By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Rip Winkel has applied his horticulture knowledge all over the world, working on banana plantations in Guatemala and with cacao farmers in Ecuador.

But most recently, he has planted himself in Hays as the horticulture agent for the Cottonwood District, which includes Ellis and Barton counties.

Winkel, 58, moved to Hays to be closer to family in Denver, where he grew up.

Winkel started working in farming and landscaping when he was in junior high. He spent vacations working on a relative’s farm outside of Newton. Though he had a passion for music and art, he decided applying his creativity in horticulture would be more practical.

He received his bachelor’s degree in fruit and vegetable production at Texas A&M with an emphasis in tropical and subtropical fruits and vegetables. He later received an master’s degree in agriculture development from Colorado State University.

After Winkel graduated from Texas A&M, Del Monte hired him to work on banana plantations on the eastern side of Guatemala. That operation later shifted toward cantaloupe production. Winkel was eventually transferred back to the U.S. where he helped manage 6,000 acres of cantaloupe in Arizona and California. During the spring, summer and fall, the cantaloupes came from the U.S., and during the winter, the melons came from Guatemala and Costa Rica.

“At times, it was extremely difficult, but I have great memories of being down there and roaming through the banana plantation or the people — good people,” he said.

The drain of 100-hour weeks working for Del Monte ultimately became too much, so Winkel decided to leave to create his own company, Agriscapes, a landscaping and irrigation company. One of the highlights of this time was a project he did for the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas. It was a walk-though park in the Texas desert.

“They call it the Oasis in the Desert out there, because it is very, very dry, desolate country,” he said. “And then you have this blop of green and flowers everywhere and trees. That was a fun project.”

He moved back to Colorado to get his master’s degree and was able to sign up for Peace Corps Master’s International Program. Participants study normal courses stateside, then are sent overseas for a two-year Peace Corps assignment. Upon return, those experiences become the foundation of a thesis or dissertation.

He was assigned to a small village in the coastal region of Ecuador where he worked with locals on cacao, sugar cane and pineapple production. Most people are most familiar with cacao as an ingredient in chocolate.

Winkel was on the cusp of leaving for a job working on a farm in South Africa, when his father fell ill, and he opted to stay in Colorado to help his mother.

But this did not stop Winkel’s wanderlust. During the winter when there wasn’t much to do in ag production and landscaping in Denver, he worked as a volunteer for an organization called Farmers to Farmers based out of Washington, D.C., that teams with Partners of the Americas, which was founded by John Kennedy.

His first assignment was to spend two weeks in Nicaragua working with people there on a blight that hit their main food source, a root called taro. Elephant ear is in the same family. The purple root tastes similar to potatoes.

“They were having a problem because disease was wiping out all production,” he said. “So I went down there and worked with this community on coming up with methods and ways or alternative crops they could be planting not only to eat off of, but also to sell to the local market or the national market up in Managua.”

After finishing his short stint in Nicaragua, Winkel was sent for a longer 10-week mission to eastern Ecuador on the edge of the Amazon basin to a town called Puyo. He worked with local villages on cacao production as well as youth on composting. Two to three times per week, he would get up early, catch the bus and head into the jungle to a community of Kichwa Indians.

He visited one of the group’s 10 cacao farms, talked about soil and natural insecticides and then he would go out with the tribe members and work on pruning the cacao trees.

“We would try to push the jungle pack, because the jungle was always trying to take over, which lessens the yield you get in mazorca. Mazorca is the big pod you get that contains the cacao seeds,” he said.

The seeds are fermented, dried and that is what becomes cocoa.

He visited the Ecuador again last winter and was trying help the group get to a point where it could make its own chocolate to sell to tourists. Tourists visit the area for the natives’ festivals and ritualistic face painting using a clear liquid that stains the skin black.

Winkel decided to take the job in Hays rather than returning to Ecuador this winter. He said it was a more structured job with roots, but was a combination of all the things he was used to doing.

