Sports: ACC soccer teams go up against Neosho See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
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Thursday, October 23, 2014
USD 257
Technology suffers due to lack of funds By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
A school district is similar to a household when it comes to budgeting. It, too, has bills and must deal with limited resources. For USD 257, the maintenance of its buildings has required a larger and larger portion of its budget, leaving little funds for other departments such as technology. Most schools in the state are able to purchase and update technology for its buildings through capital outlay — money to be used for physical improvements as well as books and technology. “Currently our capital outlay budget is being used on roofs and building repairs,” USD 257 technology director Brett Linn said. “This is as much as $400,000 a year.
With the technology budget having to come out of general funds, we can’t properly maintain and upgrade technology.” To help out, parent-teacher organizations and other outside organizations have raised funds to purchase technology for individual buildings. That’s all well and good, Linn said, except that it creates disparities between schools. “Due to budget constraints the district has not been able to match the supplementary donations made by PTOs for all other buildings.” This means students at Jefferson Elementary School, for example, might have more sophisticated electronic devices than McKinley or Lincoln. Linn See TECHNOLOGY | Page A5
A tree grows in Iola
Ben Postlethwait gave USD 257 SAFE BASE kids a lesson in how to plant trees on the Allen County Courthouse lawn Wednesday afternoon — and then turned the chore over to the students. Postlethwait, a Westar Energy biologist, brought 22 trees to the downtown square, donated by the company. All are native and raised in Kansas — crabapple, redbud, bald cypress, elm, sycamore and oak. Ron Holman, in charge of grounds and maintenance, said more than 20 trees had been removed from the lawn in recent years because of disease and storm damage. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON
Fact sheet: Kansans sign up for ACA Canada attack stirs terrorist fears TOPEKA — As open enrollment for the health insurance marketplaces approaches, it’s important to look back at results from the first year. More than 57,000 Kansans signed up for health insurance coverage for the 2014 plan year through the Kansas marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Kansas Health Institute (KHI) has produced a fact sheet summarizing enrollment results, characteristics of the Kansans who purchased plans, and the financial assistance they received through the federally managed system. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported 99,380 Kansans shopped for insurance in the marketplace and were deemed eligible to enroll in a plan. Of those, 57,013 actually signed up for coverage. Young adults (age 18-34) made up nearly a third (31.3 percent) of Kansas enrollees. This age group is generally healthier, and their participation in the marketplace helps
By BENJAMIN SHINGLER Associated Press
subsidize costs for their older counterparts. Older adults (age 55-64) and whites were overrepresented in market-
By JOHN HANNA Associated Press
at Riverside Park. The final schools forum sponsored by the district will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 at McKinley Elementary School. Voters will decide Nov. 4 whether to approve construction of new elementary and high schools for USD 257. The school board has an option to build the schools on land north of Oregon Road, on both sides of the Prairie Spirit Trail.
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 254
See ACA | Page A5
See SHOOTING | Page A5
Secretary of state candidates meet
School forums on tap for bond issue The latest in a series of forums regarding USD 257’s upcoming school bond vote will at 7 o’clock tonight at LaHarpe City Hall. Tonight’s event, sponsored by the school district, is the first of three meetings in coming days. A town hall meeting organized by a group of local residents is on the docket for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Recreation Community Building
place enrollment compared to their proportion of the overall
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Two deadly attacks in three days against members of the military stunned Canadians and raised fears their country was being targeted for reprisals for joining the U.S.led air campaign against an extremist Islamic group in Iraq and Syria. “We will not be intimidated. Canada will never be intimidated,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed in a nationally televised address hours after a masked gunman killed a soldier standing guard at Ottawa’s war memorial shortly before 10 a.m. Wednesday. The suspect then stormed Parliament in a dramatic attack that was stopped cold when he was shot to death by the ceremonial sergeant-at-arms. Harper called it the coun-
try’s second terrorist attack in three days. A man Harper described as an “ISIL-inspired terrorist” on Monday ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring another before being shot to death by police. Like the suspect from Wednesday’s shooting in Ottawa, he was a recent convert to Islam. Investigators offered little information about the gunman in Ottawa, identified as 32-year-old petty criminal Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. But Harper said: “In the days to come we will learn about the terrorist and any accomplices he may have had.” Witnesses said the soldier posted at the National War Memorial, identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, was gunned down at point-blank range by a man carrying a rifle and dressed all in black, his face
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach disclosed Wednesday night that he earns between $30,000 and $100,000 a year from his legal work outside his official duties as Kansas’ top elections official, but his Democratic opponent said she thinks he is understating the figure. Former state senator Jean Schodorf pressed Kobach on his outside compensation during their second televised debate. She’s made it a major issue in her attempt to deny
him a second, four-year term in the Nov. 4 election. The two candidates also sparred over two election laws enacted at Kobach’s urging. A 2012 law requires all voters to Schodorf show photo ID at the polls, while a 2013 statute requires new voters to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship when registering. Kobach said Wednesday that Kansas now has the best antifraud laws in the nation, while Schodorf said the laws have been poorly administered, in a
“There are two ways to handle a woman, and nobody knows either of them.” — Kin Hubbard 75 Cents
way that suppresses turnout. On the issue of outside work, Schodorf accused Kobach of being a part-time secretary of state. He dismissed the allegation, saying he hanKobach dles the work in relatively few hours a week during his spare time. He said the annual figure varies widely because the volume of his legal work varies. The Republican incumbent is a former law professor who See DEBATE | Page A3
Hi: 73 Lo: 55 Iola, KS