By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Sternberg Museum of Natural History is showing off a new exhibit of minerals from around the world, recently donated to the museum from a private collection.

Geologist Richard Green and his wife, Pam, of Missouri decided they wanted to share a portion of their mineral collection with the museum. The 84 minerals that were donated are estimated to be worth $100,000, Christina Byrd, Sternberg collections manager, said. The minerals come from five continents, 19 countries and nine states.

Although the Sternberg has had a mineral collection on exhibit for some time, the new minerals are higher quality than what the museum has been able to showcase in the past, Byrd said.

Some of the minerals are rare and others are unusual examples of more common minerals. Some of the more rare minerals are prehnites, zeolites and aphopholites. The exhibit also includes examples of more common minerals such as quartz, calcite and fluorite.

Some of the minerals are more colorful such as malachite, which is a deep green, and azurite, which is a royal blue.

Byrd said she hoped the exhibit will tell a story about the minerals.

“I hope visitors learn a different lesson from each case,” she said. “From one case, I hope they will learn about mineral names and what the names of these mineral groups mean, where do they come from and why do we call things the way that we do?

“I hope they will learn that minerals come in many different colors even though they are called the same thing. Quartz can be clear, purple, pink, smoky, but it is all quartz.”

The exhibit has two examples of azurite. One has fine crystals and is a royal blue. The other has much larger crystals and looks almost black in the case. Byrd said the second example is more rare and, in the right light, exhibits a brilliant blue color.

Byrd said there are seven different ways minerals get their colors. If you know your elements, the chemical makeup of the minerals will often give you clues about where the color of the mineral came from, Byrd said. Copper is often responsible for the blue in minerals or iron for a red hue.

Another case will talk about how minerals can have different shapes and sizes. Yet another case will talk about the practical uses for minerals.

“Some minerals are very important in our day-to-day lives,” Byrd said, “be it in the devices that we’re using —cars, cell phones are full of different minerals — be they quartz, which is in glass or the metals that make up our phones. Those metals are all minerals. So I hope people walk away with a greater appreciation for what minerals are and how they impact our daily lives.”

The exhibit has an example of fluorite, which contains fluoride, which is also found in toothpaste. Rutile is used as a whitening agent in products such as liquid paper correction fluid and very small amounts in the filling in sandwich cookies. Other minerals in the exhibit are used in makeup.

The heaviest mineral in the collection is galena, which is a lead sulfide. The specimen is smaller than a soccer ball, but weighs over 100 pounds.

The museum is working with a mineralogist at Fort Hays State University on cards that will further tell the story of the minerals, but the minerals are currently in cases and available for viewing by the public. Currently, each mineral is displayed with a card that contains its name, the chemical composition of the mineral and the place were the specimen was collected.

The full exhibit should be completed in the next two to three weeks.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

VICTORIA — Surrounded by German chocolate cake, homemade truffles and puff pastries, 21-year-old Haley Robben said she has found her passion — baking.

Robben started a baking business — Bakeology — in her hometown of Victoria in 2017. Her shop is on 10th Street across the street from the grade school where she also works part-time as a paraprofessional.

She tried a semester at the University of Kansas studying political science, but she was just not into her classes. She talked to her adviser, who encouraged her to seek her passion.

Robben remembered spending hours with her grandmothers making all kinds of baked goods, especially her favorite pumpkin pies.

“Both grandmothers would have counters covered in sugar cookies and all different kinds of holiday cookies for everybody to eat when people came over to our houses,” she said.

Her adviser suggested the culinary arts program at Johnson County Community College.

Robben’s skills spread via word of mouth. She started a Facebook page for Bakeology and is now taking regular orders via social media.

With a brisk business and her family nearby, she said it was an easy decision to move back to Victoria. Today she is busy with orders from sugar cookies to elaborate wedding cakes.

Robben’s most popular item is her decorated sugar cookies. She can put just about anything on a sugar cookie and has had some interesting requests from clients wanting cookies for bachelorette and bachelor parties. She also regularly makes cookies for birthday parties at the school, which she hand delivers across the street when she heads over to work for the day.

Robben said she is always up for a challenge.

“I get so into the motion of sugar cookies and decorated birthday cakes, which is so fun and I like the versatility of that,” she said, “but I really love when someone gives me a weird flavor or something they are interested in. I just recently did a pink champagne cake, and I thought that was something different. I had never made one before.”

Robben said she enjoys the precision in baking. She has had to take both baking and cooking courses in culinary school. Cooking often requires the chef to season to taste. A lot of science goes into baking. Individual ingredients like baking soda help pull the baked goods together.

“I love that it has to be super precise and you have to get that exact amount in or it probably is not going to turn out the way you want it to,” she said. “I think I am kind of a perfectionist, and think that is where that really plays in really well for me. I just want to get it exactly right.”

