Several individuals have joined the staff at NCK TECH – Hays Campus.
Nicole Legleiter
At the beginning of the school year in August, Nicole Legleiter was hired as a permanent part-time administrative assistant. Legleiter graduated from TMP-Marian and received a certificate from the Business Management program at NCK TECH.Her background is in office management.
Kristi Cranwell joined NCK TECH as an admissions counselor.
She has a BS in Ag Business from Kansas State University and an MS in Ag Leadership and Education Communication from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.Cranwell has served over 10 years as a 4-H educator and as a recruiter for Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Oklahoma. She joined the college in September.
Kristi Cranwell
Also joining the staff in September, Tiffany Fox has taken the position of student services coordinator. She received a BS in Elementary Education with a minor in Special Education from Fort Hays State University.
Wycliffe Associates, a ministry that has been accelerating the work of Bible translation around the world since 1967, will be in Hays Friday, Nov. 2.
Those interested in learning more about Wycliffe’s work are invited to a complimentary banquet from 7 to 8 that evening in the Black and Gold Room of the Fort Hays State University Memorial Union.
While the banquet is free, reservations are required by Wednesday, Oct. 24, to Mark Thowe, local banquet coordinator, at 785-483-8589 or [email protected].
Noel Davis, Wycliffe’s south central director, said, “God is working amid civil unrest, tribal wars, spiritual warfare, and persecution against Christians to advance Bible translation faster than ever before.” Davis will be speaking at the banquet.
With more and more regions of the world presenting very real dangers to Christians and Bible translation efforts, Wycliffe is using technology to protect mother-tongue Bible translators—those who have been raised in a particular country and are native speakers.
This initiative, called Tablets for National Translators (TNTs), places basic computer tablets loaded with Bible translation tools and other applications into the hands of mother-tongue Bible translators, including those who live in high-risk areas.
“A Bible in their hands is like a target on their backs,” said Bruce Smith, Wycliffe president and CEO. The computer tablets, however, enable these translators to work discreetly and safely and to back up their work online for safekeeping. The tablets also allow for secure online collaboration with other translators and consultants who monitor each other’s work to make sure the translation is accurate.
Tablets for Translators is accelerating the progress of Bible translation in conjunction with Wycliffe’s Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation (MAST) workshops. These workshops teach a “pioneering new method to Bible translators,” Smith said, “which results in translating books of the Bible in parallel faster than ever before, while maintaining the highest levels of accuracy and quality.
“This groundbreaking technology, together with MAST, cuts years off of Bible translation,” Smith said. “Tablets for National Translators turns years into months.”
There are currently 7,097 languages spoken in the world. Wycliffe has Bible translations in progress in 3,703 of those.
Davis said another 2,000 people groups have no written language. Wycliffe is using Bible Translation Recording Kits to produce the Bible on small cards that fit into a cell phone, so that people can hear the word of God for the first time in their own language.
Wycliffe has a goal of having a Bible in every language in the world by 2025.
UPDATE: A new meeting to consider the ECC financing has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15 at the Rockwell Administration Center.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board met Wednesday night for a special session but was unable to take action due to an issue over the meeting’s scheduling.
The board was set to take action on financing for a new building for Early Childhood Connections.
State statute requires board members to be notified of meetings at least two full days before the meeting unless board members sign a waiver of notice.
The board president opened the meeting, but board member Greg Schwartz refused to sign the waiver of notice.
The board consulted the board attorney Michael Baxter who said he was uncertain what effect Schwartz not signing the waiver would have on any action the board might take in the meeting. He recommended the board adjourn and reschedule the meeting.
The board met in a special session because it is under a tight timeline to move forward with the ECC project. It has received a $1.47 million federal grant to renovate the Oak Park Medical Complex. The district only has until the end of June to use the grant funds.
The board has already voted to move forward with the purchase of the former medical complex and to accept the grant. The board was to vote Wednesday on a resolution for a $2 million lease agreement to pay for the building. The district was waiting on bids to come in from banks on interest for the lease agreement before it could meet to approve the financing. Those numbers became available Wednesday afternoon.
