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Category: Featured
K-State President Richard Myers: A Call for Leadership
In the wake of national debate surrounding justice and equality, Kansas State President Richard Myers released a statement Friday morning to students and faculty to address the issue on the K-State campus.
Dear K-State students, faculty and staff,
The national debate around justice and equality has intensified over the past several months. Most recently,the National Football League has become embroiled in controversy over players kneeling during the national anthem. At the core of these issues are legitimate concerns about justice and equality, contrasted with the individual freedoms so many Americans have fought and worked to protect.
The K-State family is not immune from these national debates nor a stranger to the controversies. This year we have already seen anonymous postings of white supremacy posters, genuine concerns by our students who benefit from DACA about their ongoing status, and troubling visa issues among our international students, faculty and staff.
During times of stress and uncertainty, we often look for touchstones to center us and help deal with anxieties and frustrations. While our first reaction is often to seek an immediate response, we are well served to remember
our long-standing foundations. Our touchstones include the Bill of Rights and the United States Constitution, federal and state laws that protect our privacy (such as FERPA), and more locally, our K-State community principles.
We continue to come back to these touchstones because they are powerful, thoughtful, and stand the test of time. Perhaps the most important support comes from family, whom we naturally lean on for comfort and counsel in stressful times. None of our families are perfect, including the K-State family, but we always pull together when needed the most.
I encourage all of us to be personally aware of the things we can control, and those we cannot. We cannot control whether our national leaders are divisive or inspire us to pull together as a nation. We cannot control anonymous hate messages posted under the cover of darkness. But we can control how we let these disgusting events affect our campuses, communities and culture. This needs to be our focus.
We can continue to work together to solve issues and support one another. For instance, we can ensure we have the right organizational structure and leadership to move us forward on diversity and inclusion. We can provide legal and other support to our DACA students. And, we can react to the national debate in a way that makes us a model and inspires others to pull together to solve our societal issues versus driving us apart.
To me, this is the essence of our K-State family. Now is the time for all of us — students, faculty and staff — to show the way. It is who we have been, who we are, and who our next generation will be.
Are you ready to help lead?
Sincerely,
Richard B. Myers
President
Kansas State University
Two Geary USD 475 Schools Honored as 2017 National Blue Ribbon Schools
Two Geary USD 475 elementary schools are among five in Kansas that have been designated National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2017, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy Devos announced on Thursday.
They are Eisenhower Elementary School and Sheridan Elementary School. The others in Kansas include Gardner Elementary School in Gardner Edgerton USD 231, Ruth Clark Elementary School, Haysville USD 261 and Wineteer Elementary School, Derby USD 260.
The award is based on the school’s overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.
“These five schools represent the great quality of education taking place throughout Kansas,” said Kansas Commissioner of Education Dr. Randy Watson.
The Blue Ribbon program recognizes public and private elementary, middle and high schools in one of two performance categories, Exemplary High Performing and Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing. All five Kansas schools were in the Exemplary High Performing category.
The Blue Ribbon program is in its 35th year and has bestowed the award on more than 8,500 schools. The U.S. Department of Education will formally recognize the schools at an awards ceremony Nov. 6-7 in Washington D.C.
This year a total of 342 schools nationally were recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2017.
Breci Family Law Enforcement Careers Span Two Generations
Dan Breci is the police chief in Junction City.
Speaking to the Military Affairs Council breakfast Thursday, he talked about his law enforcement roots that go back to his late father, Sam Breci, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Dan said at about the age of eight his dad and other siblings lived in a house in Omaha, Nebraska. “The mafia required you pay protection and things like that, and his dad refused and they burned down his house. The four kids became orphaned, and my dad ended up living on the streets of Omaha selling newspapers.” At the age of 10 he was taken by police to Boys Town, Nebraska where he lived for the next 10 years.
