Spring 2017

THE

JOURNAL

INSPIRATION FOR THE COMMON GOOD • VOLUME 9 • ISSUE 1 • SPRING 2017 • $10.00

What would you change?

JOIN THE GREAT SCHOOL FUNDING DEBATE

LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD

GET MORE TO THOSE IN NEED

SPEND WHAT IT TAKES

HELP CHILDREN EARLIER

PROVIDE MORE CHOICE

PROMOTE TECH ED

MAKE CLASS SIZES SMALLER

GET BACK TO WHAT WORKED

EMPOWER EDUCATORS

klcjournal.com

THE

JOURNAL

THE JOURNAL

(Print edition: ISSN 2328-4366; Online edition: ISSN 2328-4374) is published quarterly by the Kansas Leadership Center, which receives core funding from the Kansas Health Foundation.

The Kansas Leadership Center equips people with the ability to make lasting change for the common good. KLC focuses on leadership being an activity, not a role or position. Open to anyone seeking to move the needle on tough challenges in the civic arena, KLC envisions more Kansans sharing responsibility for acting together in pursuit of the common good.

KLC MISSION

To foster civic leadership for healthier Kansas communities KLC VISION

To be the center of excellence for civic leadership development KANSAS LEADERSHIP CENTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CONTRIBUTORS

PHOTOGRAPHY

Jeff Tuttle Photography 316.706.8529 jefftuttlephotography.com MANAGING EDITOR

Chris Green 316.712.4945 cgreen@kansasleadershipcenter.org ART DIRECTION + DESIGN

Novella Brandhouse 816.868.9825 www.novellabrandhouse.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Kim Gronniger Sarah Caldwell Hancock Mark McCormick Dawn Bormann Novascone Laura Roddy MeLinda Schnyder Joe Stumpe Patsy Terrell Brian Whepley

MeLinda Schnyder CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Born in Columbia, Missouri, MeLinda earned a journalism degree from the University of Missouri.

She has used her writing skills in many settings, among them: covering sports for The Wichita Eagle; penning speeches for the CEO of Cessna Aircraft Company; and writing and photographing travel features for national magazines. She moved to Kansas in 1994 to work at The Eagle, where she met her husband, Lee, a lifelong Wichitan and fellow sports and travel enthusiast.

COPY EDITORS

David Lindstrom, Overland Park (Chair) Ed O’Malley, Wichita (President & CEO) Ron Holt, Wichita Karen Humphreys, Wichita Mary Lou Jaramillo, Merriam Susan Kang, Lawrence Carolyn Kennett, Parsons Greg Musil, Overland Park Reggie Robinson, Topeka Frank York, Ashland

Bruce Janssen Shannon Littlejohn ILLUSTRATIONS

Pat Byrnes

Pat Byrnes ILLUSTRATOR

Pat is a cartoonist for The New Yorker, with two published anthologies of his works, “What Would Satan Do?” and “Because I’m the Child Here and I Said So.” He is the author of “Captain Dad: The Manly Art of Stay-at-Home Fatherhood,” illustrator of “Eats Shoots & Leaves Illustrated Edition,” and patented inventor of the Smurks emotional index. He lives in Chicago with his wife (Illinois Attorney General) Lisa Madigan and their two precious daughters.

WEB EDITION

klcjournal.com SUBSCRIPTIONS

Annual subscriptions available at klcjr.nl/amzsubscription ($24.95 for four issues).

Single issues available for $10 at WatermarkBooks.com.

PERMISSIONS

Abstracting is permitted with credit to the source.

For other reprint, copying or reproduction permission contact Chris Green at cgreen@kansasleadershipcenter.org.

KANSAS LEADERSHIP CENTER

325 East Douglas Avenue Wichita, KS 67202 www.kansasleadershipcenter.org

Bruce Janssen COPY CHIEF

Bruce spent more than 30 years working in various capacities in the newspaper business, a career that took him from The (Larned) Tiller and Toiler to The Wichita Eagle to The Kansas City Star. He and his wife, Ellen, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in June. Since retiring, Bruce has had more time to go fishing, hunt pheasants, dote on his grandsons and perfect his curmudgeonly attitude. His outlook on prose can be reduced to: “Don’t write awkwardly.”

Contents INSPIRATION FOR THE COMMON GOOD • VOLUME 9 • ISSUE 1 • SPRING 2017 PUBLISHED BY KANSAS LEADERSHIP CENTER

2.

30.

56.

BY: PRESIDENT AND CEO ED O’MALLEY

BY: DAWN BORMANN NOVASCONE

BY: BRIAN WHEPLEY

4.

34.

60.

BY: CHRIS GREEN

BY: SARAH CALDWELL HANCOCK

Welcome to the Journal

The Smart Partisan

Not Us vs. Them

A Man of Many Hats

Straddling the Divide

Put Focus on Student Achievement

6.

38.

BY: DAVE TRABERT

BY: MELINDA SCHNYDER

BY: JOE STUMPE

How to Engage Effectively

A Fateful Turn

14.

Leadership, Civic Engagement and School Funding BY: CHRIS GREEN

22.

Education at a Crossroads BY: CHRIS GREEN

26.

Wanting a Chance BY: DAWN BORMANN NOVASCONE

Bringing ‘Light Bulb’ Moments

62.

42.

BY: CHRIS GREEN

BY: CHRIS GREEN

The Unlikeliest Composition

Closing A Gap with Choice

46.

Building a Future Workforce BY: KIM GRONNIGER

48.

Doing the ‘Best We Can’ – With Less BY: LAURA RODDY

52.

Choosing Private but Supporting Public BY: BRIAN WHEPLEY

66.

BY: SARAH CALDWELL HANCOCK

76.

In Extremis after Mary Oliver BY: WYATT TOWNLEY

78.

Wall de Memorias FEATURED ARTIST WENDI RUTH VALLADARES

80.

The Back Page BY: MARK MCCORMICK

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LETTER FROM KANSAS LEADERSHIP CENTER PRESIDENT & CEO ED O’MALLEY

KLC, by the Numbers DATA SUMMARIZE A DECADE OF IMPACT

The Kansas Leadership Center turned 10 this year. We haven’t scheduled a party. I’m not that into celebrations. Just ask my wife. But I want to mark the occasion somehow; hence this column.

After 10 years, we still aren’t very good at explaining KLC. I know, I know. We need an elevator speech. We’ve had several over the years. None of them really works. Why? I think it’s because KLC doesn’t fit a mental model.

When a friend starts a restaurant, we all have a mental model for that. When a friend becomes a consultant, we have a mental model for that, too. But a leadership center? What’s that? What does it do? Who is it for? How does it work?

While we are hard at work on our next elevator speech, I’ll simply share some numbers that convey the breadth and depth of KLC. 9,000 – The approximate total number of participants in KLC programs over the past decade.

6,500+ – total number of alumni (several come to more than one program, so the total participant number is larger).

289 – KLC Champions, who are key advocates for KLC programming in their communities and sectors.

220 – The approximate number of leadership programs KLC has put on since our founding.

97 – The percentage of participants who would recommend KLC programs to a friend or colleague.

96 – The number of counties with at least one KLC alum. We’ve yet to have participants from Doniphan, Edwards, Haskell, Jewell, Morton, Ness, Osborne, Stevens and Wallace counties.

We’re working on it!

80/80 – Our goal for our standard one-month follow-up survey (which helps us ensure we’re sufficiently aiding participants). We aim for an 80 percent response rate and 80 percent of respondents “strongly agreeing” or “agreeing” with this statement: “My KLC experience is helping me make progress on my leadership challenges.” We conduct a number of other evaluation efforts, but we think of the 80/80 as our immediate scorecard.

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48 – Community leadership programs across the state that have engaged with KLC over the years.

We view these local programs as the bedrock of community leadership development in Kansas and work hard to support them.

45, including the District of Columbia – The number of states represented by KLC alumni.

(States not represented: Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota.)

45 – The staff, faculty, coach and contractor team that work for KLC. It is an amazing family. Several have moved on over the years, but we still think of them as part of the effort.

35 – Leadership Development Transformation Grant partners in 2017. KLC gives these grants to organizations interested in flooding their ranks with people trained by KLC. Interested in a grant for your organization? Contact Ashley at alongstaff@kansasleadershipcenter.org.

33 – The number of countries represented by KLC alumni.

30 – Companies and private organizations working with KLC for their own leadership development.

The funding KLC receives from this custom work helps us issue even more Leadership Development Transformation Grants.

23 – Issues of The Journal that KLC has published.

Chris Green (The Journal’s managing editor) and his team create The Journal to be chock full of stories of Kansans exercising the type of leadership we teach at KLC and stories about issues facing Kansas that need more leadership.

Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere. It starts with you and must engage others. Your purpose must be clear. It’s risky.

4 – Competencies of leadership we’ve been teaching since our first program in 2008: Diagnose situation. Manage self. Intervene skillfully. Energize others.

3 – Number of core KLC programs. We’ve experimented with a number of program types over the years and have settled on a powerful mixture of three core programs. You Lead Now is our three-day deep dive introduction, offered monthly. Lead for Change is a flagship threemonth experience, offered three times annually.

Equip to Lead is our monthly opportunity to learn and practice how we teach.

1 – KLC is still, to our knowledge, one of a kind.

We’re the only statewide effort we’re aware of that is working with thousands of people annually and focused on leadership for the common good.

Our friends at Leadership Victoria (Australia) come closest, and we’ve visited with dozens of other efforts around the United States and the world, hoping to help foster sister organizations elsewhere.

As a proud Kansan, I love that people from around the world look to Kansas as the example.

The numbers don’t tell the whole picture, but I hope they convey the scope of KLC. They can’t convey the impact of amazing Kansans putting the ideas of KLC in action in their communities and organizations. That’s where the real magic of the idea of KLC resides.

Onward!

5 – Sectors we target for our program participants: government, nonprofit, education, faith and business. Our goal is to have 20 percent of participants from each sector.

5 – Principles of leadership that form the foundation of KLC curriculum: Leadership is an activity.

PRESIDENT & CEO KANSAS LEADERSHIP CENTER

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The Smart Partisan HOW TO ENGAGE EFFECTIVELY IN A POLITICAL WORLD WHERE THE TABLES ARE LIKELY TO KEEP TURNING

Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines than at any point in the past two decades, the Pew Research Center reported in 2014. And it isn’t just that we’re rooting for our own political team. We increasingly hate the other side more and more and see their policies as a threat to the well-being of our nation and ourselves.

Let’s be clear that partisanship isn’t an inherently bad thing. It brings clarity to the political system.

By identifying with political parties, individuals can gain a better understanding of their own political beliefs and join with others to advance them. When parties advocate for very different policies, voters can have a better understanding of the consequences of their choices at the ballot box. And political allegiances – having a “team” you prefer to play on – is often a huge factor in driving political participation such as voting and contributing money to a candidate.

By: CHRIS GREEN

Partisanship has been a crucial force in driving civic engagement since the early days of this country. But when the embers of political passion burn too hot, it can be counterproductive. The inauguration of President Donald Trump, and the torrent of protest it has unleashed, threatens to widen the nation’s political fissures further.

All Kansans have values and beliefs they want to see advanced in the state and country. Many of us consider ourselves to be members of political parties – and even those of us who fancy ourselves to be independents often lean consistently in one direction or the other.

Partisanship is a reality of engaging in political life. But it can also be done in smart, thoughtful ways that contribute to the common good. Here are six steps, informed by ideas in the Kansas Leadership Center’s framework, for being a better partisan in an age of polarization.

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1. Partisanship is a “hell of a drug.”

Don’t overindulge. Partisanship provides a feeling of belonging and being on a team. We get to know who we are and what we stand for. But it’s also, as the political scientist Brendan Nyhan says, a “hell of a drug.” Much like a strong cocktail or a few pints of beer, too much of it can warp our perception.

Polls show it can make us more accepting of behavior on our teams that we strongly criticize the other side for. It’s easy to see the worst in our opponents and the best in the people on our team. Rather than getting swept up in the fervor, we would be wise to sip partisanship in moderation – and be willing to cut ourselves off.

2. Consider that you might be a flesh-starved zombie yourself.

In a recent TEDx Talk, Stanford University sociologist Robb Willer compared our political discourse to a zombie apocalypse film. We tend to see our side as the heroes and the other side as mindless zombies out to destroy us. But what if it’s the other way around? What if your side looks just as bloodthirsty to a group of zombies only trying to defend themselves? You might consider how the other side might have good reason to feel as threatened by your political beliefs as you are by theirs.

3. Look to see your values in the other side.

As strongly divided as we appear to be, a lot of basic human values seem universal. The problem is that, as individuals and groups, we place different priorities on them. Willer mentioned in his talk that research shows liberals giving a higher priority to values such as equality and fairness; conservatives are more likely to elevate loyalty and respect for authority and tradition. Since we all share these values at some level, if you look hard enough you can see how what opponents value might connect to what you believe (even if feels like a stretch at first). Surely there are ways in which liberal beliefs reflect purity, respect and loyalty, and conservatives value fairness and equality.

4. But speak to their values.

One of the biggest mistakes we tend to make in political communication is to assume that we

should lead with stressing our own values and beliefs. But if everybody does this, we’re doing little more than creating a tower of political Babel that allows no one to understand anyone else.

If you’re going to engage the other side in conversation, you probably, as Willer says, want to speak to their language by acknowledging their highest values, not your own.

5. Dial back the outrage machine.

Outrage can be a powerful fuel for political action.

But if you blow your top at every action of the other side, you’re bound to wear out, if not yourself, then certainly others around you. Use some perspective to gain control over the level of your outrage. Why does this upset you so much? Has your side ever done something similarly upsetting to others? How might you take positive action on what you care about rather than react in anger?

If you can manage your own emotions, you’ll be better positioned to respond in more effective ways to advance what you care about the most.

6. Try thinking about political problems like they’re a giant jigsaw puzzle.

A puzzle has hundreds of pieces of different shapes, sizes and colors. But you will need all of them if you want to put the whole thing together. As much as we want to advance our own beliefs, we’d be mindful to be curious about other viewpoints and how they might fit with ours to solve challenges and problems. How would we behave differently in political dialogue if our starting point was that our views are just one piece of a much bigger puzzle?

7. Play the long game.

As attractive as short-term victories can be, we’d be to wise to value upholding rules and trustworthy processes above the outcomes we prefer. This can be difficult, because it often means accepting an outcome we find less than ideal or slowing the pace for an objective we desire. But if we can uphold trustworthy processes no matter who’s in power, then we can ensure fair, respectful treatment over the long haul. Just because your side is winning or losing now doesn’t mean it always will. So plan for a future in which the tables will keep turning.

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A serendipitous conversation persuaded McPherson College President Michael Schneider to look beyond quick fixes to increase freshman retention at his institution.

A FAT E F U L TURN WHEN MCPHERSON COLLEGE’S EFFORTS TO INCREASE ITS RETENTION OF FRESHMEN HIT A WALL, ITS PRESIDENT RADICALLY CHANGED ITS APPROACH. ALTHOUGH SOME WERE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THAT SHIFT, IT MAY WELL BE RESHAPING THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE BETTER.

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By: MELINDA SCHNYDER

T H E F I R S T G AT H E R I N G O F M C P H E R S O N C O L L E G E ’ S FA C U LT Y A N D S T A F F T O D I S C U S S A N I N I T I A T I V E T O I N C R E A S E F R E S H M A N R E T E N T I O N D I D N ’ T L E AV E MANY PEOPLE CLAMORING FOR A SEQUEL.

The meeting, which took place in the fall of 2014, was heated and uncomfortable.

Ostensibly, employees of the private, four-year liberal arts college with an enrollment of about 700 shared a desire to increase the number of returning students and move them along the path to graduation. But starting a dialogue about how to meet the challenge exposed fissures no one knew existed. At times, it sounded more like a gripe session than an effort to solve a problem.

