Crisis bags were created last week for every classroom in the Hays school district.
The USD 489 Foundation for Education Excellence, in partnership with Sunflower Bank’s ABC Program, funded the crisis bags, which will be used to address both natural and manmade disasters. The cost of the kits was $7,500.
Each classroom crisis bag includes a backpack filled with a clipboard, an abridged copy of the district crisis plan, water, granola bars, a first-aid kit with tourniquets, scissors, sanitizer, medical gloves, gauze and a whistle.
Submitted photo
Each school will also have a duffel bag with the same contents plus a bullhorn, binoculars, weather radio, drop cloth and flashlights.
The Hays school board approved a crisis plan in December that includes the public schools and Thomas More Prep-Marian and Holy Family Elementary School.
“If the situation should arise,” said Sarah Wasinger, assistant to the USD 489 superintendent, “heaven forbid either a manmade or natural disaster, we only have four ambulances in Ellis County. If multiple people were injured, a tourniquet could potentially save a life.”
Submitted photo
Not all teachers and staff in the district have first-aid training, but many of the administrators do, as well as the school nurses.
“I think as a foundation, we are always trying to do positive things for our school,” Wasinger said. “We are thankful for the projects and donations we have received that can be used to support student safety and learning and make the schools better overall.”
If you would like to donate to the USD 489 Foundation online with a credit or debit card, click here for a donation link.
Fort Hays State University Students for Life helped organize the annual Life Chain Sunday afternoon in Hays.
A group of pro-life supporters lined the sidewalk on Vine Street along Mount Allen Cemetery.
Participants held quiet witness and prayed with signs reading such things as “Pray to End Abortion” and “Jesus Forgives and Heals.”
The first Life Chains were organized in California 30 years ago. The National Life Chain movement began 25 years ago in 1992. The event is now conducted annually on the first Sunday in October.
Catherine Wahlmeier of St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Hays has participated every year since 1992 and said Sunday she feels strongly about the abortion issue.
Hannah Michaud, sophomore in radiology at FHSU, was among the students who helped organize Sunday’s event.
“What I believe is life is a gift,” she said. “It is very precious. Taking it away violates our rights and dignity as humans.”
The Students for Life has about 20 members on campus with a good contingent of the group in attendance at the event on Sunday.
Father Fred Gatschet of St. Joseph Catholic Church, as well as many parishioners from area Catholic churches, were on hand at the Life Chain event.
When asked why he was making a public proclamation on his abortion views, he responded, “Because people are being shredded to pieces in a nonpublic manner.”
He noted the Life Chain was not a protest, but a witness to the sanctity of human life.
Volunteers from Emprise Bank of Hays spent a couple of hours on Tuesday night volunteering at the ARC Thrift Store.
Sixteen people were scheduled for the evening, which was a part of the Emprise Empowers Campaign. The event was to coincide with Emprise’s statewide United Way campaign.
All donations made through the local campaign stay in the local area, said Wayne Woofter, Emprise market president.
The volunteer effort has become an annual event, although the group does not always volunteer for a United Way agency. Last year the Emprise group volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.
Woofter said the volunteer effort gets employees in the frame of mind of giving.
“We know community involvement is really important,” he said.
Mary Dinkel, ARC Thrift Store volunteer, said the help from the Emprise employees was much appreciated.
“It helps us get things out on the floor,” she said. “We can process a lot of merchandise in a short amount of time.”
During this particular evening, the volunteers were helping process and price clothing.
Kids cheering during first quarter of the football game. (Photo by Hanna Dannar)
By REBEKAH PORTER HHS Guidon
Hays High School cheerleaders hosted Little Indians Cheer Camp on Saturday, Sept. 16, to teach the basics of cheerleading to kids between Preschool and 5th grade.
Cheer coach Sara Campbell explained that in preparation for last Friday’s game, where the kids cheered with the cheerleaders, they worked on many skills such as jumps, cheers, being loud and even learned a dance.
