Mike Briney and Wanda Karlin of Sunflower Bank present a check for $3,369.85 to the Hays USD 489 school board Monday night. The funds came from the bank’s ABC Rewards program. The money will be used to support projects for district students and staff that are funded by the USD 489 Foundation for Educational Excellence.
USD 489
Midwest Energy for provided several grants to Hays High School activities.
Helping Hands received $1,000 to have electrical work completed at their work site.
Teacher Sue Ann Tebo and her students received a $500 grant to be used in conjunction with Safe Relationships Week.
Jessica Roe was awarded a grant to purchase new vision screening protocols for USD 489.
Jerett Pfannenstiel received a $50 contribution to Project Graduation.
A group of area Girl Scouts participated in a painting class Sunday at The Niche in Hays. The girls painted Sparkles the Narwhal, which was the mascot for this year’s cookie sales. Each of the girls also earned a painting badge.
The Hays Arts Council again sponsored its Famous Figures competition for Ellis County fifth-grade students.
Thirty-five finalists were selected to perform Friday at Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center. They portrayed figures such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jackie Robinson, George Washington and Roy Rogers. The top three winners were
1.Will Eck of St. Mary’s Grade School as Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube
2.Kaliyah Bannister of Roosevelt Elementary School as Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States
3.-tie Johanna Jones of O’Loughlin Elementary School as Dolly Parton, singer and philanthropist
3.-tie Erin Ruder of Roosevelt Elementary School as Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll
A complete list of participants will be posted at the Hays Arts Council website.
USD 489
The Dane G. Hansen Foundation awarded Hays USD 489 a $25,000 grant to pay for costs associated with the district’s second-consecutive summer reading camp.
120 students in grades K-2 across the district will be able to participate in the camp this year due to the Dane G. Hansen Foundation’s generosity.
Students will attend camp from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the month of June.
Activities will include reading and writing in small groups and a field trip to the Hays Public Library.
The 2018 Summer Reading Camp yielded several positive results for students who attended. Of the 112 students who participated in camp last year, 39 students were able to maintain their reading levels from the spring to the fall testing dates. 40 students increased their reading level during that same period. Only 33 students performed at a lesser level than their spring test date in the fall.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A new store selling products containing CBD, a substance found in hemp, has opened in Hays.
BrightChoice CBD is the first retail outlet for Aaron Luck and his partner. He hopes to franchise across the country and is using Hays as a test market. Luck, an FHSU grad, moved back to Hays to be closer to family in Hays and his aging parents in Colby.
“I wanted to help the people of northwest Kansas and rural America who don’t have access to other alternatives here,” he said.
The investors have researched what they think are the best health and beauty products containing CBD and are offering them at 2403 Vine.
“My partner and I spent over a year and a half researching products,” he said. “We didn’t just go out and grab whatever was available on the wholesale market and sell it. We believe we have some of the best products on the market.”
Luck said all the products BrightChoice offers have no THC, which is the substance in marijuana that gets you high. The products are third-party tested to validate they contain no THC.
“Not all CBD products are created equal,” he said. “It is like any other product on the marketplace whether it is shampoo, whether it is gasoline, whether it is a sandwich shop, restaurant, any of those products. They are all different based on a lot of criteria.”
BrightChoice used 10 criteria to examine its product lines, which started with the extraction process. All the lines that BrightChoice sells extract CBD using CO2 instead of alcohol or gas. The companies BrightChoice buys from also extract their CBD oil from the whole plant, which gives you all the cannabinoids of the plant.
The store offers the Joy brand, which is a broad spectrum CBD product. Hemp contains about 100 other substances besides CBD and THC. The Joy products take full advantage of these potentially helpful ingredients.
BrightChoice’s Medterra line is a CBD isolate. Its only active ingredient is CBD suspended in a carrier oil.
Joy sources hemp from Colorado, and Medterra sources its hemp from Kentucky and claims to be 100 percent organically non-GMO grown. Joy and Medterra were recently written up by Hemp Ministry as two of the top CBD products in the country, Luck said.
Luck noted the consistency in sourcing the hemp and extracting the CBD oil is important in the end products and their effectiveness.
The Empower brand specializes in bath products, such as bath salts and topical oils.
CBD for Life is a brand that offers beauty products, such as skin creams, shampoo and conditioners.
Luck said he has customers who use the skin products to deal with rosacea, eczema and acne.
BrightChoice also carries Sativa, which is a line of plant-based skin care and beauty products. Luck said many people don’t realize that the average deodorant you buy at a discount store contains aluminum, which can be a problem for people with sensitive skin.
Luck himself takes CBD oil to deal with a rare arthritic condition called Ryder’s syndrome. He has had the condition, which causes inflammation throughout his body, since he was 17. He has not had to take prescription medication for his Ryder’s syndrome in several years, and he credits that to taking CBD oil.