After the lease agreement resolution is approved, a 30-day period begins that would allow registered voters to mount a protest petition. The lease agreement will be for $250,000 per year for 10 years. Anything more than $100,000 per year requires a protest period.
The district can’t move forward with the project until after the protest period. If a protest petition is signed by at least 5 percent of the registered voters in the school district, the issue wold have to go to a public vote.
However, because of the extra time it would take to mount a special election, Superintendent John Thissen said a successful protest petition would mean the district would not be able to complete the project in the time allowed by the grant. The district would have to give back the grant money.
Schwartz and Lance Bickle voted no on both the purchase of the medical complex and acceptance of the grant.
After the Wednesday meeting was adjourned, Schwartz said his refusal to sign the waiver was not an attempt to block the ECC project. He said he still opposes the ECC project and would like more information on the project, including an appraisal of the building and further discussion on how the medical complex building would fit into the district’s long-range plan.
Schwartz continued, saying he wanted more notice of the meeting and time to prepare and he had only been informed of the meeting at 10:30 Wednesday morning.
Thissen said emails had been sent to all board members, including Schwartz, about possible meeting times and dates, and the board members agreed on the Wednesday time. Options on meeting times had included times on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Thissen said the meeting will be rescheduled with more notice. Although the district is still under a time crunch to use the grant funds, he said the delay in the approving the financing resolution will not be enough to kill the project.
Hays native and screenwriter and casting director Scotty Mullen talks to Brenda Meder, Hays Arts Council director, at the HAC Sunday night.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Although screenwriter Scotty Mullen said he felt out of place growing up in Hays, he credited the community with his early development as a writer.
Mullen shared some of his experiences making it in Hollywood during a talk at the Hays Arts Center Sunday night. He thanked his parents, who attended his talk, but said raising him must have been like ground hogs raising a peacock.
Mullen wrote “Sharknado 5 and 6,” and serves as casting director for The Asylum film studio.
Mullen was back in Hays this weekend for his 25th high school reunion.
“We have so many hidden resources in this town, or maybe not hidden, but I think people don’t take advantage of and know about,” he said. “We have a college. We have the Arts Center here, and really, really good teachers who care. You don’t get that in other places.”
Mullen plays a cameo in one of the Sharknado movies.
Mullen said he was first inspired to write in the second grade when his teacher, Mrs. White, assigned the students to write stories. Every Friday the kids got to get up and read one of their stories to the class.
“I was just blown away,” he said. “I was probably the most excited kid in the class because I thought that was amazing. I thought it was so crazy that I could take things I only see in my head, I could write them down and I could tell them and other people could see it. That was just like magic to me.”
His first story was a parody of Superman called “Super Pooper.” He named the characters after his friends.
“The itch never left me,” he said of writing.
In his high school days, Mullen wrote thousands of pages. He said it was like laying down fertilizer for what he would do later.
“Writing professionally is much like being an athlete and training everyday,” he said. “And the biggest thing to train your brain is to write even when it is not fun, even when you get up and the muse is not there.”
Mullen with Jackie Collins, who he cast in “Sharknado 3.”
Mullen has created a routine for himself.
“I have found my rhythm. I can write five pages of a script in an hour and a half, but if I write 10 pages, it takes me all day long,” he said.
Mullen entered the Hollywood realm working as publicist when he was in college at Georgia State. The college had a TV station. They told him if he was willing to put the time and effort in to do interviews, they would put them on the air.
Mullen remembered sitting on the couch at the TV station and the phone rang. It was a publicist that later would become Mullen’s boss.
“She said, ‘Do you want to come out here? We have this girl. You probably don’t know her. She’s Goldie Hawn’s daughter, Kate Hudson. It is her first movie. Why don’t you guys come out here, bring a camera and you can ask her any questions you want,'” Mullen said.
He starting interviewing stars when they came through Atlanta for press junkets. The interviews became so popular he was being flown to New York, Miami and Los Angeles to do publicity. He was so spoiled doing this work that he stretched his senior year at Georgia State to two and half years.
Mullen’s boss at the publicity firm finally told him he needed to go to LA and go write because he was never going to go anywhere if he stayed in Atlanta. She threatened to fire him. When he finally left for LA, he did so in such a hurry he didn’t apply for graduation. It wasn’t until 2013 that he reapplied to college and finally received the degree he completed in 2005.
