The good thing about being in the business of education is that it is inherently a rewarding career.
And at the end of the school year, especially, teachers and administrators see the fruits of their labors in the form of their students successfully completing their classes and moving on to the next grade.
At Monday’s meeting USD 257 Board of Education meeting members celebrated the recent graduations of not only Iola High School students but also those of its Crossroads program for non-traditional students.
“I thought it was a pretty powerful ceremony,” Jack Koehn, USD 257 superintendent of schools, said about Saturday’s Crossroads graduation. “Sometimes you don’t realize what that second chance means to some kids and adults. Saturday was a good day to be an educator.”
The Crossroads program awarded six students and three adults their high school diplomas. Sunday’s ceremony had 81 graduates.
These days, school officials need all the good vibes they can get because sometime in the next few weeks they will learn whether their schools will be closed by an order of the Kansas Supreme Court.
At issue is whether current funding is equitable for public schools across the state. If the justices say no, then that goes against the state constitution and legislators will be charged to fix how schools are funded.
Following that scenario, the thinking is that legislators would have until June 30 to figure a better formula. If that doesn’t happen, schools would be ordered to shut down by mid-July, putting in immediate jeopardy the July 20 payroll.
Districts across the state are preparing for the shutdown, Koehn said.
For USD 257, all programs and services would cease immediately, including SAFE BASE, the summer meal service, summer school, summer weight lifting and summer sports camps. All school employees would be furloughed. Hourly classified employees would not be paid.
Summer maintenance projects would not happen.
Koehn said five teachers asked to be paid in a lump sum to take them through the summer months specifically because they were concerned about school finance. The deadline to make such a request was April 1.
HAVING FAITH this won’t be the summer education comes to an end, Kathy Koehn, nutrition and wellness coordinator, told members about the district’s summer food program, which goes from June 1 to Aug. 5.
New this year is a bus, fondly called Marv, that has been outfitted as a diner by students.
With the traveling food bus, “we will be taking the food to the children,” Koehn said. The bus includes eight tables that can sit four apiece. Students in woods class made the tables. Vo-ag students removed benches and welded the tables onto the floor of the bus. Art students have decorated the bus inside and out.
The route will include sites in Gas, LaHarpe and Iola. Students were given maps of meal sites today.
