Space in the First Call For Help building will be renovated for use by a transitional housing program.By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
First Call for Help kicked off a fundraising drive Friday to raise $250,000 to remodel a portion of its building into a transitional housing unit.
First Call is calling the project First Step. It will include creation of a four-bedroom housing unit with a small kitchen/common area, as well as a laundry area. Each room will be able to house up to three people. One of the rooms will be handicap accessible.
The program is designed for women, families and couples living in Hays who are temporarily without permanent housing for a variety of reasons.
First Call hopes to begin construction in August with completion in early 2020. The goal is to raise an initial $250,000 by the end of the year.
“First Step Housing is about providing people a place to live temporarily while they try to get back on their feet, and we want to offer them all the support that we can,” said Linda Mills, First Call for Help executive director.
“If they are having trouble finding a job … if they have trouble budgeting their money, whatever the obstacles have been for them, we want to try to help them work through those. So once they have been there for six months, or earlier if that happens, they will be able to transition into their own place. They would be able to stand on their own two feet by then.”
First Call for Help is trying to raise $250,000 to create a transitional housing unit in its 13th Street building.
Although First Call for Help will continue to aid the transient population that comes through Hays, those individuals will not be eligible for the First Step program, Mills said.
Laura Allen, client service specialist, said she talks to several families a week who are from Hays who don’t have a place to stay.
“There just isn’t anything. If they don’t have a friend to stay with, then they look for a shelter in a different city,” she said. “Some of them don’t want to do that because they have kids here or they have family here or they may have a job here.
“When a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck, they don’t have the money to come up with first month’s rent plus a deposit. Giving them the opportunity to have a place to stay while they work on that really gets them to the longer-term goal of not being homeless again.”
Mills said much of the homelessness in Hays is “found in the seemingly ordinary.”
“You may think they are in their car because they are waiting for someone to come out, but they may be living there,” she said.
Plans for the First Step transitional housing unit calls for four bedrooms that could house up to 12 people. It will also include a kitchen and laundry area.
People who spend time at the library or who sit at a convenience store, may also be homeless, Allen said. Mills added families might also be staying on people’s couches or doubling up with another family.
“I have talked to four people in the last two weeks,” Allen said, “one who needed to get out of his home situation because there was drug use and some physical violence there. He had nowhere to go, and I believe he is still there.
“One who is working on some mental health issues and lost her home, so now she is trying to figure out what she is going to do tomorrow as she goes through that process. Both of them had nowhere else to stay because they were at the mercy of somebody else where they were living.”
The First Step transitional housing program will be located in the First Call for Help building at 607 E. 13th St.
In advance of the capital campaign, First Call for Help has developed an application process as well as policies and procedures for First Step, Mills said.
First Call for Help already works closely with the Job Service Center and will continue to do that with this program. Program officials hope to work with extension to offer participants instruction on grocery shopping and meal planning on a budget, as well. First Step will also help participants apply for assistance programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid if they qualify.
Once the First Step program is established, First Call would like to offer some of these skill-building services to the First Call for Help’s other daily clients.
First Step has been in the works since 2015 and was the result of a strategic planning process, Mills said. Although the community has transitional housing for domestic violence survivors and Oxford House for those experiencing addiction, it does not have transitional housing for those who do not fall into either of those categories.
Mills told the story of a young mom who was temporarily without a permanent home. The family was living in a hotel, and the husband was watching the children while she worked. Her husband left the family. She was in the office talking to Mills about her situation, when school counselor called and said her daughter had been in the counselor’s office very upset and crying because she didn’t know where they were going to spend the night.
“That was kind of hard to hear, because there was not a lot we could do for her,” Mills said.
Mills said First Call can refer families to the Housing Authority, but that agency has a waiting list of up to two years.
The nearest traditional homeless shelter is in Salina. Allen noted members of the transient population will still likely be referred to Salina.
“I think one of the difficulties in rural areas is helping communities to recognize there is an issue with homeless or at high risk of homelessness,” Mills said. “I think that is true not just of Hays, but other rural communities as well. We can see it in the big cities pretty easily. We can drive downtown and you see it, but here not so much.”
Mills said this project will benefit the community as a whole.
“Those people who we are being helped through the short-term housing will be able to contribute to the community,” she said. “They will have a place to live. Their children will have some more stability in their lives. Living with housing instability — kids worry about where they are going to spend the night.”
First Call hopes to raise an additional $250,000 for future expansion.
“We don’t see this necessarily as the end nor the only thing we are going to do,” Mills said, “because we know there is still going to be more need out there. We are only going to be able to serve a small part of the population who needs (help).”
Listeners will be hearing regular messages about First Step Campaign on Eagle Radio of Hays stations through at least Thursday.
You can donate by calling First Call for Help at 785-623-2800, online on First Call for Help’s website or in person at the First Call for Help office, 607 E. 13th. The office is open from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. This week, First Call for Help will also have people available to take donations via phone during the evening.
You can learn more about First Step or First Call for Help by attending informal discussions called Mugs in the Morning form 9 to 11 a.m. Thursdays at the First Call for Help office.
One hundred twelve bicyclists silhouetted against swaying prairie grass and golden ripening wheat rode the back roads of Ellis County Saturday to tour the region’s majestic Volga German chapels.
This is the first year for the Tour De Kapellen, which is German for Tour of Chapels.
Cyclists could choose from anywhere from a one-mile fun ride in the city of Hays to a 100-mile tour that took the cyclists to six historic churches in the area. The stops included St. Catherine Church in Catherine, St. Fidelis Church, Basilica of the Plains in Victoria, Holy Cross Church in Pfeifer, St. Francis Church in Munjor, and the Antonino and Schoenchen churches.
The first four stops included tours and live music. The Antonino and Schoenchen stops on the 100-mile route were self-guided.
The 785 Jeep Club volunteered as SAG vehicles and the Downtown Hays Development Corp. offered a German meal at the Union Pacific Plaza Pavilion at the end of the ride.
Most of the churches on the route were built in the early 1900s.
St. Fidelis Church, Basilica of the Plains
Ivan Werner, St. Fidelis tour guide, said besides family, religion was the most important aspect of the Volga German settlers’ lives. This is reflected in the love, care and great expense that was lavished on the settlers’ churches.
Construction on St. Fidelis was begun in 1904 and finished in 1911. It was the fourth church that was constructed in the community since its settling in 1876.
Not only did the parishioners want a church that was beautiful, Werner said, but they wanted something large enough to hold all of their parishioners at one time. The four-story limestone chapel holds 1,100 people.