But nearly three years later, that stressful day is seen in a different light. What could have been a disaster has become something hopeful.

RIGHT: Student Matt Goist works on a 1929 Stutz in an automotive restoration course, a unique field of study among the 21 majors offered at McPherson College.

OPPOSITE PAGE: McPherson College’s once-defunct band in now one of the largest small-college bands in the state, including tubist Micah Waugh. Kyle Hopkins, associate professor of music, considers the band a powerful retention tool for the campus community.

The process got its start when college President Michael Schneider was in Lawrence visiting the chairman of his board of trustees. During his visit, the latest retention numbers for McPherson College became available. They weren’t what the college’s president wanted to see.

Despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and involving more than a dozen people over a six- to seven-year period to improve retention numbers, just slightly more than half of all freshmen were returning for their sophomore year.

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While many things were going well at the school, Schneider knew that the gold standard to measure quality at an institution like his is graduation rates, which comes down to recruiting and then keeping students.

his 12 direct subordinates, which make up his cabinet – to a two-day Kansas Leadership Center training session. The group decided to use freshman retention as the challenge to introduce the adaptive framework across campus.

“Why can’t we fix this?” he wondered out loud to Rick Doll, the then-superintendent of schools in Lawrence, who was serving his alma mater as chairman of the board. “None of the things we are throwing at this problem is working.”

The issue – data showed that for five straight years retention rates had hovered in the 50-percent range – had defied solution. The college tried purchasing a retention solution software package, hiring consultants and shuffling responsibilities to different people.

Doll offered some advice: “Look at this from an adaptive standpoint instead of looking for a technical solution,” meaning that the challenge defied quick fixes and called for a broader reassessment of the college’s values and direction.

Doll pointed Schneider in the direction of the Kansas Leadership Center. Schneider followed up. And after learning about the KLC leadership competencies, he decided to impose that framework on his campus. He mobilized the board, his team of subordinates and eventually the college’s 46 faculty members and roughly 100 staff members.

WHEN TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS FAIL

Schneider took a diverse group of 20 faculty members, staffers and administrators – including

McPherson College was hardly alone in facing retention issues (the national average at fouryear private schools is 70.8 percent). But a large portion of its students are considered at risk based on demographics alone: More than half are athletes, 28 percent are minorities and a significant number are the first in their families to go to college.

If student body numbers were to continue to fall, the college would struggle to maintain program quality and fulfill its mission to develop whole persons through scholarship, participation and service. McPherson offers 21 majors, with more than 40 emphases and 10 preprofessional programs, ranging from business to its unique undergraduate offering in automotive restoration.

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“MCPHERSON COLLEGE HAS BEEN AROUND FOR 130 YEARS AND WE’RE GOING TO BE AROUND FOR ANOTHER 1 3 0 Y E A R S I F W E C A N M A K E I N C R E M E N TA L P R O G R E S S I N S T E A D O F F E E L I N G L I K E W E H AV E T O T A K E H O M E RU N S W I N G S A N D T H E N M I S S I N G.”

The KLC training session set the stage for an all-campus meeting to discuss the initiative in the fall of 2014. The goal was to mobilize the whole college to improve freshman retention and bring the organization together with a shared commitment to trying new approaches.

Competencies that originated from the Kansas Leadership Center – inspiring a collective purpose, working across factions, testing multiple interpretations and points of view, and creating a trustworthy process – were emphasized.

“I gave everyone permission that we don’t need to go up 10 percent in one year. We just don’t want retention to go down for the year,” Schneider says. “McPherson College has been around 130 years, and we’re going to be around for another 130 years if we can make incremental progress instead of feeling like we have to take home run swings and then missing.”

For many of those in attendance, it was the first suggestion that part of their job descriptions would include recruitment and retention. That raised the heat for everyone. Some faculty members said, “Whoa, our plates are full with what we were hired to do: teach.” Some staff members said they could hardly be expected to help because they didn’t know which students were freshmen.

The admissions and student life departments – traditionally responsible for recruitment and retention – felt frustrated by peers’ pushback.

Meeting facilitators helped employees come to understand an underlying truth: If McPherson College doesn’t have students, nobody has a job.

The college created a “dream team” to connect each employee group to the adaptive leadership processes. Joining Schneider and Brenda StocklinSmith, the college’s director of human resources, were Kyle Hopkins, associate professor of music and director of bands, representing faculty; Tim Bruton, assistant facilities director, representing staffers; and Tim Swartzendruber, men’s basketball coach, representing athletics.

Despite its name, even the dream team struggled with elements of the radical change in how the college was tackling an issue. In maintenance, for example, Bruton was used to applying technical solutions to daily problems. His confidence is low on adaptive work, but he says he has learned to trust the process and appreciates that it’s making him a better leader.

“The process has allowed me to step back and consider a bigger picture,” Bruton says. Sure, his team wouldn’t be able to identify first-time freshmen, but in the end that wasn’t really a barrier. Instead of walking from building to building with their heads down, he says, the maintenance team started making eye contact and greeting all students.

Hopkins, the music professor, is in his fourth year at McPherson College. And while he was open to a new way of working, he represented faculty that included professors skeptical of change. His effort was less talking the talk and more walking the walk.

Although the college has a long tradition of choir excellence, the band program was on life support when Hopkins moved from the local high school to the college. The semester before he arrived, the band’s numbers had dwindled to two, and Hopkins

After spreading retention work across campus, McPherson College increased its fall-to-fall freshman retention rate from 56 percent to 70 percent in one year. The effort benefits everyone, from student athletes to auto restoration students such as Matthew Miller-Wells, Kaleb Rogers and Robert Uscillo, here working on a transmission.

Discussion Guide 1. What leadership lessons do you see in McPherson College’s experience in dealing with the issue of freshman retention?

2. What do you think are the crucial decisions that were made in this situation? What were their effects?

3. What do you think could get in the college’s way of continuing to make progress on this issue?

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asked for recruiting duties to be part of his job. With 56 in band, 18 in jazz band, McPherson now has one of the largest small-college bands in Kansas.

“I have every major on campus represented in my group, and we’re creating a community within a community where students enjoy spending time every week making music together,” Hopkins says.

“I take the community-building aspect of my program as importantly if not sometimes more importantly than the musical aspect. That’s a powerful retention component – not just retention for McPherson College but retaining them for a lifelong love of music, too.”

Hopkins counted himself among the skeptics after the first all-campus meeting. That session was so difficult that he told Stocklin-Smith he wouldn’t attend another. But Hopkins soon realized the encounter had been needed.

Because of the compartmentalization that had developed on campus, the experience provided the first opportunity for employees to express themselves across factions.

As the meetings became routine, they became more productive and more comfortable. Solutions and best practices began to bubble up: professors showing up to class 15 minutes early to talk to students and create bonds, custodians greeting students by name and attending concerts or art exhibits, coaches organizing social events so student-athletes could build connections with members of other teams, the Student Life department creating freshman-only floors in residence halls and staffing them with resident advisers picked to cater to freshman needs, and revamping and integrating the entire freshmanyear experience, from orientation to seminars to outside-the-classroom programming.

“When you look at the programs and things we did, on the surface they won’t be that impressive,” Schneider says. “This really is about how we did it, and that the entire campus was engaged in it.”

A PROMISING START

After its first full academic year of giving the retention work to the entire campus, McPherson College increased fall-to-fall freshmen retention

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from 56 percent to 70 percent. It happened in the same year the school welcomed its largest freshman class in 40 years and while spending significantly less money on retention efforts.

Preliminary indicators suggest that the college will have similar retention results with this year’s group of freshmen. The most recent two classes are similar in size and demographics, giving the college a good year-to-year comparison.

While no one is claiming victory, cabinet members and the dream team think the strategy is working.

The challenge is to maintain a focus on recruiting and retaining students, while resisting becoming complacent after one or two years of positive results. About 90 percent of McPherson’s employees have attended training on KLC leadership competencies, and they continue to send new hires through workshops.

There are other signs of progress, too. The Chronicle of Higher Education named McPherson College a “Great College to Work For” for the second year in a row based on an independent employee survey. It was the only college in Kansas to earn

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the recognition in 2016. Applicant pools have been bigger and more qualified, with many candidates mentioning they applied because of the ranking.

Furthermore, the institution has increased its capacity for adaptive work and for engaging broader groups of stakeholders in decision making. Schneider reinvented the way the college does strategic planning, moving from a committee planning process to a community planning process, allowing for some uncommon voices to be heard.

“There’s very much that thread of common language, of common understanding of the framework,” says Paula Vincent, current chairwoman of the board of trustees. “From my perspective it’s unleashed an entrepreneurial spirit. People feel confident that they can lead, they have the framework they lead from and it’s just how they do business now when addressing day-to-day challenges as well as those big ones like student retention and growth.”

One shift McPherson College made was sharing the responsibility for recruitment and retention among all employees, rather than assigning it to one person, such as Vice President for Enrollment Management Christi Hopkins, seen at a recent leadership recognition luncheon. About 90 percent of the college’s employees have received leadership training.

Doris Coppick is one of the community members who practices and performs with the college’s band. In addition to reviving the band, director Kyle Hopkins has helped anchor the college’s efforts to apply leadership ideas to the freshman retention effort.

Facilitators helped employees understand that without students such as Justin Smelzer, seen here welding the grill of a 1940 Plymouth PT105 truck that he’s restoring, they wouldn’t have jobs.

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Leadership, Civic Engagement and School Funding UNDERSTANDING K-12 EDUCATION AND THE KANSAS SUPREME COURT RULING FROM A LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVE

By: CHRIS GREEN

In March, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state’s K-12 school funding was constitutionally inadequate and gave the Legislature until June 30 to fix the problem.

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Q: What’s the ruling about?

A: The case was brought by a coalition of school districts. The Kansas Supreme Court decided

that too many students are falling short of meeting educational standards because public education is financed inadequately. In the aftermath of state funding reductions that began in 2009, lower percentages of students are performing above minimum levels of proficiency in subjects such as math and reading. About a quarter of the state’s students are failing to meet standards in math or reading. But certain populations of students – African-Americans, Hispanics, English-language learners, the disabled – are faring even worse.

ST U D E N TS N OT P R O F I C I E N T I N R E A D I N G O R M AT H

+

-

=

x

AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS

15,000 not proficient, 20,000 proficient HISPANIC STUDENTS

33,000 not proficient, 66,482 proficient LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

88,560 not proficient, 158,101 proficient = 1,000 NOT PROFICIENT SOURCE: KANSAS COURT RULING SOURCE: KANSAS SUPREMESUPREME COURT RULING

= 1,000 PROFICIENT

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% O F ST U D E N TS FA I L I N G TO M E E T R E A D I N G STA N DA R D S +

-

=

x

ALL STUDENTS 2011 - 12 ALL STUDENTS

LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

14.1%

12.4%

2015 2011 - 12- 16

2011 - 2012 21.8% LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

26.3%

2015 - 16 AMERICAN23.4% AFRICAN STUDENTS

22.2% 2011 - 2012 HISPANIC STUDENTS 48.7%

28.9%

2015 - 2016 2011 - 12

44.7% 2015 - 16 LANGUAGE LEARNER STUDENTS ENGLISH

28.2%

2011 - 2012 DISABLED STUDENTS

42.8%

2015 - 2016 2011 - 12

43%

2015 - 16

38.7%

22.1%

2015 - 16 STUDENTS DISABLED

24.8% 2011 - 12 ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNER STUDENTS 2015 - 16 2011 - 12

34.8%

2015 - 16 STUDENTS HISPANIC

32.3% 2011 - 12 AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS 2015 - 16 2011 - 12

35.5%

20.2%

2015- -12 2016 2011

36% 31.0%

28.8%

60.7%

57.9%

2015 - 16

% O F ST U D E N TS FA I L I N G TO M E E T M AT H STA N DA R D S

ALL STUDENTS 2011 - 12 2015 - 16

14.1% 26.3%

x

21.8% 37.5%

2015 - 2016

HISPANIC STUDENTS

32.3%

2011 - 2012

48.7%

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNER STUDENTS

2015 - 16

=

2011 - 2012

2015 - 16

2011 - 12

-

LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS 2011 - 12

+

24.8%

2015 - 2016

SOURCE: KANSAS SUPREME COURT RULING

38.7%

DISABLED STUDENTS 2011 - 2012

42.8%

22.2%

2015 - 2016

31.0% 60.7%

THE JOURNAL

17

Q: What have Kansas schools been spending? Hasn’t it gone up?

A: Kansas public schools are spending more per student than they were a decade

ago, according to the state Department of Education. But if you factor in inflation, that money doesn’t go as far as it used to. The chart below shows how schools are able to buy less per student even with that spending at a 10-year high in current dollars.

$14,560 $14,022 $13,818

$13,543

$13,549

$13,473

$13,453

$13,637

$13,351

2014 - 15

2015 - 16

2017 BUYING POWER

ACTUAL VALUE

2007 - 08

2008 - 09

2009 - 10

2010 - 11

2011 - 12

2012 - 13

2013 - 14

SOURCE: TOTAL EXPENDITURES, KANSAS STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION/BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS CONSUMER PRICE INDEX CALCULATOR

Spending More, But Buying Less

Kansas public schools are spending more per student than they were a decade ago, but that money does not go as far as it once did if you factor in inflation.

SOURCE: TOTAL EXPENDITURES, KANSAS STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION/BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS CONSUMER PRICE INDEX CALCULATOR

18 THE JOURNAL

Q: What happens now?

Governor GOVERNOR

A: The Legislature must pass legislation

REPUBLICAN

House HOUSE 85

40

REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRAT

S E N AT E Senate 31

9

REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRAT

that makes school funding adequate by June 30. Although the court did not specify the dollars necessary to make that happen, various reports suggest a range of $500 million to $800 million could be required.

But some lawmakers say it’s more important to provide additional aid to go to the students who need the most help, rather than simply increase funding.

Furthermore, lawmakers are already dealing with significant budget shortfalls that must be remedied, meaning they will have to increase tax revenues or make significant cuts elsewhere in the budget to increase any spending. K-12 education is already the state’s largest expenditure, consuming about half of its operations budget, limiting the areas that might be cut.

For a bill to become law, at least 63 House members and at least 21 Senate members must vote in favor of it, and the governor must also sign the legislation. If the governor rejects a bill, his veto can be overridden by votes of 84 in the House and 27 in the Senate.

A bill will have to be passed by forming a majority coalition around a particular proposal. Although Republicans dominate both chambers of the Legislature, there are distinct factions within their caucuses.

Conservatives tend to be skeptical of increased taxes and government spending, while moderate Republicans, more amenable to passing increased funding, have at times teamed with Democrats to pass legislation. But this issue transcends partisan divides. Lawmakers may vote differently based on whether they represent urban, rural or suburban areas.

THE JOURNAL

For a bill to become law, at least 63 House members and at least 21 Senate members must vote in favor of it, and the governor must also sign the legislation. If the governor rejects a bill, his veto can be overridden by votes of 84 in the House and 27 in the Senate.

63

21

+

HOUSE

1

+

SENATE

=

LAW

GOVERNOR

OR GOVERNOR VETOES BILL

84

27

+

HOUSE

=

LAW

SENATE

C LO U T I N T H E L E G I S L AT U R E

BY TYPE OF DISTRICT

62

52

Lawmakers may vote differently based on whether they represent urban, rural or suburban areas.

27

RURAL SOURCE: JOURNAL ANALYSIS

SOURCE: JOURNAL ANALYSIS

SUBURBAN

URBAN

24

SMALL CITY

19

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Q: What are the big leadership issues?

A: In years past, particularly in 2005 and 2016, lawmakers have found ways to satisfy the Kansas

Supreme Court’s rulings related to school funding. However, they have never had to respond to a school finance ruling while also dealing with a budget crisis. Barring a miracle, resolving this situation will require difficult decisions that either significantly increase available tax revenues, reduce/shift spending in other areas of the budget to education or shift spending within K-12 education to better assist struggling students.

