William H. “Bill” Gillespie, 93 of Ft. Collins, Colorado, formerly of Ellis, Kansas, passed away on Feb. 20, 2019 at Centre Avenue Rehab in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
He was born in Elk City, Oklahoma, on Nov. 30, 1925 to parents Millard F. and Bettie (Davis) Gillespie. He spent his early years in Oklahoma, moving to California shortly after the start of WWII in 1941.
He moved to Kansas in 1943 at age 17 where he met and married Verneita Fischer. They were both working at Boeing Aircraft on the second B29 that Boeing was building for the war.
He joined the US Navy in January 1944 and was originally trained as a tail gunner for the Douglas SBD plane but the war had ended in Europe so he was sent to Hawaii for radar counter measure training and was assigned to a night Air Group VTN 52 aboard the carrier ‘Bon Homme Richard’.
After leaving Pearl Harbor, he was put on hold at the Island of Guam because two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan. He was fortunate not to have been in actual combat and was discharged in February 1946.
He had several business ventures in his long life from owning the Fairlawn Dairy, the Firestone store and oil hauling truck in Kansas. After moving back to California in 1955 he worked for Helm’s Bakery and Coca Cola while waiting to be begin the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Academy. Bill had many interesting experiences working as a Sgt. homicide detective for Los Angeles County, unfortunately he suffered a severe heart attack in July 1974 and was medically retired.
He and Verneita moved back to Kansas in 1977 and spent several years traveling and visiting their family. They traveled to all 50 states in their lifetime plus Germany, Hong Kong, China, Egypt, Philippine Islands, and England. Bill visited veteran memorials with the Honor Flight in Washington DC in 2010.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Verneita, of 56 years in 1999. Also two brothers, Millard C. Gillespie and Eugene L. Gillespie.
He is survived by his wife Lois (Kelsch-Geyer) Gillespie of the home in Ft. Collins, Colorado; sons Ron Gillespie (BettyJo) of Alpine, Utah; Gene Gillespie (Rinda) of Ft. Collins, Colorado; daughters Pat Deutscher (Steve) of Clay Center, Kansas; Karen Ware (Danny) of Blanchard, Oklahoma; 10 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, four step-children, four step-grandchildren, seven step-great-grandchildren.
The funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, February 28, 2019 at the Ellis United Methodist Church. Burial with military honors will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Plainville Cemetery, Plainville, Kansas.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Keithley Funeral Chapel, 400 E. 17th St., Ellis, KS 67637 and9 a.m. until the service time Thursday at the church.
Memorials are suggested to the Ellis Public Library .
Despite a study on migrating Hays Middle School to Chromebooks next year, the Hays USD 489 Technology Committee is recommending the district purchase more iPads for HMS.
The Hays USD 489 school board will consider the iPad purchase at its meeting tonight.
A cost analysis compared iPads, Chromebooks and a Dell Windows operating system. The windows system was over budget.
The iPads came in at $254,320, and the Chromebooks came in at $317,612. The committee based the estimates on a purchase of 680 iPads with the staff using the machines they have now.
However, a switch to a new platform, would mean 40 more devices would have to be purchased for staff. The committee also took into account that the district would be able to continue to use the software it has now and additional training would not be needed for the iPads.
The iPads also scored higher on potential resale after four years, when the devices will be cycled out of use at the school. The iPads had an estimated resale value of $60, whereas Chromebooks only had a projected resale value of $10 each.
Board members asked the district to study the use of Chromebooks to determine if the devices would be cheaper than the iPads the district is currently using.
The district has a one-to-one policy for computers. Devices are on a four-year replacement plan, which administrators hope will decrease costs and keep budgets more consistent.
Interest-based bargaining
The school board will also consider moving negotiations to a interest-based bargaining system. Board member Paul Adams suggested the change at a recent meeting.
IBB is a collaborative approach to resolving labor and management disputes, according to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Through the process, parties proactively identify durable solutions to outcomes at the bargaining table. Agreements are based on mutual and individual interests rather than positions.
Kathy Rome, KNEA UniServ director, said the district used IBB in the past, but moved back to position bargaining.
During a recent public comment session with incoming Hays superintendent, Ron Wilson, she said local teachers are interested in going back to IBB.
