Hays school board member Sarah Rankin receives a district Best of the Best Award Monday night.
Hays Post
Sarah Rankin, Hays USD 489, announced Monday her plans to resign from the school board.
Rankin’s family is planning to move to Colorado.
Rankin was appointed by the board four years ago to fill a vacant term. She is serving in the second year of her first elected term. Two and a half years are left on Rankin’s current term.
A final date for her service has not been set yet.
Once Rankin makes her resignation final, the board will likely embark on application process for a new board member, Superintendent John Thissen said. The board will then appoint someone to serve the remainder of Rankin’s term.
Rankin was honored for her years of service during a reception before the school board meeting Monday night.
School board president Lance Bickle also honored Rankin with a district Best of the Best Award.
“[Rankin] truly embodies what a school board member should be,” Bickle said. “She is dedicated and committed and always willing. She is probably one of the most passionate people know. Thank you for your years of serving and all you’ve done to make our district a better place. …”
The Hays school board unanimously approved the City of Hays’ revised Neighborhood Revitalization Program Monday.
The City of Hays sought to increase the area of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. The previous program encompassed about 200 acres.
The amended program would include 1,628 acres, which is the boundary of the build out in Hays in 1965.
The appraised value of proposed area is $644,777,390.
The proposed area reflects an area that encompasses buildings that are 50 years old and older.
The goals of the program are to improve commercial property and promote owner-occupied housing and purpose-built multi-family housing in an area where single-family houses are already transitioning to single-family rental housing.
The program would allow a residential or commercial owner to rebate 65 percent of the increased property tax from improvements.
Superintendent John Thissen said the program should benefit the school district in the long run.
“Anybody who thinks it will have a negative connotation or effect on the schools, they are really stretching. It may in the short term, but in the long term, even in seven to ten years, it way outweighs being supportive of this,” Thissen said.
Forty-five properties have benefitted from the Neighborhood Revitalization Plan since its establishment. The previous program resulted in about $500,000 increase in property value.
The school board had to approve the plan because it would have to give up taxes on the increases in the values of properties in the program. It would not decrease the amount of tax the school district is receiving now.
Some of the projects that have been done with the previous program include Gella’s Diner, Salon 1007, and the apartments at 100 E. Fifth.
The city and county have already approved the program, so the program can now be implemented.
Three Bronzes by Tim Chapman sit in front of a mural by Dennis Schiel at the Hays Arts Center.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
The Hays Arts Council will focus its coming exhibition around the Ellis County and City of Hays sesquicentennial.
The exhibition will kickoff during the Summer Art Walk from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday.
The Hays Arts Council is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
The exhibition at the Hays Arts Center will be in two pieces and will run through Aug. 5.
The first will be in the Exhibition Hall Gallery and will be called “
A Place in Time.”
It is featuring work by Tim Chapman, Dennis Schiel, Bruce Burkholder, all local artists and Charlie Norton of Leoti.
Norton creates bronzes that deal with historical subject matter.
Dennis Schiel produced a large mural of the state of Kansas that now hangs in the state Capitol outside of the office of the Kansas Attorney General. A full-size reproduction of that mural will be in the Hays exhibit.
“It literally does show our place in the timeline of the state. Since that mural depicts such a broad scope of our state in such detail, it is a wonderful pictorial history of our state. But of course, Hays is lovingly addressed by Dennis with historical accuracy and detail,” said Brenda Meder, executive director of the Hays Arts Council.
Schiel also did the large piece that is on the side of Hays’ historical Fox theater, and a reproduction of that mural will be a part for this exhibit.
A reproduction of Burkholder’s mural titled “History Holds the Future,” which is in the Fort Hays State University Memorial Union, will also be a part of the exhibit.
Tim Chapman is the former director of the endowment at FHSU and did the “three amigo” bronze busts of Cody, Custer and Hickok at the Beach Schmidt Performing Arts Center at FHSU. Historical bronzes by Chapman also will be a part of the “A Place in Time” exhibit.
In the founder’s gallery, the HAC will have a tribute to Pete Felten titled “Carved in Stone: The Legacy of Pete Felten.”
That will consist of small plaster models of some of the statues that are around town, but also non-commissioned, non-historical limestone sculptures from private collections. This includes female and animal figures.
“It is an exhibit that not only is meant to capture the historical element of our community through Pete Felten’s maquettes, but the historical icon that Pete Felten is for our community,” Meder said.
Historical Fort Hays will be open from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and will have an exhibit by Jerry Thomas, including the unveiling of his new historical painting “One Perfect Day” that depicts George and Elizabeth Custer.