“This job offers me the ability to deal with almost all the issues I have experience with. … I have worked in nurseries and been a production manager. It deals with landscape and landscape design. It deals with fruit and vegetable production, and I have fingers in everything that I have done. I have experience, and I have learned to love in my life — the work,” he said. “The other thing is I am dealing with people. That is also what I like is dealing with people.”

Winkel was already familiar with Hays through trips to Kansas to visit relatives, but his latest impressions have been very welcoming.

“My first impression is that everyone seems to be extremely nice,” he said.

Winkel has a number of projects he would like to work on, including bringing the jujube fruit trees to the area. The tree is tolerant of alkaline soil and drought. It is a small tree that is beautiful for landscaping, and it produces fruit that tastes like apples, which was used to make the original jujube candy.

He wants to promote the concept of edible landscapes. Within the flowering areas, you could plant things, such as jujube, elderberry, black choke berry and Swiss chard.

“You do a landscape with this stuff and at the same time you are harvesting your landscape. It looks beautiful, and you are eating it,” he said. “It is almost like hitting two birds with one stone. You plant it and let it go, because it is already under a watering system.”

Winkel keeps in mind the water shortages here in Hays, and suggests reducing grass to 60 to 40 percent of the yard area and replacing it with other more drought tolerant ground cover like juniper or using drip lines.

“What can we do to beautify something with what we have or within the limits of what we should be doing, which means restricting water, yet your yard will stay beautiful and attractive instead of this wall-to-wall dead buffalo grass,” he said.

He also supports the use of wildflowers along the highway, as it would reduce maintenance and benefit pollinators.

“I am looking at becoming a regular part of this community of serving it, and more than that, being part of it and looking forward to getting to know people,” he said.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The PEERS Foundation was at Lincoln Elementary School on Monday working with 33 fifth graders in a CREATE Music STEM Camp during which students explored science, technology, engineering and math.

The Peers Foundation is a nonprofit that travels the United States exposing children to STEM education and encouraging children to consider STEM careers.

“We want them to see that these areas of STEM are not just abstract, in a book, sitting in a classroom,” Mark McDonald, STEM camp lead educator, said. “Not only are they fun and interesting, they are relevant in every aspect of their life. It doesn’t matter what they are interested in or what their career goal is, it can be related back to science, technology, engineering and math.”

McDonald referred to the oil and ag industry in Ellis County.

“We didn’t come up with 30-foot heads on combines without someone involved in engineering and creating it,” he said. “It is everywhere, and we want them to see that it is everywhere and it can be a good time. They are the future. They are the ones that are going to come up with the next thing.”

The children were split into two groups Monday morning. One group learned about coding, while the other learned about electrical engineering. The coding group used a program called Scratch to program a computer drum set and keyboard.

“It gets them using code, seeing how code works — if then functions and the whole process of variables,” McDonald said.

The engineering group used a set called littleBits to create simple synthesizers.

The students were also taken through design and prototypes. The program exposes the students to several types of prototypes, including digital, paper and functional prototypes made with 3-D printers.

Then McDonald tasked the students to work together to create their own apps to make music.

The students also work with beginning CAD design in a program called Verto Studio. The younger students learn how to make snowmen. However, they learn vertices can be more important when working in more detail in CAD to create buildings, video games or landscape design. PEERS works with students through high school and does much more advanced work with Verto Studio, depending on the students’ skill levels.

“The stuff they are doing are like tools in their pouch because the next best thing could be in their mind right now. I really want them to be creative and be hands-on and to ask questions and to explore what we have here for them and use it,” McDonald said.

The CREATE camp brings the arts and technology together.

“STEM is evolving into STEAM where the arts are involved,” McDonald said. “We as a group feel that it is extremely important. The creativity aspect of science technology, engineering and math is huge.”

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

A family who has been making German favorites for years in the Hays area has opened a restaurant at Big Creek Crossing.

Charlie, 57, and Roxane, 53, Dorzweiler dubbed their new restaurant Das Essen Hutte, which is German for The Eatin’ Shack. Both husband and wife are of German heritage. Charlie grew up near Catharine and Roxane grew up in Hays. The couple lives on a farm outside of Catherine. Roxane is working at the restaurant full time, but Charlie also works for Ellis County EMS.