The towering, colorful 48 stained glass windows, including the iconic circular window at the front of the church, came from the Munich Stained Glass Co. No cranes were available at the early date of the church’s construction so the windows were installed by hand using scaffolding.
The chapel’s columns are Vermont granite. The builders rigged an old thresher and with the effort of 41 men pushing and pulling hauled each of the columns, which weigh 4 to 5 tons each, to the church site. The bases of the columns and carved capitals are Bedford limestone from Indiana. The carvers name has been lost to history, but church records indicate each capital took a month to carve and the carver required in payment a pint of the priest’s good whiskey at the conclusion of each work day.
The main altar is made from Italian marble from the same quarry from which came stone for some of Micheal Angelo great sculptures. The marble was given to the church from the parishioners in 1986 on the church’s 75th anniversary.
Austrian wood carvings depicting the stations of the cross hang on the walls of the church. The original inscriptions on the carvings were in German, but were later changed to English.
The original cost of the construction was estimated at $85,000 to $100,000. Today the church’s stained-glass windows alone are valued at $1 million for insurance purposes.
Holy Cross Church
Holy Cross Church in Pfeifer was built in 1918.
The altar at Holy Cross was hand-carved from crates, which was the only material the parishioners had at the time. The mosaic on the front of the church was created by a Venetian artist and was paid for with the parish children’s pennies. It depicts the Judgment Day. The scroll in the angel’s hand reads in Latin “Behold the Light of the World.”
The church is still maintained by a non-profit organization, but has not had a parish or regular services since 1993 when the parish was closed because it had dwindled to 40 people.
The church today hosts weddings and funerals and an annual mass in September. The church is maintained through the gracious donations of patrons like Carol Billinger, who can’t bear to see the majestic building deteriorate.
“There is so much history in this building. It is not because we love it or we grew up here, this has to be saved,” she said.
The non-profit’s next big challenge is replacing the chapel’s roof.
St. Francis Church
St. Francis Church in Munjor was built in 1889, founded by Capuchin priests.
The church was destroyed by fire in 1932. Although the majority of the church was rebuilt, the parish never had the funds to replace the steeple after the fire.
Today the church is home to 90 families and has mass three times per week, said Lilly Binder, St. Francis pastoral associate
Like St. Fidelis, the walls of the church feature the stations of the cross, but in paintings instead of carving. The painting here are inscribed with the original German.
When the church burned in 1932, the sisters were alerted to the fire when children from the nearby school who were playing at recess saw smoke coming from the chapel. The statues, stations of the cross and original pews were saved from the burning structure.
The limestone for the church was all quarried locally, with local farmers bringing in loads for the construction.
“That was their contribution to help build the church back in the day,” Binder said.
The names of the families who donated funds for each of the stained-glass windows are still there along with the names of the saints the windows depict.
“We are blessed to be living in this remote area and have such a beautiful church that we have out here and we are still able to have mass and to have it open,” Binder said.
Although some of the cyclists said they had lived in Hays for years, several said they had never been inside the churches on the tour.
“It’s been a beautiful day, and the churches are just gorgeous and the music is totally awesome,” said Shelly Schmidt from Hays.
She and her friend Lori Pennock of Medicine Lodge at the Pfeifer SAG stop said they were considering going the full 100 miles.
“I ride with the Friends here in Hays, so it was a great opportunity to see all of the churches,” Pennock said of her visit to Ellis County.
Patty Wolf retired last week after working for 35 years for the Hays Municipal Court. Photo courtesy of Hays PD.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Most people are not in the best of moods when they meet Patty Wolf for the first time.
They are usually paying a fine or facing the challenge of a legal matter.
But for 35 years, Wolf has met that challenge with kindness and grace, as she served the Hays Municipal Court.
Wolf, 62, retired from her clerk position last week.
Wolf said she really enjoyed being able to help people better understand the court and their options. The clerk is one of the first people in the court system people deal with. She said being able to help people was her biggest reward from her job.
“Sometimes people get in a position and they don’t know they have options available to them,” she said. “While we can never give advice, [we can] explain options to people to let them know there are other ways to possibly remedy their situation. It was gratifying being able to help individuals.”
In 1984, Wolf had been recently laid off, when she heard there was a position open with the city. She was initially assigned to work as the the Hays PD secretary before being transferred nine months later to the municipal court.
“The city is a great organization to work for,” she said. “They take care of their employees, have great benefits and it was just a fit for me.”
She said she has dealt with some diverse cases over the years, but said she did not want to relate specifics for fear of embarrassing anyone involved. However, she said it did keep her job interesting over the years.
“I really enjoyed working with the patrol,” Wolf said. “They are an amazing group of dedicated, courageous young men and women. I watched as their families made sacrifices to protect me and this community, and I am grateful for their service.
“I have also made a lot of friends along the way,” she added. “There are some great people who work throughout the city of Hays — staff at city hall, our IT department, animal control, dispatch, so I had a lot of contact with them, as well as our judges and prosecutors, attorneys I have met along the way as well and worked with.”
As a clerk of the court, she collected money for tickets, dealt with attorneys and created reports for the court.
Wolf said the biggest change at the court in the last 35 years has been the introduction of technology.
When Wolf started working at the court in the ’80s, the court had hand-written ledgers. The court would eventually make the transition to computers and a large amount of data had to be entered to get that system off the ground.
Now that she is retired, Wolf plans to travel, spend more time with her grandchildren and her mom, go fishing and volunteer.
“I truly enjoyed my work at the city and everyone I worked with — the ladies in the office,” she said. “It was a great work environment. It was like a family there. Everyone was very supportive. That I will truly miss, but I’m on to my next adventure. ”
Hays teen Sophia Linenberger was visited by multiple stars during a recent stay at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Sophia is undergoing treatment for a rare form of cancer. Courtesy photo
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
A Hays teen got a break last week from the rigors of cancer treatment when a group of celebrities visited her at Children’s Mercy Hospital.
Sophia Linenberger’s visit included an interview with Al Roker that appeared on the “Today” show on June 10. She was also visited by Selena Gomez, Adam Scott, Paul Rudd and Zachary Levi among others.
Levi, who voiced the character Flynn Rider in the movie “Tangled,” serenaded Sophia and the stars with a song from the movie. Levi’s serenade featuring Sophia also appeared on “Entertainment Tonight.”
Hays teen Sophia Linenberger with Selena Gomez during the Big Slick at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Courtesy photo
The star treatment was all a part of a fundraising effort by Children’s Mercy called the Big Slick. This year was the 10th anniversary of the Big Slick. Children Mercy set a goal to conclude the event with $10 million raised over the 10 years of the event. The hospital was able to raise $2.5 million just this year, pushing it past the $10 million goal.