Maria Matkin and Steve Alexander, who posed for the portrait, will be guests at the fort this weekend and will dress as the historical couple during the fort’s sesquicentennial celebration.
The Hays Public Library will have four exhibits. “Hays in Photographs” from the HPL Kansas Room Collections and Ellis County Historical Society Archives and “Memory Jars” will both be in the first floor gallery.
The Teen Art Exhibit will be in the Davies Room on the second floor, and the Children’s Art Exhibit will in the Children’s Department on the second floor.
The Community Assistance Center will have a fundraising art sale from donations the center has received. Both original and reproductions will be offered.
Gella’s Diner will have live music by Blake Ruder from 9 to 11 p.m. There also will be live music by Randy Mader at the Ellis County Historical Museum, and the Community Acoustic Jam Session will be at Union Pacific Park at 10th and Main streets.
USD 489 board member Sarah Rankin congratulates a student at an October board meeting.
There will be a reception to honor Hays USD school board vice president Sarah Rankin and her years of service between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. today in the Toepfer Board Room at 323 W. 12th St. It will run until the school board meeting at 6:30 p.m.
Anthony Guzman, eighth grader, Andrian Salas, seventh grader, and Alan Apodaca, eighth grader, write code for a robot Thursday during a STEM camp.
Students intently studied lines of code to move a small robot a matter of inches. Others combed instruction manuals trying to make a box of blocks into something that would move.
Students from the Hays USD 489 school district migrant program participated in a STEM camp this week.
The students in grades preschool through 11th grade focused on science, technology, engineering, mathematics and reading.
The student built small robots, programmed robots to move through mazes, programed robots to draw shapes, and manipulated small origami frogs through a computer program.
Younger students also learned basic programming skills to move colorful robots on paths of tape.
The purpose of the program is to keep students engaged during the summer in order to minimize losses in learning.
“It is a federally funded program,” Shanna Dinkel, assistant superintendent, said. “There is always a concern that there will be a loss of academics during the summer for all kids. It is really important to make it fun and approach it in a different way to make sure they stay engaged and they don’t lose some skills.”
In addition to the week-long camp, the students will be given tablets to take home that are loaded with learning software. This will be followed with home visits and visits to the library to participate in its reading program.
Younger students were equipped with school supplies, including crayons, flash cards and numbers.
Hays eighth-grader Anthony Guzman said of a coding project, “At first it is confusing and then it gets really fun.”
The students also participated in the first of a series of book giveaways that were sponsored by the Kansas Health Foundation and Midwest Energy.
The program will give out $5,000 worth of books to students of all kinds throughout the summer.
The program also seeks to help students retain learning over the summer.
Valerie Zelenka, professor in the College of Education at Fort Hays State University, helps coordinate the program.
Research has indicated students who do not have books in their homes develop a larger learning gap during the summer that those who do have books, she said.
“We are trying to get books in the hands of kids,” Zelenka said.
Further, students who have English as their second language or who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds also tend to struggle over the summer with reading.
FHSU athletes as well as Paul Adams, dean of the FHSU College of Education and USD 489 school board member, were on hand to help hand out the books.
The athletes autographed the books and played basketball and football with the students.
The Hays School Board will vote on a neighborhood revitalization plan during its meeting on Monday.
The City of Hays is seeking to increase the area of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. The previous program encompassed about 200 acres.
The amended program would include 1,628, which is the boundary of the build out in Hays in 1965.
The appraised value of proposed area is $644,777,390.
The proposed area reflects an area that encompasses buildings that are 50 years old and older.
The goals of the program are to improve commercial property and promote owner-occupied housing and purpose-built multi-family housing in an area where single family houses are already transitioning to single family rental housing.
The program would allow a residential or commercial owner to rebate 65 percent of the increased property tax from improvements.The previous program resulted in an about $500,000 increase in property value.
The school board has to approve the city program because it would affect taxes collected by the district.
The district will also hear from staff on budget, state assessments and the proposed school bond.
A view from the bottom of the stairs at the front entrance of Lincoln Elementary School.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Imagine being a small child. You are excited to go to your neighborhood school.
But you can’t.
Why? You can’t even get to the front door.
The Americans With Disabilities Act was passed 27 years ago, but the Hays school district has several schools that lack basic accommodations for students with disabilities.
There are only two buildings in the district that are considered fully ADA compliant — the high school and middle school.
Most of the buildings have stairs, small classrooms that are difficult to maneuver in a wheelchair and bathrooms that don’t meet modern ADA standards.
The Hays school district is looking at ways it can bring more schools into compliance with the ADA with proposed bond issue that will likely go to the school board for consideration later this month.