The kids are split by age group and paired with several cheerleaders where they learn the cheers they will do at the football game. They also play several fun games to keep the kids involved
The camp lasted from 9 a.m. to noon with a performance at 11:45 a.m. for the parents. The actual performance was the following week during the first quarter at the football game Friday, Sept. 22.
The kids review the cheers 30 minutes before the game starts
“They’re always giving us hugs and telling us how they want to be cheerleaders,” junior Alyssa Underwood said. “It’s very rewarding to know you’re inspiring little kids just by doing what you love.
For some children, the daily noises and rigors of a standard elementary school classroom can be too much.
They need a soft place to land, and the Hays school district has created that through the STAR program, which stands for Strategic Teaching with Adaptations and Reinforcement.
This program serves children with multiple disabilities, severe autism disorder and high needs who can’t function in the general education classrooms without some intensive support. Three newly modified rooms have been dedicated to the STAR program at Roosevelt Elementary School, and they look a little bit different compared to a standard general education classroom.
“It is the mission of this district to make sure every child has what he or she needs to learn in every classroom every day,” Roosevelt Principal Paula Rice said.
The 21 students at Roosevelt are focusing on daily life skills. There are 13 adults in that program.
“It is not uncommon for these kiddos to have the social and spacial needs of 10 of their general education peers,” she said.
Three classrooms may seem like a lot of space, she said, but these students have a greater need.
The special education staff created a video in which the STAR students take viewers on a tour of the STAR classrooms. The video (below) was shown at the school board meeting Monday night.
McDaniel said the school plans to share the video with general education students soon so they can understand these students can learn too.
The closets in these rooms have been turned into break rooms for the children. Some children who have sensory issues need dark quiet spaces, so the school gave them that.
Beans bags have been placed in corners to create reading spaces. There are places to work on reading, math, life skills and communication skills.
It is a place where the special education staff says just in the first 27 days of the school year children have grown.
Lindy McDaniel, special education teacher, said when the special education teachers came to Raj Sharma, director of special education, last school year and asked to build this structured learning program for these K-12 kids, she said she was not sure what she had signed up for.
“As we have moved forward, it has been amazing what these kids have become,” she said,” and they feel part of something.”
These are children who typically do not participate in other youth programs like recreation sports or Boy or Girl Scouts, but they can be a part of the Shining Stars, the special education elementary group.
“I know it may seem like small gains when you see a kid write ‘I can’ and then scribble write, but he is sitting, he is complying, he is participating,” McDaniel said.
A little girl in the video who was using a flip book to communicate had no means to communicate at a functional level before the flip book was introduced to her at the beginning of the school year. She doesn’t have to act out physically because she can communicate, McDaniel said.
Tasha Lang, special education teacher said, “It is the little steps. We always have to tell ourselves it’s the little steps. They are not going to shine overnight. We have to help them shine over the whole year.”
School board member Mandy Fox visited teacher Tasha Lang’s room at Wilson, and she said the new STAR rooms compared to former facilities were wonderful for the children.
Children start in their general education classrooms, but can move to the STAR rooms whenever they need to. Some children stay only minutes in general education, and some students stay all day. The rooms give the students and teachers the flexibility to work on a variety of skills.
Fox encouraged other board members to tour the classrooms.
Rice concluded with a thank you to the staff at Roosevelt, especially to those working in special education.
“As educators we all work very hard all the time, but these ladies really impress me,” she said of the special education teachers. “They are usually up until midnight or 1 o’clock redoing the schedules for every one of their students every single day, and then they are in the office at 5:30, 6 printing them off and getting ready to go every single day.
“They rarely take lunches. They rarely take breaks. It is nonstop from the time the kids get there until they leave, and then they are not done. They do it because they love these kids and they know they can gain.”
“The African Menagerie: An Inquisition” is more than a painting. It is a culmination of Brian Jarvi’s career spent painting African wildlife.
The seven-panel piece depicts 209 species of mammals, birds and reptiles — 150 of which Jarvi had never painted before he took on this project.
An exhibit featuring the art piece opens Saturday at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays and runs through Dec. 21.