Mullen worked in publicity as a publicity model and as an actor, but didn’t write for five years. He was flying back and forth to New York and had a lavish expense account but said he eventually realized he was not happy with that lifestyle.
“If you drink too much gravy, you get sick,” he said. “I was getting unhappy. I was, ‘Why am I not happy? I am good at this job. I am meeting some good people. I could do this for the rest of my life.’ I was getting very unhappy, and I was getting depressed.”
Mullen ran into a woman he went to middle school with who was now a life coach in LA. She gave him her card.
“I had that card for a year. I was walking down the street to my apartment one day, and it was like God grabbed me and jerked me and was like, ‘Stop!'” he said. “I remember walking and physically stopping. You want to go to Buenos Aires, but you are almost at Anchorage, Alaska. You are going completely the wrong way. You have got to stop and turn around. I had all of the momentum, but it was in the wrong direction.”
Mullen called the life coach and started seeing her on a weekly basis.
“I had shoved those dreams so far back that I didn’t know,” he said. “She had to dig it out.”
His life coach asked him who he would like to work with, and he said Jackie Collins. Three years later he would work with her when he cast her in “Sharknado 3.”
“You have to be very, very specific in what you want,” he said. “If you are too broad, nobody knows what to give you. I still work on that today.”
He said he was almost ashamed to admit it, but he told his life coach that he wanted to be a writer.
“It just seemed so impossible. It seemed very irresponsible. It seemed ‘How in the world are you going to do that?’ There is a lot of competition,” he said. “I realized I wanted to be a writer, but I had never really given it 115 percent of everything.”
He started writing a half hour each day while still working as a publicist. That slowly increased. Then he was having so much fun he would go to bed earlier so he could get up earlier and write.
He took some workshops and an online class from ScreenwritingU.com. The point of this course was to get a professional writing assignment. Most TV shows and movies are not that writer’s original idea. They are hired to write screenplays by someone else who has an idea and the money to produce it.
His adviser for the class urged him to write a screenplay called “Double D Island.” He based the script on his work with models during his publicity days. He said it was raunchy, but it showed his writing style and humor.
He took the idea to a pitch fest, which is like a combination of speed dating and a job interview. Asylum was impressed and picked him to do his first screenplay for “The Co-ed and the Zombie Stoner.” When he finally landed the gig, they gave him only two weeks to write the screenplay.
After that, Mullen said he learned to not be afraid of failing.
“You’ve just got to do it,” he said. “There is something that I have on my wall, ‘Don’t worry if this is going to be good enough. Just ask yourself, ‘Am I up to the challenge?’ Am I up to the challenge of writing the script in two weeks?”
Mullen said working with Asylum was like meeting his tribe.
The work on the zombie movie led to work on jokes for “Sharknado 3,” which was also made by Asylum.
Mullen’s employer was not happy that he was moonlighting as a writer and trying to also work his full-time job as a publicist, so they fired him. Asylum knew Mullen’s background, so they sought his help in casting “Sharknado 3.”
He helped Asylum land stars such as Ann Coulter, Jackie Collins and Mark Cuban for the movie.
When a spot opened up for a full-time casting director for Asylum, Mullen was tapped for the job. He went on to write and cast “Sharknado 5 and 6.” He continues to work with Asylum both casting and writing.
On the “Sharknado” movies, he also worked with Bret Michaels, Olivia Newton-John, Fabio, who played the Pope, Charo, Margaret Cho and Tony Hawk.
“I was part of the club and they respected me,” he said. “What I realized about all of these people was how nice they were and also how hard they worked. All of these people, they work really hard, and I had that in common with them. That felt very, very good.”
He said when his high school reunion was nearing, he realized how grateful he was to be from Hays. He said Hays has a charm with a lot of creative energy and rural rawness.
“I had this gratitude for this town I always thought I wanted to get away from,” he said. “I thought, ‘Thank God, I was born here. Thank God I was raised here.'”
And he continues to dream bigger and bigger.
Mullen, who as a youth dreamed of being a romance writer, is vying for an assignment to write a Hallmark movie. He said he is excited about the possibility of a new challenge.
