By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Hays USD 489 will continue its work toward smaller class sizes in the coming year.

Superintendent John Thissen said the school district has made positive progress in achieving its goals during the last year as he reviewed the district’s goals and objectives at a school board meeting Monday night.

Included in these objectives was a goal to reduce class size to 18 students per classroom.

Class sizes are currently averaging from 20.7 students in the fifth grade to 22.5 students for first grade.

The district’s proposed bond issue that will go to voters on Nov. 7 could help with the student/teacher ratio issue. The bond would build two new elementary schools and remodel space at Roosevelt Elementary School.

Each school would be able to accommodate four sections of each grade. Thissen said the district is anticipating stable enrollment over the next few years, so the additional space could be used to create additional sections and reduce class sizes.

The district would need additional funds to pay for new teachers to staff those new sections, which is something the district hopes to work on through the budgeting process over the next several years.

At the high school level, the district once considered eliminating block scheduling in order to address class size, but has been able to achieve its goals while maintaining block scheduling. The district plans to cross that objective off its list.

If state funding stays stable or increases, the district also would like to add counselors who were eliminated due to state funding cuts.

In terms of increasing the quality of education, the district still has set a goal to increase its preschool program to all-day. Thissen said a plan to accomplish this goal is in the works and could be a reality within the next three to four years.

In addition, Thissen said he would like see the amount of in-service time increased. Hays has the least amount of time dedicated to in-service — four days — of any district in which he has worked.

Under capital outlay, the district set goals to address a new bond issue, LED lighting updates and secure entrances at schools.

The bond vote has been set for Nov. 7, and it will address secure entrances at all schools if it passes.

A project to replace all the lighting at Hays High School with LEDs was completed this year. Thissen said he hopes to have a report soon that will show how much savings the district is reaping from the more energy-efficient bulbs.

Under finances, the district was able to successfully lower school fees for all students, which was one of its goals.

The workbook/material fees for all students for this school year was reduced from $135 to $90, thanks to an increase in state funding. The district also eliminated the kindergarten fee when the state funded all-day kindergarten for the first time this school year.

The district also has decreased its worker’s compensation insurance premiums through the work of a district safety committee. The district has been able to reduce the premiums by more than $100,000 since the committee’s formation in 2014.

The district is continuing to work toward improving safety and lowering rates. The district is very close to a one insurance rating. If its rating falls below a one, the district should see another significant decrease in rates.

Thissen said the district still needs to work to decrease schools’ reliance on home and school organizations for the capital purchases.

“I have great concern that we end up having curriculum being purchased by home and school,” Thissen said. “Curriculum should be purchased by the school not by home and school … by PTO. That needs to be changed.”

The district successfully increased its contingency fund from $300,000 to more than $600,000. However, Thissen said the district should have more money in reserve. The district would need at least $2 million in reserve to cover one month’s worth of expenses.

One of the district’s ongoing goals is to increase transparency and communication with the public.

Thissen has started being a guest of KAYS radio at 7:45 a.m. on the mornings after board meetings. The district has organized town hall meetings, communication groups for special-ed and met with legislators. The district also is working to improve its website.

Thissen said the district is trying to build trust not only with the public but throughout its whole system.

“You have to have trust all the way through it,” he said. “You have to have the building administrators trust the administrators. You have to have the teachers trust the building administrators. Those are the pieces we are trying to work with and have the best communication in that process.”

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

You may not know the name of Hays native Buck Arnhold, but you probably have seen his work.

A 40-year career as a commercial and fine artist has included painting portraits of such icons as Joe Montana and Marcus Allen and painting hundred of sign, billboards and murals.

Arnhold will return to Hays on Friday for the exhibition “Buck Arnhold Comes Home” during the Fall Art Walk at the Mad Matter Frame Shop.

Arnhold, 65, remembers drawing from at least the age of 5. His father told him stories about his grandfather painting pictures of horses on doors of barn lofts, and Arnhold gravitated to horses and western scenes early on.

He said he always wanted to be an artist or perhaps a pro football player.