The piece took Jarvi 17 years to create and is 32 feet wide and 14 feet high. The Sternberg is first stop for the piece since its debut on Sept. 16 at The Reif Center for the Performing Arts, in Grand Rapids, Minn., Jarvi’s hometown. The piece is oil on Belgium linen that is mounted on Masonite.
Jarvi said this might be the most significant wildlife painting in history based on the size of the work and number of species represented.
Forty of the artist’s sketches, which range from drawings to large oil paintings, surround the final work.
He said his biggest challenge was scaling all the different species to each other and creating a consistent light source on all the subjects.
Among the sketches is a painting of a quagga, an extinct species of zebra. The animal has been extinct since the 1870s and only six known photos of the animal exist, all of which are black and white. Jarvi said recreating an image of this animal required the most research and study.
Jarvi, 61, is a self-taught artist. He said his love of wildlife started when he was a child, collecting frogs and fish out of the local ponds of northern Minnesota. He began his artistic career in Minnesota drawing and painting waterfowl.
He repeatedly entered the Minnesota Duck Stamp competition in the mid-80’s and finally won. This was soon followed by a win of the Minnesota Pheasant Stamp competition. This not only gave him notoriety but enough prize money to pursue his love of art and wildlife full time.
He was commissioned to paint his first pieces of African wildlife about 30 years ago. He, along with a group of other artists, were sent to Africa for a month to observe, sketch and photograph the continent’s wildlife. He has since traveled to Africa 12 more times.
“I sort of eat, sleep and breathe Africa,” he said. “The first thing I do in the morning is check the television for any African documentaries on that day. I do a lot of research beyond just the field research.”
The portraits in the “The African Menagerie” are somewhat of a departure from Jarvi’s typical paintings, which usually portray predator/prey interactions. He most loves depicting lions, and a male lion prominently appears in the “The African Menagerie.”
Other iconic species included in the work include hippo, elephant, giraffe, rhino and leopard. These are joined by lesser-known species, such as bongo, okapi and mandrill.
“The African Menagerie” portrays the plight of wildlife and the environment at the hands of man. Jarvi said the concept for the painting is all the species have come to judge man for his actions against the environment.
The snow on Mount Kilimanjaro in the background is receding, a nod to the effects of global warming. Although the piece is not meant to be seen in a wholly biblical context, there is religious symbolism in the work, including the lion lying down with the lamb near the human figure and the four zebra, which are symbols of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the far left panel.
“I hope they get a better appreciation of the grand array of subject matter and the wildlife there is on the African continent, let alone across the world,” Jarvi said of those who view the “The African Menagerie.” “Certainly there is a message of conservation in this work.”
There are definitely species that most would recognize as under threat in the painting, including the elephant and the rhino, but Jarvi noted they are pieces in a larger ecosystem.
“We have a tendency to focus on the great icons of Africa and other species around the world in regards of the possibility of them going extinct, but it goes hand in hand. If these species are in trouble, these lesser-known species are in the same situation. Extinction is not that selective, especially the current one that is going on.
“I thought it was important to put some of these lesser-known species side by side with some of the icons of Africa,” he said.
Documenting the project will be a coffee-table book by Todd Wilkinson. The book also includes other images from Jarvi’s career and the tale of his rise as an artist. Preorders are now being taken for the book.
Now that Jarvi has completed “The African Menagerie,” he is looking back to his roots for his next project and hopes to complete a piece titled “The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America.”
Members of the Kansas aviation industry arrived in Hays Thursday evening as part of the annual Kansas air tour designed to showcase aviation in the state.
The Fly Kansas Air Tour was established in the late 1920s as a way to highlight the aircraft industry but ended after just two years because of the Great Depression. In 2008, Ed Young, director of aviation in Kansas at the time, relaunched the tour in an effort to once again highlight aviation in Kansas.
This year’s air tour began Thursday in Wellington and made stops in Liberal and Dodge City before stopping in Hays for the night.