“I don’t care if people come in here and don’t buy anything,” Luck said. “What I care about and what our business is about is education. … We want to educate people on the benefits, how it can help them, what the proper way is to take this, which ones are best for them, because when it comes to CBD, what I think is important is to treat the inside and the outside.
“It is not just about getting a topical cream and hoping that works for you. It is also about taking something internally and knowing what you are putting inside your body. I am amazed about how many people don’t ask questions about what they are putting inside their body.”
BrightChoice is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. Luck may adjust the Sunday hours.
The store offers a veteran discount and a compassionate care program for people with chronic illnesses. Contact the store at 918-625-8823 for more information on these programs.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Ted Foster, Hays Middle School social science teacher, was nominated by HMS student Eli Rohr for the April USD 489 staff Best of the Best Award.
“I nominated Mr. Foster for Best of the Best because he is always an encouraging teacher,” Rohr said, “and he is really there for you when you need him.”
Rohr said Foster encouraged him to go out for track and now track is one of his favorite sports.
“When you need to just sit there and talk to someone, he will be there,” Rohr said.
He said he comes in before or after school to talk to Foster, and they share notes on “The Flash.”
“He helps a bunch of students,” Rohr said. “He knows what teaching they need and how to get to them. … He is a really good teacher. He doesn’t put anybody aside. He helps everyone who needs the help.”
Savannah Clingan, Wilson student, was nominated for the Best of the Best Award by Leslie Karlin, Wilson fifth-grade teacher.
Karlin described Clingan as an outstanding student leader.
“As a member of our Wilson role models, she serves her fellow students and the school community,” Karlin said. “Some responsibilities she has carried out in an exceptional manner are greeting students at the front door, monitoring the hallway, cleaning up playground equipment and organizing the school’s lost and found.
“In addition to serving others, she is kind, she is respectful, and she is very diligent in her school work. She also helps her classmates by encouraging them to follow the rules and by helping students who may be struggling with an assignment. She continuously demonstrates concern for others, and she finds ways to make a difference.”
Hays Post
The annual National Day of Prayer will be celebrated at noon Thursday at the Ellis County Veteran’s Memorial at 13th and Fort streets.
The event is free and open to the public. No reservation is needed to attend.
President Ronald Regan made the National Day of Prayer an annual event in 1980 and set it on the first Thursday in May.
“This is a moment to stop and pray for our country,” Pastor Steve Dinkel said. “This is not a Democrat thing or a Republican thing. It is a day to pray for our country.”
The ceremony will include local leaders and pastors leading prayer on seven aspects of American life.
The program is as follows:
Welcome: Normadine Noone
Pledge of Allegiance Kathy Schupman of Kat’s Hallmark Shop and U.S. Veteran
Emcee: Pastor Steve Dinkel of Liberty Foursquare Church and E.C.M.A. Treasurer
Prayer Focuses:
Government: Pastor Wes Oakley of Westview Church
Military: Pastor Tim Nunnery of Westview Church
Media and Arts: Pastor Micah Sanderson of Crosspoint Church
Business: Pastor Jason Murray of Cornerstone Southern Baptist Church
Education: Chad Meitner, principal Thomas More Prep-Marian
Church: Pastor Ken and Rachel Ediger of North Oak Community Church
Family: Pastor Dave Buller of North Oak Community Church
Community Prayer: Patrick McGinnis of Breathe Coffee House/Dialogue Ministries
Benediction: Dave Kumar of KPRD Radio
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays school district is expecting to receive an additional $1.3 million in state funding in 2019-20 as part of a $90 million per year increase in statewide school funding approved by the Kansas Legislature this spring.
Keith Hall, USD 489 director of finance, announced the figure as part of a financial report at Monday night’s school board meeting.
However, as the evening progressed, multiple areas needing additional funding were discussed.
Hall said the district is still trying to recover from 2008 when the state starting reducing school funding.
He said this might be a good year to look at increasing balances in special funds, including the district’s contingency fund. The accounting recommendation is to have at least one month’s salary in reserve, which for Hays would be about $2 million. The district only has about $1 million in reserve now.
“We need to think about what our priorities are on money,” he said.
Assistant Superintendent Shanna Dinkel said the Legislature could place stipulations on the additional funds, including designating more money going to programs for at-risk students.
Current policy allows districts to use at-risk funds to pay for a portion of teacher salaries. However, she said that does not have a direct effect on increasing test scores.
The administration has recommended reducing the student technology fee at the high school from $50 to $25. Superintendent John Thissen said he did not think as much money would be needed to make repairs on the district’s new computers. The district replaced computers at HHS at cost of $335,750 this fall.
This would be part of a greater effort to reduce student fees, Thissen said. In 2017, the district reduced its textbook fee from $135 to $90.