Furthermore, there are great divides related to the kinds of taxes that legislators think Kansans should be paying. Historic income tax cuts signed into law by Gov. Sam Brownback have been followed by several difficult budget years. Earlier this year, the Legislature advanced proposals to reverse those breaks and raise income taxes to balance the budget, but they were vetoed by the governor. The governor and his allies are protective of those tax cuts because he thinks they are important to economic growth. (Critics counter that the state’s growth has lagged the nation’s.) Opponents of greater income taxes tend to favor raising revenue from non-income tax sources, such as increasing alcohol and tobacco taxes.

Policymakers also differ on ways to distribute aid. For decades, Kansas had a school funding formula that distributed aid equally across districts based on their enrollments and classifications of students. But lawmakers scrapped that plan in 2015 in favor of block grants to districts that didn’t fluctuate based on enrollment or explicitly provide extra funding for certain types of students. But the court declared that system inadequate. One of the key debates will be over whether the state should return to something close to the old formula or invent something new in terms of funding approaches and requirements for schools.

Another point of contention is whether all the money should be directed solely at public schools, or whether lawmakers should create some sort of voucher system that allows parents and students to purchase educational services from private institutions. Public education advocates roundly reject the idea of vouchers. They question their effectiveness and are concerned they could weaken public schools and their abilities to educate struggling or needy students, while limited-government conservatives support them as a way to give parents more choice and make public education more accountable.

ADDRESSING THIS EDICT WILL REQUIRE CONSIDERABLE LEADERSHIP IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS. Working across factions to create a coalition of lawmakers that agrees on the amount of funding and how it will be distributed.

Holding to the purpose of meeting the tests that the Kansas Supreme Court has instituted for providing an adequate education.

Navigating process challenges and understanding what it will take to build support for a plan and why various parties are inclined to accept or reject certain prescriptions – and not just finding the right content for a bill will be particularly important. It’s likely that no one faction in the Statehouse has enough power to pass a bill on its own.

Treating leadership as an activity, not a position.

Who will do the work building coalitions across the Statehouse’s different factions? It could be a high-level authority figure. But it also may be informal leaders who have the credibility to bring people with different views, values and interests together around a single effective but likely imperfect plan.

Engaging unusual voices. Traditional coalitions that can construct plans solely along party lines are often easier to build. But such proposals can be unwound much more quickly as political fortunes change (and they almost always do).

THE JOURNAL

IF YOU DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE SCHOOL FUNDING ISSUE, A GOOD PLACE TO START IS TALKING TO OTHERS ABOUT THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.

1.

What do you value in education?

2.

What has education meant to you in your life and career?

3.

Where does education rank on your list of concerns? What ranks highest?

4.

What trade-offs are you willing and unwilling to accept to increase funding for education?

5.

What kind of schools would you like to see Kansas have over the long-term?

Q: I’m not a legislator. What can I do as an individual related to this civic challenge?

A: Definitely keep apprised of the issue by following media reports or news from your legislator.

Make your views and values known to those who represent you at the state and local school board level (a series of suggestions for how to do that well appears later in this issue). Ask lots of questions. Be engaged.

You should also encourage your legislators to exercise leadership by listening and considering other views and working across factions. Ask them to hold to purpose. (It’s not going to be easy.) Let them know that this is a situation where you care about making progress.

Your own leadership and civic engagement matters, too. Get involved with your schools locally in some way. You should be willing to talk with others about the issue and be curious about how it affects you, your family and the state as a whole. Try to see the situation from points of view other than your own. Manage yourself. Don’t call names or cast aspersions, but do stand up for your views, values and interests in productive, reasonable ways. And if you don’t know what you stand for, maybe you should begin trying to figure that out.

Government, even at the state level, can often seem confusing and distant, and this issue can be as confounding as any. But your leadership and engagement does matter. Maybe not as much as you’d like it to. But it does matter. And exercising leadership and engaging civically should be less about getting your way and more about using your voice to join with others in a process that shapes your community and state.

Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll look back at this period of time as a key moment in the history of the state.

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22 THE JOURNAL

Education at a Crossroads:

T H E J O U R N A L TA K E S R E A D E RS O N A L I ST E N I N G TO U R TO E X P LO R E WH AT CHANGES MIGHT BE NEEDED I N K- 1 2 E D U C AT I O N .

THE JOURNAL

IF YOU COULD CHANGE JUST ONE THING ABOUT K-12 EDUCATION IN KANSAS, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

It’s a question we should all be thinking about as the Legislature and the Kansas Supreme Court weigh the future of education funding in Kansas.

Because when we talk about school finance, we’re not just talking about dollar figures. We’re talking about decisions that will impact what goes on in classrooms and the economy for years to come. What gets decided could end up touching everyone in the state.

In short, there’s a lot on the line for not just school systems and the students they serve, but for all Kansans. The state constitution calls for suitably funding education, but the view of what that means looks very different depending on where you’re coming from.

To exercise leadership on a tough issue (or any issue, for that matter), it’s vital to be able to test multiple interpretations and points of view.

This essentially means exploring and “renting” different perspectives to better understand the complexity of a situation and to create more sustainable pathways for moving forward.

The problem is that it’s often hard to truly put yourself in someone else’s shoes. You usually know the most about your own situation and much less about what other people think and experience. This lack of awareness of where other people are coming from is, in and of itself, a barrier to making progress.

In hopes of increasing the understanding of our readers around the state, Journal correspondents traveled across Kansas to capture how the state’s Great School Funding Debate looks based on one’s role, geography, interests and values.

The following pages profile nine individuals from northeast, northwest, southwest, central and southeast Kansas. There are stories about a public school parent, a student, a teacher, a technical education director, a counselor, a public school administrator, a private school administrator, a taxpayer without children in the school system and a private school parent.

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We asked each person the same basic questions: WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED? WHAT HOPES DO YOU HAVE FOR THE FUTURE? WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST FEARS? IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

It’s the magazine equivalent of a statewide listening tour, and it echoes the approach of top legislators of the past who, when dealing with their own education crossroads a half-century ago, undertook an effort to better understand the issues then. They appointed an 11-member citizen advisory council.

The group they chose included a newspaper publisher, a labor union representative, school board members, a private college president, a manufacturer, a business representative, a parent-teacher association president, a principal and a Kansas Farm Bureau researcher. Members of the 11-person group hailed from Wichita, Topeka, Atchison, Hesston, Lawrence, Chanute, Kansas City, Larned, Manhattan and Emporia. It conducted a dozen sessions to solicit the ideas of educational and lay leaders, as well as experts.

What they learned and reported helped form the basis of an educational constitutional amendment that voters passed in 1966. Long before the Kansas Leadership Center, our ancestors understood the importance of holding and testing multiple points of view. We should be careful to remember it again today.

Each person featured in the section offers their own interpretation of what needs to change to improve education in Kansas. By holding and testing their prescriptions, we hope to advance how well Journal readers understand the views of others and the paths forward that should be explored.

Read the stories and use the discussion guide questions to deepen your own understanding or have a conversation with others.

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DISCUSSION GUIDE:

The Interpretations

LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD: Spread resources around so that students at urban schools have a chance to succeed.

GET MORE TO THOSE IN NEED: Provide more resources to the students who are struggling and need them the most.

SPEND WHAT IT TAKES FOR EACH CHILD TO SUCCEED: Provide resources for each child according to their individual needs.

HELP CHILDREN EARLIER: Build a foundation of learning early on in childhood.

PROVIDE MORE CHOICE: Allow families to spend public dollars on private schools.

PROMOTE TECH ED: Encourage technical education as a pathway for more students who need more than a diploma but less than a degree.

EMPOWER EDUCATORS: Start trusting educators more and stop putting arbitrary requirements on them.

MAKE CLASS SIZES SMALLER: A private-school parent thinks changes in class sizes would help enhance the reputation of public education.

GET BACK TO WHAT WORKED: Return to previous approaches for funding schools and taxation.

THE JOURNAL

DISCUSSION GUIDE:

The Questions

1.

2.

What views described in the section resonate the most with you? Which ones challenge you the most?

Why do you think that is?

Where do you see leadership being exercised in these stories?

What leadership principles or competencies stand out to you the most?

3.

4.

What pathways do you see for making progress? What barriers might get in the way?

In what ways might it be possible to test these points of views?

Are there any important viewpoints missing from this section? What viewpoints would you add and what interpretations would they have about the changes needed to education and school funding in Kansas?

5.

How might we make use of differing viewpoints to help us make more progress on the issue of education funding? Are you working on any other leadership challenges where it would be helpful to harness multiple points of view?

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26 THE JOURNAL

Despite scoring significant successes in debate and forensics, Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences student Michael Franklin can clearly see inequities that have developed in the current Kansas educational system.

EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS Northeast Kansas

WANTING A CHANCE S T A N D O U T K C K D E B AT E R C A L L S F O R A L E V E L P L AY I N G F I E L D FOR URBAN SCHOOLS.

On any given Saturday, you can expect to find Michael Franklin at a debate or forensics tournament. • The 17-year-old senior at Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences was ranked No. 1 in Kansas and No. 17 nationally for his skill last winter. It’s a spot that he has regularly earned. • It’s made him the man to defeat. The experience has also given him a rare perspective to ponder the state’s educational system. It’s given him room to see where inequities creep into education. It can be a real window on the haves and have nots. And, he believes, it happens in situations that lawmakers and taxpayers might never consider.

By: DAWN BORMANN NOVASCONE

28 THE JOURNAL

At weekend tournaments, Franklin and his debate partner watch as neighboring school districts from Johnson County have a team of debate coaches surrounding the students to help with evidence and strategy between rounds. One Blue Valley high school boasts a team of 10 coaches – many are experienced debaters hired from Johnson County Community College, the University of Kansas and elsewhere.

“It’s really hilarious to witness. It came to a point that (my partner) and I were outright laughing before the rounds,” Franklin says. “We even make a fake huddle of us two. All right it’s me and you, what can we do?”

The hilarity wears thin, though.

Sumner hires one head coach and one assistant.

A local nonprofit sends another their way when funding allows. Their coaches are often required to judge and handle tournament duties rather than energize Franklin and other students with fresh evidence.

Franklin hears legislators and many others say that all students have the same chances, that education is equal across the state. He sees it differently.

Sometimes it’s small yet significant inequities.

Sumner debate and forensic coach Jamelle Brown collects cash from each student to pay for pizza at tournaments. Sumner used to pay, but the perk was cut. Many schools have booster clubs or dedicated school funds to handle transportation, food and additional argument evidence. Franklin had time to think about it recently when his competitors hit the road for an out-of-state tournament. Sumner didn’t have the money.

If the teenager could change one thing about education in Kansas, it would be to shift how the state distributes money to school districts.

The state’s funding formula was originally designed to distribute tax money equally based on enrollment and a host of specific factors.

Over the years, though, it’s proven easier for wealthier districts to draw more property taxes directly from their patrons to build new schools and stadiums, invest in technology, and offer

extracurricular programs. Even though the state has provided some assistance, lower-income school district taxpayers often have trouble keeping up.

Not having access to enough resources has made a big difference for lower-income, minority, English-language learning and disabled students, according to the Kansas Supreme Court. In its most recent ruling, the court found those groups disproportionately struggling to meet state educational standards after the school-funding cuts that followed the Great Recession.

School inequities can be brought into sharp focus in the Kansas City region, where some of the state’s wealthiest and poorest schools are situated mere miles apart. Johnson and Wyandotte county students regularly spend time in each other’s schools for basketball games, forensic tournaments and more. Years into competition, Franklin is still surprised when he walks into other schools.

“The size of these schools – the updates that they have – it’s unbelievable,” he says.

Franklin sees the sophisticated classroom technology. He strategizes in their carefully designed common areas that bring together students. He even notices that the water fountains – meant for water bottles – are updated.

“Lansing just got a brand-new school that’s amazingly nice. While to extend our building, we ended up (adding) another trailer,” he says.

But it’s not just about new schools and technology upgrades, he says. He wins without that. It cuts deeper, he says.

The system has evolved to put the state’s largest concentration of minority students at a disadvantage, he says. Urban schools such as Sumner don’t have the same resources.

Franklin’s classrooms get by with old textbooks.

His teachers don’t have the same equipment, and the administration can’t offer some of the classes that reach students. Sumner’s teachers, including Brown, his nationally recognized debate and forensics coach, are regularly recruited by other schools.

THE JOURNAL

At one point, Franklin read a story about a school lamenting that gymnastics would have to be cut due to state budget concerns.

“I just felt gymnastics. That’s never been anything offered (here),” he says. “You’re really complaining about losing a gymnastics class when we’re here not having enough space for the different groups to practice after school?”

He wonders how many Kansans see this view of the state’s education system.

“I think it’s important that you actually need to give these kids of color a chance. It feels like right now we aren’t getting the chance we deserve, because if we ask for things then it’s ‘Oh you just want handouts or you just want something given to you.’”

It’s easy to dismiss it as that, he says. “But it’s not that,” he says. “What we want is equal opportunity, because we clearly aren’t getting it right now.”

It’s unreasonable, he says, for his urban school to increase taxes to keep pace with Johnson County schools. Wyandotte County taxpayers already shoulder a higher-than-average property tax rate.

“Despite our lack of resources, we’re still able to get things done. We’re still able to have success.

But I think it’s clear that there needs to be a new frame in which we actually look at how not only funding is given toward schools. But we need to critically analyze the background of what got us to this situation in the first place,” Franklin says.

“And then, only then from unworking those beliefs or epistemologies behind that, can we actually come to an effective solution to make

29

sure that we don’t have this same disparity happen again.”

Back at the forensic and debate tournaments, Franklin and his partner have managed to perfect an alternative style of debating called critical debate that flips a debate question on its head.

It’s a source of frustration for competitors, who often complain to judges that it’s unfair.

The mere idea of another team complaining about fairness sometimes infuriates Franklin.

“You can’t talk about fairness,” he says. “You won’t talk about the 10 coaches you have, a brand-new school. You only talk about fairness when you’re falling behind.”

Franklin sees the debate room as his place to effect real change. He knows it makes his competitors feel uncomfortable, especially when it comes to matters of race.

“This is the only place where I can raise my voice and talk for eight minutes without you calling the cops on me,” he said at one tournament.

Reform often requires thinking about uncomfortable ideas, he says.

The funding inequities might make some give up entirely. But it motivates Franklin, who will study management and political science at Howard University in the fall.

“It ends up pushing us even more to make a difference,” he says of his forensic team, which has won state five years in a row. “It pushes us even more to want to win, to show up. See, we don’t have half the things you all have, but here we are still being more successful than you.”

MICHAEL FRANKLIN | Kansas City | HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT

His situation: Overcomes disadvantages to be a standout debater – but wishes more kids like him had the chance to excel.

What he’d change: Spread resources around to give students at urban schools a chance to succeed.

12 THE JOURNAL Kristin Schultz of Overland Park, an Olathe School District parent and volunteer whose duties include loading backpacks with school supplies, says Kansans should abandon the idea that it costs the same to educate all children.

NOT US VS. THEM A N O L AT H E PA R E N T A N D V O LU N T E E R C O N T E S T S ASSUMPTIONS ON THE CHALLENGES OF MEETING S T U D E N T N E E D S I N J O H N S O N C O U N T Y.

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EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS Northeast Kansas

By: DAWN BORMANN NOVASCONE

Kristin Schultz didn’t need anyone in Topeka to tell her that the state doesn’t properly fund schools. • The Overland Park mother of two learned early on as budget cuts slowly affected her children’s schools in the Olathe School District. Schultz paid close attention and asked pointed questions when local and state candidates came calling for votes.

