Baseball: McLean resigns as baseball coach at Allen
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THE IOLA REGISTER Thursday, May 15, 2014
Little graduates
USD 257
Iola takes on new food program By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
Windsor Place Age to Age graduates, above, wave to family and friends at the morning graduation ceremony Wednesday. Connor McCullough, bottom left, shakes hands with Windsor Place resident John Hartman. MaKayla Beal, bottom right, receives her diploma. An afternoon ceremony also took place. For more pictures visit iolaregister.com REGISTER/KAYLA BANZET
Moody’s: Kansas needs to right ship TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas needs to make more spending cuts to offset tax cuts enacted by Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature last year, but it won’t be easy, a report released by Moody’s Investor Services this week said. The report by the debt analysis agency goes into additional detail about why it
ported. The Legislature recently increased spending $129 million for education in the 2014-14 school year after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that past cuts in aid to poor school districts created unconstitutional gaps in funding between poor districts and wealthier ones.
Eliminating a tax that has been in place for many years and has accounted for a large share of revenue entails risks. — Moody’s Investor Services
downgraded the credit rating on Kansas bonds last month and what needs to be done to achieve structural balance in the state’s finances. Because of tax cuts championed by Brownback, revenues are shrinking and more spending cuts are needed to offset that, Moody’s said. But reducing state spending won’t be easy because of court-ordered school funding, federal mandates in such programs as Medicaid, and legal requirements to fund the state pension system, The Lawrence Journal-World re-
“These constraints could also lead the state to continue to utilize credit-negative actions such as appropriation from other one-time sources like the state highway fund,” the report said. Last year the Legislature approved and Brownback signed into law reductions in state income tax rates and elimination of income taxes for many businesses, with the rates to continue falling through 2018. While Brownback has said the tax cuts will promote
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Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 141
Iola students can look forward to new food options next school year. On Monday night the USD 257 Board of Education finalized a contract with OPPA Food Management. OPPA specializes in serving nutritional meals to K-12 school districts. The company says it provides fresh products and homemade meals. “We hope the participation in lunch throughout the district will go up,” Superintendent of Schools Jack Koehn said. “I think people will be pleasantly surprised with how well it will turn out.” With in-house food service the district had to transfer up to $30,000 from the general funds and $225,000 from local option budget funding to subsidize the program. Koehn said the district will no longer have to do that. The turn around will be about $300,000 for the district. Food service personnel no longer will be USD 257 employees with OPPA taking over. This year the district
had a food service staff of 28. “If they want to apply they can,” Koehn said. “OPPA wants people with experience and food service knowledge.” Other companies that bid for the district were Chartwells, Treat America and Taher. A committee of board members, staff and administration visited several districts to sample each company’s service. Committee members scored each company on such things as price and food quality. Koehn said every committee member scored OPPA the highest. At each lunch, students will have three entree options. For example, they could have chicken alfredo, a meatball sub or lasagna. Or they could hit up the salad bar or wrap and sandwich bar. OPPA is donating salad bars to each USD 257 school. A student lunch will cost $2.80, breakfast $1.88. USD 257 will be in charge of the summer food program in June. On July 1 OPPA will be take on the district’s food service program.
‘A good transition’ Alum Jeff Dieker will speak at ACC graduation By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Jeff Dieker is proud to have graduated from Allen Community College, which he intends to emphasize when he speaks at ACC’s commencement exercises at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Dieker was selected as ACC’s distinguished alumnus this year, which includes delivering the keynote speak at graduation. “It was a good transition for me,” between Garnett High School and the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, Dieker told the Register. “I had 80 hours at Allen and 79 of them transferred to KU. The only one that didn’t was an hour of freshman orientation.” Dieker grew up on a farm near Westphalia and as high school graduation approached in the spring of 1983, he had a decision to make, either go into farming or pursue another career. Farming then wasn’t too attractive; with interest rates at 17 percent many farmers were not surviving. High school career day at ACC helped the farm lad decide on pharmacy. The college had courses that appealed to him — anatomy, biology and chemistry, all staples in preparation for pharmacy school. “I decided that day I wanted
Jeff Dieker will speak at Allen Community College graduation on Saturday morning. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON to go into pharmacy,” Dieker said, and never wavered. With Bob Barclay his advisor, Dieker found the right course work. On graduation from ACC in 1985, Barclay, a fixture in the science department, helped Dieker gain entrance to KU’s pharmacy program.
“If you can dream it you can do it.” — Walt Disney, animator
75 Cents
He graduated from ACC in 1985, and yet today looks back on nothing but good experiences. “I had good instructors and it was close enough I could live at home,” although that did require a daily commute See DIEKER | Page A5
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