was.

Thissen said the technology is a tool that provides information to the students. Students also learn to use the technology and are better prepared to harness that technology when they enter the workforce or go on to higher education,” he said.

“From what we can gather, it does appear that just about any job requires some kind of need of utilizing a tablet or some sort of computer. That necessity is there in just about any job at this time,” Thissen said.

Schwartz questioned the purchase of iPads for students, arguing the district should look at less expensive options.

“I think sometimes we get in a cycle where we say this is the latest, greatest thing. We all want that. It is human nature to want the cool, new thing, but the question is what are we trying to accomplish with it?” Schwartz said. “If we can accomplish it with something that is cheaper, then shouldn’t we do that?”

Thissen said, “Curriculum is the most important. You pick the best curriculum for your students and then you find tools. If we end up picking the best curriculum for students, and we end up picking a tool that is unable to work with that, that is wrong. You don’t pick a tool and end up utilizing a curriculum that is tied to it just because of the better deal. You need to have the best with the curriculum. The tool is what you can end up making the deals with.”

The Technology Committee did not recommend a device or brand at the meeting Monday night.

Marie Henderson, instructional technology specialist, said she has not seen another device that allows the communication the iPads allows. 

“Apple is by far superior with giving a student the ability to analyze and synthesize the information that is available on a learning objective — the data and topic of your curriculum — and then allowing the student in a powerful way to communicate what they have learned in way that we never did with poster board when I was a kid,” she said. “They are now able to incorporate multimedia in really, truly amazing ways and communicate and show their voice in a wide variety of choices with this device we have currently given them.”

Thissen said the iPads are reliable and have high resale values.

Board president Lance Bickle asked if there is enough data to determine if the one-to-one program has benefited students.

Schwartz said he would like to see an objective measure, such as an increase in test scores or a test that would measure computer skills.

Anita Scheve, Wilson principal and member of the Technology Committee, said technology is so interwoven into the curriculum, discipline, student engagement, classroom participation and student emotional health that it is impossible to separate it out as a single variable that might affect test scores.

Schwartz said the technology purchases become huge expenditures and need to be justified.

“If they say we were going to buy a new school bus, we could measure the effectiveness of that and whether to buy one at 10 years versus 15 years. You could measure the breakdowns between 10 and 15,” Schwartz said. “I understand that technology is a little different. If you want to say that we need these kids to have (technology) to master these set of skills, then, to me, the easy thing would be to create a grade-level or school-level test.”

Board member Paul Adams provided to the board a study, which indicated students with access to one-to-one technology increased their writing, project-based learning, student ownership of their learning and student/teacher communication.

Schwartz suggested a bring-your-device policy at the high school.

Hays High Principal Marty Straub said he did not think that was practical with more than 40 percent of the students at HHS now qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. He said he is seeing many households with multiple cell phones, but fewer and fewer homes with computers.

Schwartz asked what sacrifices has the board made to take care of its deferred maintenance, adding it is difficult to ask voters to sacrifice for a bond without the board and the district also making sacrifices.

“But you can’t sacrifice the students for the buildings,” Board member Luke Oborny said. “That scares me a lot.”

The technology schedule will come back before the board at a subsequent meeting. Thissen said he would include the schedule for the replacement of teacher computers with the next board report on the issue.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Hays USD 489 school board voted Monday night to approve $782,000 for improvements to HVAC system at Hays High School.

The work will add rooftop units for the main gym, auxiliary gym and wrestling room. The program will also improve controls for other parts of the high school. The district hopes to complete the project this summer.

The project will be paid for through capital outlay funds.

Board member Greg Schwartz had questioned the use of a construction manager at risk instead of using a traditional bid process on the project. He also questioned the cost of the project and, at the last board meeting, asked a comparison be made between the cost of the high school project and a similar project completed in 2015 at Hays Middle School.

Building Controls and Services, the construction manager at risk, estimated the cost of the high school project would be $12.75 per square foot, and the cost of the HMS project was $17.29.