Robben is not immune from baking disasters. She said she has had wedding cakes she started, threw out and started over the day of the wedding.

“Just today, I was making cinnamon rolls, and I didn’t set the timer,” she said. “I came back 20 minutes later, and they were totally charred. I guess no cinnamon rolls today. It happens all the time, and I think it is important to know that just because I have some schooling, doesn’t mean that everything I make is going to turn out perfect.

“It shouldn’t discourage people from trying to bake because they have one thing that goes wrong. It doesn’t make you a bad baker. If it did, no one would be a good baker.”

For the home baker, Robben strongly encouraged reading and following the recipe. There are reasons the recipe is telling you to take those steps, she said. Take your time, and don’t skip steps.

Robben has one more semester left in culinary school, which she is completing online. She said she is unsure about her long-term plans, but Bakeology is thriving. She said she hopes someday baking will be her only job.

“This is going pretty well for me — the made-to-order — because it seems to give me the chance to make a lot of different things and not really limit myself. I think when you have a set menu and you don’t really want to veer from that, you get so caught up in the same things and you never really adapt and change to all the new trends. I love that I can do that pretty easily this way.”

To order, customers can send a direct message on the Bakeology Facebook page or text Robben at 785-735-4474. Sugar cookies start at $15 a dozen and costs vary from there depending on complexity and the ingredients.

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

The Hays USD 489 superintendent recommended the district opt of PEERA and future negotiations with its custodian union at a school board meeting Monday night.

Superintendent John Thissen said he was disappointed in the leadership of the custodian’s union and the direction that leadership was taking.

“I would say that it is not needed in our organization,” Thissen said of the union Monday night.

The city and county both opted out of PEERA in December, but Thissen said the school board’s discussion had nothing to do with those decisions.

Related story: City commission votes 3-2 to exit PEERA and employee union negotiations

Related story: Ellis County Commission votes to end union negotiations

An opt out from PEERA (Public Employer-Employee Relations Act) was placed on the school board’s agenda for January on the request of board members last year after negotiations with SEIU (Service Employees International Union) stalled a change in the district’s insurance provider. 

Related story: Unions threaten to sue district over health insurance

Related story: Unions respond on Hays USD 489 insurance issue

There are 28 people covered by SEIU in the school district, 19 of which pay dues and are members of the union. The Hays school district is one of only two school districts in the state that negotiates with SEIU. The other is Wichita.

When the district first started to negotiate with SEIU, the cooks were also a part of the union. However, the district cooks have not been a part of the union for some time. There are about 225 classified staff that do not have union representation. The district employees about 500 people.

No one from SEIU was at the school board meeting Monday night, but SEIU released the following statement Friday to the Hays Post.

“The custodians of USD 489 value their collective bargaining rights and are hopeful that the school board will remain under PEERA. We appreciate that we were able to come to a fair and equitable agreement this year. We also understand that negotiations can be frustrating at times; however, collective bargaining aids in securing harmony in the workplace and allows employees to focus on their work rather than their grievances.” 

Board attorney Bill Jeter said nothing necessarily has to change for the employees if the board decides to no longer recognize the union. The board would adopt salary, benefits, shifts and vacation via policy. However, the salary and benefits would not necessarily have to change if the district opted not to negotiate with the union.

There is a cost to negotiate with SEIU. The district has to pay staff and its attorney to be involved in negotiations.

Board member Luke Oborny said he did like the timing of a possible decision on PEERA. He did not want the custodians to think they were not valued. The district also approved several personnel transactions Monday night that moved custodians to alternate buildings.

“I just don’t want it to be, ‘Last month they were picking on me,” and, “This month they are picking on me and what is it going to be next month?’ I hope it does not look as though we don’t value our employees. … I don’t want any group to feel as though we don’t value them. I think it is safe to say that we all do. We cannot operate without the people.”

Board member Mike Walker said he had concerns with opting out of PEERA.

“If this structure provides a voice, a legitimate voice I am very concerned about taking that away,” Walker said. “If we decide it doesn’t have a legitimate voice, I am more in line with what I am feeling from most of the board.”

An opt out of PEERA would not affect the district’s negotiations with the teacher’s union. Th district would still be required by state law to negotiate with the Hays NEA.

If the district decides to opt out of PEERA by the end of June, the change would take affect on July 1, 2019. This means the district would still need to negotiate a contract with SEIU for the 2018-19 school year. The board members requested the issue be brought back to them at their February meeting for further discussion and a possible vote.

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

Hays USD 489 implemented a new behavior policy that has reduced office referrals.

The model, Positive Intervention Behavior and Supports, focuses on positive reinforcement and setting clear expectations in common areas as well as individual classrooms. At the school level, the system is known as Foundations. At the classroom level, it is known as CHAMPS for the younger students and ACHIEVE for the older students.