Years later, her daughter Phoebe, 19, is off to college and her son, Oliver, 16, is in a nontraditional high school program. Yet she remains firmly committed to the fight for more school funding, not just because she believes it’s the right thing to do for children but also because it’s the right thing to do for the community and state.

“Those are our kids. Those are our districts. We can’t make this nice and tidy and simple. That’s just not the reality of human beings,” she says.

“At the end of the day, what we’re talking about is addressing the needs of our youngest people in the earliest stages of their lives when their brains are most malleable.”

Many Kansans think of Johnson County schools and immediately conjure up images of big houses and wealth. It’s a simplistic view that gets the state nowhere, she says.

Years ago, Schultz thought she had planned for every educational challenge her family would face. But it wasn’t that easy. She had to adjust her approach after going through a difficult divorce. Schultz became the sole caregiver. Her daughter, an honor student, battled depression and had to step away from school in her senior year. It’s just one facet of the challenges her family has faced, she says.

“It’s not us versus them. Anybody who thinks it’s us versus them isn’t really thinking about the importance to our society of people who are educated,” she says. “This is our responsibility as a state. We as a state determined that we are committed to public education.”

If there’s one thing she could change, it would be for Kansans to abandon the idea that all children cost the same to educate. Children have different needs, she says. Schultz wishes it could be framed realistically. No one child costs a parent the same amount. One might need mental health care, while the other needs braces.

Her family got help inside and outside the school system. Her daughter ended up earning a scholarship that was the equivalent of in-state tuition. What about other families, Schultz wonders. Those who didn’t have a strong support system. It all affects the classroom. It all affects communities.

She’d like to see the state put money into a formula that gives districts flexibility to fund those extra needs.

32 THE JOURNAL

KRISTIN SCHULTZ | Overland Park | PARENT, OLATHE SCHOOL VOLUNTEER

Her situation: Has learned that every student has different needs from her family and volunteer experiences.

What she’d change: Abandon the idea that each child costs the same to educate.

Olathe is a prime example. It’s the fastest-growing district in the state and the second-largest. The district boasts a graduation rate of 92.6 percent and had 22 National Merit finalists in 2015. Yet many children there live in poverty.

Some come to the district not speaking a word of English. The diverse enrollment includes 3,450 students in the English Language Learners program and more than a quarter who qualify for free and reduced lunches. The district stretches from downtown Olathe, where homes are valued in the low-to-mid $100,000s, to some of the area’s most luxurious homes in the Cedar Creek subdivision, where homes sell for as much as $2 million.

These days Schultz serves on the board of the Olathe Public Schools Foundation, a nonprofit with assets of more than $3 million that offers grants, scholarships and recognition for Olathe teachers and students. The foundation funds programs outside those paid for by the district.

Yet those programs often provide help at crucial times for students The foundation includes a Women’s Giving Circle, which allows community members to respond to teacher proposals that otherwise might not get funded. Members contribute $100 and come together to hear teacher presentations in an Olathe home. They then decide where to put their money. The circle was formed to build community and connect people who might not be in the classrooms every day or understand the district’s needs and funding restrictions.

“We wanted people to know the things that were happening in the district and see it up close,” Schultz says.

Schultz knows some lawmakers claim that money isn’t the answer to improved education. She fears a fragmented community could easily believe that narrative. Schultz also knows that many believe Johnson Countians have unlimited funds to spend. She wishes they would take a different seat at the table and hear what she does.

An elementary school teacher gave a presentation to the Giving Circle that many members won’t soon forget. The Westview Elementary teacher had about 35 dual-language books for a high population of English Language Learners.

The teacher knew the key to improving literacy for those students was reading at home with their parents. But there simply weren’t enough books to go around.

“What they needed was access to a greater library of these dual-language books,” Schultz says.

The teacher invited a family to read a storybook together so patrons could see the benefits in action.

“One page was in English, and one page was in Spanish. The parent and child were able to read a story together, which would not happen if there weren’t books that could go home and if the books had to stay at school,” Schultz says.

The foundation awarded the teacher $10,000 to fund her proposal, which included acquiring hundreds of books and paying for before- and after-school programs that will reach out to parents for years to come. It also serves parents looking to build on their English skills as well as native English speakers. Schultz asks critics to consider the long-term impact of this one program.

THE JOURNAL

“So the children are impacting parents, which is impacting community,” she says. “So tell that to somebody who is a legislator who thinks that money isn’t having an impact on not just students but parents and parent literacy and community.”

The foundation also helps pay the salary of a mental health clinician who works at a high school and a middle school. The clinician gives students an outlet to discuss anxiety, suicide and other trauma happening in their lives. For years, Schultz says, parents knew suicide and other mental health problems were impacting their children’s ability to learn, but they struggled with how to address it.

“We knew that it was happening, but we put our hands up and we say, ‘What do we do?’” she says.

The foundation acted.

Education officials in Johnson County have long acknowledged that not every district has such powerful foundations to supplement programs.

But does that mean that they shouldn’t attempt to address ongoing systemic gaps in education funding that improve their community and the state? Does it mean they should sit idly by when teachers know how to reach more students?

Schultz says they’ve turned down several projects that would directly benefit children – projects that teachers know would help. A middle school teacher asked for equipment so the school could stop turning down kids eager to participate in the Science Olympiad competition.

The school only has equipment to engage 12 students, but several dozen apply. It’s a critical age when educators don’t typically turn away students from sports let alone those interested in academic enrichment.

“These kids want to stay after school and be part of a science competitive team,” Schultz emphasizes.

Yet the proposal was turned down. It’s hard to fund an enrichment program, Schultz says, when you have so many demands on other programs targeting disadvantaged children.

Schultz also points out an apartment building about to be demolished to make way for a convenience store. It’s home to several low-income families, who will all be uprooted. In a smaller community, the students might be able to remain in their school. It’s not practical in a larger district. Many will move to new schools and school districts in search of scarce affordable housing. They’ll leave behind teachers who know their needs and have formed strong bonds with children.

Such transitions can be a traumatic experience for a child. The community is trying to rally around the families and ensure they find a landing spot. That’s what strong schools should do, Schultz says.

“When we determine we’re committed to providing public education, it’s not just math and reading,” she says. “This is the front line, where we can really address cycles of poverty. We can address cycles of illiteracy, cycles of mental health challenges. We can create a sense of understanding in children that the community supports one another.”

It’s part of the reason why funding can’t be tidy and neat, she says. It doesn’t make sense to create a system that doesn’t take into account the true value of educating a child, she says.

“These are all things that happen in the same district where kids are driving BMWs to school,” she says. “It’s that diversity that puts us in touch with how much more expensive it is to address profound need.”

There’s no easy fix, she says. It will never be truly fair. But she thinks providing more money and allowing school districts to account for variables is a good place to start.

“I don’t know what that looks like in Garden City.

I don’t know what it looks like in Hutchinson,” she says. “But I trust that we aren’t doing it right right now, because we’re not putting enough in.

We already know that.”

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ROBB ROSS | Colby | MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

His situation: Trying to keep up the quality of his school’s educational offerings amid a financial squeeze.

What he’d change: Empower educators. Start trusting them more and stop putting arbitrary requirements on them.

Robb Ross, principal at Colby Middle School, has a range of responsibilities – some weighty, but none unimportant – that includes helping basketball team member Tobin Gardner with his tie when he’s dressing up for game day.

THE JOURNAL

EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS Northwest Kansas

A MAN OF MANY HATS A D M I N I S T R AT O R W I S H E S F O R R E A L I S T I C V I E W O F E D U C AT I O N E V E N A S H E S T R E T C H E S TO FILL EVER-GROWING GAPS .

Even though he’s a 39-year veteran of Kansas education, 26 of them as a principal at USD 315 in Colby, Robb Ross has a fairly straightforward educational philosophy: “Every kid has abilities. We just need to do the most with them.”

It’s easier said than done, of course, but Ross is an optimistic soul. He’s the kind of principal who arrives at school at 6:30 a.m., so kids whose parents have to be at work at 7 a.m. have a safe place to go. He cleans up when a kid is sick in the hallway.

He smiles easily, but his powerful voice and stature encourage respect.

“I don’t know what your attitude is, but it better improve.”

On an unseasonably warm February day in northwest Kansas, he goes outside with middle schoolers so they can enjoy the warmth for a few minutes after lunch.

Hijinks ensue, and he addresses one of the offenders as he seeks the co-conspirators. He tells a sheepish 12-year-old boy,

Ross would probably like to tell some adults the same thing. The K-8 principal says public education is not treated kindly in the media. “If everyone could have a realistic view of education, period – not just public, but education and all it encompasses – I think people would see it’s the best dollars they spend,” he says.

The work that the more than 2,000 public school administrators do isn’t noticed much beyond the students, teachers and staff they work with directly. But some

By: SARAH CALDWELL HANCOCK

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critics allege schools are spending too much on administrators. In recent years, some state officials have pushed school districts to put more of their “money into the classroom.”

If he could change one thing about Kansas education, Ross wishes that state officials and others would put a little more trust in educators.

Ross says schools are expected to teach more subjects than in the past. His staff spends a lot of time teaching students politeness and the kind of soft skills that should be taught at home. Subjects are added every time someone squeals at the Statehouse.

“Someone didn’t know history, so we’re going to teach Kansas history. My kid doesn’t eat right, so we’ll change the food system. We’ll add personal finance, because my kid didn’t know how to budget and lost his house,” Ross says. He’s careful to note that none of these topics are bad, but all were mandated without funding increases.

“We get convoluted messages about what’s important. Schools have not been given the option to determine priorities; they’re held accountable for all of these things. Unfunded mandates frustrate people as much as anything,” Ross says.

Ross says “continual bashing” is hard on teachers.

“My biggest concern right now is the perception of education. I’m the first to admit there are bad schools, but there’s a huge number of good schools, and there’s a large number of people who are willing to work for – I won’t say poor salaries (because) I chose to go into education. As long as we have people who care about kids and are willing to work at a job that I find rewarding, and they must, too – there’s hope for education.”

SMALL-SCHOOL CATCH-22

Smaller, rural districts face particular problems.

Other northwest Kansas school districts can tell much bleaker stories of population loss, but this year Colby schools have an enrollment of under 900 for the first time in Ross’ career. When he started, enrollment was over 1,500.

Changes in numbers and how schools are funded have forced some difficult choices. A big issue is funding for fewer students without reductions in required services. It’s the classic small-school catch-22.

Services for migrant and special education students are examples. Migrant children are those who have changed school districts in the past 36 months to follow a parent who is an agricultural worker.

Colby’s ag-centric location means that migrant numbers have increased each year for the past five years. In special education, too, the number of students with severe needs is increasing.

Migrant program director is one of the many hats Ross wears. He’s also the athletic director, coordinator of special education, and serves on the emergency team and the curriculum council as well as other community boards and committees.

The district receives migrant funding in accordance with enrollment numbers, but because those numbers aren’t huge, the district struggles to deliver required services. Ross has one paraprofessional to help him, and the school is on the cusp of needing another, but until numbers go up, the district can’t afford it. In other words, until the problem gets bigger, there’s no more money to help solve it.

PAST FINDING EFFICIENCIES

Meanwhile, class sizes have been growing, and the number of electives being offered has been shrinking.

Both administration and staff have decreased – by about 15 employees since Ross began his career – and not just because of decreases in enrollment. Ideally classes should be around 20 students, but Ross says some classes are up to 25 to 28.

Best teaching practices also become harder when class sizes inch upward. As a cooperative learning trainer, Ross encourages teachers to have students work in teams, but that’s more challenging with larger classes.

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Meanwhile, choices in the form of electives get squeezed. Colby used to have an industrial technology and wood shop teacher all day, but now it’s offered for only one hour. Band and vocal music used to be offered in a rotation with art and PE at every grade level, and the school used to employ a piano teacher. Now middle school students have to choose between band or vocal music, and piano is no longer an option.

School newspaper and yearbook classes used to be offered separately, and now only a newspaper class is offered. A social studies teacher used to teach two drama classes and help students perform plays for the school, but because of staffing cuts, that teacher is now teaching six sections of social studies, which leaves no room for the drama offering. Other enrichment activities have been eliminated, too.

“We used to do a major problem-solving day four times a year,” Ross says, describing an allschool activity in which small groups of students designed balloon cars or towers from spaghetti and marshmallows then competed to see whose was fastest, sturdiest and so on. “We’re no longer able to do that because we don’t have enough staff to keep the groups small enough,” he says.

Ross recognizes that legislators and taxpayers want schools to be as efficient as possible, but he says his district’s schools are past finding efficiencies. “Is physics an elective? Is a computer class an elective? Yes. Yet do we know those are hugely important?” Ross asks. “As far as making tough financial decisions, schools do that every year.”

Katina Brenn, Colby’s superintendent, shares Ross’ concerns about making sure Colby students are well prepared. She wants them to have the same opportunities as students from more populated areas, but Advanced Placement, college prep, and career and technical education classes have taken a hit because of budget woes.

In a small town, the pain of cutting hits close to home. “The cuts we make are deep. Other districts I’ve been in, you’re having people in and out, so when you cut positions, you know others are coming open and you’re not cutting people,” says Brenn, who is in her second year after coming

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from Geary County. “In Colby, you’re cutting your neighbor. They’re part of the community,” she says.

“A lot of people are related, and we all feel it.”

STRENGTH IN SMALL NUMBERS

But community involvement also can be a great source of strength. Brenn says western Kansas administrators like Ross are well-grounded and know their kids, parents and communities well.

She and Ross talk through needs. “He says, ‘This is why we need this; this is how it benefits students.’ On the other hand, he knows what the state situation is and what our financial situation is. I know when he comes to me, he has a global perspective of programs. If he says, ‘This needs to happen,’ it probably needs to happen.”

Ross and Brenn also see plenty of local support.

More than 45 percent of the kids in the district qualify for free and reduced lunches, so Colby stepped up with grassroots support. The parent-teacher organization pumped “probably $10,000 or more into the schools in the last several years,” Ross says, and local groups have made sizable donations to a program Ross and a counselor started in cooperation with a local food bank to supply needy kids with food during breaks from school.

“They want to be there when something is going on. They wrap their arms around the school district,” Brenn says.

Even as he helps solve problems in his district, Ross remains focused on individual kids. He recalls a student whose behaviors warranted a long-term suspension. Instead, Ross worked with the boy and his mother. “Now I get to see him in church every Sunday,” Ross says.

“You’ve got to look at each kid and what they are going to be in the future. By making a decision: Am I going to cut off his future or help his future? There are times when you say, ‘Enough is enough,’ and other times when you say, ‘We have to give it one more try. If there’s something you could have done for a kid and you don’t – that haunts you. Those are tough decisions.”

ALEISHA WEIMER | Coffeyville | EARLY EDUCATION TEACHER

Her situation: Teaches at-risk children but worries about how the state’s budget woes will affect access to early childhood education.

What she’d change: Build a foundation of learning early on in childhood.

It may look like playtime at the Dr. Jerry Hamm Early Learning Center, but education occurs here in real time as teacher Aleisha Weimer helps students such as Connor Kelly get ready to start school.

EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS Southeast Kansas

BRINGING ‘LIGHT BULB’ MOMENTS T E AC H E R F O ST E R S L E A R N I N G I N P R E S C H O O L AG E C H I L D R E N, B U T W I S H E S M O R E WA S B E I N G D O N E T O H E L P T H E M A L O N G.

Aleisha Weimer sits across a knee-high table from a 4-year-old girl who’s pointing to letters on a piece of paper, softly pronouncing them and tracing their shapes with a pencil. As the girl spells out her name – Makaylynn – Weimer leans closer, her excitement palpable and building until it seems she might grab the girl in a bear hug. • “Look what is happening, girl!” says Weimer, a preschool teacher at the Dr. Jerry Hamm Early Learning Center in Coffeyville, which is an offering of the local school district. “A week ago you couldn’t read it. Miss Weimer’s going to cry.”