The restaurant, which opened a week ago on Friday, is open 11 to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays.

Food is definitely a family affair. Their daughter owns JD’s Chicken, and back in the early 2000s, the couple owned the restaurant and bar, Old West Chuckwagon in Hays.

The couple who have done catering and cooked for Hays’ Oktoberfest for years, will offer items including bierocks, which Roxane makes from scratch, including the dough; bratwurst, which Charlie makes from scratch; and other homemade German favorites including green bean dumpling soup, chicken and noodles, noodles and beans, and reubens.

Charlie said the food the couples serves at the Hutte are traditional foods he ate and prepared with his father and grandparents when he was a kid.

The couple also makes fresh-baked items, including streusel, cinnamon rolls and heart cookies. New items are being added daily and will likely include spitzbuben cookies, barbecue, pork brisket, galuskies (cabbage rolls with hamburger and rice), cupcakes, cakes and homemade chicken noodle soup.

The couple thought about setting up in the mall concourse just for the holidays. However, that option gave them limited access to electricity. After talking with Big Creek Crossing, they decided to take a storefront on the south side of the mall around the corner from Snow Cone Express.

The Dorzweilers had to do some modifications to their new location, including electrical work, as well as pass a restaurant inspection. The couple signed a short-term lease, but would like to build enough support for a permanent restaurant.

Although there is healthy contingent of German families in Hays, there aren’t a lot of German restaurants, and Charlie explained why.

“There is a lot of time in making it,” he said. “That is why there are not a lot of people having it.”

The restaurant has seating for about 30, but you also can carry out, including individual orders and soups and noodles by the quart and bierocks by the dozen. The couple will still cater for the holidays, including  whole roasters of green bean dumpling soup.

The couples also has a produce business, Dorzweiler Produce. They sell produce, such as watermelons, cantaloupes and potatoes. They have sold out of the Orscheln’s farmer’s market in Hays and to local nursing homes, restaurants and grocery stores.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

More than 150 photographs will be displayed starting Friday as a part of the 34th annual Five State Photography Exhibition at the Hays Art Council.

The exhibition is the anchor of the this year’s Winter Art Walk, which will run from 7 to 9 p.m.

Artists entered 352 photographs that were narrowed to 154 final pieces for the exhibit. Brenda Meder, council director, said the council takes a unique approach to juroring the exhibit. All of the submitted photographs are displayed at the art center and John Finch, this year’s juror, removed pieces from the exhibit until there were as many images left as would fit on the art center’s walls.

Finch is a longtime photographer, who has retired from his studio to focus on wildlife photography.

“It is multi-faceted, rich and diverse as it every has been,” Meder said, “so I am thrilled at what we ended up with.”

There were three categories of entries: nature, people and open. Cash awards were given for the top pieces in each category. Another 12 pieces were honored with non-cash juror’s merit recognition awards.

Those artists selected for the show represent all five states that the competition draws from. It includes both photographers as young as high school to seasoned professionals. The range in the art itself also is quite diverse.

“It is about an artist’s style. Some artists’ styles are more representational and realistic and maybe more illustrative or detailed. That might be their style,” Meder said. “This is an art exhibition. It is just the medium is photography. Some people look at that and say, ‘Is that really a photograph?’ Its basis is in photography. Photography is light writing.”

Meder said there are pieces in the exhibition that don’t look anything like a traditional photograph.

“This is an art exhibit where the medium of artistic presentation happens to be photography,” she said.

She added this show pushes the boundaries of photography.

“Photography can be a respected, creative art form,” she said. “It is not just about the technical and I went someplace and caught a real cool thing on my 15-megapixel camera. What did you do with it? What was your point of view? What is your unique perspective that is different from what someone else’s would have been if they had standing there next to you with their 15-megapixel camera phone?”

There will be many other offerings for the Art Walk on Friday night.

Lauren Wright will have her own photography exhibit at the Hays Public Library. In addition, Sean Conroy will sign copies of his book, “Through the Eyes of a Young Physician Assistant” in the lobby, and Schu’s Crew Daycare will have a children’s art exhibition on the second floor.