Jenny Linenberger, Sophia’s mother, spoke for her daughter and said the visit was a break from all Sophia has been through during her recent cancer treatment.
“It took her mind off of the cancer. … It took her mind off of the chemotherapy. It took her mind off of the radiation. It took her mind off of the whole Ewing’s Sarcoma cancer and the whole thing for just a little bit, and that meant a lot to her,” Jenny said.
Sophia, 15, a soon-to-be sophomore at Thomas More Prep-Marian, has a rare form of cancer — Ewing’s Sarcoma. Less than 1,000 people per year are diagnosed with this type. The cancer grows in bones or in soft tissue around bones. Sophia’s cancer started in her spine and her mother said it spread like “bind weed.”
Sophia has had two surgeries, just completed six weeks of radiation and is well into an eight-and-a-half-month course of chemotherapy.
Sophia Linenberger, her sister Holly and actor Paul Rudd at the Big Slick at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Courtesy photo
The family drives back and forth to Kansas City for treatments that take between one to six days. Although she was home Wednesday, Sophia’s last trip to K.C. this week was via ambulance.
Jenny said seeing the stars rally around her daughter also meant much to her personally.
“There are times where Sophia will say, ‘I wish I could be normal. I wish I could do stuff with my friends. I wish I could go swimming … do summer things,’ ” Jenny said.
“She gets kind of frustrated at that because she can’t do the things that kids do because she is on a walker and needs a wheelchair for distance. For them to do what they did meant a lot to me — to just let my kid to be a kid again — just to see her smile, the face beam up.
“She said she felt normal again, and that was gratifying to me. It was wonderful. She always has a smile on her face, but to actually see her be a kid again, a teenager, it meant a lot.”
Children’s Mercy has been integral in Sophia’s care, her mother said, but not just in the treatment of her cancer. The staff care for her as a whole person. The hospital has child life specialists who organizes activities for the children while they are in the hospital. The hospital also has a therapy dog named Hunter. When Sophia can’t leave her room, someone comes to her sometimes just to talk.
“Children’s Mercy has been like a dream to me, because without them, I don’t know where we would be,” Jenny said.
Zachary Levi, who voiced the character Flynn Rider in the movie “Tangled” serenaded Sophia and other stars with a song from the movie. Courtesy photo
Unfortunately, Sophia’s illness is not all the family is dealing with. Jenny’s husband ended up in the ER five weeks ago and has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
“My life is pretty full,” Jenny said.
However, Jenny said she and the whole family have been very thankful for the community’s support during Sophia’s illness.
Anthony and the Animals had a benefit concert in Hays for Sophia, and TMP and Holy Family have also spearheaded fundraisers for the family.
“We have had a lot of prayer from the community, and we are grateful, believe me,” she said.
Hays teen Sophia Linenberger and her sister Holly with Selena Gomez and Eric Stonestreet during the Big Slick at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Courtesy photo
A petition for judicial review has been filed as the first part of the regulatory phase is wrapping up for transferring water from the R9 Ranch in Edwards County to Hays.
The ranch is owned by the cities of Hays and Russell to be used as long term water source, which may also be made available to Ellis, Victoria and La Crosse.
A final master order was issued March 27 by David Barfield, chief engineer at the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources (DWR), approving change applications by Hays and Russell to convert the irrigation rights of the R9 Ranch to municipal use for the cities.
There are two checks in that process.
Due to the quantity of water and the distance it will be transported for its new use, the project also requires approval under the state’s Water Transfer Act. Now that the changes have been approved, the water transfer proceeding will be initiated to determine whether it is in the state’s overall best interest to allow the transfer of the water.
“Entities could petition the secretary of agriculture for a review of the order. There was (such) a petition and the secretary declined declined to review the order, and stated the order was fine,” Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty told city commissioners Thursday night.
The last opportunity for an intervention by an outside party is to petition for a judicial review.
A group called WaterPACK, the Water Protection Association of Central Kansas, has filed a petition for judicial review with the court in Edwards County.
“They’re really our only opposition in this entire project,” noted Dougherty. “Essentially what the petition said is that (they) don’t agree with the chief engineer’s findings on the master order.
“They rehashed all the arguments they brought up as the master order was being drafted to which the chief engineer pointed out they weren’t relevant to the situation. There was no new information introduced.”
DWR is in the process of filing its response to WaterPACK. The Division of Water Resources, through their agriculture department attorney, is filing their answer to the petition on June 28.
“I believe, on that same day, it’s our attorney’s intention to file a motion to intervene on behalf of Hays. There will also be one filed on behalf of the city of Russell. Once those motions are filed, we are tied into the case,” Dougherty explained to the commissioners, “becoming a party to the case, as is WaterPACK and as is the Division of Water Resources.”
Dougherty does not know what the court proceedings schedule will be. “That will be up to the judge to determine what the procedure is to be going forward, or whether something might get dismissed.
“We do fully intend to be tied to this case,” he emphasized.
R9 Ranch, Edwards County
By state law, once the Final Master Order is issued, the Water Transfer Act is triggered, which has never happened in Kansas.
The act still requires approval within 18 months from a three-person panel consisting of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary or the KDHE Director of the Division of Environment, the head of the Kansas Water Office, and the chief engineer of the KDA/DWR. The state agriculture department oversees the Division of Water Resources.
Updated public information is available on the KDA–DWR website dedicated to the project — agriculture.ks.gov/HaysR9.
The Guzman family outside of their new home on 19th Street in Hays.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Irene Guzman smiled for pictures with her children and grandchildren gathered around her on the front porch of her new home Wednesday.
But it was only six months ago she and her large family were living in what the family referred to as the “tin can” — a singlewide trailer where no one in the family felt safe.
Guzman, 53, and her family were visited Wednesday by USDA Rural Development State Director Lynn Hinrichsen to celebrate National Home Ownership Month.
“In 2018, USDA Rural Development assisted 1,426 individuals in purchasing a home in rural Kansas communities,” Hinrichsen said in a news release. “Homeownership helps build strong rural communities throughout the state.”
Guzman said she would not have been able to purchase her family’s five-bedroom home on 19th Street without the help of Rural Development.
Living in the tin can
The family of seven was living in a three-bedroom trailer. Guzman said it was difficult to squeeze everyone into the space, and there was little privacy.
Irene Guzman in the living room of her new home. The family moved into the home in December.