For the record, neither the Kansas Chamber nor the Kansas Chamber PAC have participated in any “push” polling.
The Kansas Chamber PAC has endorsed Ellis County Commissioner Barb Wasinger because she understands the fundamental role business plays in the economic health of Kansas and her community.It would appear Dr. Hammond’s outrage is based on ideology or partisanship, not geography.
I find it quite unfortunate Dr. Hammond chose to use such divisive rhetoric; I am not exactly sure what “Eastern” money is.The Kansas Chamber is proud to have members all over Kansas, including Ellis County.
As for the entire silliness of the term “dark money,” every penny the Chamber and PAC spend on elections and advocacy and every company or individual that contributes to the PAC is 100 publicly disclosed. You can find that information on the Kansas Secretary of State’s website.
There is nothing nefarious or complicated about what the Kansas Chamber PAC does. It does what the teachers’ Union PAC does, and dozens of other organizations that engage in Kansas legislative races. It endorses candidates who support issues important to the Kansas business community.
During the last two years, Rep. Eber Phelps voted with the Kansas business community just 11 percent of the time. He voted for tax increases on Kansas families and small businesses several times. He voted against returning a tax-windfall to Kansas citizens and businesses that resulted from the federal tax reform passed last year.He voted against reforming teacher tenure in Kansas; voted against legal reform as well as voted against business interests related to workers compensation.
Elections matter and the policy makers we send to Topeka determine whether Kansas businesses will thrive or suffer under the burden of an ever-expanding government. We must elect and maintain in office, legislators who will lead the charge for business, so our state and local economies can grow and create more jobs and prosperity for all Kansans.
Certainly, people can have disagreements on policy. But to do so, it helps to at least be reasonable and accurate.
Agra resident Carl E. Jacobs passed away Oct. 7, 2018 at the Sun Porch Nursing Home in Smith Center at the age of 81.He was born July 3, 1937 in Phillips County, Kansas, the son of Charles and Lola (Randall) Jacobs.
He is survived by his sister, Esther Leyendecker of Huron, South Dakota and nieces and nephews.
Cremation was chosen.A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14 in the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, with Daryl Dougherty officiating.
The Hays USD 489 school district announced Tuesday it has reached an impasse with teachers over contract negotiations.
Superintendent John Thissen said the district will make a request through the Kansas Department of Labor to bring in a mediator to try to resolve the contract dispute.
Kim Schneweis, co-chair of the teachers negotiating committee, said the sticking point is over pay.
All other employees in the district received a 4.6 percent pay increase, but when the teachers looked at the pay schedule that was offered to them, the raise did not equal 4.6 percent, she said. Schneweis said the average increase per teacher was about 3.2 percent. The difference in the district proposal and the teachers’ request is $465 per person.
“We are not asking for more than anybody else,” she said. “We don’t feel that we are more deserving. We see how hard everybody else works, but we do feel we are as deserving.”
When the Kansas Legislature passed the increase in school funding, they noted it should go to classrooms, Schneweis said.
“That is us,” she said. “Teachers are in the classroom.”
She said it was her understanding the 4.6 percent increase for the teachers was budgeted, so the negotiating committee did not understand why the board would not approve the 4.6 percent. She said the board did not respond when asked where the difference in the budgeted raise and the offer was going to go.
Schneweis said the teachers worked with the district on several issues in the contract already this year, including a payroll procedural issue, removing a clause in the contract that prohibited Wednesday night meetings, as well as revising the coaches and sponsors pay schedule.
She noted the teachers worked with the district through several years in which they received no pay increase. They went through a major health insurance change last year and have weathered changes to retiree and severance benefits.
“We had board members saying these saving will come back to you in salary,” she said. “We never imagined they would give us a lesser increase than everyone else, because that has not been the practice in our district. It has always been to give a comparable raise to all employee groups.”
Schneweis said the board decided they no longer wanted to negotiate. She said the teachers had hoped to resolve the contract issue locally.
Thissen said he did not think he could elaborate on the negotiations at this time.
Teachers continue to work under their 2017/18 contract until the new contract is approved.
The district also reached an impasse with teachers in 2016.