The Niche will host the creation of a community mural on canvas.

There will be a variety of opportunities to listen to music downtown Friday night. The Hays Community Theater will have music by the Ellis Junior Honor Choir. There will be a Christmas tree lighting and caroling at the Union Pacific Plaza from 5 to 7 p.m. The Ellis County Historical Society will host the Crossroads choir and Wayne and Tammy Lang as a part of its Merry Christmas Memories from the Fifties. Finally “Broken Root” will perform American folk music from 9 to 11 p.m. at Gella’s Diner.

A complete schedule of events is below.

Winter Art Walk

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Paula Huser Children’s Theatre of Hays will present “A Charlie Brown Christmas” this weekend at the 12th Street Auditorium.

Show times will be 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Cost of admission is $5 and a food donation for the local food pantry. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at www.hctks.com.

The Paula Huser Children’s Theatre is an annual production that showcases child actors ages 7-14. Older students are mentored as directors and to manage lights and costumes.

Come the night of the shows, the students will take over managing the show, including assistant director Dylan Werth. Werth is a junior at Thomas More Prep-Marian and most recently played Jack in the TMP production of “Into the Woods.”

Werth also has been involved in Hays Community Theatre for two years, which he became acquainted with through his aunt Wendy Richmeier, who is directing the play.

“It is very difficult with children, since they are all new and have never been directed before, but the thing that keeps me coming around is to make a foundation for the children so if they want to keep coming back and performing they have a place to do it,” Werth said.

Richmeier explained why the Hays Community Theatre board chose “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

“It’s short. It is only an hour or so long. It is a lot of fun. It is one that everybody of all ages of the community will know,” she said.

This show is based on the 1965 Charlie Brown Christmas special that has been broadcast for years on television, complete with music and dancing.

The program had 58 children audition, and the program did not want to cut anyone, so it split the production into two companies — an A and B cast. There are 11 speaking parts and the rest of the children sing and play extras. The casts will alternate nights of production.

Richmeier said she has enjoyed working with children, but there have been challenges. Many of the children have never been on stage before and never taken direction.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “We have a lot of new blood.”

Richmeier encouraged the public to attend the show.

“We would just like to invite everybody down to come see what the kids have put together. Come see your favorite childhood classic that has been on TV for years” she said. “This is ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ just like on TV.”

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

A former Google vice president and technical professional for Uber told a group at Hays High School on Tuesday that in the not-so-distant future few people will own cars and we will be riding flying cars to work.

Brian McClendon of the University of Kansas and a Kansas native, created the startup that later became Google Earth. Before taking a position at KU, his alma mater, McClendon was working on mapping technology for Uber.

“Maps can change the way the world interacts,” McClendon said.

After years working on mapping technology for Google, McClendon made a move in 2015 to Uber because he said he saw ways to practically impact the world.

Personal transportation is a $5 trillion industry, but vehicles are parked 95 percent of the time. Ride sharing increases a vehicle’s efficiency from about 4 percent to 25 percent. Self-driving vehicles, which several companies are working on, could increase vehicle use to 60 percent.

As prices for riding sharing decrease, it is going to be more financially efficient for people, especially commuters in metro areas, to use ride share instead of owning their own vehicles. Right now, a person who commutes 5,000 miles per year would be better off using ride share than owning a car. When commuters share rides from companies such as Uber in a carpool situation, they can save money even if they commute 10,000 miles per year.

McClendon said there will eventually be a point that no one will need to own cars. It might be 20 years from now, but that time is coming, he said.

Ride share is also a likely route for the introduction of flying cars, McClendon said. The models being explored now by Airbus and other companies would look more like quadcopter drones. This would give the vehicles the ability to take off from a small space vertically and then redirect their blades to move horizontally at up to 200 mph. These vehicles have a range of about 200 miles at present.

Dubai is projected to have the service by 2020, but it will likely take longer to implement in the U.S. because of FFA requirements for flight plans and management. Flying cars could be in the air in the U.S. in 10 to 20 years.