By: JOE STUMPE

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The fourth-year teacher settles for a high five – one of seemingly a thousand she will deliver to her students during a typical day.

Weimer is a part of an educational experiment that is seen as a model in Kansas: an “early learning community” that primarily serves at-risk children (about 80 percent of the 220 enrollees) and their families through partnerships with Head Start, the local business community and area nonprofits. Since its start seven years ago, the early learning center has improved the readiness of its students to enter traditional schools and bettered their performance once they reach them. Absences and behavioral problems have been reduced, too.

It’s one of the first programs of its type in the state, and it gets about $1 million of its annual operating budget from the state’s Children’s Initiatives Fund. That fund was created in the 1990s following a settlement with major tobacco companies over the societal costs of smoking.

Kansas has received an average of $60 million annually for the past 16 years from the deal.

Weimer identified her calling early, when she was in kindergarten herself, back in Mrs. Stanton’s class in Garnett. Now 28, she was named the early learning center’s teacher of the year for the 2015-16 school year.

But this winter, as Weimer tried to get her students ready for kindergarten, she couldn’t help thinking about a proposal in Topeka to sell off the revenue stream from the Children’s Initiatives Fund to shore up the state’s budget.

“That’s the scary part,” she says. “I’m afraid every time that I turn around there will be more budget cuts.”

Weimer has a twofold wish for the state.

“Obviously, in an ideal world, we’d like the budget not to be cut.” Beyond that, she wishes more Kansans would see the importance of early education. “Some people think it’s just day care.

What we’re really trying to do is get them ready for their education and give them as many resources as they can possibly have.”

Such insights are backed up by research from scholars such as Nobel laureate economist James Heckman of the University of Chicago, that effective early childhood education from as early as infancy can help disadvantaged children gain some of the non-cognitive skills they’ll need to succeed later in life. But the overwhelming majority of state government’s resources go to K-12 education, as much as $27 for every $1 being spent on early ed, based on The Journal’s analysis of state spending data.

In 2016, the Coffeyville school district absorbed a $230,000 reduction from the tobacco fund, just weeks before expansion of the early learning center was completed with contributions from the business community. The center cut expenses and lost the services of employees who had provided mental health counseling and interpreting services to parents of preschool children.

“We got a huge hit on this,” Weimer says.

“But you do what you’ve got to do.”

For Weimer, that means dipping into her own purse to pay for some supplies. The night before she made the breakthrough with 4-year-old Makaylynn, Weimer bought baking soda and conditioner that would go into the making of fake snow.

Weimer’s day began before the official start of class, as parents dropped off their children and helped them complete their first assignment of the day, tracing the letters of their names.

“Good job, next week we’ll start on your last name,” Weimer told one boy. “Proud of you.”

Shalawnda Dumm, whose 4-year-old son Grayson is in Weimer’s class, says the early learning center is one of the area’s few non-faith-based preschool programs where kids can learn something “and not just watch TV.” Dumm and her husband both work, something that wouldn’t be possible without a place to take Grayson during the day. She says she’s already seen a big change in her son, who did not have much contact with kids his own age prior to coming to the center. “He’s slowly breaking out

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of his shell and talking more to other kids and is excited to come.”

Weimer spends about equal amounts of time on her students’ mental, social, emotional and physical development, usually with activities that touch on several of those areas at once. After reciting the Pledge of Allegiance – “That deserves a silent cheer,” Weimer exclaims, “that’s the best we’ve done!” – her students wash their hands and sit down for a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese, fruit salad and milk.

Weimer quizzes them on the names of the fruit in the salad. The children, for the most part, raise their hands before attempting to answer; Weimer reminds them to maintain eye contact while speaking. They practice motor skills, spreading cream cheese on their bagels, passing the bowls of fruit salad and pouring milk from a plastic pitcher; against all odds, only a bit spills. The children brush their teeth to a song based on that topic and move on to their first “lesson station” of the day, where they go over information such as what month and day of the week it is using songs, an activity board with movable parts and other learning devices.

“Today is Thursday, tomorrow is … ?”

Weimer prompts.

“October!” one child says.

At least a half-dozen times a day, correct answers get one of Weimer’s many stock bits of praise: “Kiss your brain!”

As the kids break into pairs for a play break designed to improve motor and social skills at one table, two kids take turns pounding plastic nails into a foam board; Weimer pulls a boy aside for individual work and testing. The school does a lot of testing, she says, so that kids who need more help get it.

“We’re watching who can do what, and who struggles a little more.”

Through a cooperative arrangement with another agency, speech therapy is offered at the school

to children who need it. Three days a week, a clinic is open at the school for any child to visit with no out-of-pocket expense to their families.

Children can go to the center for either a half day or full day. There’s also an after-school program at the center that’s run by the Boys & Girls Club.

After Weimer’s teacher’s aide, Amy Magana, gives the children a lesson in the Spanish words for colors, the class marches single file down the hall to the gymnasium. Weimer joins a handful of kids following dance moves playing on a big video screen, while around them other children ride tricycles, bounce on trampolines, throw balls and slide down slides with all the frenetic energy 3- and 4-year-olds can muster.

“If you ask them, they’d say we play all day,” Weimer says. “That’s what we want them to think.”

But Weimer embraces the theory that children retain more of what they learn during their first five years of life than in all the rest combined; about 85 percent of their brain structure is formed over the same period. “This is the foundation of learning,” she says. “If I can get them excited about school, it’s going to carry on.”

Back in the classroom, her students make fake snow by mixing the baking soda and conditioner together while Weimer tells them how rain clouds form and dispense precipitation. She has little luck getting them to remember and repeat that word – precipitation. Soon, a couple of students help set the table for lunch – meatloaf and baked beans – and another lesson on food and manners begins.

But Weimer knows there will be many more chances to run the concept of precipitation by them, thanks to the center. And eventually they’ll get it, giving her a professional thrill she doesn’t try to hide.

“I like the light bulb moments,” she says. “I just love being that person for them.”

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Wade Moore, the superintendent of the Urban Preparatory Academy in Wichita, thinks that more individual attention is crucial in order for students such as sixth-grader Khousani Grant to excel.

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EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS South-central Kansas

CLOSING A GAP, WITH CHOICE S C H O O L F O U N D E R B E L I E V E S T H AT G I V I N G F A M I L I E S A N O P P O R T U N I T Y T O C H O O S E P R I VAT E S C H O O L S C O U L D B O O S T AC H I E V E M E N T.

By: CHRIS GREEN

Growing up as one of nine children, Wade Moore attended public schools and felt like he “kind of fell through the cracks.”

He and his siblings were kind of “just pushed along” through school, he says. He experienced a similar feeling when he sent his son to public schools. Now, as the pastor of a south Wichita church, Moore says he keeps seeing the same things occur with children and families he works with.

WADE MOORE | Wichita | PRIVATE SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT AND PASTOR

His situation: Founded a private school in Wichita aimed at helping African-American students.

What he’d change: Expand school choice; allow families to spend public education dollars on private schools.

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He means it more as a reality check than a criticism. “The public schools, they do a great job where they can,” Moore says. “And I understand there is so much red tape and so much stuff involved in educating the child, to where sometimes, their hands are tied.”

The truth, from Moore’s point of view, is that a lot of kids would just be better off if they could get more individualized attention to suit their needs. So, Moore, the pastor at the Christian Faith Centre, decided to do something about it by starting a private, tuition-based school that aims to improve education, particularly for African-American students.

“I just kept seeing this same cycle over and over. I wanted to give families and children an opportunity for them to be able to choose their child’s educational journey,” Moore says, “especially a school that would give them that individual attention and that would help them progress – help them learn – rather than (schools) just pushing them along and them not learning anything.”

The Kansas Supreme Court’s recent ruling on education funding suggests the state is experiencing a significant achievement gap.

The court’s order cited data showing nearly one-half of the state’s African-American student population, about 15,000 students, is not proficient in reading or math, and proficiency levels have fallen significantly in the past four years. Another 33,000 Hispanic students, about one-third of those in the state, are not proficient in reading and math, as are more than one-third of students who receive free or reduced price lunches.

Moore’s Urban Preparatory Academy, a K-7 school that operates out of a midcentury building formerly owned by the Wichita School District, opened in 2014 with 13 K-5 students. Attendance tripled the following year and has reached 53 students, with the school adding a grade level each year. The school, which sits in a part of north-central Wichita with a significant black population, operates independently of the

Wichita School District, with Moore as its superintendent and main benefactor.

In fact, Moore says he funded the school’s first year on his own, before finding partners to help with support in subsequent years.

Although the school charges an annual tuition of $4,500, Moore works with parents to ensure they pay what they can afford.

The school has benefited from a measure signed into law by Gov. Sam Brownback in 2014 that created tax-credit-funded scholarships for low-income students. The law, passed as part of school funding legislation that year, allows corporations, insurance companies and financial institutions to reduce their tax liability through donations to private schools that fund up to $8,000 scholarships for at-risk students.

Just more than 100 students, mostly in Kansas City, Kansas, and Topeka, received tax credit scholarships in 2015-16, according to a report published by The Topeka Capital-Journal last August.

Moore says the program has been extremely helpful for his school, and he would like to see it expanded to allow individuals to donate and receive tax benefits. But he fears that lawmakers, facing a significant budget shortfall and a court order to address public education funding, will move in the opposite direction.

“If the state of Kansas, if they try to take away the tax credit scholarships, then that would really take away hope for a lot of children and a lot of families,” Moore says.

Moore is also an advocate for school choice measures, including a school-voucher program and a law allowing for the creation of more privately managed charter schools that receive public funding. In Kansas, charter schools currently operate under the purview of a public school district. He’d also like to see the education dollars that the state allots for each student follow them to a school of their choice, rather than go only to the public school.

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Moore says he believes such a change would create more opportunities for students without hurting public schools all that much. He cites studies from Florida showing that only about 2 percent of the eligible student population takes advantage of the voucher program there.

“People have this fear that the public school system is going lose all these students, which they would not,” Moore says. “Of course, there’d be some families that take advantage of it. … You’re not going to have this mass exodus of students out of the public school.”

The elevation of a voucher advocate, Betsy DeVos, to be U.S. Secretary of Education could further public discussion of school choice, but Kansas officials have long resisted such programs.

For his part, Moore says he gets along well with his own local district and would like to collaborate more (he says he already

has a partnership with the Andover district for testing). But if the state wants to narrow the achievement gap among its students, he thinks that officials should consider trying to do things differently.

Funding, in his view, is not the issue, because the achievement gap is growing at a time when spending per student in Kansas has been increasing. Some studies suggest it will never be closed, Moore says, which is a tragedy.

“You’re telling this child they will never have the opportunity to earn the salary that their counterparts will be earning – that they’ll never have the opportunity to live where their counterparts live,” Moore says. “They’ll never have the opportunity to have a life like their counterparts.”

Urban Preparatory Academy specialist Sandra Moore works with second-grade students on reading, a subject that sizable proportions of African-American students in Kansas struggle with.

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EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS Northeast Kansas

BUILDING A FUTURE WORKFORCE DIRECTOR WORKING TO CHANGE PERCEPTIONS A B O U T T E C H N I C A L E D U C AT I O N I N K A N S A S .

By: KIM GRONNIGER

It’s one of the state’s better kept secrets. But if Tim Clothier had his way, the Washburn Institute of Technology would be a little less of a secret. • Clothier, the director of Washburn Tech’s Business and Industry Center since 2012, says technical colleges play a key role in developing the technicians that support the growth of the Kansas economy. But there remains an undercurrent of skepticism about technical education in Kansas.

Students often understand the economic advantages to be gained from a state-funded certification program to cultivate a portable, high-demand skill set, Clothier says, but their parents may be skeptical.

“There are still many moms and dads who think a bachelor’s degree is the only avenue for their children,” Clothier says. “Even then, a technical certification can complement college.

It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

Educational attainment can have a profound impact on a person’s lifetime earnings, and

a bachelor’s degree – not to mention higher professional degrees – can pay off over time as an investment. But some economists suggest that they don’t pay off equally for everybody.

Yet some students and parents fear that not going to a university may limit rather than expand horizons.

Changing people’s perceptions about the caliber and versatility of technical education permeates everything Clothier does at Washburn Tech.

Read the full story at klcjournal.com.

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TIM CLOTHIER | Topeka | TECHNICAL EDUCATION DIRECTOR

His situation: Works to help companies identify their workforce needs and align his institution’s training opportunities to help meet them.

What he’d change: Encourage tech ed as a pathway for more students.

Tim Clothier’s background lies largely in business operations.

These days, he’s helping companies identify their workforce needs and finding ways for the Washburn Institute of Technology in Topeka to help meet them.

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EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS Southwest Kansas

DOING THE ‘BEST WE CAN’ – WITH LESS C O U N T Y C O M M I S S I O N E R A D V O C AT E S F O R R E T U R N I N G T O P R E V I O U S S C H O O L - F U N D I N G, TA X A P P R O AC H E S .

Marty Long says education remains a core value in Grant County, where he farms and owns a hotel and a bar and grill while serving on the county commission.

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By: LAURA RODDY

Farmer and businessman Marty Long has spent his whole life in southwest Kansas and cares deeply about his community.

He no longer has a direct interest in public education – his kids are grown – but he believes it is vital for the health and future of Grant County.

He is persistent about helping attract new businesses to Ulysses, a county seat with about 6,000 people and the only incorporated city in the county, and has done his part by starting a couple himself.

Long, 60, graduated from Ulysses High School in 1975 and attended Kansas State University for a year before returning to the family farm, where he grows dryland wheat and grain sorghum.

In 2009, he diversified his holdings with a 45-room hotel in Ulysses and more recently opened a bar and grill.

Long also has served on the Grant County Commission since 2004. It was smooth sailing for the first six years. “My job was easy,” Long says. “I made decisions that were pretty typical of the day.”

Then around 2010, property values in the county started falling. “The first year they fell, we were a little bit surprised, but it was far from a panic,” he says. But since then, Grant County, which has a population of about 7,800, has lost a little more than half its value.

“It made my job as a commissioner all of the sudden extremely difficult,” he says.

The county’s tax revenue was heavily dependent on oil and gas operations, which experienced a huge downturn, resulting in the burden being shifted to residents and businesses.

“Declining values have hurt the school system, too,” he says. “As far as I can tell, they’ve been able to do more with less money, just like the rest of us. … It’s tough on them. It really is.”

Long says counties had to raise their mill levies and cut budgets to compensate for the decline.

The commissioners identified core functions of the county and put their focus there – the hospital, EMS, the sheriff’s department. They continue to work on economic development to diversify and add new businesses, but the efforts have not been as successful as they would like.

As in the rest of Kansas, there’s a lot of talk in Long’s circles about the so-called LLC loophole that passed the Legislature in 2012. It eliminated income tax in Kansas for limited liability companies, S corporations, partnerships, farms and sole proprietorships. As a result, according to the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, a nonprofit that has proposed a tax model that includes an elimination of the exemption, the state has lost $290 million a year in revenue.

“In talking to other business owners around my area, Grant County, we feel like it would be fine for us to pay the LLC taxes because we do hold education as a core value in our communities,” says Long, who has an LLC himself. “Even though I don’t have kids in school, I know how important it is to educate our children and spend an appropriate amount of money on that. If it means LLCs pay more taxes, at least in my area, I believe that they would be happy to do so.”

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Although Long has worries for Grant County, he also sees a brighter side.

according to such factors as socioeconomic status, special needs and district size.

“One of the things we’re optimistic about is we’ve had a turnover in the Legislature,” says Long, a Republican. “We have replaced ultraconservative senators and representatives with more moderate people, and that in and of itself shows some optimism that things can change, that things can get better. … We’re paying more attention to who we elect in our Legislature, and we’re hoping for better times to come.”