Wilson is the current superintendent at Heringotn and has used IBB in teacher negotiations there.
Bond work
The district will continue to discuss a future school bond issue.
At the Jan. 28 school board meeting, DLR Group, the district’s architect, along with Nabholz Construction presented a list of possible bond projects totaling $29.4 million. These included finishing air conditioning projects at the Hays High School, expanding the cafeteria at HMS and renovating Roosevelt Elementary School to accommodate five sections of each grade.
The board is set to:
• Designate agents for teacher negotiations.
• Adopt a renewal of the five-year capital outlay resolution. The capital outlay mill levy is now at 8 mills.
• Review the administrative contracts for building-level certified administrators for the 2019-2020 school year.
• Review the proposed 2019-20 school year calendar created by the calendar committee.
HaysMed experienced a non- weather related power outage at the hospital late Sunday afternoon.Due to the outage several HaysMed clinics/services will be closed temporarily until power is restored.
The following are closed temporarily:
Dreiling/Schmidt Cancer Center including Medical Oncology and Radiation Oncology
ENT
Eye Associates
Foundation
Medical Specialists
Nephrology
Nuclear Medicine testing
Pain Clinic
Pediatrics
Psychiatric Associates
Pulmonology
Urology
Women’s Center
The following clinics/services are still seeing patients:
Breast Care Center
DeBakey Heart Clinic
Emergency Room
Family Medicine
Hays Orthopedic
Imaging
Southwind Surgery
Convenient Care
Wound Care Center
Patients are being notified of any cancellations that affect them. If you have any questions, please call your providers office.
Evie Gruenbacher, Quniter High School DAR God Citizen Award winner, with Sherrie Smith, Courtney-Spalding DAR Chapter regent.
The Courtney-Spalding Chapter of The Daughters of the American Revolution recently presented Evie Gruenbacher, Quniter High School, with a $100 scholarship for winning the essay portion of the Chapter’s DAR Good Citizen contest.
Invitations to participate in this contest were extended to 12 area high schools with six schools submitting entries.
Each of these schools selected one senior, based upon their qualities of dependability, leadership and patriotism, as their Good Citizen.
Other area students selected as their schools’ 2018-2019 DAR Good Citizen are Cameryn Kinderknecht, Ellis High School; Cordelia Isbell, Hays High School; Alysson Foos, Ness City High School; Leanne Rack, Thomas More Prep-Marian; and Marteah Morgan, Western Plains High School, Ransom.
Gruenbacher received her scholarship check and award certificate on Saturday, Feb. 16 at the Courtney-Spalding Chapter meeting.
Also recognized at this meeting were her mother, Dr. Shelly Gruenbacher, Monica Countryman, Quinter High School counselor, and Ann Blessing, the 1969 Courtney-Spalding DAR Good Citizen scholarship recipient.
The winning essay and other contest material submitted by Gruenbacher have been forwarded for further competition and judging at the state level.
Angie Kreutzer, who is in her first year as a teacher at Hays USD 489’s Westside program, is February’s Hays Post Teacher of the Month.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Angie Kreutzer, K-3 special education teacher, teaches her students a lesson about harsh words.
She has them crumple up a piece of paper in their hands and then try to smooth it out again, saying nice things to the piece of paper. No matter how hard they try, the students can’t make the paper completely smooth again.
“Don’t add more crinkles to their paper,” Kreutzer said of how she approaches her students.
Kreutzer is in her first year as a teacher at Hays USD 489’s Westside program, which is a alternative program in which the school district offers special services for students in partnership with High Plains Mental Health.
Her compassion toward her students has earned her February’s Hays Post Teacher of the Month honor.
A parent of a 9-year-old in her class in her nomination said, “It has been refreshing to see a teacher who has a passion for helping students who have behavior and mental heath challenges.
“She makes a huge effort to help each child learn in the best way for them, even if it’s not easy for her. Despite her challenges, she always has a smile on her face. She has been open with me about the things she feels would benefit my son in the learning environment.”
“Mrs. K also shows a lot of compassion for the families of her students. Our family recently went through something hard, and she was there with kind words and a hug. She is truly a one-of-a-kind teacher, and I wish there were more of her.”