The district has placed an emphasis on elementary schools in its bond planning. It hopes to include a new elementary school in the bond.
This in part would replace Lincoln, which is not handicap accessible and would be very difficult to retrofit to meet modern education needs.
No children with significant mobility issues can be placed at Lincoln.
The building has stairs at its main entrance and stairs that lead to its cafeteria in the basement, which also doubles as a storm shelter.
“The issue is money,” Superintendent John Thissen said. “If it had not been for money, something would have been done to it 20 years ago or 30 years ago. Most of our buildings were built before handicap accessibility requirements came into affect.”
Special education programs have been placed at Wilson and Roosevelt elementaries for this reason.
However, Roosevelt also uses its basement as a storm shelter and must be accessed by stairs.
The district would like to add more accessible storm shelters on the ground floor of the older buildings that could double as classroom or gym space.
Early Childhood Connections at the former Washington School and the Westside program both have limitations on how space can be used because of stairs.
At Washington, all classes have to be conducted on the ground floor because of Head Start requirements. There are upper-level offices, but they have to be accessed by stairs.
“ECC is not handicap accessible,” Thissen said. “If we hired someone with a disability, they couldn’t get to their office upstairs. I don’t know what we would do. We would have to make arrangements.”
The Westside program conducts classes for younger students on the lower floor and classes for older students on the upper floor.
Although this program is typically for students with emotional disabilities, Raj Sharma, special education director, acknowledged having a student in that program with a mobility problem would be an issue.
Stairs at the main entrance to Rockwell Administration Center.
The district’s offices at Rockwell Administration Center have to be accessed by stairs. If a parent or guardian with a mobility issue needs to have a meeting with administrators, the meeting has to be moved to the lower floor of the building.
The Learning Center students with mobility issues have to use an alternative entrance, which Thissen said can be very inconvenient for the students.
At this point, the district is making accommodations for students, staff and visitors with mobility issues. The district is meeting the legal requirements of the ADA, but the accessibility issues create challenges.
“We have to maneuver and make changes every year,” Sharma said.
If the district would embark on renovations or new construction, the facilities would have to meet modern ADA requirements.
What Sharma envisions for the new construction is universal design, which takes into consideration the needs of all students.
Instead of isolating children with special needs, Sharma would like to see more opportunities for inclusion.
This means not only making buildings and bathrooms accessible for students with mobility problems, but making cafeterias friendly for autistic students. It could mean including a push-button door opener that could be used by students of all abilities.
“It is all about inclusion in the mainstream with their peers. They should be able to use the same gym, cafeteria or football field,” Sharma said. “I think we need to think universal and have a universal model.”
Accessibility is an issue that needs to be brought to the attention of the wider community, Thissen said and is “the right thing to do.”
“A lot of people think very little about this until it is their child or mother or niece or nephew that is affected,” Thissen said. “Then it becomes very real.”
Students practice their play “The Phoenix School of Magic,” which they will perform at 11 a.m. Friday at the 12 St. Auditorium.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
The students worked on their timing for a fight scene Thursday in the 12th Street Gym.
Some mimicked karate moves, others put up fists and others froze like pouncing tigers as their play came closer to the moment when the children captured an evil magician.
A group of kids will be performing a one-act play Friday they wrote and choreographed all in a week.
The performance of “The Phoenix School of Magic” at 11 a.m. Friday at the 12 St. Auditorium is the culmination of the Hays Arts Council’s Dramatic Arts Workshop for children 9 through 12.
The play is set in a magic school for youth in South Dakota. Although the youth agreed, that some were inspired by Harry Potter, the plot and all the characters are original.
Catherine Trieschmann, a world renowned playwright who lives in Hays, is teaching the course.
The teaching technique Trieschmann is using with the children is something she perfected with other top playwrights and arts educators10 years ago while working with youth in Washington, D.C.
The youth start with a topic and brain storm then vote on options for plot.
Trieschmann guided them through writing, improv and movement exercises that helped them develop the script and choreography for the play.
Catherine Trieschmann, a world renowned playwright, goes over lines during a Dramatic Arts Workshop class Thursday.
“I help shape what they give,” she said. “It is very creative and very intense.”
The children learn a variety of skills through this process, some which include cooperation, confidence through performing, teamwork and literary skill.
“They learn they have to accept one another’s ideas to build a cohesive story,” she said. “It is a full mental and physical process.”
She said she was very proud of the students and what they created.
“They have had to accept the collaboration and that no one actor or actress is more important than another. … “I am proud of them. They wrote, created and choreographed a one-act play in only a week.”