Mapping is important to autonomous vehicles because of the detail needed for maneuvering. Companies seeking to move into this realm are using Lidar, which is a survey method that uses pulsed lasers.

This technology is a far cry from what McClendon used on his mapping startup, Keyhole, in 2001.

McClendon had been working on graphic computers that were used in motion pictures. In the ’90s, graphics computers were huge, had low computing power and cost upwards of $250,000. Movie producers for films such as “Terminator 2,” “The Abyss” or “Jurassic Park” might use five to 10 minutes of computer-generated graphics in a movie because they were so costly. Today almost every second of a major motion picture has been augmented by computer-generated graphics.

Keyhole was a paid mapping service. It sprung to prominence when CNN bought into the service and used it repeatedly in the coverage of the Iraq War.

Google bought the company in 2004, and it was ultimately renamed Google Earth. Today, there have been more than 2 billion downloads from Google Earth.

In 2007, Street View was launched in five cities. A van, costing about $250,000, drove streets taking pictures of cityscapes. This first incarnation was inefficient and expensive, McClendon said. One person drove, and another person took notes on street names and sometimes took photos.

More efficient Street View equipment was developed until Google had 99 percent of the U.S. covered. This was combined with aerial views, GPS and other map data to create better maps.

Google was trying to use Street View photos to pinpoint exact addresses. However, the addresses in photos had to be confirmed by two human employees. This was time-consuming and costly. Google turned to the public for help. It used “Are you a robot?” questions to confirm data. Software would use a known image to confirm it was dealing with a human and then ask the person to confirm the numbers of an address in a photo.

Technology has now advanced beyond the need for human confirmation. Programmers can teach machines to recognize images in large data sets using machine learning. You can take a set of known images with numbers like the Google addresses and teach the computer to recognize images of numbers using this confirmed data.

McClendon said this type of technology could be used to replace radiologists. With 98 percent accuracy, a computer could be more accurate than two human radiologists in detecting cancer in X-rays

Even Google, however, can be wrong. In 2010, a mistake on Google Maps started a war. Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica over a misdrawn border on Google Maps. The incorrect map information had come from the U.S. State Department, and Google quickly corrected it. The Nicaraguans occupied a sandbar for a short time, but eventually pulled their troops out.

“It is not all about the maps and the data,” he said. “It is about the story we tell on top of the maps. We base maps on human nature, and it matters what is on top of them.”

In 2007, during the genocide in Darfur, humanitarians used Google Maps to show George W. Bush the burned-out homes and huts in a large area in Sudan, illustrating the genocide in the region was much more widespread than initially reported.

The information prompted the president to take action the next day in the region.

Today, interactive images of our world are being used in virtual reality to make games and virtual experiences more appealing. However, McClendon said he saw VR eventually moving into augmented reality. This use of technology would use a pair of glasses. Digital images would be superimposed over the image of the real world.

This application could be used for driving directions, to help city workers find water lines, help you find a nearby coffee shop or an apartment to rent.

McClendon encouraged students to consider computer technology in their studies, adding every profession can be enhanced by technology.

He gave the example of three Kansas startups that are reaching into the future today.

C2FO in Shawnee Mission is developing a system that would allow companies to process accounts receivables and payables between each other more quickly. The technology could save the business world $4 trillion.

EVOKE, which was developed at KU, created an electronic device that helps patients undergoing spinal fusions heal in three to six weeks instead of three to nine months.

Just Play Sports, also a company coming out of KU, developed a program to help football and basketball players learn plays faster through quizzes and videos created specifically for their positions. It is being used by KU basketball, two NBA teams and another 97 teams across the nation.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Fort Hays State University was the recent host of a statewide Kansas Board of Regents conference on diversity. Provost Jeff Briggs at the time highlighted the importance of diversity on the FHSU campus.

Hays Post asked average minority students about their daily experiences going to school on a mostly white campus and living in a mostly white community. Two African American students and one Hispanic student agreed to speak to us for this story.