Merrill Atwater, current director of aviation for the Kansas Department of Transportation, said there were 60 pilots signed up for the event and they expected about 50 pilots and 44 planes to take part in the Hays stop Thursday.
Atwater said aviation is a vital part of the Kansas economy. There are more than 750 manufacturing companies in Kansas that supply parts to aviation manufacturing companies. Kansas State Polytechnic at Salina is considered one of the top flight schools in the country, and Kansas is one of five aviation clusters in the world, according to Atwater.
“Kansas is very unique, because it represents 73 percent of all general aviation production in the world,” he said.
Atwater added the tours are a way to reach out to the community and attract people to the aviation industry.
“In the aviation industry there are two major problems that go on,” said Atwater “One, there’s a pilot shortage that’s happening and, two, is that we have a skilled workforce that needs to be replenished every few years.”
The air tour also is also a great way to get people to go to their local airport, according to Atwater.
“This airport, in this community, brings in millions of dollars worth of economic stimulus to this community and people don’t realize it,” he said.
Each stop is also another opportunity for those in the aviation industry to reach out to students and hopefully spark an interest in aviation.
In the four stops on Thursday members of the tour hosted more than 500 students. Many of the students got an up-close look at the aircraft, according to Atwater.
“It’s easy for me to talk until I’m blue in my face about how we need to educate kids on aviation,” Atwater said, “But whenever you have them out here with pilots showing them their personal plane and letting them in and climb up in there, that is the experience.
“Every pilot in the whole entire world has a time where they say, ‘that’s when I wanted to be a pilot,’ and most of the time it has to do with something dealing with aviation,” he added.
Ed Young now serves and the president of the Kansas Commission on Aerospace Education and the Fly Kansas Foundation and said the tour is another way to promote STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – education to Kansas students.
Young, who also works for an engineering firm, said, “I can tell you for a fact we need engineers. We need kids to still be interested.”
“Aviation provides an excellent example that people understand, that they can apply to their life and they can see how math is super important to what we do,” he said.
Young also said that there are aviation jobs available outside of pilots.
“In Kansas, you have to remember that there are a ton of aviation companies that have workers that are building aircraft as well,” he said.
According to Young, this year, there are air traffic controllers, an aviation insurance member and a member of the Flying Dentist Association all taking part in the air tour.
The younger generation of students, thanks to video games, come more prepared to learn to fly planes, according to Young, who is also a flight instructor.
“There’s a huge pilot shortage, so if we can grab those kids (and) they get the interest,” Young said “They go to a great state university like K-State to go through the professional pilot program, or one of the other four programs in the aviation school, we have a chance to really build solid education for our kids and jobs that earn more than the average.”
The tour continues Friday with stops in Concordia, Atchison and New Century. Saturday is the final day of the tour and there are scheduled stops in Pittsburg, Independence and Benton.
Dante Blackmon, Erin Muirhead, London Keller, Trinity Callis, Allen Zollinger, Lisa Schoenberger, Hunter Brown, Hannah Donaldson, Kyler Voss, and Macey Steckel are homecoming candidates for Hays High School. (Photo courtesy Bill Gasper)
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
The Hays High School Homecoming 2017 candidates have been announced.
They are: Dante Blackmon, Erin Muirhead, London Keller, Trinity Callis, Allen Zollinger, Lisa Schoenberger, Hunter Brown, Hannah Donaldson, Kyler Voss, and Macey Steckel.
A full week of activities for homecoming is planned.
The bonfire is scheduled for Thu., Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday evening kicks off with the parade at 5 p.m. through downtown Hays followed by the football game where the Hays High Indians take on the McPherson Bullpups.
The homecoming dance is the next evening, Sat. Oct. 14, in HHS Gym B with the theme “Haunted Homecoming” selected by Student Council.
The entertainment duo of Jay Cady & Leslie Seifert-Cady will be performing in Ellis County elementary schools this week.
Their visit is sponsored by the Hays Arts Council along with assistance from a grant from the Kansas Creative Arts and Industries Commission.