Dan stated, “Up until that time I don’t think that he had any formal education, but he became the mayor, which is a boy-council type run government. And they invited J. Edgar Hoover to be their guest speaker.” It was a life changing event for Sam Breci. The next day he was taken to Washington D.C. and became a fingerprint technician for the FBI. He would earn a degree at Georgetown, and then a law degree at Creighton University, and in 1951 became an FBI agent where he served for 28 years.
Dan Breci’s mother was the third secretary to J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI building, two sisters and a brother have worked for the FBI, and another brother is a police officer. Breci graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2016 himself, when he became the first JCPD officer to attend the academy since 1983.
Breci is the 32nd police chief in the history of Junction City, and he reported that Wild Bill Hickok was the first. Hickok served as the city marshall.
2018 Kicker Country Stampede Lineup Announcement
Kicker Country Stampede is excited to announce even more performers added to the already stellar line-up. In 
addition to previously-announced headliner Florida Georgia Line, Alabama, Cole Swindell, Charlie Daniels Band, Brett Young, Kane Brown, Ryan Griffin, Randy Rogers Band, Marshall Tucker Band and Cody Johnson will hit the Cenex® Mainstage June 21-23, 2018, in Manhattan, Kansas.
Tickets and general campsites are on sale now. Preferred camping, and Premier camping is SOLD OUT!! For a limited time, 3-day tickets are $120. Complete ticket and camping package information can be accessed by calling 800-795-8091 or online at www.countrystampede.com.
Senator Moran Takes 2017 Kansas Conservation Tour
I spent time in Riley, Wabunsee, Geary and Pottawatomie Counties this past week meeting with farmers, ranchers and many representatives of some of our state’s agricultural and natural resource associations during my Conservation Tour, an event I have held frequently since beginning my time in Congress.
Conservation Tour gives me the opportunity to learn more about ongoing conservation efforts across the state, including water and soil conservation, grassland prairie preservation and river sustainability, and a variety of practices important to the Kansas agriculture industry.
This was my 12th Conservation Tour and this year we highlighted conservation efforts supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters as well as private landowner stewardship practices. I was lucky to have USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service Acting Chief Leonard Jordan join me — my thanks to all who participated in sharing their best practices and learning from one another.
We began the day with a discussion of the conservation efforts of Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, where landscape maintenance and preservation are essential to their success, and learned more about how golf courses throughout the country prioritize environmentally-conscious land management.
Our group then journeyed to Tuttle Creek, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The Nature Conservancy in Kansas briefed us on their ongoing efforts to improve reservoir management through the Sustainable Rivers Program, which is utilized nationwide.
From Tuttle Creek we moved on to Dibben Farms in Junction City, where father-son owners Craig and Brandon Dibben talked us through how their usage of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) has allowed them to install a sub-surface drip irrigation system, increasing crop yields and improving water conservation.
Over the lunch hour, we visited Moyer Ranch in the Flint Hills, where owner Rod Moyer and his wife Dara shared their efforts to secure a conservation easement for the 6,700 acre ranch, making certain it will remain a working cattle ranch, protecting the native species living on the property and even helping to lessen the chances that the important work being done at Fort Riley nearby is inhibited by the concerns of private landowners during training exercises. We also discussed the importance of seasonal burning to prevent the spread of sericea lespedeza, which has become a growing threat for many Kansas landowers.
We concluded our tour at Downey Ranch in Alma, where Joe Downey and his wife Barb gave us an up-close look at their controlled burning practices to preserve the Flint Hills ecosystem from the sericea lespedeza.
I appreciate the opportunity Kansas Conservation Tour gives me to hear firsthand from Kansas farmers and ranchers about the challenges they face, hard work they do, and innovative ideas they implement. The future of Kansas agriculture is bright.
Good Financial News for Geary Community Hospital
Geary Community Hospital has been participating in a rural health demonstration project but that has been in a lull for more than a year.
GCH had participated in the program through May of 2016.
Good news was received this week at Geary Community said CEO Joe Stratton. “And we’ve been out of the program since then. But we received notification ( this week ) from Health and Human Services that we’ll be in the program for another five years.