Due to the cool and wet weather predicted for Friday evening, the Farm to Fork Dinner will move from the pavilion to 117 W 11th St., the former CS Post building.
As of Wednesday morning, there was still 10 tickets left for the dinner. Tickets are $60 per person and can be purchased online. The event will be 6 to 9 p.m. Friday.
Bank of Hays is honored to announce Matt Erbert as its new vice president, commercial loan officer.
Erbert is a native of Ellis, and he graduated from Ellis High in 2010.
He attended Fort Hays State University and graduated in 2015 with a degree in Finance with a Banking Concentration. He began his career at Farm Credit in Colby, and most recently he was a mortgage loan officer at Equity Bank from November 2016 until October 2018.
He is involved with the Knights of Columbus, Hays Sunrise Rotary, FHSU Tiger Auction Committee, and the FHSU Accounting, Economics, and Finance Department Advisory Committee.
The USD 489 school board discussed the possibility of lowering student fees at its meeting Monday night.
Two years ago the board lowered the workbook fee from $135 to $90.
The board said it would like to see information about how much lowering the fee further would cost.
The board also discussed the possibility of lowering the technology fee at Hays High School, which is $50.
The board voted to replace computers this year, and the hope is there would be enough savings from fewer repairs that fee could be lowered.
Superintendent John Thissen said he would also bring information to the board about the driver’s education fund. That program is self-supported. If that fund is seeing a surplus, that fee also could be reevaluated.
No decision on the fees would likely be made until this spring when the district has a better idea of what its budget will look like for the coming year.
“With any fee, it is easy to add it in, but it is tough to take it out,” board member Lance Bickle said.
Transportation purchases
The board approved $291,790 in vehicle purchases Monday night.
The purchases included a gas-powered bus, an activity bus, a car and a Suburban.
The bid for the gas bus was $87,669. District staff requested a bid that was about $400 over the low bid, because it had the engine the district wanted.
Board member Greg Schwartz said he favored the purchase of a diesel bus over a gas engine. He said he thought the diesel engines were more efficient and durable. However, the transportation director said he was recommending the gas bus because other districts have had very costly repairs of emissions systems on the diesel buses. Schwartz voted against the purchase.
The bid for the activity bus was $143,975, which was the low bid. Both bids were from Kansas Truck.
The board also approved purchase of an Impala for $21,194 and a Suburban for $38,952. The total for the purchases was about $12,000 less than budgeted.
Enrollment
The district is up 33 students as of its official count day on Sept. 20, according to a report given to the board Monday night.
Assistant Superintendent Shanna Dinkel said smaller classes have graduated and larger classes are moving up.
Kirsten DeeAnn (Applegate) Daily, 56, Hays, died Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018 in Hays.
She was born Jan. 9, 1962 in Topeka, the second of four children to Dr. Francis R. and Haven (Moore) Applegate.
She was a graduate of Hays High School and obtained her nursing license from North Central Kansas Technical College in September 1999.
In the years prior to her death, Kirsten enjoyed spending her time gardening at her parents’ home, especially bringing fresh-cut flowers to her mother, caring for others and rescuing animals.She also enjoyed spending time with her granddaughter, Addison. She will be remembered most for her caring attitude and big heart.
Survivors include her parents; Francis and Haven Applegate of Hays; two brothers Darin Applegate of Salina and Troy Applegate and wife Connie of Gunter, Texas; a sister Noelle Applegate-Fox of Frisco, Texas; three children Kalee Shea Daily of Dallas, Courtney Noelle Karlin and husband Trent of Hays, and Koby Francis Daily of Olathe; a granddaughter Addison Karlin of Hays; a granddog Gotti; and nieces Alexandra and Ashley Applegate and Brooke and Sadie Fox.
The Memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018 at the Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home, 1906 Pine St., with Pastor Brant Rice officiating. Private family inurnment will be in the Fort Hays Memorial Gardens Cemetery.
Memorials are suggested in Kirsten’s memory to the Humane Society of the High Plains or to Options Housing, in care of the funeral home.Condolences and memories of Kirsten may be left for the family at www.haysmemorial.com.