For Taquala Bowls and Lyndel Chery, who both who came from metro areas, Hays was a culture shock.

They came from communities where they were surrounded by many peers of other races and being black was “no big deal” to a campus with a student population of only 4 percent African Americans and a community that is only 1 percent African American.

Bowls, junior in nursing, is from Kansas City and is the president of the Black Student Union, and Chery, junior in biology, is a member of BSU from Wichita.

The students say racism on campus and the community is not overt, but for non-white students there are feelings of isolation and undertones of racism. It can be tough going to what they call a PWI, predominantly white institution.

The signs of the racial divide can be subtle — someone stares at you when you are at a store or moves away from you on the street.

“You never know how people feel about you,” Bowls said. “You can see it on people’s faces. I can be in Walmart and everybody’s eyes are on me. You feel that tension and you know that it is because of your skin color. I came into Hays knowing that, but it is not something that I am supposed to be used to. I am supposed to be able to walk into anywhere and be comfortable and not get looks. It is basically the world we are in today.”

Chery said she knew what she was getting into coming to a small community in western Kansas to go to college, yet she said she can’t help but feel frustrated.

“It is still really aggravating,” Chery said. “I am a student just like you. I am here. I work. I work hard. I am doing everything that you are doing. Can’t you just look at me as a human being? That is what I am and what I want you to treat me as.”

During a shopping trip in Hays, Chery said she had her first experience with racial profiling. A checker stopped to look in her bag, because she said Chery had not scanned one of her items.

In the cities where the young women are from, groups of people from different races interact and smile at each other at stores and restaurants. In Hays, a whole room full of people will stare, they said.

“Me being African American, I know that,” Bowls said. “Since I know that, I am going to work harder to show people they have something to look at — that I am not the typical black girl.”

Both young women said they felt singled out in class when the issue of race comes up in discussion because often they are the only student of color in the class.

“You are like the token black person or the token Hispanic or Asian,” Chery said.

Fellow students are not only uninformed about black history and culture, but they don’t understand simple facts of life about living as a black woman, the students said. They said they are asked about their hair and their skin tone. It might be well-meaning, but the students said the questions make them feel awkward.

“Even when I talk to someone who is not my same race,” Bowls said, “I am always going to think about what I am saying to them to make sure I don’t hurt them, because I know how it feels, especially to be Hays. That is what Hays did to me. It made me look at somebody for their self. Sometimes we talk and we don’t realize we hurt their feelings. …

“I feel like being in Hays benefits me, because it shows me how to work with people who don’t come from the same place.”

Chery and Bowls said they see a difference in how they are treated on campus compared to off campus. Chery said she feels as if students are on the their best behavior on campus, but when they are at home or going out on the town, the behavior is different. She has heard the “N” word used in the community.

Bowls’ neighbor has a confederate flag on the back of his truck. She said she isn’t scared, but she always wonders who might be sitting next to her in class. Is it someone who will want to be a friend or will it be someone who hates her for her skin color?

Bowls said she hoped the Black Student Union could be somewhere students could feel like themselves, no matter what race they are. She said the group, which only has about nine members, has struggled to bring black students together. It seems as if they are all in competition with each other, which makes life on campus even more lonely.

“I have an apartment here and everything, and I still can’t call Hays home,” Bowls said. “The community doesn’t make me feel like it is home.”

The campus does not have a black sorority or fraternity. Chery said she didn’t feel comfortable pledging to a white sorority. She said the university could do more to enhance life for minority students on campus and added she felt as if many of the activities on campus were geared toward white students.

The experiences of other students may not be the same.

Jessica Rodriguez, a 20-year Hispanic student in the DACA program at FHSU, said coming to Hays was also a culture shock for her, but she said she felt very supported and accepted by FHSU faculty.

Seven percent of the FHSU population is Hispanic, and 4.7 percent of the population of Hays is Hispanic.

She said one of her most difficult adjustments was coming from Liberal where she was immersed in a Hispanic, Spanish-speaking sub-culture to Hays, where she was definitely in the minority.

“It was hard to find people to relate to,” she said.