CHAMPS stands for conversation, help, activity, movement, participation and success. ACHIEVE stands for activity, conversation, help, integrity, effort, value, efficiency. These words refer to questions teachers or school staff ask when creating guidelines for their classrooms or school areas.

School psychologist Kyle Carlin gave an example of how the system works. He used the example of running in the hall.

Instead of reprimanding a student and telling them, ‘Don’t run,” the teacher might say, ‘Please walk.” The teacher might also reinforce the positive behavior by asking the student to practice walking down the hall.

Wilson Elementary School has concentrated on make changes on its playgrounds. In a survey last year, about 40 percent of second through fifth graders said they did not feel safe on the playground. Fifty-four percent of the office referrals were coming from the playground.

The school wrote specific rules for the playground and rules for specific pieces of equipment, which they taught to students. They encouraged children to play in the Wilson Warrior Way and created the acronym PLAY.

This stands for proper use of equipment and body; listen, load up equipment and line up quickly; always be kind with hands and words; and you are in control, be respectful and responsible.

They also retrained their playground monitors, increased the number of supervisors on the playground and zoned the playground with each playground supervisor in charge of a specific zone.

The number of office referrals from the playground decreased by 75 percent, Anita Scheve, Wilson principal, said.

The school is extending the CHAMPS model beyond the playground to the lunch room and hallways. The school moved its recess from after lunch to before. Teachers said the students are returning to class more settled, and the lunch room is throwing away 30 percent less food.

Scheve said before the school implemented positive disciple, there were children lined up in her office to see her for disciplinary reasons. That has been cut dramatically. Scheve said she is focusing on restorative justice.

“While I believe in natural consequences,” Scheve said, “I don’t want to punish. I just want to reteach. That is the principle. Let’s teach behavior like we teach everything else. Let’s assume that they want to do the right thing. Let’s set them up to do the right thing.”

Scheve and the school counselor are also working daily with students who have had repeated discipline problems. They help the students create strategies on how they are going to focus on positive behavior through their day.

Hays Middle School has focused on reducing congestion in the hallways. Craig Pallister, HMS principal, said the school is trying to deal with the issue of overcrowding in hallways and the lunch room after the latest school bond issue failed. The bond issue would have renovated the cafeteria, which was not designed to accommodate the 675 students the school now serves daily.

Signs were hung to remind students about rules during passing periods. Falcon images were placed on the floor in certain areas, and staff members have been assigned to stand on these spots and give positive reminders of the rules to the students during passing periods.

The school used the CHAMPS process to reorganize its cafeteria. Milk coolers were moved outside of the cafeteria and students are now lining up outside the cafeteria to free up more room. However, as the school continues to grow, Pallister said the school may be forced to increase its window for serving lunch. It is already serving lunch from 10:55 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Each school has a team that is working on implementing these new strategies in common areas, such as cafeterias, hallways, parking lots and playgrounds.

“They are looking at those areas and developing policies and procedures that are predictable and consistent,” Carlin said. After they have developed those policies and procedures, they then go and explicitly teach those to kids because we know kids are more likely to meet our expectations if they know what they are.”

Consequences are natural, but they should be more instructive to make sure the next behavior is more appropriate than the last one, Carlin said.

Carlin continued with the example of the student who ran in the hallway. Once they have been asked to model the positive behavior, which was walking, the next time they pass the spot they will remember they the need to be walking.

“It helps them know what to do instead of, ‘If I don’t do the right thing, I am going to get punished,'” he said. “We know that doesn’t have the same level of effectiveness as other strategies.”

CHAMPS also addresses expectations within a specific classroom. The expectations concerning things such as talking might not be the same in a physical education class as it might be in an English class. Even though expectations may be different from class to class, there is consistency within the class, and that helps students build trust with a teacher, Carlin said.

As students get a little older—about third grade—they can participate through surveys to help school officials identify areas that need work. They don’t dictate the policies, but they do get to have input, he said.

“We know when students have input into the process, there is more buy in from them on those rules. They are more likely to follow those rules and expectations,” Carlin said.

Sometimes adults don’t see what kids see, or the presence of an adult changes children’s behavior, he said.

“Kids have really good insight into things in their school, and their voice is very valuable to have as a part of that,” Carlin said.

Carlin said he wanted parents to know the schools want their input on the changes, as well.

The models for positive behavior can also be used at home, and Carlin said he uses the techniques with his own kids. He suggested providing positive reinforcement as opposed to negative, setting expectations, providing structure and using positive instructions when trying to elicit a behavior change.

“While there is a purpose for various consequences, the more we rely on punishing consequences, the less likely we are to get the change in the behavior,” Carlin said. “We want to make sure when we do correct behavior, it is going to get us more effective behavior in the future.”