The family of Dorothy and the late Laverne Stieben has announced a $100,000 matching challenge grant for the benefit of the Comeau Catholic Campus Center.
The Stieben Family will match, dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000, any donations to a fund to endow religious activities put on by the Campus Center for the spiritual well-being of the FHSU college students who participate in the endeavors of the Center.
The Campus Center has served the Catholic students, faculty, and staff of Fort Hays State University since 1984.
Regarding the endowment, Dorothy said, “Coming from a large, spiritual family, my parents stressed how they wanted all of us children to ‘keep the faith’ that our Volga German ancestors brought over for us. My late husband who converted to the Catholic faith wanted to make sure our own four children received a good Catholic education, and I know he would like to ensure the Catholic faith continues in their lives and in the lives of all these young people. I have been so impressed and inspired by the young people at the Catholic Campus Center the past few years and all they have been doing within the Catholic Disciples organization.”
The primary activity that will benefit from the endowment is the annual CrossRoads Retreat. It is a retreat put on by the students of the Campus Center for the students of the Campus Center that is supervised by the Campus Center Chaplain. It is the weekend before Thanksgiving at the Spiritual Life Center, operated by the Capuchin Franciscan Friars, in Victoria. It is an opportunity for students to take some time to deepen their relationship with Christ on a college spiritual and intellectual level.
“I went to CrossRoads my freshman year and have been on the staff for the past two years,” Hannah Heinz, this year’s retreat director, commented concerning her role and history with the retreat. “This retreat means so much to me because of the transformations it brings and the sense of community that it fosters.When students come on this retreat, they truly find a family within the group of retreatants and staff that is united by the same beliefs and shares their desire to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.Having those strong, Christ-centered friendships is crucial to continue growing in holiness and virtue throughout our college years.”
Fr. Fred Gatschet, chaplain of the Campus Center since 2000 observed, “The retreat solidifies the relationship between participants and Christ and His Church. The Campus Center has also seen a number of priestly and religious vocations come out of this retreat as well as some sound and holy Catholic marriages. It is a lot of work and expense to put on, but it is certainly the most worthwhile event we sponsor all year.”
There will be a reception and formal announcement of the gift at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10, at the Comeau Catholic Campus Center, 506 W. 6th St.The public is invited.Bishop Jerry Vincke, recently appointed and ordained as the 12th Bishop of Salina, will also be in attendance. Those interested in making donations to this matching grant should contact Fr. Fred Gatschet at 785 625-7356 or 785 259-6649 or e-mail at [email protected].
Hays campus students receiving scholarships from the NCK TECH Foundation and other benefactors were honored with a reception Oct. 3.
Recipients, in many cases, had the opportunity to meet the scholarship contributors.
Hays campus recipients and their benefactors included:
Bob and Patricia Schmidt Nursing Scholarship
Sarah Carroll
Reaghan Davis
Brandi Fritts
Brandy Grogan
Kayla Hitchcock
Rachael Kuhlman
Jennifer Labes
Mark Pakkebier
Shayna Rogge
Rylie Rowland
Jordan Smaglick
Lindsey Villarreal
Brandon Weigel
Alexander Wilson
Samantha Younie
Megan Zodrow
Dane Hanson Career Enhancement Scholarship
Chloe Beougher, Nursing
Whytney Herrman, Nursing
Jesse Lyle, Electrical Technology
Harold and Eileen Frasier Scholarship
Shaelyn VanLoenen, Tech Studies, Pre-Nursing
Mike and Jeannie Michaelis Scholarship
Austin Miller, Business Technology
Kade Rittenhouse, Electrical Technology
Bob and Patricia Schmidt General Scholarship
Lynnsey Elling, Culinary Arts
Robert and Dorcas Severance Scholarship
Chidinma Oligbo, Associate Degree Nursing
Taylor Travis, Pharmacy Tech
Tyra Younie, Nursing
Hays Medical Center Volunteers Scholarship
Gwendolyn Housely, Nursing
Mark Pakkebier, Associate Degree Nursing
Judy Murphy Memorial Scholarship
Shayna Rogge
NCK TECH’s Endowment Association and Foundation enables the college to provide scholarships, materials, buildings and equipment to train individuals to be successful and productive.
