A Junction City High School graduate, Kathryn Westerhaus, is among 12 students at Fort Hays State University to be awarded the National Science Foundation’s Noyce Scholarship for the upcoming school year.

The scholarship is designed to help support high-achieving math and science students who want to become secondary or middle level teachers after graduation.

The scholarship is a ‘cost-of-attendance’ scholarship worth more than $13,000 per year and a stipend to attend state or regional conferences.

Students also enroll in a seminar class to discuss teaching in rural schools, attend a week-long field experience trip at a school in southwest Kansas, adnd are all members of the STEM-Ed Club at Fort Hays State University.

Westerhaus will be a senior majoring biology and secondary education. This is the second time she has received the Noyce scholarship.

UPDATE:

Geary County Emergency Management has announced that Lyons Creek Road East in Geary County is closed at Otter Creek going east to Camp Tomah Shinga due to water over the roadway. 

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The National Weather Service has a flood warning in effect Thursday for Lyon Creek in Geary County and for Chapman Creek in Dickinson County.

There is also a flood warning for the Smoky Hill River near Abilene Sand Spring and Enterprise in Dickinson County, and the Solomon River near Niles, affecting Dickinson, Ottawa and Saline counties.

Field tours, golf tournament and educational sessions are part of four-day event

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The 2019 National Walnut Council Meeting is scheduled for June 16-19 at the Prairie Band Casino and Resort just north of Topeka.

The theme of the four-day event is Walnuts in Indian Country and features educational field tours of woodland management on Kickapoo Tribal lands along with in-door sessions from nationally recognized experts in natural resource management.

Hosted by the Kansas Chapter of the Walnut Council, Kansas Forestry Association and Kansas Forest Service, the meeting offers landowners, natural resource professionals, scientists, foresters and other forest industry professionals an opportunity to network and discuss the most pertinent issues associated with the successful growth and management of American black walnut and other fine-quality hardwoods.

The meeting begins with the inaugural Walnut Masters golf tournament hosted by State Forester Larry Biles on June 16 followed by an evening reception at the Kansas History Museum.

In addition to Kickapoo Tribal lands, field tours will be held at the Barrow Ranch and Copperhead Hill Ranch. Field tours will include sessions on agroforestry, tree and songbird identification, wildlife and woodland management, sawmill and harvesting demonstrations and more. Indoor sessions will include discussions about fire and oak regeneration, tick-borne diseases, and a variety of woodland owners’ “show-and-tell” sessions.

The deadline for early registration is June 5. Registration for the full event is $175 with single-day registration options. Registrations can be submitted online or by mail.

More information about the even can be found on the 2019 Walnut Council Annual Meeting webpage.

When you looked around the Board of Education meeting room Tuesday you may have noticed something a bit different.

The new superintendent Dr. Reginald Eggleston often wears bow ties. So the other male members of the board decided to do the same thing. They wore bow ties in a new twist in a show of support for the superintendent.

The JC Breakfast Optimist Club has donated $200 to the Junction City Little Theater.

The club heard a presentation from Ellie DIllon nd Desiree Brown during an Optimist Club meeting at the Hampton Inn.

( Photo L-R holding the check ) Ellie Dillon, President, JCLT; Don Manley, President, JC Breakfast Optimist Club next to Dillon; Desiree Brown, JCLT Board Memberm four from the right holding theck and JC Breakfast Optimist Club members in attendance at the meeting.

High

51°

Cooler, cloudy. A 30 percent chance of rain showers in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 50s. North winds 10 to 15 mph.

Pat Landes has filed for reelection to a seat on the Junction City Commission.

Geary County Clerk Rebecca Nordyke reported that Landes filed for office Wednesday afternoon.

Landes is currently mayor of Junction City, his fourth stint in that role. He was first elected to the city commission in 2011. His current term expires in January of 2020.

So far there are two candidates that have filed for a seat on the governing body, including Landes and Nathan Butler.

The filing deadline is noon on Monday, June 3rd.

A Junction City High School personnel matter spilled into the public Board of Education Tuesday night.

Longtime JCHS Accounting and Tax teacher Roxanne Whaley was initially due to be assigned to teach entry level business classes at both Junction City and Fort RIley Middle Schools, and the high school advanced accounting classes were to be taught by Cloud County Community College personnel as part of changes in the Business, Information, Technology Academy at the senior high.

Current and former students spoke to the board on behalf of Whaley, who wants to continue teaching the advanced accounting classes.

Whaley referred to a petition prepared by her supporters. “Over 1,600 have found me and reached out to save my job because they know I have a passion for accounting, tax, JCHS and mostly my students. ” Whaley said four of the classes she had taught for more than 20 years had been taken away ranging from finance and accounting two and three classes together and could do it for Cloud County but was never asked.  She said has now been assigned to classes such as marketing and law, which she has never taught.

Whaley told the Board would you move a student to a new class without talking to them. “This was all done without any talk, a phone call is all that was done.” Whaley noted after the matter began to surface publicly the entire department was cut in half for the teachers. There would now be eight people teaching what four people used to do and those people do not have any experience either.

The Board of Education discussed the matter in executive session following the public session at the Devin Center. BOE President Tom Brungardt made it clear there would be no final action taken by the Board Tuesday night. Responding to a question he said, “Did we talk about it. We talked about it for a very long time, yes. ” When asked where the issue was heading Brungardt stated, “It’s back in the lap of the superintendent.”