The last of three public collection days for the Stuff the Bus Project resulted in a substantial number of donations on Saturday in the parking lot at Wal Mart.

The project is being coordinated by United Way in conjunction with USD 475.

Aileen Cray, Executive Director of Junction City / Geary County Way confirmed once again donations had almost filled the bus used for the collections. The next step is to acquire some more supplies with the financial donations that have been received. “I will be making my trips to some of the stores locally here to purchase more. ” Some of the items still needed include the more expensive things on the purchase list such as hand sanitizers and kleenex.

Cray also noted, “We do have a nice supply of backpacks that are going to go out to each school. In a lot of ways we’re in real good shape, but then we’ll fill in for some of the upper level grades. So we’ll get some of the college ruled spiral notebooks, paper, composition books, all those things.”

The items will be counted and boxed up for all of the schools by volunteers. “And we literally take things to every single location.” All of the public schools on Fort Riley and in Junction City will receive donations, as will Saint Xavier School. The deliveries to the schools will be done on Wednesday, and about one-half day on Friday.

“If families need assistance they need to call their child’s school, and let them know their child’s name and grade and let them know they’re going to need a little bit of help. Parents do need to know that it won’t be everything, but it will certainly help cover some of the basics.”

In celebration of National Farmers Week, Geary Community Hospital teamed up with the Geary County Kansas State Research and Extension Office, and added new elements to the weekly Thursday Farmers Market.

The first 150 customers received a free Geary Community Hospital shopping tote and all customers received a variety of recipes incorporating items carried at the GCH market.

The Extension Office set up a booth and provided a healthy food prep demo featuring different ways to cook foods featured at the GCH market. Samples were given to customers to taste and enjoy.

The Geary Community Hospital Farmers Market is held every Thursday, 4-7 p.m. in the north parking lot of the hospital.

The 2015 National Farmers Week is Sunday, August 2 through Saturday August 8.

 

The 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley is now under new command following Thursday morning’s Change of Command Ceremony.

During the ceremony Maj. Gen. Paul E Funk II passed the 1st ID Colors to Maj Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby, Jr. symbolizing the passing of the command.

Outgoing Commanding General, Maj. Gen. Paul E Funk II is heading to Washington D.C.  where he will serve as the U.S. Army’s assistant deputy chief of staff for operations and plans.

“I want to share probably the best Philosopher that I’ve ever known, Dr. Seuss, who said ‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.’ Beth and I have a lot to smile about,” said Funk. “Fort Riley and the Big Red One will always be our home. We will never forget the soldiers, families and community members of Fort Riley and the Flint Hills Region.”

Maj. Gen. Grigsby comes to Fort Riley following his most recent assignment as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7 in Washington DC. He has never served at Fort Riley but he is familiar with the 1st Infantry Division after spending over five years attached to the 1st Infantry Division while the headquarters were still in Germany.

“Really I never really stopped being a Big Red One Soldier. After serving with the 1st ID, the best Infantry Division in the Army for over five years, the spirit and traditions of this exceptional unit are tattooed on my heart and in my spirit. It is an honor, and I am humbled to be here today,” said Grigsby.

Grigsby told the media following the ceremony that he is excited about the training opportunities available at Fort Riley.

“I flew over the training area just yesterday, and I just wish I was a Company Commander here when I was a Company Commander. I was a Company Commander at Fort Stewart, this place, hands down. We will be able to build companies and battalions that can do their mission here.”

He went on to say that he is looking forward to becoming a part of Fort Riley and the surrounding area.

 

There will be some chance for thunderstorms through the weekend, beginning tonight. Temperatures are expected to rise into the 90s for most locations Saturday and Sunday with heat index values approaching 105 along and south of Interstate 70.

Today: Mostly sunny. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the upper 80s. Southeast winds up to 10 mph.

Tonight: Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 60s. Southeast winds up to 10 mph.

Friday: Sunny. Highs in the lower 90s. Northeast winds up to 10 mph.

Friday Night: Mostly clear in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.

Saturday: Mostly sunny with slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 90s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the lower 70s.

Sunday: Partly sunny with slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the lower 90s.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows around 70.

Monday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s.

Monday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 60s.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 80s.

Tuesday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 60s.

Wednesday: Sunny. Highs in the mid 80s

All persons included in this post are innocent of crimes until proven guilty in a court of law. Courtesy Photos.

 

This information is not criminal history. All individuals included in this post are innocent of crimes until proven guilty in a court of law. JC Post assumes no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, or completeness, of this information. Any person who believes information provided is not accurate may submit a complaint to admin@salinapost.com

Teacher contract negotiations in USD 475 have gone to impasse.

Negotiators have been unable to agree on a tentative agreement.

KASB attorney David Shriver served as the lead negotiator for the Board of Education. Following a negotiating session Tuesday Shriver talked with JC Post. “Because of some electronic communication from the Association’s membership we felt that the progress of the Board’s offer was being undermined, and we wanted some clarification at the beginning of today’s meeting to see if there was the possibility of movement toward ratification of the Board’s salary offer. ”

That salary offer included an average teacher salary increase of 6.5 percent.

Dr. Corbin Witt explained in return the Board wanted to increase the duty day to an eight-hour duty from the current seven-hours-and-50 minutes. He that latter time frame does not include the 30 or 40-minute duty free lunch for teachers. “But going to a consistent eight-hour duty day, increasing collaborative time at the elementary level, going through and removing some people….SLP’s, Pt’s, Psych, Social Workers from the salary schedule because we’re not competitive. ” Witt added to hire those personnel with advanced levels of degrees USD 475 needs to be able to pay them more, noting the district is  short in those areas.”

Witt noted another condition would be to have meetings start after the duty day instead of after children are dismissed from school. “Because it was impossible for us to get a meeting when we said it started the minute kids were dismissed. We all know that we have to get the kids out of the building.”

Cathy Rankin, Junction City Education Association President, also talked with JC Post. “We’re very disappointed that the Board decided to file for unilateral impasse. We came here today ( Tuesday ) prepared to work and negotiate long into the night if needed be.”  Rankin added they hope a mediator can help reach compromises which will work for both sides.

On the offer by the Board to the JCEA Rankin noted, “We were disappointed that they didn’t value the work the teachers do outside the classroom enough to offer the raise without the conditions.” And she added, “We’re very concerned about the amount of preparation time that our elementary teachers have. They have less than any other set of teachers, and although we value collaboration time and we think it’s very important the District is asking them to trade off their individual prep time to prepare for their students in exchange for that collaboration.” Rankin stated collaboration is something teachers do anyway.

Shriver made the unilateral declaration on behalf of the Board of Education to go to impasse. He indicated the next step will be to notify state officials, and they will then notify the Federal Mediation and Conciliation services who will send in a mediator. Both negotiating teams will meet with that person. If mediation is unsuccessful the process goes to fact finding where both sides present formal evidence and testimony to convince the fact finder on the accuracy of their position. Once the fact finder recommendation is issued the two teams would have seven days to meet again for another negotiating session.  If that fails, at that point the Board can issue unilateral terms and conditions of employment.

For now,  teachers in USD 475 will work under the contract that has existed during the past year.