Sports: Brownback could pave way for Colyer
Sports: Iola Indians compete in KC tourney See B1
2017 1867
See A2
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
Low pay a factor in teacher shortage By CELIA LLOPSIS-JEPSEN Kansas News Service
In his 26 years at Meade Unified School District 226, a 400-student district southwest of Dodge City, Superintendent Kenneth Harshberger has watched the educational landscape change. Teachers are harder to recruit — even for elementary jobs, which were traditionally easier to fill. “The first time I tried to hire an elementary teacher 25, 26 years ago, we had over 100 applicants,” he recalled. “Now I can’t get five applicants.” While there likely are numerous reasons behind that change, a new national report on rural teacher pay in the 50 states shows Kansas ranks lowest. That report follows another Kansas-specific study noting evidence of a teacher shortage in some rural areas of the state, particularly in the southwest corner. Ken Weaver, dean of the Teachers College at Emporia State University, co-authored an analysis of the teacher shortage situation in Kansas that was released last year.
www.iolaregister.com
Monday, June 26, 2017
He thinks the newly released national report on teacher pay may shed light on one of the reasons for the Kansas shortage. “I do think that’s an important piece of the puzzle,” he said. “The challenge is, how does that piece of the puzzle kind of make it out there, into the minds and into the hearts of policymakers and decision-makers?” The national compilation by the Rural School and Community Trust draws on 2012 information that schools reported to the federal government — total instructional salaries divided by the number of instructional staff in each district. The trust uses this calculation as a stand-in for teacher pay. At rural schools in Kansas, this works out to about $40,900, compared to a national average of just under $57,800. Missouri came in second-lowest around $44,100. The trust used the federal government’s definition of rural school districts. Nationally, nearly 20 percent of public school students attend ruSee TEACHER | Page A4
The number of college students seeking teaching degrees (in blue) and those graduating with such degrees (in red) have dropped annually since 2011. KCUR GRAPHIC
Chapter complete
By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT — After 14 weeks of training, Nina Froggatte graduated from the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center Friday. The ceremony marked the 245th class to graduate from the basic training course. Chief Terry Zeigler of the Kansas City Police Department gave the commencement address. “Each of you will now go back to your community and apply what you learned in the classroom to serve the community,” Zeigler said. “It will not be easy, I promise you that. There is going to be many challenges, but you
Nina Froggatte graduated from the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center Friday. The Register has covered Froggatte’s journey over the 14-week course.
See GRAD | Page A4
Gas restaurant plans to open in August By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
Editor’s note: Part of this story was omitted in Saturday’s paper and is being rerun in its entirety today. The building best known to locals as Bonnie’s Corner Cafe is set to make a comeback in August. Tina Spiares and her husband, Russ Gardner, formerly of Pleasanton, are hustling to complete a number of renovations to the building that has been vacant since 2016. In the interim it was known as Ruth and Earl’s, but for less than a year. From painting to tearing out walls, Spiares and Gardner have their plates full. New plumbing throughout the gutted building is being installed and it has no gas lines. “We don’t know where the gas lines went,” Spiares said. Furniture, grills and kitchen appliances have to
Tina Spiares and Russ Gardner are renovating the building soon to be known as Tina’s Place. The new restaurant is set to open in August at the location of the former Bonnie’s Corner Cafe in Gas. REGISTER/ SHELLIE SMITLEY be replaced as well. As fate would have it, many of the original kitchen appliances will be purchased back from Regina and Loren Lance, owners of the Mildred Store, who purchased them after Ruth and Earl’s closed. Fate may have a hand in the entire venture. Gardner, a retired law officer, dreamed of living in northern Wisconsin after retiring from law enforcement for the second time. In support
of that dream, Spiares elected to close down her restaurant of seven years, “Tina’s Place.” “It (Wisconsin) was the place to go. Everyone in Pleasanton is mad at me,” she said of her decision to close her restaurant last winter. The couple set their sights on a house in Spooner, Wis. But before the purchase was finalized, the area where the See GAS | Page A4
Brownback signs budget
Heavy load John Hole, Humboldt, pulls the sled 104.17 feet on his 12-horsepower tractor “The Sears,” Saturday during the Renegades Tractor Pull at Iola’s Riverside Park. REGISTER/SHELLIE SMITLEY
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 169
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Sunday signed a state budget for the next two years that will use a $1.2 billion income tax increase to fund government and schools, although he says it includes “excessive spending.” Brownback signed the $15.6 billion budget bill on Sunday but complained that it unnecessarily increased spending in several areas. “I am signing the budget, despite my concerns about excessive spending, to avoid a break in core functions of government and to provide state workers with welldeserved pay increases,” Brownback said. The budget will provide raises of up to 5 percent to
“It’s too bad I’m not as wonderful as people say I am, because the world could use a few people like that.”
state workers who haven’t had any in recent years. He vetoed two items related to p r o g r a m s Brownback for people with disabilities and mental health programs. Lawmakers have a chance to override those vetoes today. House Minority Leader Jim Ward, D-Wichita, told the Topeka Capital-Journal he planned to lead an effort to override Brownback’s effort to combine seven Medicaid programs for the disabled into one group. Ward said the budget reinvests in services that have been neglected by Brownback’s administration.
Hi: 78 Lo: 57
— Alan Alda, actor 75 Cents
Iola, KS