However, in a report also given Monday night, Dinkel said the funds from the textbook fee go into the textbook/resources fund. A reduction in the fee has meant a reduction in the money going into the fund, yet the amount of money coming from the general fund into the textbook fund has not increased.
There have been times that money from general fund was transferred to the textbook/resource fund; however, most of the funding the past several years has come from the workbook/material fee collected at enrollment.
There is about $200,000 in the fund currently.
Dinkel said the district has funds to renew some of its subscriptions and buy supplemental materials, but does not have enough money to purchase any new curricula.
Maintenance pay and benefits, $267,155 per year, are being paid out of the capital outlay budget.
The district has considered funding those salaries from the general fund, which would free up more money in the capital outlay budget.
See related story: USD 489 board president: Infrastructure plan is ‘triage list’
Special education cooperative director Chris Hipp in his co-op update said recruiting and retaining paraprofessionals continues to be a challenge despite a pay raise of $2 per hour the board approved in 2018 for paras.
Most of the paraprofessionals are working part-time, which he said is not optimum.
“We have a whole of lot of part-time people who are stitching together and filling in to make the full-time positions that we need,” Hipp said.
The district has two benefit levels. Full-time employees on a single plan have 100 percent of their health insurance paid and family plans are highly subsidized. Part-time employees qualify for a plan, but it is considerably more expensive than the plans for full-time employees.
Hipp said moving paras to full-time would benefit the co-op operationally, but providing the same health benefits as full-time staff receive would cost the co-op $1 million — something it can’t afford.
Hipp suggested establishing a third level of benefits for paras that would pay less of a subsidy than full-time staff are receiving, but would be more affordable than the plan currently being offered to part-time staff.
The co-op is not planning any changes for the coming school year, but it continues to investigate the possibility of the change.
Next year will be the first year the school district will not bargain with the custodian’s union. During its meeting Monday, the board discussed incorporating aspects of the custodian union’s contract, including items pertaining to pay, into the classified handbook.
Thissen said the district will have a pay study available in May. Administrators have discussed establishing a pay schedule for classified staff. It would be structure similar to the teacher pay schedule and include higher pay for experience and longevity.
Thissen said he believes implementing the pay schedule would take two to three years and cost $100,000 to $200,000.
The district has not approved a budget for next school year. Thissen said he would bring a list of recommendations for use of the $1.3 million to the board at an upcoming meeting.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board Monday night approved a special systems upgrade at Hays High School.
The $129,000 project will replace the clock and intercom system as well as pay for pulling cable for a new phone system and security cameras.
The clock system, which controls part of the HVAC system, failed earlier this year.
At its meeting April 8, the board rejected bids for special system. Board members asked for more information about how the project will fit into the larger capital outlay plan.
The five-year cost of replacement of the HHS phone system was estimated at between $150,000 and $214,000. The project will include 100 phones for HHS and 10 phone lines. Currently, not all classrooms have access to a phone, and this would remedy that, said Rusty Lindsay, director of building and grounds.
The phone system replacement has been budgeted for the next fiscal year, Lindsay said.
Estimates for the replacing the camera system started at $67,000. The district hopes to install a total of 51 cameras. This project is not scheduled for next fiscal year. It may need to be done over two years. However, the special systems project that was approved Monday installs the infrastructure that will be needed to complete the project as funds are available.
The board approved the special system upgrade on a vote of 6-0. Board member Luke Oborny recused himself becuase he works for the bid winner Nex-Tech.
It disappoints me that we have a room full of empty chairs for these items that are costing so much money. … It makes me very disappointed in this community.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board received a report on district infrastructure needs at its meeting Monday night.
Board President Mandy Fox called the list of projects a “triage list” as the district tries to address many needs with limited funds.
“I really do think ‘triage’ is the appropriate word for this,” Fox said. “It disappoints me that we have a room full of empty chairs for these items that are costing so much money. While they are for the safety of the students and for a good environment for the students, they are not directly impacting their education.
“When people are quick to post on Hays Post and the Hays Daily News about how we are spending money, it really frustrates me because they are not here to hear everything we are listening to.”
She noted it is going to take more than eight years just to fix the Hays High parking lot.
“It makes me very disappointed in this community,” she added.
Rusty Lindsay, director of building and grounds, graded each district building in a report to the board.
Lincoln Elementary School and Rockwell received D’s. Wilson and O’Loughlin elementary schools received C’s. HHS, HMS and Roosevelt Elementary School received B’s.
Lindsay noted the district is trying to concentrate its efforts on HHS, HMS and Roosevelt, as those three buildings have all been identified as buildings the district would keep if a bond issue is passed. Other buildings are being approached as repair only, Lindsay said.
In his diagram, he listed multiple projects in these buildings as bond projects. He said he cost of the work is enough that it can’t be paid for through capital outlay funds.