Not only was the tin can cramped, but several incidents led the Guzmans to feel increasingly unsafe.
Guzman and her husband lived in the trailer park for 18 years. They went on vacation, and when they returned they found a bullet hole in the trailer. That is when they thought they needed to start looking for a new home.
Irene said things got worse after the recent passing of her husband. Her daughter heard some racket outside about 2 a.m. one morning. Guzman said she thought it might just be a stray dog, but the next morning they discovered their car tires and a garden hose slashed.
“They slashed our tire and left the knife they used in our car,” she said.
Guzman reported the incident, but police were not able to apprehend the perpetrator.
About a week later, the Guzman’s tools were stolen.
Looking for a home
Guzman, now a single mom and grandmother with custody of two of her grandchildren, said the family struggled to find a suitable home and the financing to pay for that home in Hays.
Guzman works as an interpreter for the Hispanic ministry at the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Hays. Neither she or her husband before his passing made much money for their family size nor did they have high credit scores.
“The banks wouldn’t be able to help us, because it was just extremely too much money — the payments,” she said.
They were hoping to find a house to rent to own, but were coming up empty. The Guzmans then turned to Habitat for Humanity, but that organization only had a home available in Victoria at the time.
Irene Guzman and here family with her real estate agent and representatives of USDA Rural Development.
Guzman sometimes works on an on-call basis for her job and all the children were enrolled in either Holy Family or Thomas More Prep-Marian in Hays. She said she did not feel it would be practical to live outside of Hays at the time.
Rural Development explained to Irene finding a home in Hays would be more difficult than Victoria because of the higher prices.
“We searched and looked, and they worked with me,” Guzman said of Rural Development. “They helped me a lot. … When we finally got it done, oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe it.”
She said she did not think she would have ever been a homeowner without Rural Development’s help.
“They moved a lot of things around to make this possible for me,” she said.
A new home, a new life
Guzman said she could see a change in her youngest daughter, who is 13, when they moved out of the tin can. Before she said she was reluctant to bring friends home. Now she welcomes friends into their new house.
“I think having this is bigger and more privacy,” she said, “because she has her own room to invite her friends and they are able to hang out.”
The family has a fenced yard where the younger children can play, a garden and two new puppies.
USDA Rural Development State Director Lynne Hinrichsen presents Hays homeowner Irene Guzman with a certificate Wednesday morning.
Guzman had been dreaming of a home for years. She had large framed pictures stored away in closets that could no way fit on the walls of the tiny tin can, but she knew some day she would have home with walls on which to hang that artwork. Today, they are a proud part of the decor in her new home.
“I accumulated quite a bit. They said, ‘Get rid of it. Get rid of it,’ but I said one day. … one day and finally it came true,” she said.
Her family also teased her, saying she could become a cat lady now that she had more space. A caretaker at heart, Guzman has filled her bright living room with plants of all sizes and colors instead.
The new space has brought the family together and in some ways pushed it apart.
In addition to a very full household of children and grandchildren, Guzman has older children and extended family who come home for holidays. Guzman loves to cook and now has a kitchen with two ovens and a dining area big enough to gather everyone for big family diners.
“I can put in a turkey and a ham,” she said of the ovens.
One of the children said he used to climb under a card table to find a spot to sit during those big family gatherings in the tin can.
Irene closed on her house on Dec. 17, so the family was able to enjoy Christmas in the new home. They also had a large family celebration on Easter.
However, Guzman said after living in such cramped quarters for so long, the larger house almost seems a little lonely.
“Sometimes I just get a little lonely, because they are all in their secluded spaces,” she said. “Before, they ran into each other every time they were going to the kitchen or I always saw traffic. Now there is not a lot of traffic.”
The family’s closing was on day of the Feast for the Lady Guadalupe. Guzman had hoped to schedule the closing on another day because she was supposed to help with the feast at the church that day, but everything fell in to place on feast day. She said it must have been what the Lady wanted.
“I thank God,” she said. “I thank God that He took us out of the situation that we were in and He helped us through Rural Development to come here. It took a lot of prayers. I feel like He answered our prayers. We are here, and it’s a wonderful house.”
Rural development celebrates home ownership
USDA Single Family Housing programs have served more than 4.4 million families in rural America since President Truman signed the Housing Act in 1949. Throughout June, USDA employees will celebrate National Homeownership Month with events across the nation that demonstrate USDA’s commitment to provide access to affordable housing for rural Americans.
Rural Development has several programs that support rural homeownership, including:
USDA partnerships with private-sector lenders to help rural families buy homes. Providing loan guarantees for lenders working with low- to moderate-income families is the key to opening up private-sector homeownership opportunities.
Direct home loans for very-low- and low-income applicants. Some borrowers qualify for program benefits that effectively reduce the interest rate on their monthly mortgage payments to 1%.
Repair loans and grants that help people improve access to their homes and remove health and safety hazards such as poor wiring or plumbing.
Mutual Self-Help Housing Technical Assistance grants are available to nonprofit organizations to help very-low- and low-income families build their own rural homes.
To learn more about USDA’s housing programs in Kansas, email [email protected] or call 785-271-2700.
Brenda Meder, Hays Arts Council executive director, hangs a Cally Krallman painting for the “Waterways & Byways of the Prairie” exhibit that will start Friday at the HAC.
The Hays Arts Council will feature two exhibits by Topeka artist Cally Krallman during the Summer Art Walk, which will be 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday.
“Waterways & Byways of the Prairie” will be featured in the main gallery with “Along the Santa Fe Trail” in the Founder’s Gallery through Aug. 10. Krallman works primarily in oil and acrylic.
“It is all these incredible prairie scenes from different parts of the state,” Brenda Meder, HAC executive director, said of “Waterways & Byways of the Prairie.” “They are not of one particular place or representing one particular moment on the Kansas prairie or representing one particular season.”
For “Along the Santa Fe Trail,” Krallman visited locations along the historic Santa Fe Trail, including locations in Kansas. She created paintings depicting how those places look today. Visitors will be able to locate the scenes on a trail map that will be displayed with the exhibit.
Cally Krallman painting for the “Along the Santa Fe Trail” exhibit
Brief descriptions of the locations and their history associated with the trail will accompany the paintings as well.
The Santa Fe Trail was founded in 1822 and was an important north/south trade route between Franklin, Mo., and what would become Santa Fe, N.M. The trail came nearest to this area at Larned.
Visitors to the exhibit can see the topography change as they move from one painting to the next.
“If people want to take the time, they can follow that line. They can literally walk the Santa Fe Trail through the art in this room,” Meder said.