Brenda Meder, director of the Hays Arts Council, said although the performers have been coming to Ellis County for many years, HAC tries to have a slightly different focus each year.
This year’s performance was titled “Juggling the Earth’s Resources.” The duo used juggling to demonstrate how atoms form molecules of water and carbon dioxide.
Students were enlisted to demonstrate the water cycle including, evaporation, condensation, precipitation and accumulation. Jay showed the children how pollution can be introduced into the water system.
The entertainers demonstrated how the build up of greenhouse gases can cause global warming.
Children also learned about the environment and recycling with emphasis on the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle.
“Our hope is to make science fun and interesting,” Leslie said. “We hope it is not what they are expecting.”
Although some concepts like atoms and molecules are for the older children, Leslie said she and her husband try to inject enough action and humor to keep the interest of the younger children. She said the younger children can relate more to the demonstration on the water cycle.
The recycling information may be new for some kids, but for others it is good reinforcement.
Jay and Leslie are from Kansas City and travel all over the country presenting at schools, libraries and community events.
They have been full-time, professional performers since 1980. They’ve performed over 6,000 times in 35 states and six countries. To learn more, visit their website leslieandjay.com.
Leslie considered becoming a teacher, but was drawn to the theater department at Emporia State University. Her work with Jay has allowed her to pursue a different type of teaching and still work with children.
They will perform “A Drop of A Hat,” at 6 p.,m. Thursday at the Hays Public Library. It will include juggling, mime, improvisation, magic and audience participation.
USD 489 Best of the Best Award winner, Craig Pallister, Hays Middle School principal, poses with the Hays school board.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Craig Pallister, Hays Middle School principal, was honored with the Best of the Best Award by the Hays school board Monday night.
Pallister, who has been with the Hays district for 25 years, was nominated by Jerry Braun, HMS gifted teacher.
Braun has been on the staff at the middle school three different times, and he said it was because of Pallister that he wanted to keep coming back.
“I have had many bosses now, and he is the best I have ever had,” Braun said. “Mostly because he doesn’t get in our way. He lets us to our job. He supports us and he gives us the resources we need. He tells us every day from day one that working with students is about caring, compassion and connections. Craig Pallister is someone who practices what he preaches.”
Pallister approached the award with humility, saying, “This is not really my thing being recognized for this, because it is part of my job that I started in this district 25 years ago.”
He thanked Braun, the middle school staff and all the central administration staff he has worked with over the years.
He said he had been blessed with many assistant principals, including Shanna Dinkel, who is now the assistant superintendent of the district.
“I felt as if I should have had teachers, paras, secretaries, coaches, custodians, bus drivers, nurses, counselors and school [psychologists] all up here instead of me,” he said.
He said he went in this weekend and put in about a dozen nominations for the Best of the Best Award for people he really felt strongly about.
Superintendent John Thissen added, “There is a characteristic that we love to have leaders have, and none have it more than you in all the years I have been working in schools, and that is humility. We are very fortunate to have you care for your staff the way that you do.”
USD 489 Best of the Best Award winner Wyatt Kirkpatrick, Lincoln Elementary School fifth-grader, poses with the Hays school board.
Wyatt Kirkpatrick, Lincoln Elementary School fifth-grader, was named this month’s student Best of the Best. He was nominated by teacher Monica Dreiling.
“Wyatt Kirkpatrick comes to school each day with a cheerful attitude and is always willing to learn,” Dreiling said. “He is respectful to adults and peers and listens to directions and is honest. Wyatt actively participates in class and is a self-motivated learner.
“He sets high goals for himself and is willing to ask for help when he needs it. He frequently assists other students in the classroom and gives them encouragement. I am exited to have Wyatt in my classroom. I know he will be a role model for his peers this school year and in the future.”
Wooden statutes of the saints housed in the Santa Maria diocesan museum.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
The Sister Cities of Hays program is partnering with the Fort Hays State University soccer team to raise money for the museum in Hays’ sister city, Santa Maria de Fe, Paraguay.