However, Arnhold’s burgeoning talent was almost squashed early in his school career. His mother wanted him to go to St. Joseph’s Military Academy, which is now Thomas More Prep-Marian. St. Joseph’s did not have an art program.

In fact, he was discouraged from taking fine art at all. At that time, boys took mechanical drawing. He said the mechanical drawing teacher called him a sissy for wanting to pursue art — something that stuck with him for many years.

Buck’s older brother worked on their mother over the summer, and finally convinced her to allow Buck to go to Hays High.

“Hays High had a really good art department,” he said. “It really cemented the fact I wanted to be an artist.”

Arnhold’s parents were strict, so when his peers were going out in high school, he spent hours in his room drawing. He said it made him a better artist.

Arnhold went on to study art at Fort Hays State University in 1970, where he received a bachelor’s, master’s and master’s of fine arts degrees in art. For about 12 years, Arnhold had local sign company, before moving to Kansas City.

In Kansas City, he worked for the Ace Sign Company, where he was assigned early on to take on some great heights.

He was painting billboards 80 to 100 feet in the air. The first time he had to go on top of a billboard, Kansas City had a cold snap, and it was 10 below. In order to get to the top of the billboard, you had to climb a narrow ladder attached to the pole. When the painters did those billboards, the first person up had to carry a 100 foot rope, so the supplies could be hoisted up to the sign.

“It was windy, and everything was waiving,” he said. “That first time was rough.”

Arnhold’s company was also involved in painting the Arrowhead letters at the Chiefs’ stadium. He was hoisted up with a 100-foot boom truck. The boom was not long enough, so he swung over to the sign another 15 feet on a wooden seat suspended with ropes with a 5-gallon bucket of paint, a roller and brush.

Another public piece he painted was the Boulevard Brewing Co. smokestack, which the brew taps for the brewery are now modeled.

After painting a picture of Bo Jackson, he came to the attention of Derrick Thomas and the Chiefs.

He painted a banner for Thomas that would hang in Arrowhead Stadium. From there, other players asked him to paint their banners.

From the very large billboards to the very small, Arnhold also painted players’ likenesses on signed commemorative footballs that were auctioned for charity.

Although the painting of the athletes were done from photos, during this time, he met many of the Chiefs players and other sports icons at charity events, including Joe Montana, Marcus Allen, Nolan Ryan and Mark McGwire.

You may have seen Arnhold’s work other places in Kansas City and Hays.

He has done large murals in Price Chopper grocery stores all over the country, including murals in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, where he covered 600 feet of wall with pharmacy, farmer’s market and dairy scenes.

Local work you might know includes the Indian in the Hays High gym, the “Where the Wild Things Are” mural in the children’s library at the Hays Public Library and a 16-foot mural of a sunrise at Forsyth Library at Fort Hays State University.

Arnhold said he thought his career has been well spent.

“The difference was I stuck with it. A lot people have talent, but for one reason or the other they didn’t stick with it. There are a lot of years where you go, ‘I don’t know if I should have.’ But I kept with it and stayed with it,” he said. “I was actually able to retire from Associated Groceries as an artist. I got a pension and a 401. I did’t have to be a teacher to be an artist or sell on the corner.

“I was doing art every day. I had a brush or a pencil in my hand in Kansas City probably 12 or 16 hours a day. If it wasn’t at work, it was at home.”

Arnhold still keeps busy working on murals at schools across the Kansas City area.

He has painted murals in 19 of the 35 Olathe schools, including seven murals since Christmas.

All the years as a commercial painter helped Arnhold not only paint quickly, but also helped him develop skills to scale up smaller drawings.

He recently finished a 30-foot mural of Hound Dogs for a local school in five days.

He may be retired, but Arnhold has never stopped drawing. He always has a painting or drawing in front of him. He still loves Westerns and sometimes freezes a movie in mid-scene so he can sketch Clint Eastwood or Lee Marvin.

His favorite subject recently has been his grandson, Kellan, 5. Portraits of Kellan will be included in his show on Friday along with examples of his sports work, western scenes and landscapes, and a portrait of John F. Kennedy he did in the sixth grade.

Arnhold will also do a portrait demonstration during the Fall Art Walk Friday night.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Growing up in Hays, Scotty Mullen dreamed of being a writer.