Cally Krallman painting for the “Along the Santa Fe Trail” exhibit
Brian Hutchinson, a member of the FHSU art faculty, guided an alternative-methods printmaking workshop this summer. Prints from that class will be on display in the Hays Arts Center Annex, 1010 Main St. Hutchinson also taught FHSU Secondary Art Education students this spring who worked with Hays High School students to create an installation project that will be in the annex.
Also in the annex will be photographs from the 16 HAC Summer Youth Photography class students and paintings and photography by Bruce Burkholder.
Although the spring and fall art walks are usually twice as large as the summer walk, Meder said the Summer Art Walk is still worth the time.
“Even though there are just 13 sites … it is the most delightful array of things to see and do — all focused on creativity, originality and the arts and design, but probably one of the most diverse and unique collectively that we have ever had,” she said.
Cally Krallman painting for the “Waterways & Byways of the Prairie” exhibit
John Makings, a psychotherapist from Great Bend, will bring his handcrafted drums for an impromptu drum circle at the Union Pacific Park and Pavilion. He is not a music therapist, but has used music therapy in his work.
“Drum circles are a very wonderful, creative, inclusionary kind of experience and something that is fun to engage in because of the simple rhythms and how [easy] it is to do. Music therapy is a wonderful,” Meder said. “So children or adults come and look at John’s drums and bang around a little bit and engage in a drum circle experience, but it is not something formal. It is not a concert. It is an interactive engagement experience in a collective community drum circle.”
Frank Werth will have Elvis Presley replica costumes on display at Couture for Men, 1111 Main.
“He is bringing in an array of his outfits, which are reproductions down to details of Elvis Presley costumes,” Meder said. “Costume design is an incredible art form whether it is for theater or movies or various stage shows.”
Mary Kay Schippers will be at Regeena’s, 1013 Main, to sign copies of her book, “A Year on the Family Farm.”
“I love it when we can incorporate the literary arts in some capacity,” Meder said. “We do recognize it as an awesome art form. The literary arts, the performing arts, the visual arts — they are all central to who and what the arts represent in our community.”
Cally Krallman painting for the “Waterways & Byways of the Prairie” exhibit
The Hays Community Theatre will feature five different artists (see the complete schedule below) as well as mermaid face painting by Alexandra Herrman to promote the HCT’s summer performances of “The Little Mermaid.” Meder described it as a mini art walk of its own.
eyeSMILE Vision and Dental, 1300 Main, will be a stop on the walk for the first time this summer. Visitors will be able to get a glimpse of the renovations that have been completed to that historic downtown Hays building that was once a service station.
The art walk will be extended into Saturday with a Summer Polka Party from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hays Public Library. The Hot Shots polka band will play followed by the showing of the documentary “Herman Dinges: Colorado’s King of Christmas and Polka.” Dinges is originally from Schoenchen.
“He was also incredibly well known in Denver for his incredible, huge Christmas displays,” Meder said. “Before there was a Clark Griswold and ‘Christmas Vacation,’ there was Herman Dinges, and he is very proud of that.”
The company that the Hays school district contracted with to purchase the former Washington school building will not be able to purchase the building at this time, the Hays school board learned at its meeting Monday night.
Overland Property Group did not receive the tax credits for its project therefore it will not be able to move forward with its plans to renovate the building into low-income apartments.
However, the developers received a letter from the state official in charge of the program urging the developers to reapply for the program in 2020.
Matt Gillam, vice president of Development for Overland Park Group, said based on that letter and the high scoring the property received in its application, he believes the group has a good possibility of receiving tax credits for the property next year.
Overland Property Group has the property under contract until December.
Gillam said the district could opt to extend the contract, terminate the contract or reenter a contract with Overland Park Group at a later date.
The board took no action on the contract Monday night. Gillam said the board could take some time to consider its options. He said he does not need a decision immediately.
Gillam noted his company has already spent $30,000 on the project and is still very serious about pursing the tax credits for the project.
USD 489 plans to vacate Washington school in August when it moves its Early Childhood Connections program to the newly renovated Oak Park Complex.
Oak Park Complex
The completion of the renovations for the Oak Park Complex are on schedule, according to representatives of Nabholz and Paul-Wertenberger Construction.
Three of the four buildings should be complete by Aug. 2 when the district is planning an open house in conjunction with the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce. Building three should be done a little later in August.
The district is planning two moves into the new buildings. One will be the equipment and supplies from Washington school in about the third week in July. The move from Munjor will happen in August when building three is completed.
Play equipment from Munjor and Washington will also be moved to Oak Park in the coming weeks.
The board did not vote on a new name for the complex at its meeting Monday. Superintendent John Thissen presented a list of names to board that were submitted by members of the community. Thissen said he left off suggestion that included specific people’s names as the Kansas Association of School Boards recommends school districts not use specific people’s names for school buildings.
Thissen said the reasoning is the names may be political or not well known to the general public.
Greg Schwartz made a motion that the full list, including names that include specific people’s names, come back to the board at its next meeting. The administration will also bring its five recommendations of names from the community list to that meeting.
The board also voted to dissolve the Oak Park Condominium Association. The association is no longer needed because the school district now owns all of the property.
Once the condominium association is dissolved, the board gave Board Attorney Bill Jeter the authority to apply for tax exempt status for the property.
Andrea and Nick Felder with their children, Rowen, Rhett and Remmi are pictured at the intersection of 22nd and Wheatland where they are working to build a new child care center that is scheduled to open in January next year.
By JAMES BELL Hays Post
Former Hays residents Nick and Andrea Felder wanted their young children to have the same childhood they did growing up around Hays so, after some planning, they developed the idea to open and run a child care center in the city.
Now that plan is in action.
The Bright Minds Academy will be located at the intersection of 22nd and Wheatland, with the over 4,000 square feet facility expected to open in January of next year.
The center will have the room for up to 55 children from as young as two weeks old up to six years old.
“Right now, plans have been submitted to the city,” Andrea said. “So we are waiting for approval from them to start building,”
Construction is currently planned to be completed by early December.
The building will start with four rooms — an infant room named Beaming Babies, a room for children 1-2 years old, named Cosmic Kids, a room for children 2-3 years-old, named Twinkling Tots, and for the older children a room named Shining Scholars.
Originally they hoped the center would be open near the end of this summer, but were delayed during the permitting process with the city.
“They didn’t make it too painful. It was just submitting the requests,” Nick said. “It’s a three-meeting process, and they only meet once a month.”
They were further delayed after having to restart the process after the second plot of land was purchased to accommodate required parking.