A portion of the money from the tickets sales and concessions for the men’s soccer game against Oklahoma Baptist at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, will go to the museum. The men’s and women’s soccer teams have had members from Paraguay and so this fundraiser seemed like a natural fit.
Information on the fundraiser will be presented at half time.
The museum houses art created by the Jesuit Priests and natives to decorate the missions that date back to the 1600s when Santa Maria was founded.
The artwork was hidden from sight in community members’ basements to protect it from ruling dictators. Marianna Beach found the art when she traveled to that area in the 1970s. She donated money and helped raise money in the Hays area to fund a museum for the art.
Today the museum is a cultural hub for the region. It not only protects the art, but draws income to the community in the form of tourist dollars.
The museum is need of about $2,000 worth of maintenance work, including security upgrades, lighting and renovation of the museum’s bathrooms.
Olga Detrixhe, who is on the Hays Sister Cities board, said the Hays group has just started with this fundraising effort.
If you can’t make it to the game, but would still like to donate to the renovations at the Santa Maria museum, you may contact the Hays Sister Cities board through its Facebook page.
To learn more about Santa Maria and the Sister Cities program, visit the foyer of the Hays Public Library to view the “World Apart, Cities Together” art installation that was dedicated when a group from Santa Maria visited Hays this summer.
Facilitator Betty Johnson, Lawrence, is an FHSU graduate and Smith Center native.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
“All ideas are on the board,” so far.
More than 150 residents from throughout Ellis County gathered Monday night at Fort Hays State University’s Robbins Center for “Strategic Doing” hosted by the Heartland Community Foundation (Ellis, Rooks and Trego counties) and the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, Logan.
It was the first of four meetings to guide Ellis County through the process of planning and implementing community improvements.
Strategic Doing starts with a SWOT analysis
Facilitator Betty Johnson, Lawrence, is an FHSU graduate and Smith Center native. She first directed the crowd to “not sit with your friends and co-workers. Meet somebody new.” After some shifting among chairs, the work began for each group at the 16 tables to conduct a SWOT analysis, determining the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for Ellis County.
Scott Braun, Anne Leiker, Bill Ring and Dave McDaniel listen to Johnson.
Ellis Mayor Dave McDaniel helped brainstorm ideas with his table mates who identified three priority projects of regional importance.
“Youth involvement, water, funding for school infrastructure repairs,” McDaniel said. “Lots and lots and lots of good ideas came forth tonight, and I hope we can expand on those and really get something going.”
Funding for the strategic projects will be provided by the Hansen Foundation over the next five years.
“I think this is an excellent opportunity,” McDaniel added.
Ellis City Council member Dena Patee and HCF Board Member Chris Sook, Hays
There were more strengths listed for Ellis County than ideas in the other three categories, including education, low crime, health care, the faith community, strong leadership and high-speed internet.
“Definitely a strength,” Johnson quickly agreed. “There are some rural Kansas communities still on dial-up modems,”she pointed out.
Many ideas, written on bright pink and yellow paper notes stuck to the walls, straddled more than one category.
“High-speed internet also provides an opportunity for the area”, Johnson said. “Being on I-70 is a transportation advantage, but it also brings the threat of drugs and human trafficking into the community.”
The audience was comprised of people from all walks of life, from seniors to youth, including a number of Hays High School DECA students.
Hays resident Dennis Schiel writes down a weakness of Ellis County while Rev. Celeste Lasich and a HHS DECA member look on.
One of the listed weaknesses, “resistance to change,” drew a round of applause from the crowd.
Other weaknesses cited were scarce water sources, a child care shortage, high land prices, high housing costs and no homeless shelter.
Dangers included falling prices for oil and agricultural commodities, the shrinking and aging population of northwest Kansas, few applicants for open jobs for first responders, and decreasing grants and financial aid from federal and state sources.
Several groups consider the need for a convention center as an opportunity, along with solar and wind energy development, ag exports, downtown Hays as a destination, regional sports at the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex, volunteerism and entrepreneurship.