When he was in second-grade at Lincoln Elementary School, his teacher, Mrs. White, gave the class a manila envelope and asked them to write a story each week and place it in the envelope.

On Friday, the students read one of their stories aloud. He included cameos for his friends, and he loved making everyone laugh.

Mullen said it was good training for his last job, writing and casting the Syfy Channel’s “Sharknado 5: Global Swarming,” which premiered on cable earlier this month.

Mullen was born and raised in Hays and graduated from Hays High School in the 1990s. He spent his summers at Hays Public Library reading, writing and dreaming. He said it was hard growing up in Hays for a kid like himself who couldn’t throw a football, but drama, art and music programs through the Hays Arts Council, Fort Hays State University and the school system helped him keep his dream alive.

One thing eluded him, though. Every year, he entered the Hays Arts Council Creative Writing Contest — and each year he lost.

Mullen tried college at FHSU and KU, but couldn’t quite find his niche. He tried studying journalism, social work and education, but nothing stuck.

Some friends from Georgia finally convinced him to try Georgia State University, where he got a gig on the college’s TV station interviewing celebrities who came to town.

Before that time, he never knew anyone who was making money writing screenplays. It gave him hope.

Mullen got his start in L.A. working as a publicist organizing outlandish publicity stunts. One included casting 1,000 women to play living Barbie dolls across the country, including one who appeared in Hays.

Even with some success in L.A., Mullen said he was unsure if he would ever make it as a writer.

“I had a lot of doubt. I had a lot of doubt on myself, because it still seemed to be something for somebody else. It seemed such an impossible mountain to climb, and I didn’t know a lot people who had done it.”

He said he was going to studios as a publicist, but he said he felt as if he was cheating himself.

“Even though I was here on the lot, I was not on the side of the table that I wanted to be at. That was getting very depressing for me. It felt really inauthentic. I remember one day I totally stopped myself where I was walking. It was almost as if God grabbed me and stopped me and said, ‘Stop, you are going the wrong way.’ ”

Mullen connected with an old friend from Hays, Adrienne Kelly, who was working as a life coach in L.A. Together the two worked on a plan for Mullen to make his dream of being a writer come true.

“The first biggest step was that I had to admit to myself that I wanted to be a writer and also get over my negative thinking that it wasn’t possible. That took a good six months, but once I got out of my own way, that is when stuff started to happen.”

The connections he was making in Hollywood, led Mullen into casting. He worked as a casting associate on “Sharknado 3: Oh, Hell No.” and the SyFy channel’s “Z Nation,” a series about zombies.

Along the way, Mullen was getting calls to write jokes or short pieces of dialogue for the Sharknado franchise.

Although meeting stars as a casting director was fun, he said his dream was still to be a writer.

“Nothing is better than having a story in my head,” he said. “You get to watch it come to life. Working with a director to bring it to life is very addictive.”

In 2014, he got his first break as screenwriter. Director Glen Miller wanted a zombie movie, so Mullen paired a zombie with a sorority girl in “The Coed and the Zombie Stoner,” which he had to turn over in two weeks.

Casting and writing, Mullen has been able to work with many stars and some of his childhood idols. He met Jackie Collins during the filming of “Sharknado 3” and played her escort during filming.

Mullen fell in love with the movie “Xanadu” after seeing it at the Fox during a summer movie series, so he was thrilled when Olivia Newton-John and her daughter appeared in “Sharknado 5” for Newton-John’s first American movie appearance in 17 years.

“I used to have Bret Michaels on my Trapper Keeper, and then I am sitting with him at his house having a Coors Light talking about how he is going to fight a shark on his guitar,” he said. “That’s nuts. That was so fun. That was really, really fun.”

Mullen said he was surprised at how hard working and fun some of the celebrities he has worked with have been, including mogul Mark Cuban.

The Sharknado franchise has been fun to work on, and Mullen said that has drawn many celebrities to the films.

“I describe it as a Hollywood kegger,” he said. “It is just a fun crazy party that people really want to come to or not, and the people who do come to it have a great time.”