“They have helped us out a lot,” Nick said. “They definitely went the extra mile on just about everything without any prompting from us, they were all over it.”
Nick said Pray found the location that perfectly fit their plans.
“We wanted something on this side of town,” Andrea said.
“The family area is here,” Nick said.”The other center is on the other side of town, so it’s nice to have the balance there for people to have two different options, not right in the same place to take their kids too.”
A labor of love
“After we had kids, we thought it would be so nice if they could be around their grandparents all the time and it just worked out perfectly that we are from the area and can be by both families why wouldn’t we want to come back,” Andrea said. “We want to give our kids the same upbringing that we had.”
Andrea grew up in Victoria and Nick was raised on a farm near Cedar Bluff, later attending Thomas More Prep-Marion, 1701 Hall St.
The academy not only allows the Felders to be closer to their extended family, but they also hope it will be a boon for the area and hope to partner with other business in the area in the future to provide child care to as an employee benefit.
“We are all in on this project,” Andrea said. “This is important to us, just from a personal standpoint, to provide care for people that need it because it is hard to find good quality care, so it’s become our personal mission to do as much as we can.”
In Topeka, both Nick and Andrea worked for Blue Cross, and while Andrea is still in her position, Nick is working in the Topeka daycare their children go to in order to fulfill a six-month experience requirement by the state to open their center.
“I used to take them to daycare and drop them off and go back to my job, now I just stay there,” Nick said.
“I didn’t know what to expect starting out, but it has definitely solidified the decision for me,” he said. “It’s made me more passionate about it.”
Andrea has an accounting background and Nick has an industrial engineering background.
Both have completed Masters’ of Business Administration degrees and see early education as a cornerstone of academic success.
“All of the programs will be education based,” Nick said. “That’s what our kids get and we see how much they are learning.”
Faith-based learning is also something the Felders’ believe strongly in and plan to incorporate that in their center.
“We are going to touch on Christian based faith as well,” Andrea said. “We think that is important.”
“Nobody is going to be forced to say anything, but it’s nice to participate if that is their background.”
Nick added, their goal is not to push religion, but rather to share with children the midwestern morals and values they grew up with.
Daycare vs. child care centers
While there are daycare centers peppered throughout the city, the Bright Minds academy will be classified as a child care center — only the second to be opened in Hays, the other being the Hays Area Children’s Center, 94 Lewis Dr.
“The regulations between a child care center and a daycare are completely different,” Andrea said. “You are getting a lot of different types of care at a center.”
“We are held to a little bit higher expectations as far as curriculum and education,” Nick said.
The staff to child ratio is also typically a lot lower in a child care center.
“Your child is getting more supervision, one teacher is not watching as many children in a center,” Andrea said.
The academy will also have a full day preschool.
“That’s kind of rare,” Andrea said.
While the academy will be open year-round, they plan to follow a typical nine-month school calendar for the preschool.
During the summer months, Nick said the learning will be a little less formalized, with a focus on exploration play, rather than curriculum.
Every staff member will be required to do safety training, including safe sleep practices, emergency preparedness, food handling.
“There are a lot of things that are common sense, when you go through those trainings, but there is also a lot of things that you haven’t thought about in a long time, or you didn’t know that exact way you are supposed to do it, so it irons out a lot of those details for people that might not be 100 percent confident in some of those things,” Nick said.
The center will also incorporate a live video feed parents can access at any time, something the Felders’ appreciate at their children’s current facility along with secure access.
“It provides extra piece of mind,” Nick said.
They will also utilize an app that will give daily tracking information, including naps, food, diapers, and educational activities.
As a full day child care center they plan to offer two snacks and a meal daily on a five-week rotating schedule.
They will prepare meals on site, with the goal of the programs director handling meals an experience Nick has received during his training.
The academy is currently accepting applications for staff as well as children, although infant spots are already full.
Applications can be sent via email with the address located on their facebook page.
“It’s all organic so far,” Nick said, “We sent up a backend end sales phone number for people to learn more about our facility and secure a spot by making a one-week deposit that will be credit back to their care once they start.”
As they prepare to open they will also be taking donations of any lightly used toys.
“The more stuff we can get from parents that don’t want it anymore…that’s just more we can provide to the kids sooner,” Nick said.
Rupp was the manager of the spa and took over ownership of the business in May. The spa remains in the same location.
“I have been in the industry for 13 years now, and I come from a long line of business owners, and it just felt natural to me,” she said of taking over the spa. “It just felt like it was what I was meant to do.”
The spa has added several new services and products under Rupp.
Body + Soul Day and Med Spa now offers gel dip nails.
The spa is just finishing a new blow-dry bar and has begun offering a new gel overlay nail service. The spa also has a new shampoo station, which will give the business more options in terms of hair styles.
The spa offers make up and hair styling for special events, including weddings, prom and family photos, among other occasions.
The spa also offers massage, manicures and pedicures, and facials, as well as med spa services, including PRP facials, injectables, permanent makeup and laser hair removal.
PRP facials entails a blood draw and are performed by a doctor. The PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma, which is used to stimulate healing with your own cells.
Rupp said it helps stimulate collagen production and is great for fine lines, wrinkles, acne scarring and pigmentation issues.
Body + Soul Day and Med Spa is located at 107 W. 15th St. Hays. The spa is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.
“One of the things that I want to focus on is being able to offer a completely unique guest experience when they come here and just offer them a wonderful service and make people feel welcome and pampered really,” Rupp said.
Rupp said she thinks her customers’ entire guest experience makes the Body + Soul stand out among other spas and salons in Hays.
“Everything from from when they walk in the door to their service to when they leave,” she said. “Having people feel better when they leave than when they walk in is one of the main things we always talk about.”
New product lines include FarmHouse Fresh skincare products, as well as Kevin Murphy haircare products.
Rupp said she has tried to focus on selling products whose companies give back to their communities and are environmentally friendly. Many of the products Rupp carries are also cruelty free or organic.
Rupp, 32, is a licensed cosmetologist and has her international skin therapy license. She has an associate’s degree in business.
Body + Soul has 13 employees and is a member of Downtown Hays Development Corp. The spa is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Learn more by calling (785) 639-1873.
Rupp encouraged anyone who has visited Body + Soul before to visit again.
“I am excited to for us to bring new services to Hays to offer people experience they can’t get every other place here in town becuase I know we are not the only place that offers these services,” Rupp said.
After only 10 weeks since announcing a new Hays location, Harbor Freight construction is progressing at Big Creek Crossing, 2918 Vine, as the retailer prepares to open in Hays on July 31.