Rodriguez, a business major, founded Dreamers United for Success, which now has 15 members.

Taylor Kriley, FHSU director of inclusion and diversity excellence, did not wish to answer the students’ specific issues, but said she works with students, faculty, staff and administrators to evaluate, explore and establish strategies to increase access, knowledge and support for the university’s underrepresented populations.

She pointed to such FHSU programs as Inclusion and Diversity Excellence Advisory (I.D.E.A.) Faculty/Staff Team and student team, which was created this year to evaluate and give guidance to goal creation for the institution. 

The university’s Coffee and Conversations and Novels for Hope Diversity Book Club are additional opportunities for the campus to engage in discussions and provide feedback. Furthermore, the continued development of the university’s Hispanic College Institute assists juniors and seniors in high school with their transition and success in college.

Additionally, within the division of Student Affairs, FHSU supports its first generation and diverse student populations through its Golden Beginnings program.

“I believe it is vital for us to continue to build educational experiences for our campus to cultivate an environment accepting of all people. Furthermore, we are working with Hays community partners to build initiatives to bridge acceptance from campus into our community,” Kriley said in a written statement.

Asian American students make up an even smaller portion of FHSU and the city of Hays.

The demographics of FHSU are 1 percent Asian; and 25 percent international students. The remaining 3 percent are Native American, Alaskan, Hawaiian or other.

As of the 2010 census, the racial makeup of the Hays was 92.8 percent white, 1.1 percent African American, 0.3 percent American Indian, 1.8 percent Asian, 2.1 percent from other races, and 1.8 percent from two or more races. Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 4.7 percent of the population.

Kansas as a whole and the United States have significantly higher rates racial diversity.

In 2016, African Americans made up 6.2 percent of the Kansas population, and Hispanics made up 11.6 percent of the Kansas population. Nationally, African Americans make up 13.3 percent of the population, and Hispanics make up 17.8 percent of the population.

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

Hays USD 489 discussed an agreement Monday with Fort Hays State University on a program that will help Hays teachers earn master’s degrees.

Under the program, USD 489 would pay about a third of the cost of the graduate courses, FHSU would pay about a third, and teachers would be responsible for the remaining third. This equals about $75 per credit hour for each entity. Virtual students would pay slightly more. One graduate level course can cost a student $800 without this type of program.

Martin Straub, Hays High School principal, said the program would help fill voids left by qualified teachers who retire or leave the district. It will be not only good for teachers, but students will benefit from learning from more qualified teacher who armed with better content, he said.

“About a year and a half ago we started taking about what we could do at the high school and in USD 489 at all levels to give an incentive to teachers to become highly qualified in their content and strengthen their own teaching standards,” he said.

The program could also help the district increase its concurrent credit courses (those courses, which students earn both high school and college credit), Straub said. The high school would like to add concurrent credit courses for ag sciences, sociology and add back credit for Chemistry II.

Board member Paul Adams said students who have taken concurrent credit courses are more likely to complete higher education goals, which would help the district with its new state accreditation goals.

The program could help the district attract new teachers and retain qualified staff as well as fill spots for specialists, such as counselors, special education teachers and reading specialists at the elementary level.

To qualify, teachers must be full-time, approved by the district and seeking a graduate degree through FHSU or up to 18 graduate credit hours in a high-needs area, as designated by the district. Teachers must apply and be accepted to the FHSU Graduate School.

Students enrolled in the program are responsible for all fees not paid for through the program and must successfully complete the courses in which they are enrolled. The program can’t be used in combination with other FHSU scholarship programs.

The school board is set to give final approval to the program later this month.

Joey Linn, FHSU vice president of student affairs, said the college hopes to extend the program countywide to Ellis, Victoria and the local Catholic school system.

“We have a very strong university and a very strong school district, and we need to work together more and more and more,” Linn said.

In other business, the board:

• Heard a finance report. The district is 6 percent under budget for the school year.

• Approved transferring about $22,400 from the No Fund Warrant account to the Capital Outlay Fund and closing the No Fund Warrant account.

• Heard a report on the classified handbook

• Heard a report on special education