“The formula is important not only to Grant County but to all the school districts,” Long says. “I understand there were some problems with the old school finance formula, but from talking to educators and school board members, it appeared like that formula could have been tweaked or rewritten and most of it left alone.”

If there is one thing Long could change with regard to the ongoing school funding debate, it would be to get rid of block grants, a temporary lump-sum funding system that in 2015 replaced a decades-old school-funding formula. Kansas school districts are in the second – and last – fiscal year of block grants while lawmakers work on a new school funding formula.

Under block grants, schools are allocated a set amount for the year that is not adjusted if enrollment numbers change. Previously, the formula was based on per-pupil enrollment and weighted

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As a county commissioner, Long pays close attention to health care. He has seen the trends toward regionalization and knows a lot of small rural hospitals won’t survive the next five to 10 years.

Long says southwest Kansas hasn’t yet seen the same trend with schools, but he is concerned.

“Communities our size, if they lose a hospital or they lose a school, it’s almost a kiss of death,” Long says. “We’re trying to do everything we can as commissioners to make our county a great place to do business, a great place to live and a great place to educate your kids. We’re just doing the best we can with less.”

“Even though I don’t have kids in school, I know how important it is to educate our children and spend an appropriate amount on money on that.”

MARTY LONG | Grant County DISTRICT PATRON WITH GROWN CHILDREN, COUNTY COMMISSIONER, BUSINESS OWNER

His situation: Falling property values have challenged a local economy he’s working to help diversify.

What he’d change: Go back to previous approaches for funding schools and taxation.

56 THE 34 JOURNAL Cindy Nolte found a neighborhood-like school environment for her son, Reed, at The Independent School, a private K-12 school in Wichita. “It’s like going to school in a small town,” she says.

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EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS South-central Kansas

CHOOSING PRIVATE BUT SUPPORTING PUBLIC A LT H O U G H S H E A N D H E R H U S B A N D S E L E C T E D A P R I VAT E S C H O O L F O R T H E I R S O N , C I N D Y N O LT E W A N T S TO SEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS FLOURISH IN KANSAS.

Cindy Nolte and her husband wanted the same things in a school for their son that they remember growing up in El Dorado and Great Bend: close to their home, a sense of community, smaller classes.

By: BRIAN WHEPLEY

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“Part of the appeal of this neighborhood and this particular house we bought was because it was so close to a public school,” says Nolte, who lives in east Wichita and runs her own public relations firm. “We both grew up in small towns. You walked to school; you knew all the kids. We just thought that was the way it was going to be.”

As their son, Reed, now a high school junior, approached school age, the Noltes became concerned that he could end up being transferred away from close-by Price-Harris Communications Magnet Elementary for a year at some point. The Wichita district doesn’t bus students now, but it did at the time. They liked having a school nearby, and even a temporary transfer didn’t feel very neighborhood-like to them.

They also liked the idea of smaller middle and high schools, so they took a hard look at private schools. “I wish we would have felt like we had a better option,” Nolte says.

The Noltes found what they were looking for at The Independent School, a K-12 school of approximately 600 students located about a mile and a half from their home. There, over the past 12 school years, they’ve bonded with other families, and Reed has had a chance to play sports – basketball and tennis – in an everybody-can-join system that might not have been possible in a larger school. “It’s like going to school in a small town, which we loved,” she says.

And it has “smaller class sizes. That was huge for me,” Nolte says. “When I went through Leadership Wichita years ago, I sat in on a government class at North High and the desks were banged together. It was such an eye-opener.

The kids were great. The teacher was great.

But it’s got to be a bit harder to learn and teach in that environment.”

Nolte knows she and her husband, Keith, are fortunate to have the resources to send their son to private school. With high school tuition topping $10,000, it’s still a sacrifice, one they likely couldn’t make if they had two or three kids. Though they chose private school, she doesn’t think that should put her – or other private school parents – into a position of either-or when it comes to viewing and supporting public schools.

“I’m a product of public schools, small-town public schools, and would like to see our public schools flourish. I just really have a passion for our public school system, which seems odd because my child is at private school,” she says.

“I am a taxpayer, so I do help support the public schools. Our school system has a lot of value to our society, and I’m sometimes puzzled why there’s so much friction and divisiveness over school funding,” Nolte says. “People don’t always understand the services that are available across the board besides just classes. If your child needs speech therapy, you can go to a public school and get a program for that, whether you’re a private school parent or a public school parent.”

Nolte’s husband also owns his own business, one that installs commercial playgrounds at schools, churches, military bases and elsewhere.

“Another critical reason for making sure our schools are healthy and well-funded is that, to a business owner, it is a value to know that people entering the workforce have a good, solid basic education. It’s significant, it really is, in terms of our economic growth,” she says.

Pride and perception matter, too. “I do public relations for a living, and I’m aware that to people outside Kansas we’re not looking so good right now,” says Nolte, who is hopeful about recent political shifts in the state.

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Nolte has seen inside a large public high school and volunteered at a high-poverty elementary school, and she says that if she could change one thing, it would be class sizes.

“Overcrowding in classrooms, it’s a hot button for me. Having sat in one of those rooms, I thought, ‘This isn’t right; this isn’t how kids can learn.’ If you have a group of 30 kids, you’re going to have a group over here who are just straight A’s, motivated, and you have a few over here who struggle. They get the teacher’s attention for opposite reasons, and you’ve got this whole middle section that just gets along.

It would be utopia if we could get to the point where the kids who have trouble could be guided in a positive way, but if we also then could focus on the ones in the middle, because, who knows, they could end up taking off like a rocket.”

Just as there’s no uniformity of opinion in the community or in the public schools – there are teachers who vote for politicians pledging tax cuts and guidance counselors who see merit in charter schools – there’s a wide range of views and approaches among private school parents. Some have a child in public school and another in private. Some have children in several different private schools, with parents choosing a school based on its “vibe” and fit for a particular child just as a public school parent decides a “traditional” magnet is the best match for their student.

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As the Legislature considers a school funding solution, vouchers for private school are expected to be part of the debate. Nolte is skeptical.

“When the school voucher system comes up, I know I should be in favor of it, because we could benefit. But I just can’t, because I don’t want it to take away from the public schools that so desperately need every resource they can cobble together,” she says.

Nolte says it’s far more important to her that we make “public schools excellent academic options, that kids have a safe, high-quality education. “I’m afraid that if we try vouchers, it may decimate the public school system.

It certainly doesn’t help the public schools.

They don’t get more money. And in Kansas, they need more money.”

Nor does she want to see “across the board” privatization of schooling. Her ultimate goal would be to have Kansas be seen as a national leader in terms of education.

“I would love it if Kansas had the reputation for being a place to educate your kids, if we were known for being a great place for public education, and we’re not,” she says. “I would love it if Kansas had that going for it, that we had a good strong system, that kids were being taught what they needed to flourish and succeed.”

CINDY NOLTE | Wichita | PRIVATE SCHOOL PARENT

Her situation: Chose to send her son to private school for a more neighborhood school-like experience, What she’d change: Make class sizes smaller, enhance the reputation of public education.

EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS South-central Kansas

STRADDLING THE DIVIDE IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL WITH A DIVERSE MIX O F S T U D E N T S , A C O U N S E L O R S AY S H E R ‘ B I G B E E F ’ I S F O R N E E D Y S T U D E N T S T O H AV E A C C E S S TO MORE RESOURCES.

Titles of previous occupants are stenciled on the door of Jenny Ridder’s office at Wichita’s Robinson Middle School: social worker, psychologist, speech and language clinician. • None of the descriptions match Ridder’s job title – counselor – but all seem to apply at some point during busy days trying to keep tabs on 400 sixth- and seventh- graders, her half of Robinson’s 800 students.

By: BRIAN WHEPLEY

JENNY RIDDER | Wichita | MIDDLE SCHOOL COUNSELOR

Her situation: Trying to support the growth of students as much as she can despite having hundreds of pupils assigned to her.

What she’d change: Provide more resources to the students who are struggling.

Hall duty is one of the times that Robinson Middle School counselor Jenny Ridder can connect informally with some of the hundreds of students assigned to her.

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On any given day, she’s mediating disputes between students, setting schedules for new students and planning the master schedule for next year, giving tours of the building, making hall sweeps for tardy students, and following up on teacher reports about kids’ math and language arts interventions.

Then there’s lunch, a highly orchestrated, four-session affair in which students file into the limited seating in order and friends get separated.

During her two sessions, Ridder waves kids into tables like an airport worker guiding planes into gates, tells some boys “that needs to stop” and holds IDs for restroom-bound students.

“I like doing lunch duty because I can see them in an informal setting and (see) who hangs with who, and who does what,” says Ridder, reflecting the same observational approach used on a morning swing through the sixth-grade hallway with calls of “How you doing?” and “You can do it!” to girls laboring up stairs.

It’s all part of a day that starts at 7:30 a.m. and often stretches to 5:30 p.m. or, on AVID College Night, until 7:30. At Robinson, Ridder is also co-coordinator of AVID, a program for about 40 seventh- and eighth-graders with the potential to handle high school honors and Advanced Placement classes but need tutoring and other support to get there and, perhaps, on to college.

Ridder grew up in Wichita, going through Catholic schools and receiving her teaching degree from Wichita State University. She taught social studies and coached at her alma mater, Kapaun Mount Carmel High School, before moving to Wichita Northwest High School.

After a dozen years in the classroom, she took her master’s in counseling to Wichita North High School, one of the biggest, most diverse and poorest high schools in the district, where nearly three in four students are poor by federal poverty measures. By comparison, about 11 percent of

students in nearby Andover, a prosperous Wichita suburb, qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

Ridder is no stranger to the challenges poverty often delivers to students – less support at home, less access to early childhood education, moves from school to school, lack of money for binders and even clothing, and more. She’s also no stranger to how additional resources – money for supplies, teaching materials and tutoring – can make a difference.

Robinson is stuck in the middle on that kind of help. Many of its students come from much higher poverty Washington and Adams elementary schools, but Robinson, where nearly 59 percent of kids are low income, doesn’t reach the threshold that the district uses to determine which schools get federal Title I assistance, which aims to narrow gaps between low-income students and their wealthier peers.

She thinks parents and kids should have “some skin in the game” for school and the work and resources it takes. But if she could change one thing at her school it would be gaining “access to funds for kids that are needy. That’s my big beef.”

The Wichita district, with state funding flat and costs rising, added a half hour to each school day and chopped 15 days from the calendar in 2016 to help cut $23 million from its budget.

“Those sixth-graders are kind of elementary kids. They’re pretty tired at the end of the day,” she says.

Other cuts reduced Robinson’s building budget – which pays for computers, paper and other supplies, field trips, library books, desks, chairs and a host of other things – 10 percent in each of the past two years. Other district cuts have affected training and support for teachers. The school hasn’t lost teachers. But instead of recruiting its own to fill retirements and departures, it’s taken transfers from other district programs that were cut. “You have teachers being assigned from schools that were maybe a learning center or something, and then going into a middle school.

That is quite a transition.”

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Robinson is not without resources, including some that come with one-third of the school’s students being in the pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) track that preps students thinking about applying for Wichita East High School’s rigorous academic program. Many pre-IB students bring the individualized education plans (IEPs) required for special education, including gifted service. The school’s approximately 225 IEPs require monitoring and paperwork, which is why Robinson has a full-time social worker and a full-time psychologist, part-time positions at most middle schools.

Ridder may wish her office was located near the administrators so that she didn’t make 20 trips a day on the stairs of the sprawling three-story school, which opened in 1932. And she’s glad Robinson is getting a new bond-issue funded auditorium and a practice gym/safe room. But more than anything, she’d like more co-workers and smaller classes.

There are a lot of things Ridder would like to do. She would like to go into classrooms and get kids thinking about careers earlier, if she had the time and teachers didn’t feel squeezed by days lost to budget cuts. She would like to apply for grants and programs that might bring additional resources. She would like to know the names of more pre-IB students but doesn’t “because they do what they’re supposed to do.”

And it might mean that there would be room in art class – where “we just don’t have another chair right now” – for a new student, the one who likes math and is getting a “fresh start” at Robinson.

Instead, “sometimes it feels like we’re just doing triage,” as she and fellow counselor Lindsay Halstead adjust schedules, welcome new students, referee conflicts over boyfriends and girlfriends, counsel kids having trouble with teachers or family, and run to the nurse when a student is harming herself. It’s a scramble that can leave counselors saying, at noon, that they haven’t gotten to their desk yet.

“I work with a lot of the naughty kids,” Ridder says of issues ranging from inappropriate sexual discussions to students expelled elsewhere who are getting a “fresh start” at Robinson. “It’s a pain in the rear, but at the same time you don’t want to see middle-schoolers kicked out of school. That doesn’t help society at all.”

“A class size of 30 sixth-graders is ridiculous.

Everybody knows that, but we’ve got them.

How do you teach them social studies and civics when you’ve got 30 kids in there? And if you took out 10, just 10, it could be so much better.”

“The issue isn’t stuff; it’s people. If there are 800 kids, I have 400 kids. I don’t know all their names, and I don’t have a connection to all 400 of them.

The idea is they should have somebody, at least one adult they’ve connected with, so hopefully they do.”

She’s willing to consider almost anything that gives kids a decent shot and has a “somewhat conservative view” that makes her open to vouchers, allowing government money to go to private school tuition. But she’d like private schools held to the same take-all-comers approach public schools must follow.

“It does seem like there’s a total assault on public education.” Her fear is that “they’re going to gut public schools. And we’re going to be trying to teach some of the hardest kids that the other schools don’t want.”

“I’m more scared than I am hopeful, unfortunately,” she says of the current environment.

Without continued support, there’ll be greater poverty and “giant gaps” in education and society, Ridder says. “It’s going to create a larger divide.”

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ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE:

PUT FOCUS ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT L I M I T E D - G O V E R N M E N T T H I N K-T A N K P R E S I D E N T S AY S I T ’ S H O W M O N E Y I S S P E N T , N O T T H E A M O U N T , T H AT M A K E S T H E B I G G E S T D I F F E R E N C E I N E D U C AT I O N .

Dave Trabert, president of the Kansas Policy Institute

Dave Trabert is the president of the Kansas Policy Institute, a limited-government think tank. He responded to the following questions at the request of The Journal.

WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS IN YOUR ROLE RELATED TO EDUCATION?

The most frustrating challenge is that school officials and media focus on funding, when the real crisis is student achievement. The latest ACT results for Kansas show that only 36 percent of white students are college-ready in English, reading, math and science. And it’s even worse for minorities: Only 15 percent of Hispanic students and just 8 percent of African-American students are college-ready in those four subjects.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows less than a quarter of low-income kids are proficient in reading and math, and only about half of the more affluent students in Kansas are proficient. Similar findings appear on state assessment tests. For example, only 11 percent of low-income 10th-graders are on track to be college and career ready in math, compared with just 34 percent of their more affluent peers.

School officials routinely tell parents and legislators that student achievement in Kansas is among the top 10 in the nation, but that has never been true. National rankings on ACT and the National Assessment of Educational Progress range from the mid-teens to the mid-30s, and even the “good” rankings are deceiving. For example, Kansas is ranked No.16 for fourth-grade low-income students in math proficiency, but only 27 percent are proficient.

Another related challenge is that school officials and some legislators consistently mislead residents and the media about the relationship between money and achievement. They say spending is correlated with better outcomes, but even the researchers who share that belief admit that spending more money doesn’t cause anything to change. It’s how money is spent that makes a difference – not the amount spent.

If spending more money was the solution, there would be no achievement gaps in the United States and outcomes would all be great. But the sad fact remains that, despite billions more being poured into public education, outcomes remain stubbornly low for many students in Kansas and across the nation.

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Not to put too fine a point on it, but some educators and legislators know these facts to be true yet they won’t say so publicly because of political pressure. Many say “it’s all about the kids,” but too often, it’s all about the money and getting re-elected.