Construction is expected to be completed by July 15, giving the retailer time to install interior fixtures and place merchandise, according to James Younger, BCC property manager.
“These guys do not mess around,” he said, adding they arrived to get a jump-start on construction working in empty locations on the property three days earlier than anticipated.
Harbor Freight is also currently accepting applications for employment, which can be found at harborfreightjobs.com.
Younger said they expected to hire 18 people for the store.
While Harbor Freight construction continues, the new bathrooms for the facility are in progress as well.
“We are estimating the end of June or the first part of July for the restrooms to be open,” Younger said, noting they are cautiously optimistic about that time frame.
“Any time you take on a significant amount of construction on your property, there is always small foibles or shipping delays, things of that nature,” Younger said.
Despite the hassles of construction, Younger glad the shopping center is seeing continued development.
“We are definitely excited about that, updating our facilities for our customers is a big deal,” Younger
In third grade, Hays native Chuck Schmidt turned in a writing assignment and the teacher was so impressed he was told he could be an author someday.
After 33 years in education working as a teacher, coach, principal and superintendent, that day has finally come.
Schmidt recently published his first book “Tales from School: You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up!” and is currently promoting his work that shares his experiences in the classroom and as an administrator.
“This book has been a real labor of love,” Schmidt said. “I have been thinking about writing a book about my experiences for a long time, but never had the time to do it until I finally retired.”
The book is a chronological narrative recounting of many of his experiences throughout his career.
“I have had so many tremendous experiences good, bad, indifferent, funny, sad, tragic, whatever, I thought I ought to record this,” he said.
Schmidt hopes the book will be helpful to teachers and administrators entering the field of education.
“A lot of stories that I think would be really helpful to new teachers and new administrators, to see the things that I ran into and how I handled them,” Schmidt said. “Sometimes they can learn from my mistakes, and sometimes they can learn from my successes.”
While the book recounts stories from Schmidt’s career, he said it is not about him, but rather what he has learned over the years.
“It is not necessarily an account about my career, but it takes the experiences I have had in all of the different positions I have been in in education and then talks about the stories and experiences and some of the lessons you can get in that,” Schmidt said. “A lot of it is stories about some of what I see as successes where I might have contributed, some places where I have made mistakes and things did not turn out so well.”
Schmidt
The book runs the gamut of his career, covering his time as a coach, extracurricular activities, humorous recollections of interactions with students, challenging students, and his time returning as a sixth-grade social studies teacher after years of serving as a superintendent.
“I spent my last 14 years as a superintendent in two different places, and then after I retired as superintendent my successor called me in August and said, ‘Hey would you teach sixth-grade social studies because we can’t find a teacher?’ ” Schmidt said.
So he returned to the classroom after 22 years.
“It was at the same time, a terrifying and a gratifying and a heartwarming experience all at the same time.”
Returning to the classroom allowed Schmidt to compare teaching from the beginning of his career in 1972 to today, giving him valuable insights into how much has changed in the classroom.
Despite changes in technology, funding and administration, Schmidt said the importance of relationships with students remains crucial.
“In order to be a successful teacher or administrator, you have got to establish relationships with kids, you have got to show them that you care,” he said. “I think what I have seen in my career is that is even more important now.
“I think kids are smarter today than when I first started teaching, but they don’t know what to do with it because they don’t get as much guidance,” Schmidt said, noting several tough situations he observed with his students in recent years.
“That’s where a teacher becomes even more crucial today.”
Amazon publishing platform gives Schmidt outlet to share experiences
As any author knows, writing a book is only the first step in a long process of getting it into readers’ hands.
Schmidt shopped his manuscript around before deciding to self-publish on the Amazon publishing platform.
“They have a pretty good process,” he said.
But before you get to that point you have to have an editor, he said, and he found one for his book using an online service that connected him with a professor of English at Southern Arkansas University.
Layout and design of the cover was completed with the help of a Wichita cover artist who Schmidt met during a panel on self-publishing.
The artist had some help, though, as Schmidt’s 12-year-old granddaughter mocked up the cover idea that the artist used to make the final cover.
“It’s her concept,” Schmidt said.
With the book ready, Schmidt is now working on getting the word out and hoping new or future educators can value his insights from 33 years of education.
He has already hosted book-signing events in Independence and Topeka and was featured in the Topeka Capital-Journal.
He is also pushing the book through social media and in areas where he taught, with a Hays event to be scheduled soon.
Schmidt said he is also contacting schools of education in Kansas, with the hope that future educators may read it and use his stories as they embark on their own careers.
While completing his bachelor’s degree in secondary education at the University of Kansas in 1972, Schmidt said he remembers a first-hand experience of a teacher and found it to be more helpful than any textbook and hopes his book may be as helpful to new educators.
Time at Thomas More Prep-Marian shapes life in education
Schmidt credits much of his success, and the success of many others to Thomas More Prep-Marian, 1701 Hall.
“I had some great teachers, both in grade school and at Thomas More, which was St. Joseph’s Military Academy at the time,” Schmidt said.
One teacher stuck out to Schmidt as having a particular impact on his life and career; freshman English teacher James Traffas.
“He opened my mind,” Schmidt said. “I was just a farm kid from western Kansas at he started us reading Great Expectations and we read the Bronte sisters books and all of that stuff which was completely foreign to the life I had.”
“It opened my eyes and mind to the world.”
His class sparked Schmidt’s interest in education, but in general, he credits TMP with creating many notable alumni.
He noted several school superintendents attended the school as did former Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, author and journalist John L. Allen Jr., and executive Washington editor for The Wall Street Journal Gerald Seib.
“They challenged us so much. They challenged us to reach our potential,” Schmidt said.
Those challenges in turned pushed Schmidt to drive his own students, several of which are now superintendents as well.
“I think there was an atmosphere of striving to be the best you possibly can and we a lot of kids that went on and did that,” Schmidt said. “For me, that came from my teachers in grade school and high school.”
The culture that shaped Schmidt at TMP stuck with him and over the years he dreamt of coming back to Hays to serve as the principal and president at TMP, but as he moved through his career and accepted other challenges and opportunities kept his dream never came to pass.
Students success reward enough for former educator and author
Without a doubt, Schmidt cares deeply for education and for his students, and the biggest reward he could seek is the knowledge that his teaching had a positive impact on someone’s life.
He recalled recently one of his students from the early 1970s saw the book announcement and texted him telling him he was one of his best teachers and thanked him for what he had done.