Stratton stated that will be a real plus for the hospital. “We’ve received approximately $90,000 a month on that program for five years. Anticipate it’ll be approximately the same sum of money.”
Stratton updated the Hospital Board of Trustees on the matter this week.
SAY YES TO JCHS!
Emotion, passion and just plain facts were all part of the kickoff of the The Say Yes to JCHS campaign Tuesday night at the C. L. Hoover Opera House.
This is the community based effort to obtain voter approval of a bond issue for the proposed new Junction City High School. If voters approve the bond issue on November 7th the State of Kansas will pay 47% of the cost of that new school, with federal heavily impacted military aid providing the rest of the needed funding. No increase is being sought in the local property tax levy.
Campaign committee co-chair Terrah Stroda told a packed meeting room at the Opera House, “Tonight we raise our voices in unity with one message. Say yes to JCHS. On Tuesday November 7th we will be one voice. On that day we will vote a resounding yes to a bond issue that will build our students and community a new high school.”
State Representative Lonnie Clark noted the State has approved the bond issue. “So if the bond passes the election on November 7th then the State is obligated to pay the 47%. That’s not an if and or but, that’s an obligation of the State, it’s in the laws of Kansas so people can quit worrying about that part of it.”
JCHS Principal Melissa Sharp said no other district in Kansas has access to the funds like USD 475 has, “as a result of being Junction City and Fort Riley.” The district qualifies for the heavily impacted aid money because of the substantial number of military family related students attending schools in the district.
Sharp emphasized that the stars are aligning. “Nobody in the state received that heavy impact aid and only 26 other districts in the nation received that funding. So for me to say the stars are aligning the right way is accurate.”
A group of students from the school district attended the kickoff of the campaign, and one of them, JCHS senior Abby Khoury, explained the need for a new building that has sufficient space allowing for each of the career clusters to thrive and opportunities for students to have access to tools to help them reach their full academic potential.
A parent of two current high school students Jodie Wilkey referred to some of the “amazing kids” that have been through adversity, do not live in the most expensive homes or wear the most expensive clothes but do work hard. “And they are the kids that walk the halls of the schools in our district.”
Wilkey said she has driven many of them to sporting events across Kansas, and referred to the conversations the kids have had as they drove into some of the new schools across the state. “I have heard the kids acknowledge that their school is nothing like the one’s that these other kids have. I’ve heard them stand up for our own town because another kid from somewhere else has asked them why would you want to go to JC. I’ve seen the looks on their faces and it’s obvious to me that they only dream of having a school like that to call their own. But don’t forget they still stand proud!”
November 7th is election day.
Mark Stenstrom Elected Chairman of the Hospital Board
Mark Stenstrom will serve as Chairman of the Geary Community Hospital Board of Trustees for the coming year.
Stenstrom was elected by fellow board members during their annual reorganization, while Vic Davis will serve as Vice-Chairman. John Kovac Secretary and Jim Ruhnke as Treasurer. Stenstrom succeeded Gary Drake in the chairman’s post after Drake’s term as chairman expired. Drake will continue to serve on the Board.
There were announcements that Stenstrom will be filling the remaining two years of a term formerly held by Brian Locke. Locke had to step down due to career changes.
New board members, Beth Clark and Cecil Aska, took their oath of office. They will be serving four-year terms.
Former USD 473 Coach Sentenced to Prison Term
Former USD 473 Chapman assistant girls basketball and track coach Mark Snider of Abilene has been sentenced to a controlling prison term of 68 months and lifetime post release. The Geary County Attorney’s office confirmed the sentence which followed Snider’s convictions on two counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Child.
Snider was sentenced to consecutive terms of 34 months on each charge, resulting in the controlling sentence of 68 months. He had entered into a plea agreement in Geary County District Court.
Snider resigned the coaching position in USD 473 in April of 2016. He was later arrested in Abilene and eventually faced charges in Geary County.