Schwartz questioned the numbers, arguing the numbers might be skewed because of the amount being spent on controls in Hays High School project. However, he said after reviewing the additional data, the costs were close enough he could support the project.

The project passed the board unanimously.

Both Schwartz and Board President Lance Bickle said they would prefer that future projects use a traditional bidding method.

This is the first phase of a multi-phase project to improve the HVAC system at HHS. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $4 million to $5 million.

Superintendent John Thissen said the district chose the gyms as the first phase, because they are used the most during the summer.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The advisory board for the Hays-West Central Kansas Co-op has recommended to not renew the contract of its special education director.

Raj Sharma was named as the director of the coop on July 1, 2016. Contracts for Hays school district administrative staff are discussed in February each year.

The school board will vote on the recommendation at its next meeting on Feb. 12.

Sharma was the special education director in Wellington before taking the job in Hays.

The co-op covers the Hays, Ellis, La Crosse and Victoria school districts.

The contracts for Superintendent John Thissen and Assistant Superintendent Shanna Dinkel will also be up for review on Feb. 12. Thissen has recommended renewal of Dinkel’s contract. Dinkel was also appointed as assistant superintendent as of July 1, 2016.

Thissen’s contract will be reviewed by the school board. He has asked to be moved from a two-year contract to a one-year contract to be parallel with the other administrative staff.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The USD 489 school board discussed the possibility of applying for federal grants to renovate facilities during its meeting on Monday.

Superintendent John Thissen discussed facilities needs with the board. If the school district moved the Early Childhood programs into an existing building in the community or an existing elementary in the school district, it might be able to apply for federal funds to make renovations.

“The exciting thing about this is that you can’t buy a new building and receive federal funds for it, but you can buy used and renovate and use federal funds. That is another reason why this may make sense,” Thissen said. “Washington and Munjor are federal programs that we could perhaps get some money for that we are not normally able of getting.”

The district received about $150,000 in federal grant money when ECC moved into the former Washington Elementary School on Main Street.

New construction runs about $200 to $300 per square foot, but if a suitable building could be found, renovation could cost $100 square foot, Thissen said.

In three to four years the state has said it wants to expands its preschool programs to all day. The Washington building is full, so additional room would be needed to meet the demand. Washington also has accessibility issues, no storm shelter and sewer issues. In addition, the district would like to vacate the Munjor building, which has roof issues and no storm shelter.

Washington is more than 90 years old, and Thissen questioned the advisability of investing significant amounts to remodel a building that old.

Another version of this option is also moving Rockwell’s offices into a renovated building. Vacating Rockwell, however, would leave the district without an auditorium. The heating for the auditorium is controlled by the boiler for the rest of the building. Thissen also said the value of the Rockwell property is in the land, and he doubted a buyer would want the property with the auditorium left on it.

This still leaves the issue of the elementary schools, which Thissen said he thought could be addressed with a bond. He said the district could consider building a five-section elementary school that would consolidate O’Loughlin and Lincoln elementaries.

Thissen said preliminary numbers indicated this could be achieved with about a $40 million bond, which would be at a cost in the range for $10 to $12 per month for a $150,000 home. He said he thought this might be accomplished with a 15-year bond.

If O’Loughlin was vacated, it could be renovated for the Learning Center, Rockwell and maintenance.

Consolidating Munjor, Washington and Lincoln into a new building would be another option, but that project would not qualify for federal funds.

Board member Greg Schwartz said he would like to see a further explanation building by building of the facility needs.

Board member Paul Adams said he would like to have a special board meeting just to talk about the facility needs and a possible future bond.

USD 489

Hays High School DECA students participated in collecting money for the Ronald McDonald houses Miracle Minutes project.

DECA students took advantage of good crowds at the Bob Kuhn Prairie Classic by collecting spare change from spectators during the wrestling tournament.

All money raised for the Miracle Minutes project will go toward helping children with significant medical needs in Kansas.

Students were able to raise about $500 for their Miracle Minute project this year.