“That’s enough to take care of me for the next couple of years,” Schmidt said. “Sometimes you don’t even realize how you are helping them. That’s the reward.”
You are never going to get rich as an educator he said, but “the richness comes from the knowledge that you have helped people in their lives and helped them to be successful in some way.”
“When you hear those things, there is nothing better, nothing better than that.”
Technology is a tool to create better-educated students
When Schmidt began his career as a teacher in Topeka during the 1972 school year, technology in the classroom as we know it was in it infancy, but Schmidt embraced new tools and valued their ability to assist teachers in their classrooms.
Early in his career, he recalled sending letters around the world in order to collect stories to share with students about life around the globe first-hand.
Embracing the internet as a tool for learning, during his last year of teaching pulled up a live stream of people climbing Mount Everest.
“That could sear into their memory the height and the magnificence of the mountain,” he said.
The embracing of technology in the classroom has gone through ups and downs, Schmidt said, but he sees the value of integrating technology to enhance student learning.
“I think for a long time it became a fad, and then we finally figured out that technology is just a tool to help us think better, to help us find information and then we still have to use our brains to analyze it.”
“I think we have gotten more sophisticated now to use it when we need it to quickly find information.”
In particular, Schmidt said the value of technology in the classroom is the ability to prompt deeper discussions about a topic rather than spending time only on information gathering but warns technology can also be a detriment if not monitored.
“We have to be careful how we use it in schools, a lot of schools ban smartphones in the classroom and there is a good reason for that,” Schmidt said. “Kids will get on there and they will be texting and not paying attention, But there is also a lot of great use of those smartphones as well. If you can regulate and get those students to use them well, it’s a great tool.”
The information available to students with access to the internet is so vast Schmidt believes teachers now need to shift their lessons to demonstrate how to filter information, rather than how to collect it.
“I think kids are smarter than they ever were today because they are exposed to so much information, the key now is we have to teach them how to use that information, and what to do with it,” he said.
Good facilities facilitate good education
A significant part of the job of school administration is maintaining facilities, and with 20 years of administration experience, Schmidt has seen a wide range of buildings in various states of need, dedicating a chapter of the book to facilities and bond issues.
“It’s not the major thing and it’s not the only thing, but it is an important part of it,” Schmidt said. “Kids have to be comfortable, they need to take pride in their facilities. You lose something if you are teaching in an old dump.
“You still have to have the basic things in your facilities, and you have got to be modern and you have got to prepare kids for the world they will be coming into and if you are in building that you haven’t done anything to in 100 years you’re not going to be able to do that. Technology is one of the big things, technology is something that was not considered in very old buildings, and they need to be upgraded.”
Preparing for the bond issues, Schmidt said he learned a lot of valuable lessons, not just about facilities, but also about leadership.
“I did some things wrong on the first one,” he said. “The second one, I hold up as an example of the best democracy in action I have ever seen.”
During his second bond issue, it was presented three times, all three for around $20 million.
All three failed.
On the fourth one, a community group was brought together, and they came up with a 45 million bond issue.
“I was stunned,” Schmidt said. “‘I said ‘What the hell makes you think we can pass 45? We can’t even pass 19.’ ”
But the community push, succeeded with 58 percent voting yes.
“It was an amazing process,” Schmidt said.
He shared those lessons with Leadership Kansas on how to build a consensus.
Generally, Schmidt hopes people stop to learn about the facilities in the districts and they come to understand their importance.
“We had the people that said ‘It was good enough for me back then, it’s good enough for them today.’ Well, that’s short sighted,” he said.
He recalled during his bond issues others told him it’s not the building that makes the education, teachers do.
“All of those have some element of truth in them, but they are not the whole story,” he said.
Finding educators harder during far-right leadership in Kansas
He believes many of the difficulties finding high-quality teachers in Kansas lays squarely on the shoulders of Republican leadership in Kansas that frequently attacked education in the state.
Schmidt said it is getting harder and harder to find teachers.
“When Sam Brownback came in and the far right leadership of the legislature, they started attacking education, they started with attacking administrators, saying we get paid too much, and we don’t do enough and there is too many of us, then they even started attacking teachers.”
He said the trend has continued causing many to abandon their hopes of becoming teachers knowing they will get attacked and paid at a lower level than similarly educated professionals.
“That’s reflected right now in our low numbers in lower numbers in our schools of education,” Schmidt said.
But he believes the current Kansas governor is pro-education and has hopes the trend may start to reverse, but without higher pay, it will still be challenging to find teachers.
“We have got to raise that pay,” Schmidt said. “I think what we have got to do is continue to try and explain to people why it is important and why we need to fund it.”
Unlike many other professions, no matter what technology comes along Schmidt said the problem is education is a people-intensive business and leaders must recognize the value of good teachers in Kansas schools.
“We have got to have political leaders who talk about the value of education and recognize the outstanding teachers that are out there,” Schmidt said.
And he knows both sides of the pay issue — as a superintendent he often had to negotiate pay with teachers to make a budget, noting the teachers were not always happy, but he always did what he could.
“The bottom line is that it pays off if we have an educated population we do better as a state, everybody does better,” Schmidt said.
Kansas, he said, has always been a leader in education until that last decade, corresponding with the attacks on education, and that was an attraction for people to come to Kansas.
“All of that has come together and pulled us done where we are not in the top 10 anymore.”
Eight registered nurses at HaysMed were honored recently at a recognition ceremony and luncheon. They completed the yearlong RN Residency Program offered at HaysMed, part of The University of Kansas Health System.
The program began in July, and the nurses spent the first three weeks in a classroom setting. The remainder of training focused on clinical experience, one-on-one mentorship with their preceptor, high-fidelity simulations and on-the-job training. Additionally, nurses received training from professionals in several departments, such as radiology, pharmacy, cardiac care, peri-op and others.
The RN Residency class included Kelsey Belzer, Caitlin Gabel, Gabriela Garcia, Nick Knickerbocker, Ciara Kroeker, Lindsay Mattison, Sarah McDonald and Omelia Thomas.
The RN Residency Program at HaysMed is one of only two in the state and has been offered since 2008. Shari Hertel, RN, heads the program and has oversight of all the training.
“It is so important for new nursing graduates to have a group of peers and mentors who assist them in enhancing their skills and becoming comfortable with the challenges of practice,” Hertel said. “Our program is evidence-based, with positive clinical outcomes that will help not only the participating nurses, but also our patients.”
Currently, there are 19 nurses scheduled in the next program, which begins July 10. The program is open to newly graduated RNs and RNs who have less than one year of acute care experience.
By JAMES BELL