Johnson urged attendees to find out more about the new Northwest Kansas Economic Innovation Center, a private foundation for which the Hansen Foundation provided the start-up funding. The center, based in Norton, is interested in attracting entrepreneurs, assisting with business succession planning, and adding to the quality of life in northwest Kansas.
Hays Mayor Shaun Musil and Ellis USD 388 Superintendent Bob Young
“For our next meeting, I will facilitate the true strategic doing. We’re going to move tonight’s process forward,” Johnson explained near the end of the evening. “There are four questions you need to answer. What can we do? What should we do? What will we do? And, what will we do in the next 30 days?
“Which of these ideas will become a reality in Ellis County?” asked Johnson.
That’s what participant Anne Leiker, director of the Center For Life Experience, wants to know. She had a mixed reaction to the meeting.
“I’ve done strategic planning several times, with Leadership Hays, Leadership Kansas, and other groups,” Leiker said afterwards. “We’re stretched with our resources and our people, and I can’t stretch any further. Now, we have the funding resource (through Hansen). Now, it’s time for people, and new people, to step up and take ownership of these ideas.”
HCF Exec. Dir. Sandy Jacobs addresses the crowd Monday night.
Heartland Community Foundation Executive Director Sandy Jacobs, who is also a Hays city commissioner, echoed the “doing.”
“Betty’s right. If we don’t come back together and take these ideas, move forward and say ‘I’ll take ownership,’ then we really messed up,” Jacobs said.
She was involved in drafting the 20-year comprehensive plan for Hays, which was adopted in 2012.
“I won’t be involved in anything that will sit on the shelf. I promise you, it’s not sitting on the shelf. Our city staff is looking at it all the time. If I forget about it, somebody in the community reminds me of it,” she said. “That’s the way I want this strategic doing to work. Whatever is going to come out of this group, I promise you it will not be a document on the shelf.
“It will live and breathe and change and do,” Jacobs promised.
The next strategic doing session is at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 20, at the Rose Garden Banquet Hall. Any interested community members are invited to attend.
Hays USD 489 enrollment is down slightly compared to 2016.
The official state enrollment is taken on the Sept. 20. Hays’ enrollment was 3,047 students this year compared to 3,070 in 2016.
Shanna Dinkel, assistant superintendent, said the enrollment drop was expected based on early enrollment data. She said the drop was spread across the district’s elementary schools.
The enrollment figures are important because they are plugged into a state formula to determine funding. This year the bulk of the funding will be based on last year’s enrollment numbers, but this year’s numbers will be used to determine funding for special weighting, including at-risk money.
Hope Pantry
Members of Tigers in Service gave a presentation to the board on its “Make a Difference” project that benefits the USD 489 Hope Pantry. The pantry helps USD 489 families with food, clothing and hygiene items.
Fort Hays State Tiger fans attending the FHSU vs. Emporia football game at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28 are invited to bring one or more items (non-perishable food, new clothing, hygiene products) or consider making a monetary donation to the Hope Pantry.
Collection sites will be located at entry gates to Lewis Field Stadium. Those who contribute will receive a drawing ticket for an exclusive Tiger Tailgate Package, including a reserved tailgating spot for the 2018 football season along with a cooler and other tailgate gear.
The prize package will be given away at halftime. A few lucky attendees will be selected to participate in a halftime activity, bringing further awareness to the cause.
Collection boxes will also be located at the Robbins Center, One Tiger Place; inside the Memorial Union (near Starbucks), 600 Park St.; and Golden Belt Bank, 1101 E. 27th St., from Oct. 16 to Nov. 3.
The district reopened negotiations with the Hays NEA to discuss health insurance. The board previously voted to change its health care provider from the state plan that is administered by Blue Cross Blue Shield to one administered by Aetna.
The decision was made after Blue Cross Blue Shield increased the district’s premiums by $1.4 million over two years.
Superintendent John Thissen said the negotiating teams are meeting soon to hash out insurance details.
In other business, the board:
• Heard a report on the district’s STAR special education rooms
The air tour also is also a great way to get people to go to their local airport, according to Atwater.