The students admitted the workshop was a challenge, especially learning all of their lines.
They also had to learn new theater terms, such as stage left and stage right.
However, the kids said there have been rewards, including the practicing the fight scene, getting to pretend a position blew up in your face, singing a solo and learning to fly brooms.
The students performance is open to the public, and there is no admission charge.
Although this was the only section of the Dramatic Arts Workshop, Hays Arts Council youth classes will run through July. Enrollment is still open for some classes, including two more drama classes for students 8-14, which start Monday.
The students participating in the class include: Jordan Aschenbrenner, Eleanor Bittel, Kamryn Daniels, Dominic Hernandez, Kimberly C. Herrick, Emmaline Leuschner, Sophie Miller, Kimberly Sack, Trevor Stults, Clare Tholstrup, Keira Vilaysing and Jacob Wente.
A photo taken from a video camera at the Community Assistance Center site shows one of the dumpers leaving the mattresses.
Hays Post
The Community Assistance Center is seeking the public’s help to identify two suspects it says illegally dumped mattresses on the organization’s property.
The suspects allegedly dumped seven mattresses that were all in poor condition at the center’s storage area at the corner of 11th and Oak streets at about noon Monday.
The center has “no dumping” notices posted at the site, but that does not stop people from illegally dumping items on the center’s property, said Laurie Mortinger of the Community Assistance Center.
If the suspects who dumped the mattresses are not found, the nonprofit will have to take responsibility for the time, labor and expense of disposing of the items.
Mortinger said the organization does take clean mattresses, but these mattress were not clean and had been rained on when they were discovered.
Mortinger said the center installed the cameras because of previous problems with dumping at the site.
If you know who the suspects in the video are, please call the Community Assistance Center at 785-625-9110 or the Hays Police Department.
A photo taken from the video of the dumper at the Community Assistance Center property.A photo taken from a video camera at the Community Assistance Center site shows one of the dumpers leaving the mattresses.
Rene Norris and sister, Renee Longpine, are closing Keller Furniture after more than 50 years of family ownership.
Furniture is all the Norris family has ever known, but soon they will close Keller Furniture, which has been in business since 1945.
Renee Longpine’s and Rene Norris’ father, Dennis, bought Keller Furniture more than 40 years ago. The siblings, along with their sister, Ramona, grew up working alongside their dad and mom, Patricia.
Renee went to her first marketplace when she was just 5 years old and learned the ins and outs of the business from her dad.
“Furniture has been our life every day,” Renee said, “just working with great people. We have made so many friends over the years.”
Dennis lived and worked on a farm growing up. He started working in a local furniture store in the ’50s, buying and fixing up furniture as he went.
He worked three jobs in those early days, his son said.
The family would eventually own five different furniture stores, including one in St. Joseph and Garnand Furniture in Garden City, which is still owned and operated by Ramona and her husband, Robert James.
Dennis loved western Kansas, and eventually that love led him back to Hays.
The Norrises bought Keller Furniture in the early ’70s, which was in Ellis at the time. It had already been in operation by Wendell Keller since 1945.
Their father moved the business to Hays in 1987.
The family bought the building at 1400 E. Eighth St. and remodeled it into the showroom that it is today.
It created quite a buzz in Hays at the time as it was the largest furniture showroom in town — about 38,000 square feet.
“Thirty years later we are causing more excitement in Hays as we close down,” Renee said.
Treating the customer right was the greatest of her father’s lessons, Renee said. Dennis died in 2008, but his legacy remains.
“I learned how to sell,” she said. “He taught us to treat customers as we wanted to be treated. We appreciated the customers. We provided service for them, and we tried to make the customers happy.”
As this chapter of the family’s history comes to a close and Rene busily worked to make some of the store’s final deliveries, he wished to remember his customers.
He said he wanted to thank all the customers over the years who were patrons of the business. His most sincere wish was to make his customers comfortable.
That could be the smallest decorating details that their mom often attended to during her visits to the store.
Rene Norris and Renee Longpine stand behind the counter at Keller Furniture in Hays. To the left on the wall, some of the awards the store has received can be seen.
“She was always a pinch hitter,” Renee said. “She would go wherever she was needed.”
Renee said the business was almost like another member of the family, like someone she now has to say goodbye to.
“Being around this, surrounded by furniture, it has been comforting,” she said. “It may seem strange, but all this furniture, it almost has a life of its own. They are almost like people here. All of these things have different personalities.”
Renee and Rene will not be leaving the furniture business completely. They will still be available to help their sister and brother-in-law with the business in Garden City.
Renee and Rene both hope to have some time to travel, and Renee hopes to spend more time with her nieces and nephews.