“Sharknado 5” filmed all around the world in London, Tokyo, Rome, Sidney, Bulgaria and little bit in the U.S. He spent 10 days in London filming with Clay Aiken, Geraldo Rivera and Tara Reid.

Mullen continues to write everyday and works to improve his skills. He is taking classes and reading script books as well as rereading Hamlet.

He is currently working on a World War II drama about the Flying Tigers plus some other possible projects in the wings.

However, he said he would not turn down an opportunity to write “Sharknado 6.”

“I love those sharks,” he said. “I would write them until the end of time. The sharks have been very good to me. They have been a lot of fun. I actually would like to write a script from the point of view of the sharks, because I think they are the innocent bystanders in this crazy phenomenon. I think people would get a kick out of that.”

You can watch reruns of Sharknado on the Syfy channel. The next showing on Syfy is Sunday, Aug. 27. Check local listings for exact times. “Sharknado 5: Global Swarming” will be available on DVD and VOD on Oct. 3.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

It is common for you to be nervous on your first day of a new job, but not Paula Rice.

Rice, the new principal at Roosevelt Elementary School, joined her new crop of first-graders in a glass of jitter juice. The punch was offered to kids to help calm their nerves during their first morning of school Wednesday.

“The energy was palpable,” Rice said of the first day of school. “It was almost tangibly exciting. But the coolest thing was when the final bell rang at 8:02 for class to start, quality instruction was already going on. As I am walking around the school this morning, I see students in seats eagerly paying attention and listening and already asking good questions.”

Rice has been an educator for 11 years. Her last position was as the assistant principal at Hutchinson High School. Although she has never taught at the elementary level, she said she had no qualms about working with younger children.

“Kids are kids. People are people,” Rice said. “Dr. Seuss said it best, ‘People are people no matter how small.’ They are wonderful, just big balls of energy — smiles and giggles and fun and so respectful and so welcoming and so encouraging.”

Rice recently moved to Hays with her husband of 25 years, who is a special education teacher working in Stockton. She said she loves Hays and her new neighborhood, which is within walking distance of the school.

“I love it. Since I have been in town, it has been wonderful,” she said. “I have had neighbors knock on my door and welcome me. It has just been amazing. Hays has such a positive vibe and is laid back. I have had to slow down a little bit.”

Rice, 43, went back to school later in life. She received her associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degree from Friend’s University in Wichita and as well as a master’s degree from Baker University.

“I have known since I was a child that I wanted to be an educator,” she said. “I guess I had gotten to the point in my life where I thought life had happened, and it was too late to go back to school. But when I finally went back to school, I knew that it was the right thing to do.”

Rice said Roosevelt has an incredible staff and strong parent support.

“I told my staff yesterday that I am not going to establish goals for us, because that is something that we need to do as a building and a school community. That is something that takes more than one person.”

She said her personal goal is to learn and help Roosevelt to grow as a family.

Rice’s education philosophy goes back to the relationships she had as a child.

“If you give a child the right support — the right backing — every child can learn,” she said. “They don’t all learn at the same rate. They don’t all get to the same place, but we as adults aren’t all the same either. This word would be pretty boring if we all looked the same and did the same and all functioned at the same level and we all had the same job.”

Rice said she fully supports the state’s new college and career readiness standards and said the foundation of that model starts in elementary school.

“When you are little, you are a dreamer,” she said. “These kiddos are growing up faster than they have to, and a lot of times the dreaming stops. I think it is our responsibility to not only to keep those dreams alive, but to teach them how to attain those goals, to set those goals, to say, ‘I really can be an astronaut,’ ‘Yes, I can be a teacher,’ or ‘Yes, I can go into construction,’ or ‘I can be a researcher.’ Whatever they want to do, now is the time to foster that.”

At the front door of the school are displays depicting what changes might happen if a $78.5 million bond issue is passed by voters this fall.

Roosevelt will celebrate its 50th anniversary in January. Although the school is better condition than some of the other schools in the district, Rice said some needed changes and repairs could be made if the bond passes.

The school has had ongoing problem with the HVAC system, which is only working about half the time. The school uses the same space for a gym, auditorium and cafeteria, which means classes can’t be scheduled in that space during the two hours it takes to serve lunch.