The district receives about $2 million annually from its capital outlay mill levy. As of the end of the FY19, the district anticipates it will have about $4.7 million in the fund, which includes a $2.7 million carry over from the previous year.
He also noted several projects as critical needs. These projects included a special systems project at the high school, which was approved Monday night; Roosevelt roof repair, which has already been approved by the board; and tuck point and caulking at Westside.
The special systems project at the high school includes fixing the clock and intercom system. The clock system is connected to lights and HVAC. A failure in the clock system earlier this year caused the HVAC system to fail.
The special systems project will also include pulling cable for a new phone system and security cameras. The phone system is set to be in next fiscal year’s budget. The new cameras would be budgeted at a later date as funds become available.
Twenty-one projects listed infrastructure that is in poor shape and an additional 51 infrastructure areas were ranked in fair shape, but had potential for failure. Lindsay hopes to fix about 10 of the critical to fair projects by the end of this summer and additional six in the next school year. However, that still leaves 59 projects or 79 percent unfinished.
Several board members thanked Lindsay for his report and added they wished to have a similar report on an annual basis. Fox added she would like to have a copy of the report at her chair at each board meeting so she could regularly refer back to it.
“What you did with chart A2 works really well with my mind,” board member Sophia Rose Young said, “so I want to thank you for laying it out like that with the colors and breaking it down and putting it in the order you did. … A tool like this is very beneficial to us as board members. This is something I feel I have been missing.”
The school board heard two additional reports on infrastructure bids at Monday’s meeting, but is not set to vote on them until its meeting on May 20.
Lock project
The district has received at $57,000 matching grant to replace interior door locks at HHS, HMS and Roosevelt. The new lock system will also be a part of the renovation project at the Oak Park Complex.
Lindsay said the current lock system is no longer secure, because the keys can be easily duplicated.
The district recently changed the locks on all the exterior doors to schools so they are only accessible by key cards. If a key card is lost or stolen or an individual leaves the district, the key card can be easily deactivated, Lindsay said.
The new system will have several levels of access. Lindsay used the example of science classrooms. Science teachers would have a key that accessed all the science rooms and supply cabinets.
Custodians would have master keys that unlocked room doors, but not supply cabinets.
Administrators would have grand master keys that accessed all classrooms and all supply cabinets and closets.
The lock replacement is a matter of security and that is why Lindsay said he has placed it high on the capital needs list.
The locks are made with replaceable cores, so if a key is lost, the cores can be replaced instead of the entire lock, Lindsay said.
If teachers move classrooms, as often happens at the elementary levels, the cores can be moved instead of reissuing keys.
Lindsay said he hoped to complete the locks at the other elementary schools in the next year or two. He noted that if the district would vacate one of these schools because of a bond being passed, the locks could be reused in a new building.
The district’s match for the project will be $53,000.
Parking lots
Brian’s Concrete of Hays submitted a $96,000 bid for concrete replacement at Hays High School. Lindsay budgets money every year out of capital outlay to replace a portion of the parking at HHS. The parking project is about 40 percent complete and won’t be fully complete until 2028.
At that point, the the capital outlay schedule has work starting on the HMS parking lot with completion in 2034.
Board member Luke Oborny noted there is a night-and-day difference between the areas of the parking lot that have been replaced and those that have not.
In other business, the board:
PLAINVILLE — The Nazarene Church is hosting a Love Sale Saturday, May 4, where people are free to come, browse an assortment of items in a garage-sale-style setting, and take anything that they find, for free.
If anyone would like to give a donation in exchange for items they take home, they can do so, but organizers are hoping families who are experiencing hardship during this time can come and hopefully find items that they need for the coming season. We will have everything from baby and kids’ clothing and toys, to diapers, to books, to home decor and supplies.
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In addition to those kids of items, we will be offering Kathy’s Famous Cinnamon Rolls for a suggested donation of $1 each, and we’ll give away French Press coffee as well.
The event will also have some door prizes and live music. People will be available for counsel, prayer or just a shoulder to cry on.
“We are hoping others in the community will be willing to donate items for the Love Sale, and the ultimate hope is that people would have a bit of respite from the outside world — a place to receive, without anything being asked in return, a place to not have to think of deadlines or unmet expectations, a place to be loved-on,” a news release said.
— Submitted
The Hays Friends of the Library will have a its Spring into Summer Book Sale May 2 through 5 in the Schmidt Gallery of the library.
The sale will be open to members from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 2 and 10 a.m. to noon Friday, May 3,
The sale will be open to the public noon to 4 p.m. Friday, May 3, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 4, and 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 5.
Books will be $5 per bag. If you are a Friends member and have not picked up your free reusable blue bag, you can do so. Recycled grocery sacks will be provided for non-members.
Friends memberships will be for sale for $5 per year.
Friends members will receive half off of books in the Gallery Book Store during the event.