“I am sure I will keep busy,” she said. “All good things have to come to an end.”
The Keller Furniture building is for sale. The Norrises do not know when their last day to be open to the public will be. It depends on how quickly the family can sell down their inventory and remove everything from the business.
At this time, the business is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 10 to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays and closed Wednesdays.
The Hays USD 489 school district will likely take a different tact on school bond funding after Hays city commissioners Thursday said they would not support a countywide sales tax to support school improvements.
The proposed half cent countywide city sales tax coupled with an increase in property taxes would have raised $89 million for a school bond over 25 years.
City commissioners said they did not think non-Hays residents should pay for Hays schools. They also expressed concerns about tying up the city’s taxing authority for such a long term.
The district had also floated a proposal that would have funded the bond in part with a 10-year citywide sales tax. However, Superintendent John Thissen will be discussing with the school board and others if that is an appropriate path based on the feedback from the city commission.
Thissen will be reporting on the meeting with the city commission during the school board’s next meeting on Monday. School district officials and the community Vision Team that has been tasked with forming a new bond project will meet on Tuesday.
Thissen said the discussions with the city is all part of moving forward with bond process.
District officials have moved their focus to what could be done with a project that would be funded with property taxes only.
In a survey conducted by the district’s architectural firm, DLR, respondents indicated they would be willing to pay an increase of $15 or less in property taxes on a $150,000 home for a school bond.
A 25-year bond at that level would raise about $56 million.
Thissen said district officials have discussed ways they could stretch those limited dollars, including pursuing a 30-year bond instead of 25-year bond.
The district’s research has indicated the elementary schools are in the most need of improvement and this is the area Vision Team members and survey respondents said they thought needed the most work.
A $56 million bond issue could include a new elementary school with renovations to Wilson and Roosevelt Elementary Schools.
The district would like to renovate O’Loughlin Elementary School to accommodate Early Childhood Connections, the Westside Program and the Learning Center.
Lincoln Elementary School would be closed.
The high school and middle schools would likely undergo less work without sales tax support, Thissen said.
Under a $56 million bond, Thissen said there would be facility needs that would not be addressed.
He added, “If we could have something quality for pre-K through fifth grade, that would be a fantastic relief. If we could at least get that done, we could show that we are getting somewhere. If we could get that part done, maybe that would build trust and be the proof of responsibility we need.”
The District’s Vision team plans to present a bond project proposal to the board at its June 26 meeting. The board would not vote on the issue until at least July, Thissen said.
A $94 million bond issue was rejected by voters in June 2016.
If a bond project is approved by the board, it could go on the ballot as soon as the November general election. The district would not have to pay for a bond vote that coincided with a general election.
It will be up to the board to decide the timing of any possible vote.
The school board will meet next at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Rockwell Administration Center, and the Vision Team will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday also at Rockwell.
KBI on the scene in Gove County-photo courtesy KWCH
QUINTER– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement are investigating a suspected homicide in which a Hoxie man was reportedly stabbed to death in Quniter.
The Gove County Sheriff’s Office contacted the KBI at about 1:10 a.m. Tuesday to request assistance investigating a suspected homicide that occurred in Quinter.
Preliminary information indicates a dispute between two men occurred at about 12:45 Tuesday morning in a motel room at the 1st Inn, 1202 Castle Rock St. in Quinter.
During the altercation, 24-year-old James “Dalton” Brown of Hoxie received multiple stab wounds. EMS responded and transported Brown to the Gove County Medical Center where he died as a result of his injuries.
Also injured during the incident was Jordyn O’Neal, 23, of Quinter. She was transported to Via Christi Hospital Saint Francis in Wichita with non-life-threatening stab wounds.
Turner-photo Trego Co.
Authorities began looking for Anthony Turner, 24, of Park, who was believed to be the second male involved in the motel dispute. At 2:30 a.m., Turner was located and arrested by the Gove County Sheriff’s Office and the Kansas Highway Patrol at a residence on the north side of Quinter.
Shortly after, Turner was taken to the Gove County Medical Center to be treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, which he sustained during the altercation at the motel. When released from the hospital, he was booked into the Trego County Jail for first degree murder.
During the investigation, suspected explosives were found, and the Kansas Highway Patrol bomb squad was called in to investigate, a KBI spokeswoman said.
The Kansas Highway Patrol and the Quinter Police Department assisted in the investigation. This investigation is ongoing.
QUINTER — A representative of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said this morning the KBI was called to Quinter last night to assist in investigating a shooting incident.
The KBI and Gove County Sheriff anticipated releasing more information later today.