Kreutzer, 42, is only in her fifth year as a teacher. She worked as a hair dresser, makeup artist and worked in retail. When her daughter was born, she knew she wanted more for her life and her daughter’s. She signed up for college classes right there in the hospital.
“I just wanted to do better and be better for her,” Kreutzer said.
She taught at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Ellis before moving to Westside this year. She said she has truly found what she loves to do at Westside.
“I was actually struggling with this very recently,” she said. “I am not teaching in the traditional sense. I am not up in front of a classroom explaining how to do multiplication because I have so many different kids on so many different levels. They have other factors that are maybe bigger for them than figuring out a multiplication problem. I feel my job is to teach students how to be students.
“I am not teaching in the way I always envisioned myself to be, but I am doing exactly what I think I was meant to be doing in building relationships.”
Kreutzer admitted many of the students who come to the Westside program have not had good relationships with their teachers or good experiences and it is hard from them to trust or like a new teacher.
“I would say the most important part of my job is building relationships and making connections with kiddos who don’t necessarily know how to do that. They struggle with forming bonds and relationships with people outside of their immediate circle,” she said.
Kreutzer said she builds that trust in a variety of ways.
At the beginning of the school year, she gave the students the option of ending the day with a fist bump, a high five or a hug. All of those afternoon goodbyes have now evolved to hugs.
“On Fridays I tell them, ‘I will miss you this weekend,’ and on Mondays I say, ‘I missed you this weekend. Tell me about your weekend. Tell me how you are doing.’ I try to get to know what their likes are, what their strengths are, so that when I am building a curriculum for them, it includes things they enjoy or they are familiar with.”
Kreutzer builds in time to her day for her students to talk to her or tell her stories.
“If they are having a rough day, I stick by them and let them get that all out of their system too. I think consistency is really, really important with these kids. I think showing up for them everyday is so important. I think they sense or know that I love to come to work everyday,” she said.
“I share bits of myself with them. I talk about my kids. They see my pictures, and when we talk about things, I will say that has happened to me. I let them into my life just as much as they let me into theirs. I think building that trust and being there with them and for them everyday is so important.”
Kreutzer has been through some difficult times in her life, and she said she thought that helps her relate with her students. Kreutzer grew up in Hays, but moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and worked at variety of jobs before she had her daughter and went back to college.
She got behind on her rent and was evicted. She was homeless for a time, staying with friends and even sleeping in her car.
“Life leads you in so many different places,” she said. “I do think it is for a reason. If I hadn’t made those mistakes then, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today, although they stunk at the time. But now that I am where I am and I love it, it was all worth it.”
Living in the city, she said she learned not to judge people.
“You have no idea what they have been through,” she said. “You have no idea what they are struggling with and that goes for any classroom. I treated my kids at St. Mary’s the same way. I don’t know if they got in a fight with their mom before they came to school or dad’s sick and hasn’t been to work for a month. You don’t know those things.
“If someone is having a rough day or a rough week, I don’t think its my job to come down hard on them without trying to understand why. I don’t think any kid wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I am going to go to school today and make my teacher’s day awful’ or ‘I am going to disrupt as many students as I can today. That’s my goal.’ I don’t think any kid ever does that. When it happens, there’s a reason.”
Kreutzer said maybe a student is hungry. She keeps granola bars on hand.
“Being compassionate about it … ‘I know you are having a rough day. I am sure there is a reason why. If you want to talk to me about it, great. If you don’t ,that is OK too, but let’s figure out a better way to handle this or let’s go take a break and reset and try to have a better day.'”
Kreutzer is working with young children, and sometimes they have trouble putting words to their emotions. Kreutzer tries to help the children learn about that part of themselves. She might see a child with a face strained in frustration and anger, and she might say, “I think you might be feeling angry becuase your face looks like this.”
She tries to offer options for the children to positively deal with that emotion, such as choosing to read in a quiet place or talking to a friend.
Kreutzer said she thought treating children with compassion through trauma informed education programs is not only important in a program such as Westside’s, but also in the mainstream classrooms. She said she thought trauma is much more prevalent among children than most people realize.
“I don’t think it is getting worse,” she said. “I think we are finally talking about it.”
Jessica States, information security officer for Fort Hays State University, gives a lecture on cyber security on Wednesday at FHSU.