WHAT HOPES DO YOU HAVE FOR THE FUTURE?

The time it would take to close achievement gaps for low-income kids in Kansas used to be measured in decades; now, it must be measured in centuries. So we’re encouraged that Kansas finally has a school choice option for low-income parents. The tax credit scholarship program enacted in 2014 has helped more than 300 low-income students leave some of the worst public schools in Kansas and thrive in a different environment. Education officials and unions are trying to shut the program down, but hopefully most legislators and the governor will put students first and not allow that to happen.

Also, when parents learn the truth about student achievement, many begin calling for transformational change in public education.

Parental involvement is critical because local school boards have shown no willingness to drive change on their own.

The March 2014 Kansas Supreme Court opinion creating a new test to determine adequate funding is more cause for hope. For the first time in Kansas’ history, a court declared that outcomes are the determining factor of adequacy rather than the amount of money being spent. The Court reaffirmed its position in March 2017, and now it’s left to the Legislature to create a brand-new formula that is reasonably calculated to allow students to meet or exceed specific standards.

This gives the Legislature an opportunity to finally hold school boards accountable for improving outcomes. They hopefully will adopt a rewardand-consequence approach that provides bonuses to building staff for improvement but allows students in the worst-performing buildings to leave with an education savings account so they have an opportunity to get the education they deserve.

WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST FEARS?

My biggest fear is that another generation of kids won’t be given the opportunity to succeed because nothing will change. If legislators succumb to institutional and political demands for more school funding without accountability, Kansas’ public schools will continue to leave generations of students behind. Many of those students are low income and/or minorities, but certainly not all. The data from state assessments, Board of Regents’ remediation reports, ACT and the National Assessment of Educational Progress show this very clearly.

Most education officials and the unions want the old funding formula resurrected with a lot more money, but the old formula doesn’t meet the Kansas Supreme Court’s new test of adequacy; nothing was calculated and there was no relationship to outcomes. Legislators need to create a brand-new formula that reasonably calculates what schools need and hold schools accountable for better outcomes.

In other words, students must come first rather than institutions.

No amount of money has closed or will close achievement gaps if simply dumped into an unaccountable system. Not in Kansas and not in the United States.

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT EDUCATION IN KANSAS, IT WOULD BE...

Having worked in media most of my career, I’ve seen the transformative power of responsible, civic-minded journalism. It’s not about choosing sides and telling people what to think, but laying out all the facts and challenging positions on all sides of issues. So the one thing I would like to see change is for media to step up in that regard.

Getting every student an opportunity for the education they deserve requires citizen involvement and direction, but Kansans need to have all of the information in order to make informed decisions.

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I C A R E A B O U T T H I S D E B AT E .

S O H O W D O I E N G A G E E F F E C T I V E LY ?

HOW TO: Write a letter to the Editor

Have a conversation with a legislator

Testify before the Legislature

By: CHRIS GREEN

THE JOURNAL

HOW TO:

Write a letter to the Editor

Jason Probst, opinion editor at The Hutchinson News, reads lots of letters to the editor. As many as 20 to 25 a week, which adds up to more than 1,000 a year. But he says a really good letter – one that’s effective at informing and persuading – tends to stand out in the crowd.

Even in a world where anyone can express opinions on social media, the art of writing a powerful letter still matters. A Facebook post can garner lots of instant reactions, but the platform’s content distribution is controlled by an algorithm that determines what’s most relevant to you and others based on habits and relationships. As a result, it’s a rare feat for your opinions to reach very far outside of your circle of friends, family and acquaintances. A Twitter post can conceivably reach millions. But it’s more likely to get lost in a sea of messages and reach dozens instead.

The letter-to-the-editor format, as old as the American newspaper itself, allows you to craft your writing to reach a useful audience – thousands of reasonably engaged and well-informed readers in your area. There is still something powerful about having your views appear in print with your name underneath them (newspapers usually only print letters signed by a verified individual or group of individuals). But if you want your letter to be noticed by others, Probst suggests a few guidelines before clicking send on your email.

1. BE PITHY. Many newspapers put a word limit on submissions (it’s 500 words at Probst’s paper), but you don’t need to use all 500. Probst suggests being as direct as possible and doing the job in 200 to 300 words if you can.

2. CHECK YOUR FACTS. Make sure you’re confirming the information your opinions are based upon, citing sources where necessary. And be careful about making personal attacks – they’re rarely persuasive and newspapers won’t print content that is untrue or malicious.

3. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Don’t just share your opinion, but think about the people you hope to inform or persuade.

That requires thinking a bit about what they care about and what might persuade them to agree with you.

4. TREAT IT LIKE AN ONGOING CONVERSATION. The best letters build upon topical issues or other recent letters. Don’t just repeat what’s been said, but try to add new insights as if you are part of a larger conversation. And be willing to acknowledge the existence and validity of other points of view.

5. SPEAK FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. Dig a little deeper and explain the reasons why you think the way you do about a particular issue, referencing how your own experiences have helped shape your views. Readers are more likely to take you seriously if they’re able to understand the foundations of your beliefs.

6. EMPOWER THE READER. Probst’s favorite letters lay out a direct point or opinion and then invite other people to take action. You want readers to be inspired to take action after finishing with your letter and not just sit there nodding their heads.

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HOW TO:

Have a conversation with a legislator

We live in a republic, in which elected representatives make decisions on our behalf. In Kansas, each of us is represented by at least two people at the Kansas Statehouse (one in the 125-person House of Representatives and another in the 40-member Senate).

If you want to influence the decisions being made in state government, you have go through them.

Although there’s a lot of talk in the media about protests these days, that shouldn’t be your first instinct, especially when dealing with those representatives closest to you. In fact, you’ll almost certainly be better served by being well-mannered and respectful when presenting your views. Think about how you can build a relationship with your lawmakers.

Timing is also crucial, says Kimberly Gencur Svaty, founder and principal of Gencur Svaty Public Affairs, which represents clients professionally in the Statehouse. “Engagement with policymakers when lawmakers are either out of session or during a scheduled in-district meeting – when it is not mission critical – can be the most effective, as it provides an opportunity for hands-on learning and experience,” she says.

While productive meetings can occur when lawmakers are in session, there’s way too much going on for lawmakers to devote much time to any one constituent. Gencur Svaty’s advice: “Spend the time up front to make sure that your policymaker understands your issue/organization, which minimizes scrambling during the session.”

Gencur Svaty suggests planning for any meeting with a policymaker by outlining the key points you wish to discuss, along with real-life examples. Be knowledgeable about your facts and figures, be ready to show them and provide a concise handout for them to use. If you have an immediate issue, such as a pending vote, it’s best to pick up the phone and call. (Legislators list office and home phone numbers at www.kslegislature.org/). Keep calling until you reach someone. You can often leave a message with office staff.

If you can’t talk to legislators when they’re in the district, in-person communication at their Statehouse office can work, too – but keep your expectations reasonable, because they’ll likely be pressed for time.

Gencur Svaty thinks it’s always imperative to thank a legislator – or anyone with whom you are speaking – for their time and consideration, regardless of whether they will vote your way or not. If you want to leave a stronger impression, be sure to follow up after the issue is resolved.

“Legislators receive scores of email, phone and written communications on issues generally prior to a vote,” Gencur Svaty notes. “It is the constituents who continue to politely and respectfully engage on the subject after the vote has occurred that will leave a lasting impression on the lawmakers.”

A good conversation, she says, might flow like this: 1.

Politely introduce yourself. Thank the lawmaker for taking time to meet you. Make sure he or she knows you are a constituent. If you are not a constituent, then explain how the issue directly impacts the lawmaker’s district.

2. Confirm the amount of time available for

a conversation.

3. Explain what you want to talk about, citing

a specific bill number, if necessary.

4.

Ascertain if your lawmaker is familiar with the issue. If so, you can provide more nuanced details. If not, provide a concise overview and explain why the matter is important to you. If speaking to legislators who share your views, reiterate the importance of the issue (you want them to be stronger advocates).

If not, ask how they came to that opinion.

You can reiterate the significance of the issue to their district and ask them to seek out views of others they trust.

5.

Give all sides of the story. State and local policymakers don’t have much in the way of support staff. They depend on you being honest and straightforward. But they are likely to verify what you tell them.

6. Answer all questions honestly and respectfully.

7. Thank them for their time and willingness

to meet.

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HOW TO:

Testify before the Legislature

Testifying before a legislative committee about a policy that personally affects you can be a powerful intervention to advance something you care about. And you don’t have to be a registered lobbyist or insider to get on the list to share your views.

interest you through an established group with a Statehouse presence, such as the Kansas National Education Association or the Kansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity, who can keep you apprised of when there will be opportunities to testify.

Anyone and everyone should be allowed to testify before a state legislative committee, according to Raney Gilliland, director of the Kansas Legislative Research Department, although as a conferee you should expect to face time limits.

Being in touch with the committee assistants is important, because they’ll be able to tell you how to get on the list to testify. Normally, Gilliland says, you’ll be asked if you wish to testify as a proponent, opponent or as neutral. Most will accept testimony as a PDF so that it can be attached to minutes or copied if necessary.

(All testimony, once minutes are approved, is available in an electronic format.)

To find out what bills are coming up for committee hearings, you will need to check the schedule for the upcoming week, the agendas for which are typically published on Thursday for the following week, Gilliland says. However, you will likely need to contact the assistant of a particular committee to learn about timing. (You can reach this person by calling the office of the legislator who is the committee chairwoman or chairman.)

You may also search for committee hearings online at http://kslegislature.org/li/b2017_18/ committees/hearings/. However, it may be just as useful for you to keep track of issues that

When testifying, there are rules of decorum that must be observed. Those can vary from committee to committee. But in general, address your comments to the chairwoman, expect to face restrictions about how long you can testify and be prepared to summarize rather than read your testimony. And definitely arrive early and turn off the ringer on your cell phone. Be sure to ask the committee assistant about any specific rules that might apply.

The Community Tool Box, a service of the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas, has a lot of useful tips for submitting good testimony, such as: Begin by stating your name and making a statement about yourself and why you are interested in the policy up for discussion.

Describe how the situation affects your everyday life.

Display a good public speaking presence (eye contact, pauses, speak audibly and at an appropriate speed).

Read more tips at http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action/personal-testimony/main

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The

UNLIKELIEST COMPOSITION By: SARAH CALDWELL HANCOCK

Early organizers couldn’t have imagined what the Symphony in the Flint Hills would become by 2016, when performer Jeff Davidson sang to a large crowd at a story circle after the concert. (Photo by Hannah Roberts/ Flint Hills Media Project)

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The leadership story of how the Symphony in the Flint Hills grew from being a far-out concept into an annual celebration of natural beauty and art that draws 7,000 people.

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Having a symphony in the middle of a prairie is a pretty crazy idea when you think about it. The logistics are daunting.

How do you identify a site? How do you power a sound system in the middle of a pasture? What musician wants to tote an instrument that cost thousands of dollars into the notoriously unpredictable Kansas environment, and how many spectators want to risk heat, rain or other discomforts? If you can handle all of that, what about parking, restrooms and refreshments?

wanted to harness the magical feeling and experience of another symphony on the prairie, but the necessary planning seemed overwhelming.

Luckily, Phil and Kathy Miller, who had extensive knowledge of building and working for nonprofit organizations, were in attendance. Phil, who passed away in 2015, was a former banker. Kathy had started a hospice and another nonprofit, and both of them had lived abroad, working for an antipoverty nonprofit. They loved the Flint Hills enough to relocate to Matfield Green from Wichita in 2003.

The Symphony in the Flint Hills faced a number of technical challenges and questions when it began more than a decade ago. But the most pressing problems were adaptive: How do you get people excited about a concept the likes of which no one had seen before?

In 2004, the Millers gathered a group to explore a prairie symphony. The group called itself the Flint Hills Arts Alliance and included the organizers of Brass on the Bluestem, a dynamic woman named Emily Hunter (now Emily Connell) who had convinced the Millers to move to the Flint Hills, organizers of historical events in Council Grove and others. They recruited more people who were interested in promoting events in Chase, Morris, Riley and Wabaunsee counties and in planning an outdoor concert series. By the fall of 2004, the Symphony in the Flint Hills idea was born.

The volunteers who gathered to launch the first Symphony in the Flint Hills in 2006 did it with a spirit and vitality that helped them raise the necessary funds and find the right partners.

They also gave the work back to passionate and competent volunteers who could withstand some heat – plus walk away when the right time came.

But Kathy Miller says they knew the truth: “It was a wild concept.” For the event to succeed, the planners needed to raise half a million dollars.

“We knew we would have to be really clear and have the enthusiasm to make donors feel like this is something they just have to do,” Miller recalls. “Even though we knew it was crazy.”

And even if you get all that right, how do you know anyone will come?

IN THE BEGINNING

The symphony’s 12th annual event will take place June 10 at the Deer Horn Ranch in Geary County. The event, which sells out each year, draws thousands to the tallgrass prairie. People who buy general admission tickets will pay $90 plus tax for adult tickets and $50 for children 12 and under.

Chase County rancher Jane Koger is credited with the concept for the event. She hosted a concert in 1994, inviting 3,000 people to celebrate her birthday and honor her mother. It tapped a huge vein of interest. Another event, Brass on the Bluestem, came two years later. Many people

The argument that led to the initial donation, a $25,000 vote of confidence that allowed the group to hire an event coordinator, was based on the hope that beautiful music in a beautiful landscape could provide economic development.

Miller said the support was a huge relief. But the group drew on more than logic to persuade other donors. Miller’s favorite memory is a fundraising pitch at a Sunday evening picnic with a prominent prospective donor and her daughter that invoked the power of the Flint Hills. They were at the highest point in the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve enjoying supper when they attracted an audience. “The cows came and circled us – they were curious! We were all just enthralled with that,” Miller recounts. She and Phil described the event they had in mind.

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“The sunset cooperated, and we said, ‘This is the finale – everyone will see this,’” she recalls.

Those donors supported the event, but others balked. One prospect stalled for six weeks over a $35,000 presenting sponsorship that Miller thought was “a no-brainer,” then said no. Finding a site also proved difficult. It seemed like a good idea to send out a request for proposals through local newspapers, but no responses came. That led to a decision to have the first concert at the National Preserve, but strict park regulations presented other challenges.

Through it all, Miller says visionary people kept the event alive. Emily Connell, the event coordinator, was one of them. “If you said, ‘We need to throw some seeds out in the yard,’ in a few minutes she would have beautiful flowers planted, with a fountain and a berm,” says Miller. “It could be a big pain – she would come to me and say, ‘I am having the time of my life,’ and I would say, ‘I am not! I am sitting at this computer many hours a day.’ She’s a big-picture person, I’m a nuts-and-bolts person. Her enthusiasm was vital.”

Connell recalls feeling ecstatic. “When you carry something in your mind … it lifts you! It’s a burden of a kind, but there’s a lot of lift in it,” she says. “I could see this thing emerging.”

Connell owes her vision to a fear that the landscape she loves so much was in jeopardy. She didn’t want to see “wind towers on every hilltop,” and realized that people looking at the landscape often saw “unused space” that could be put to better use. Connell knew others with similar worries.

They discussed how to tackle the problem.

“I’m of the generation that was against a lot of things. We were against the war and against racial discrimination and against women as second-class citizens. We protested and carried on against things. I felt like you create a lot of resistance when you are against something,” Connell recalls. She ultimately decided that adopting a more positive stance, one that was for the prairie and for the Flint Hills, would be more effective. She was convinced that informing the audience was an important part of the project.

“Prairies don’t have to do with just microbial life and carbon sequestration, but there is a dimension to this place of something we need.

A dimension of an extraordinary kind of beauty,” Connell says.