The proposed bond issue would also add a secure entrance and classroom space, so the school could accommodate four sections of each grade.

“I need to protect my students, I need to protect my staff,” she said. “Without a secure entrance, it is difficult to do that.”

The bond would pay for new storm shelters across the district. Currently, the students at Roosevelt are using old maintenance tunnels in case of storms. Those must be accessed by stairs, which means they are inaccessible for anyone who is disabled.

“It is better than nothing,” Rice said of the current shelter, “but I don’t think it is what the kids deserve.”

Rice, as well as members of her staff, have offered to answer questions and give tours to parents or members of the community who want more information about the bond. They need only to visit the school office and ask for Rice.

Monday night will be the Roosevelt’s Parent Orientation Night from 6 to 8 p.m. It will be primarily for parents of second through fifth graders, but the parents of the younger children can also attend.

Rice said the event will be an opportunity for parents and teachers to build adult teams that will support children through the school year. This also will be an opportunity for any parents who wish to meet Rice.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Two local veterans organizations are bringing a play based on letters written by veterans and their families to Hays on Sept. 8.

Douglas Taurel wrote and performs “The America Soldier,” a one-man show that highlights the experiences of veterans from the Revolutionary War through Afghanistan.

The performance will be 7 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Beach-Schmidt Performing Arts Center at Fort Hays State University, 600 Park, Hays. Tickets are $10 at the door.

There is no charge for veterans (discharge papers or VFW or American Legion membership cards are preferred, but not required). The event is sponsored by the FHSU Veterans Association and Vietnam Veterans of America.

John Pyle of the local chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America said he hopes the performance helps non-veterans and family members to understand the fears and hopes veterans experience.

Taurel is not a veteran, but spent eight years researching and selecting actual letters to portray in the play. He also has family members who are veterans and active service military.

Taurel explained the play does not attempt to judge if war is good or bad, rather he tries to depict the experiences of veterans and their families during and after their service.

“My play is really to give audiences appreciation of what veterans and families go through and what their sacrifices really are,” he said. “We talk about sacrifice but really don’t know what that means to lose a father, to lose a mother, to lose a son, to lose a wife, to financially not to be able to support your family because you are not really able to reassimilate back into society and make money anymore.”

Taurel said these are things society doesn’t really talk about anymore.

“We only talk about the shiny part of war,” he said. “We don’t talk about the back side of war. There is a very deep price, and a small population of our society is paying for it.”

Taurel wanted to bring more awareness of the experiences of veterans to non-veterans through his play. Many themes arise in the play, put Taurel said a common thread for many who have viewed the play has been difficultly reassimilating into society.

“If you see heavy combat, you almost have to go into some kind of decompression group therapy for six months to a year to reassimilate — to learn that a tire in the road is not an IED, it’s just a tire in the road. Knowing that huge crowds of people around you are not people trying to blow you up, they are actually just huge crowds of people,” he said. “As a country, we just don’t put any money into the reassimilation of veterans back into society.”

Taurel said this has been a thread through all the wars he has studied.

“It is the same story. We throw our veterans away kind of like used trash,” he said.

Of the 14 people who are portrayed in the one-hour play, most are infantrymen. However, Taurel also has included a letter from a mother who lost her son during the Vietnam War, and a soldier’s wife and her 8-year-old son.

Taurel said the play is very emotionally draining to perform and has been emotional for many of his audience members.

“Family members sometimes cry,” he said. “I have really emotional moments afterwards literally crying with family members or veterans. It becomes a catharsis for some people. It allows them to release things that they have never been able to release for any reason.”

“The American Soldier” first appeared off Broadway in 2015. Since, Taurel has performed at the international Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Kennedy Center and is set to perform later this year at the U.S. Library of Congress and in front of members of the U.S. Congress. The play also was nominated for Amnesty International’s annual Freedom of Expression Award.

Taurel has been in talks to bring a longer version of the play to Broadway and film.

More information on the play can be found on Taurel’s website at https://www.theamericansoldiersoloshow.com/. You can also follow him on Facebook or on Twitter @DouglasTaurel.