Jessica States, information security officer for Fort Hays State University, was trying to emphasize the prevalence of scams and phishing on the Internet.
She addressed a few of the issues students and faculty face during a Wednesday online security lecture sponsored by the American Democracy Project.
States focused on three main areas, including job scams, extortion and credential theft plus left her audience with a few general tips and resources for cyber security.
Job scams
FHSU students are consistently being targeted by job scams. The example States shares Wednesday resulted in a FHSU student losing about $2,000.
The student received a letter offering a job for which he would be paid in advance. The letter came from an .edu address from a person claiming to be a college professor. The student received and deposited several checks in his bank account. In the meantime, the scammer requested the student purchase gift cards and send him the redemption codes, so he could send a gift to his nephew.
By the time the bank a couple of weeks later had alerted the student the checks were fraudulent, the money on the gift cards had been spent.
States said students and other consumers fall prey to job scams because they don’t understand how the banking system works.
“So true or false? When you deposit a check or money order into your account, does your bank make sure it’s good before they put the money in your account?” States asked. “Most people think this is true. They think your bank verifies a check is good before they let you spend the money. This is false.”
States said people assume because the check shows up as a memo line on their account, the bank has verified the authenticity of the check. This can take up to a couple of weeks, especially if your bank is trying to clear a check from an international bank.
Red flags in this email included a wage that seemed to be too good to be true — $450 per week for three hours of work.
“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” States said. “This is where, especially our younger students get caught. They think it is coming to my Fort Hays email address. It sounds really good. It talks about Fort Hays. It must be legitimate. If they would just take a second, pause and think about it, it is really too good to be true.”
No employers should ever ask you to buy gift cards or wire them money. Paying in advance is also suspicious.
Email addresses should not be trusted. Email accounts can be hacked or spoofed.
Check out the alleged employer, States said. You should be able to track down the person through LinkedIn and contact them through other means than the email address you have been given.
The scammer also attempted to get the student to use an alternate email address rather than the more secure university account, which circumvents the university’s firewalls
Extortion
On Monday, a university staff member received an extortion email. The email threatened to release an email containing embarrassing information about the staff member to all of their email contacts unless a $977 ransom was paid in bitcoin.
The subject was the person’s username and an old password, which made it appear more authentic.
There have been tons of data breaches in recent years, including Yahoo, eBay and Sony PlayStation, so it is very possible you have a current or old password out there on the dark web, States said.
“Scammers are going to use any personal information they have about you to make the scam seem more realistic,” States said.
States said she doubted the scammer had any compromising information on the person in question. Scammers prey on fear and a victim’s guilty conscience.
Fort Hays has never paid an extortion ransom, but States said she did not know about individuals.
If you are hit with an extortion attempt, don’t panic and don’t reply to the email. If you reply to the email, the scammer knows they have a legitimate email address.
If you are still using the password the scammer has noted in the email, change it immediately on all accounts it is being used on.
Mark the email as spam and delete it.
“It is basically free for them to send millions of emails,” States said. “The one statistic that I was looking at earlier, there are 100 million phishing emails that go out everyday. … Even if 99 percent of them are blocked, that would still be a million that would get through. That is a lot. Even if one person falls for it, they have just made $977 in bitcoin for very little work.”
A fake tech support scam that was circulating last year made the scammers an estimated $24 million in two months, States said.
Credential theft
On Monday, States said someone at the university reported being the subject of an attempted credential theft scam.
The attacker spoofed the From line to indicate it was coming from the user’s own email. The scammer was trying to get the recipient to enter his or her account username and password.
If you would have hovered over the link with your cursor, you would have seen it took you to an odd off-campus address, States said.
The email had some grammar mistakes, which should be a clue that it was a fake.
“The thing you have to remember, for people who especially English is not their first language, grammar mistakes are not a big indication of phishing,” States said. “While I do put some emphasis on that, it is not always the greatest tool to figure out it is phishing. Plus I have seen some official emails that came out that had some pretty glaring mistakes.”
Phishing messages can also come via text.
Scam signs
• Who is it from?
• Look at the Reply To. Is that different than the alleged sender? The scammer may have stolen an email address and is now trying to redirect you.
• Sense of urgency. Scammer may try to get you to act right away without being able to confirm information or think things through.