Connell’s passion was contagious. Cathy Hoy, another early volunteer, worked on the nuts and bolts along with Miller and others. Seeing the passion from Connell and others was meaningful to Hoy, who started volunteering in 2005. In 2004, her sister and nephew had been killed in a plane crash. (“I was so numb and trying to deal with that,” she recalls.) Family members started a foundation in their honor and allowed Hoy to give some to local causes. She pledged “a nice amount” to the Symphony in the Flint Hills and was “determined to make sure it really happened.”

Hoy did whatever needed to be done, which included calling vendors to supply portable toilets and golf carts to ensure the comfort of those who came – if they came – and buying old barrels from an Emporia company and having them painted. (The event uses them as trash cans to this day.) She recalls feeling skeptical and, at times, thinking the undertaking impossible.

“It’s just not even imaginable, but Jane had the first impulse, so there was a good model,” Hoy says.

A decision to follow Connell’s instinct and educate the audience about the tallgrass prairie made the symphony more than a musical performance.

It also fully engaged Hoy and her husband, Jim. Both Jim and Cathy are retired from Emporia State University and are longtime promoters of the Flint Hills. An original board member found speakers to deliver seminars at the first symphony, and educational efforts grew with the event. By the symphony’s third year, Cathy was head of the board and introducing the governor.

Education has proven vital to the success of the event. Each year’s theme, schedule of programs and Field Journal – collections of essays and artwork designed to inform concertgoers about the prairie’s and the symphony site’s natural and historical significance – help keep the event fresh.

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“You can’t ask something to be something that it isn’t. You accept it for all the glorious things that it is.

I don’t want to make it sound like it was easy. But so what?

Good things are not always easy,” EMILY CONNELL

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Inaugurated in 2006, the Symphony in the Flint Hills has become more than just a concert. It’s also an opportunity to educate the audience about the event’s tallgrass prairie setting.

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More important, executive director Christy Davis says the educational materials help communicate the uniqueness and authenticity of the area.

“Authenticity is important to the communities.

We’re in a place where, because it’s wide-open spaces, it’s rural and remote. We don’t have a lot of population density. What that means to me is we have a significant area with not a large constituency. When it comes to making decisions about this place, we aren’t represented, so we need to build that constituency all over the place.

We want folks to come here to understand what the place is about: ecology, history, culture,” Davis says.

Arts appreciation programs have also enhanced the event. Painting and photography exhibition tents grace the prairie alongside music and educational areas, offering yet another opportunity for audiences to see, understand and appreciate the grass on which they tread.

FACING THE MUSIC

The economic development work, educational efforts and the aesthetic experience would have been impossible if the group hadn’t found a musical collaborator. For a time, that was in doubt.

Because the Millers were from Wichita and had connections there, the Wichita Symphony seemed a logical choice. But several barriers proved insurmountable, including the fact that the Wichita Symphony plays only nine months a year. The Kansas City Symphony was in a better position to give it a try. “Someone said, ‘They will say no, but we should ask the KC Symphony before we give up,’” recalls Frank Byrne, executive director of the Kansas City Symphony.

“They came in and painted a picture for us of what they had in mind. I was intrigued.”

Miller says the partnership has been successful because the KC Symphony was a willing and full partner from the beginning. Symphony volunteers brought instruments for a pre-concert “petting zoo,” for instance, and symphony staff members lent extensive logistic and production expertise.

But she and her husband took some heat for choosing Kansas City over Wichita. Whenever they would go to Wichita, friends and acquaintances asked how they came to make such

a decision. Miller says she understood the questions, because Wichitans love their orchestra.

“But there were good reasons,” she says.

“There wasn’t really any doubt about it. Heart preferences aside, it was a clear benefit to go with the Kansas City group.”

Davis wholeheartedly defends the choice. “I’m just amazed the Kansas City Symphony had the vision to come onboard,” she says. “We have a multiyear agreement with them, and people would be amazed at how much work they put in. They take our educational theme and build a program that’s specific to our event.”

Byrne says the decision wasn’t difficult. “There were uncertainties for sure, on both sides, but we believed in the integrity of the people who were behind this, and we had confidence in our mutual ability to make it happen, and we did!”

SUSTAINED SUCCESS

Getting an event like the Symphony in the Flint Hills off the ground is one thing, but sustaining it is another. The event’s mission hasn’t changed in the past decade, but its operations have. Although volunteers remain crucial, a professional director and other staff members ensure continuity and perform many of the tasks that used to be done by volunteers. More year-round activities are available.

Hoy says one secret to the organization’s success has been that the people behind its creation have known when to step back. “We got the mission right at the first, and anyone who was brought into it has cared about that mission. Most of us were passionate and worked as hard as we could but didn’t cling onto it,” she says. She went off the board a few years ago but appreciates watching the educational efforts she helped develop continue to improve.

Connell also handed off her responsibilities.

She says there’s wisdom in “knowing when to stop,” and that a different kind of leadership was needed when the symphony became established. “It’s a different style and sensibility.

I don’t have it! I know for sure. It’s an important kind of leadership – not ‘once more into the breach,’” Connell says.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The sights and sounds of the Symphony in the Flint Hills, past and present, include: Jason Edmonds, Machaela Edmonds, Steve Edmonds and Chris Edmonds swaying to strains of “Home on the Range,” the traditional concert closer; Michael Moore belting out notes on the trumpet at the “instrument petting zoo”; Emily Connell, a face from the event’s past who helped chart its future as an organizer; Tom Eddy leading a group of attendees on a guided prairie walk; a view of the concert’s sellout crowd.

(Photos by Hannah Roberts/ Flint Hills Media Project and Jeff Tuttle/The Journal)

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Connell also realized that her vision for the event and what it could accomplish in terms of galvanizing support for conserving the tallgrass prairie wasn’t appropriate for the Symphony in the Flint Hills organization. She says she came to the “hard-won realization” that she could continue working toward her goals in other ways. She remains proud of how the event has helped build a constituency and a knowledge base for the Flint Hills.

“You can’t ask something to be something that it isn’t. You accept it for all the glorious things that it is. I don’t want to make it sound like it was easy. But so what? Good things are not always easy,” she says.

Miller still serves in an advisory capacity. She is clearly proud of the event, but she emphasizes that building the organization wasn’t easy. “After 10 years, I can say the two and a half years was worth it, but there’s a personal price to pay. You have to be aware: If you’re going to start something from scratch that has the potential to be something really wonderful, you pay a personal price. It’s going to take blood, sweat and a lot of tears,” she says. For a while, she thought about the event all the time, dealt with interpersonal issues, worried about money and of course “prayed every night” about the weather.

The work and worry paid off. One measure of success is the event’s economic impact, which has grown to about $4 million a year. Davis says the event also exposes people to the area – people who return for weekend visits, and find that new guest houses have opened in Chase and other Flint Hills counties to accommodate them.

But not all of the benefits of the performance are easy to quantify. “How can you put a price tag on awe?” Miller asks. “How can you say what is it worth to inspire people? What’s the value of getting thousands of people to come and experience a landscape?”

And of course there’s the music. Miller says Koger’s idea was that “she knew lots of people from Chase County hadn’t ever heard symphonic music, and would never hear it, but they would come and sit on the grass and listen.”

Like grasslands, the arts need advocates, and that was part of the allure for Byrne, the KC Symphony director. “We need to be true to who we are as an organization, but also connect the dots for civic leaders, philanthropists, elected officials, whoever they may be to convince them that the arts are crucial to the life and cultural spirit of a region. We must make those arguments for ourselves – no one will make them for us,” he says.

Both the symphony and the prairie benefit from the partnership the audience witnesses once a year. And that audience? Connell says she had a moment of relief when she realized the people who would come to the Symphony in the Flint Hills would be not passive, but hardy souls who would assume the responsibility to stay hydrated, wear sunscreen and meet the event halfway.

“We were just doing a framework. The genius of the place: the beauty, the experience of being out there, the realness of the wind. The whole being in it. All we had to do was frame it and make it accessible, and give people the enticement of this combination of music and grass and landscape and sky and wind,” she says.

Discussion Guide 1. What acts of leadership do you think have been most essential for the success of the Symphony in the Flint Hills over the years?

2. What do you think makes it possible for organizers to be so effective at working across factions? Do you think the barriers they faced in doing so were harder or easier than what you face in your own civic leadership challenges?

3. Think about the last time you had a big idea or inspiration. What happened with it? What might this situation teach you about how to respond the next time you have a big dream?

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STRIKING THE RIGHT NOTE: Leadership Lessons from the Symphony in the Flint Hills

1.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO DREAM BIG – AND CRAZILY.

The idea to put on a symphonic concert in the middle of the tallgrass prairie sounded pretty wild at first. But it was also the bigness of the dream that helped capture imaginations and energize others. The principle “leadership is risky” is a warning, but it can also be a launching pad. If you and others are doing things that are out of the ordinary, it can be a sure sign you’re leading.

2.

WORKING ACROSS FACTIONS AT MULTIPLE LEVELS PROPELS PROGRESS.

Being able to engage productively with different groups of people with differing values – volunteers, potential donors, conservationists, a symphony, supporters of the arts – is crucial to making a big project go. But organizers also had to work across factions within their core group. The collaboration between a big-picture person (Emily Connell) and a nuts-and-bolts person (Kathy Miller), to name but two visionaries, was key for getting a big idea off the drawing board. Conflict between factions can sometimes impede progress, but when it’s productive, it can also fuel change.

3.

KNOWING WHEN TO LET GO IS IMPORTANT.

Despite all the energy they put into launching the symphony, there also came a time when the initial organizers had to give the work back to others to carry on. Exercising leadership takes a toll, and sometimes you have to be willing to step back and take care of yourself.

Realizing, as Connell did, that something has outgrown your vision for it can be painful, but accepting that can pave the way for someone else to write the next chapter.

4.

THERE’S NO SUBSTITUTE FOR BUILDING A BROAD CONSTITUENCY.

One of the most powerful aspects of the Symphony in the Flint Hills is how the event itself inspires a collective purpose among so many different types of people. It connects locals, conservationists and classical music lovers. But it also bridges the urban and rural divide. As Christy Davis, the symphony’s executive director, says, the event allows people from throughout the state to appreciate the ecology, history and culture of the Flint Hills and understand their role in preserving it.

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Wyatt Townley was poet laureate of Kansas from 2013 to 2015 and continues living a double life. A former dancer turned yoga teacher, she has written books on both subjects and lives at the curious intersection of poetry and poetry-in-motion. Her poems have been read by Garrison Keillor on NPR, featured in 2004-06 U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s syndicated American Life in Poetry column and published in journals including The Paris Review, North American Review and The Yale Review. The poem here is from Wyatt’s new book, “Rewriting the Body,” forthcoming from Stephen F. Austin University Press.

In her two-year term as Kansas poet laureate, Wyatt traveled 10,000 miles giving programs in all corners of the state. Her mission remains twofold: to bring people home to poetry, and poetry home to people. www.WyattTownley.com Copyright 2017 © by Wyatt Townley. All rights reserved.

FEATURED POET

I N E XTREMIS after Mary Oliver By: WYATT TOWNLEY

You do not have to be good. You do not have to eat what is given. You do not have to get up.

You do not have to quiet down or change your gown. You have only to breathe—take the whole room into the hallways of your lungs and let it out—the house rearranged one breath at a time. Just breathe.

Then do it again.

FEATURED ARTIST

Wall de Memorias By: WENDI RUTH VALLADARES

My work explores the nature of Mexican-American linguistic mestizaje: Chicano Spanish, better known as Spanglish.

Spanglish, a hybrid of Español with American English, appears in various forms: Tex-Mex, Espanglish, Chicano Spanish, Pachuco, etc. throughout the United States and is growing ever more recognized. Spanglish culture results from Chicanos growing up in the United States, identifying with two cultures – Anglo-American and Mexican – yet not totally belonging to either.

I use nostalgic objects and domestic spaces (e.g., toys, interior and exterior domestic spaces, picture frames, etc.) drawn from my childhood to connect to the Spanglish culture I grew up in. In the bilingual home of Mexican Spanish and American English speakers where I grew up, language and culture crossed over to the point where Spanglish-ness was inevitable. Duality of identities plays a strong role in my work as I come from a dominant mestizo bloodline of Mexican and TexMex Chicano families. Considering this lineage, I reference the Aztec indigenous Mexican history alongside the mestizo Chicano present. Overall, I focus on the line of the in-between. I speak to both personal and collective identity in my work, to the English and Spanish speaker. The significance of cultural identity, physically and conceptually, is an important theme throughout my work.

Drawing from personal history and experiences of the new and the familiar, the lost and the found allows me to better engage with the person across from me and vice versa. We communicate in a multitude of ways, and languages both visual and spoken are essential in connecting to and understanding the world in which we live.

Wendi Ruth Valladares is an artist who earned her Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art, Print Media from Wichita State University in 2016. She is from the Lone Star State and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Printmaking from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. She has shown her work in various solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Canada.

Valladares resides close to her family in Dallas, where she is starting a new print studio to further her print practice and organizing a collaboration with Ink Ladies for an upcoming print portfolio exchange titled “Nasty Woman.” Her art practice aims to recall, question and redefine what dual cultural identity is to reveal individual and social similarities and differences that enhance our understanding of ourselves and others.

PHOTOS BY SAM MILLER GOTT

80 THE JOURNAL THE BACK PAGE

There for Us By: MARK MCCORMICK

I’m reminded occasionally of my most terrifying moment, by a smile.

It’s almost always at Sam’s Club, where I see Mohammed Ansari, a neonatal intensive care doctor who treated our twins when they arrived early. He sees me, and smiles.

I always shake his hand and thank him, and, frankly, he really does seem over my gratitude. My gushing seems to embarrass him. He reacts as though I’m over-thanking him.

But I look at my twins today, with their mother’s nose and my grandfather’s long legs and my mother’s intellect and think to myself that Dr. Ansari is lucky I don’t wrap him in a bear hug whenever I see him.

He should also know that I pray for his safety. In the current political climate, I shudder at the fearfulness driving public policy conversations and wonder if this fear reflex aimed broadly at Muslims is just avoiding the work of getting to know people who aren’t like us.

Fear is a reflex, and it can prove positively deranging when your children are involved.

My wife spent several weeks on hospital bed rest trying to carry Mason and Morgan to term in a difficult pregnancy, and on a hot August evening, Mason entered the world with a wail.

I waited to hear Morgan, but he never cried.

I followed, my heart thudding, as they carried Morgan to the neonatal intensive care unit, his little arms and legs dangling. After a day or so, Mason joined him.

We were there several times nightly, changing tiny diapers and trying to get them to drink a mere ounce of formula. Their suckling instinct hadn’t quite developed, and I had to gently lift their chins and push their cheeks forward to help them drink.

On nights when they simply wouldn’t eat, my fear was obvious to all.

Then their doctor would appear. He’d smile and reassure me, put his hand on my shoulder, tell me that at 4 pounds each, they were the biggest babies in the unit. “They’re going to be fine,” he’d say.

I will never forget those midnight and 4 a.m. moments. Or him.

And in these moments of public fear, I’m reminded of how fear can make people stupid and cruel.

I think about the people like Dr. Ansari, who give so much yet can’t escape the shadow of fear and doubt. There seem to be so many people unable to see beyond skin or culture or religion.

This reaction is just too easy. It requires no thought and, worse, no work. You don’t have to learn anything about the people you fear. Just declare them dangerous and circle the wagons.

Fear is pushing us to violate tenets we claim to hold so dear.

Dr. Ansari has more than 20 years of expertise and has cared for 15 to 20 babies a day, according to the hospital. That’s thousands of American babies. How could he not be one of us?

There are real reasons to fear, but our response to that fear is key.

I’d highly recommend Dr. Ansari’s way forward: ample kindness, good works and a warm smile.

Mark E. McCormick is the executive director of The Kansas African American Museum in Wichita.

Mason and Morgan McCormick

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