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THURSDAY • APRIL 3 • 2014
Bus mural gets rolling
SCHOOL FINANCE
Bills would cut millions in Lawrence ———
Legislation would allow districts to increase their Local Option Budgets By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
ANNASTASIA PAYNE, 18, WORKS ON A MURAL depicting Lawrence history at Van Go Inc., 715 New Jersey St. The “rolling” mural will eventually adorn the side of a city bus via a vinyl wrap.
Assessment tests hit by cyberattacks Topeka (ap) — Kansas schools that have been struggling to administer new math and reading assessment tests now have to deal with apparent cyberattacks on the testing system, according to state education officials. This year is a pilot year for new, more technologically advanced state tests that rely less on multiplechoice questions and more on students filling out test
Education officials say no student data compromised answers or manipulating data on a screen. This year’s test results won’t count for accountability SCHOOLS purposes such as school accreditation, but schools want students to adjust to the new test format before next year, when the results will matter. The cyberattacks started
last week shortly after test designers resolved internal technical glitches that had previously slowed test-taking, which began last month. The unknown attackers slowed down or disabled networks used to administer tests by overwhelming them with traffic, rather than hacking into them, and officials said no student data was compromised. The attacks started
Thursday and briefly stopped on Sunday. Testing ran smoothly again on Monday, but the attacks resumed Tuesday, said Marianne Perie, director of Kansas University’s Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation, which operates the state’s testing platform. Perie said the testing Please see TESTS, page 2A
The Lawrence school district stands to lose millions of dollars in spending authority over the next two years under school finance bills now awaiting action in the Kansas House and Senate. But the bills would also allow districts to increase their Local Option Budgets — additional money districts can raise through local property taxes, above and beyond their base state aid — something Lawrence Superintendent Rick Doll said may be necessary to absorb the cuts in state funding. “Under the present, evolving circumstances I would recommend that the Doll board consider moving the LOB to 33 percent,” Doll said. “Our finance director, Kathy Johnson, is in the process of estimating the impact of all proposed changes on our budget, but this would seem to make sense at this time.” The cuts include an as-yet-unknown amount from a pool of money known as “new facilities weighting” — money the state provides for the first two years of operation of new classrooms and buildings, but which the Legislature is now proposing to eliminate Please see SCHOOLS, page 2A
TURNPIKE TOLL PLAZA ACCIDENT
THIS FAMILY SNAPSHOT shows Roman Ilyaich, left, the passenger in a crash Saturday on the Kansas Turnpike, and his girlfriend, Anna Zlotnikova, who spoke to reporters Wednesday at Kansas University Hospital, where Ilyaich is still in serious condition.
Passenger’s injuries ‘traumatic’ By Stephen Montemayor Twitter: @smontemayor
Kansas City, Kan. — Hours before a fatal tractor-trailer collision at a Kansas Turnpike toll plaza, the truck’s passenger left an early-morning voicemail for his girlfriend back in Colorado. He told her to expect him at 10 a.m. in Denver and that he had a fun-filled day planned.
Instead, Roman Ilyaich, 25, of Aurora, Colo., is still at Kansas University Hospital in serious but stable condition after the Saturday crash that took the life of the truck’s driver, Sergiy Angelchev, 30, also of Aurora. A tearful Anna Zlotnikova talked about her boyfriend in front of reporters Wednesday in the hospital’s lobby. She was joined
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by Ilyaich’s father, Yukhay Ilyaich, who made the trip from Arizona. Zlotnikova said Roman Ilyaich has not yet responded to visitors and that his injuries were traumatic. Both Zlotnikova and Yukhay Ilyaich asked for prayers as Roman Ilyaich recovers. “We need him back,” Zlotnikova said. “Trust
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Credit union takeover A Wichita-based credit union has taken over a Lawrence credit union that was the subject of customer concerns last fall. Page 3A
Vol.156/No.92 32 pages