• Generic greetings
• Scammer is requesting a credit card number
• Hover over links, so you know where it is taking you.
• Be wary of attachments
• Is the sender who they say they are? If an email that is supposedly coming from a friend does not sound like that person, independently confirm the information in the email before taking action. Your friend may have been hacked.
Don’t
• Wire money to someone you don’t know
• Buy and provide people with codes for gift cards
• Trust Caller ID
• Trust email addresses. They can be faked.
Do
• Resist the urge to act immediately
• Check the story out
• Look at a URL before you click on it.
• Let unknown numbers go to voicemail
• Use strong, unique passwords
• Report phishing or scams to FHSU Tech Support, the police, and/or Google
• Enroll in two-factor authentication. This pairs something you know with something you have, such as a password with a cell phone or a hardware token that can receive a security code. FHSU faculty and staff are moving to this security process this week. It will be optional for FHSU students as of this summer.
Helpful links
Check to see if you have an account that has been comprised in a data breach, haveibeenpwned.com
Elton Earl Beougher, 78, Hays, died Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019 at HaysMed.
He was born March 22, 1940 in Gove, Kansas, the son of Merlyn E. and Vivian V. (Smith) Beougher. He married Cecile Nola LaSalle on Aug. 21, 1960. She preceded him in death. He later married Wendy Morton on Sept. 30, 1994.
Elton graduated from Gove Consolidated Grade School in 1953, Gove Rural High School in 1957, Fort Hays State University in 1961 (BS) and 1964 (MS) and the University of Michigan in 1968 (PhD). He also attended Kansas State University and Winona State University in Michigan.
Elton taught junior and senior high school in Winona, Kansas, 1961-1964, senior high in Garden City, Kansas, 1964-1965, and college mathematics at Fort Hays State University, 1968-2000. He was a proud Tiger and proud of his association with FHSU. Elton served professionally as president and treasurer of the Kansas Association of Teachers of Mathematics and chairman of the Kansas Section and Kansas Governor of the Mathematical Association of Mathematics.
Elton became a member of the Methodist Church in 1952 and accepted Christ as his personal savior in 1972. He served as a teacher and youth leader on many committees, drove the bus for the Kid’s Club, played in the Handbell Choir and sang in the Chancel Choir. He was an early member of the group Crossroads and had a passion for its music ministry.
Elton enjoyed history and nothing more than a day on the prairie with his metal detector. He was a past president of the Smoky Hill Trail Association and served on the board of historic Fort Hays for many years. Hunting, fishing, and traveling were his interests. He worked crosswords daily but gave up Sudoku after he constructed an algorithm to solve the puzzles. He read physics books for fun.
Elton’s family was dear to his heart. He is survived by his wife Wendy, daughter Tracea Collins and husband Alan and grandchildren Alexis and Robyn, son Timothy and wife Ronda and grandchildren Shelbie (Jason), Courtney (Adrian), Laci, Josie, Luke, and Levi; also Chandler Morton and grandchildren Aidan and Mason and Jeremy Morton and wife Carmon and grandchildren Coby, Cole, and Will, brother Marvin and wife Marilea, two great-grandchildren Brooks and Graves, and many special nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother Loren and sister-in-law JoAnn, a sister Ima Lee Heier, and his wife Cecile.
The funeral service will be at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 25, 2019 at the First United Methodist Church, 305 W. Seventh St., Hays, with Rev. Michael Rose officiating. Burial will be at 2 p.m. in the Gove Cemetery.
Visitation will be from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday at the Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home, 1906 Pine Street, Hays and from 9:30 a.m. until service time on Monday at the church.
Memorials are suggested to the Hays First United Methodist Church or the Fort Hays State University Math Department for scholarships, in care of the funeral home.
Condolences and memories of Elton may be shared with the family at www.haysmemorial.com.
Leslie Engel, BSN, RN-WCC and Michelle Weigel LPN CHT WCC successfully passed the national board certification exam in wound care.
The certification is awarded by the National Alliance of Wound Care and Ostomy.The certification certifies the recipients have completed coursework in evidence-based, wound care management and treatment strategies based on national standards.
Engle works as a case manager in the wound center, directing and managing care of the patients alongside the providers.Weigel is a certified hyperbaric technician.Both have been HaysMed associates for eight years.
