Football: Iola players earn postseason honors
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THE IOLA REGISTER Thursday, November 14, 2013
STATE
Test scores slip across Kansas By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
A STATE OF RELIEF
Filipino native’s family unharmed by devastating typhoon
Dean Westerman listens as his wife, Helen, talks about her family in the Philippines. She is originally from Bacolod, pictured below in the map. Bacolod was in the path of Typhoon Haiyan, and most of the damage there was from massive flooding from ocean surges. REGISTER/
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas elementary and secondary school students’ overall scores on statewide reading and math tests slipped this year, declining together for the first time since 2000, the state Department of Education reported Tuesday. The department reported that 84.7 percent of the 261,000 students who took reading tests this spring were proficient, compared to 87 percent last year. For math, 78.3 percent of the students were proficient, compared
We actually declined in every category, which is discouraging to say the least.
BOB JOHNSON
— Ken Willard, Department of Education
Path through the Philippines
By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
“The relief was overwhelming,” said Iolan Helen Westerman, when she learned Saturday that her sister, Maylin, brother-in-law and father were safe after a typhoon struck a devastating blow against the Philippines. She has three other sisters, two in Manila and one on the west side of an island that took the brunt of the oncein-a-lifetime storm. Helen knows the two in Manila are fine and has reason to think the fourth is as well. “I told Maylin if I didn’t hear from her, I’d know my other sibling was OK,” she said. Calls between the Philippines and the United States are expensive, which limits their frequency, even under such trying circumstances. Sister Maylin and family live in the community of Bacolod, in what Helen described as a shack on stilts near the ocean. That’s where she grew up. “Maylin called Friday, before the storm hit, to tell me they were in a shelter in a concrete rice warehouse, stacked in like sardines” Helen said. Severe weather frequently strikes the Philippines and no one ignores orders to seek refuge in shelters when the See RELIEF | Page A4
Official death estimates are still being compiled after Typhoon Haiyan’s direct hit on the Philippines, but an estimated 9.5 million people in the country have been affected by the storm.
Population density By province Less dense
More dense
PH I LI PPI N E S
Estimated extent of the storm
Bacolod Manila
Path of Typhoon Haiyan
to 85 percent last year. Declines were present across ethnic and socioeconomic groups, the department said. “We actually declined in every category, which is discouraging to say the least,” said board member Ken Willard, a Hutchinson Republican. The department also said 59 percent of the state’s nearly 1,400 public and accredited private K-12 schools failed to show progress this year in improving student scores. The declines in the reading and math percentages could intensify a debate over whether the state is spending enough money on its public schools. The decrease also could lead to renewed criticism from political conserSee SCORES | Page A4
© 2013 MCT Source: Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Reuters, United Nations, Weather Underground, The Washington Post, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, National Statistical Coordination Board, Philippines Graphic: Chiacgo Tribune
Driven by the human spirit
ACC BOARD
Allen in early stages of development, plans
ACRH welcomes newest oncologist
By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
By STEVEN SCHWARTZ The Iola Register
Finding a silver lining in the face of cancer can be an insurmountable obstacle for patients — but when they do, it makes Dr. Cinderella Chavez’s job worthwhile. Dr. Chavez is an oncologist with Central Care Cancer Network, which operates out of Salina. Her company recently expanded to Iola; she visits Allen County Regional Hospital twice a month to work with patients. Chavez, 34, is originally from the Philippines, where she studied in Manila. She completed her residency and fellowship in New York, at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center of Columbia University and Hofstra North Shore Long Island Jewish Medical Center, respectively. She moved to Emporia in 2012 to work with the center. “I got drawn to the field,” she said, during her studies in Manila. She worked with government hospitals in the area, and many of the patients she saw were “advanced cases.” She said the “Filipino way” was something that inspired her during her visits. “They are certainly resilient, and they have a willingness to push through the care,” she
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 15
Improving the Allen Community College campus is a top priority for college trustees. They voiced their ideas on what should be updated and renovated at a meeting Tuesday night. Allen President John Masterson said the process of planning projects has begun. Trustees agree improvements are needed but concern of smaller projects being completed before a larger picture is devised worried some. “I don’t want to commit something to a short term project if we don’t have a long-term plan,” Neal Barclay said. Ken McGuffin agreed with Barclay. “We should work on immediate needs of the college before you build new, but
Dr. Cinderella Chavez said. After moving to the U.S. in 2006, she has seen more of the same. She said cancer treatments are a dark reality to patients, but the diagnosis often brings out the best in them. See CHAVEZ | Page A4
“The truth is more important than the facts.”
— Frank Lloyd Wright
75 Cents
you don’t want to put that off, either,” McGuffin said. Projects that need to be tackled include replacing the floor in the chemistry lab and expanding the student center. Cynthia Jacobson, vice president for student affairs, brought attention to scheduling issues of intersession. Intersession was scheduled from Jan. 6 to 10. The spring semester begins on Jan. 21, which means students attending intersession would have one week and two weekends of idle time before the semester started. She proposed that they reschedule intersession for Jan. 8-14. The trustees approved the change. Masterson told trustees a tuition and fee increase is a possibility. “It would increase $3 a credit hour,” Masterson See PLANS | Page A4
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