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DHS: Design changes will make NBAF lab safer
A wee bit of winter
By John Milburn Associated Press
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
SHORT-LIVED SNOWFLAKES CAUGHT SOME BY SURPRISE Friday, given recent unseasonably warm temperatures. Clockwise from top, on Kansas University’s campus, are KU football players Brandon Bourbon, left, and Erick McGriff, who were waiting on a bus; a cyclist heading north on Jayhawk Boulevard; and KU students Joy Fu, left, of Zhenjiang, China, and Wendy Wang, of Zhejiang, China, sharing an umbrella.
TOPEKA — Changes in the design for a proposed federal animal disease research lab in Kansas have sharply reduced the risk of an accidental release of deadly pathogens, according to a new assessment released Friday. The Department of Homeland Security assessment updates a report issued in 2010. The new document puts the risk of an accidental release, including in the event of an earthquake or tornado, at one-tenth of 1 percent, down from the previous calcula- The report tion of a 70 percent chance comes a few weeks after of release. “While the earlier design President far exceeded tornado shel- Obama’s 2013 ter standards, moving up budget was to nuclear regulatory stan- released without dards for structural integ- mention of NBAF rity should provide an in- funding. creased comfort level,” said Ron Trewyn, Kansas State University’s vice president research. Homeland Security plans to build the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan near Kansas State. The assessment calculated the risk to the human population living near the lab, as well as the large Please see NBAF, page 2A
Bipartisan school finance plan emerges; Brownback critical By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — A bipartisan plan to increase funding to schools by $100 million over the next two years emerged Friday in the Senate and immediately came under fire from Gov. Sam Brownback. The proposal has been crafted by the leaders of the Senate Education
Committee — Chairwoman Jean Schodorf, RWichita, Vice Chair John Vratil, R-Leawood, and ranking Democratic Anthony Hensley of Topeka — and stands in stark contrast to Brownback’s push to overhaul the school finance formula. Schodorf said, “School finance is not just about a formula; it’s also about funding. Our plan not
only makes a downpayment on restoring funding to our classrooms, but is also a Hensley wise investment in the future.” A hearing on the proposal, Senate Bill 450, will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday
before the Senate Education Committee. After several years of cutting base state aid per pupil to its lowest level in a decade, the measure would increase base state aid by $50 million for each of the next two years. That would result in increasing base state aid per student from $3,780 to $3,854 in the 2012-13 school year, and then to $3,928 in
the 2013-14 school year, for a total increase of $148 for base state aid per pupil. The Lawrence school district would receive nearly $2.1 million in additional funds under the proposal. Funding for the measure would come from the state’s projected ending balance for the next fiscal year, which is currently expected to be about $390 million.
The proposal would also allow school districts to increase the local portion of their budgets supported by local property taxes from 31 percent of base state aid to 33 percent next year and then 35 percent the year after that. These increases would be subject to protest petitions and a public vote. Please see BIPARTISAN, page 2A
Local youngsters learning Chinese the natural way: through play By Christine Metz cmetz@ljworld.com
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
STUDENTS AT PRAIRIE MOON WALDORF SCHOOL learn Mandarin Chinese from Sonia Coady, who teaches the language through songs and games in way that mimics the way children learn their own native language.
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In the second- and thirdgrade class at Prairie Moon Waldorf School, students marched around the center of the room in a game of London Bridge is Falling Down. But while the tune and the motions were the same as the familiar game, something was out of the ordinary — the words definitely were not English. Sonia Coady, a Taiwan native, was leading the class in a Mandarin Chinese song. Twice a week during 50 minute sessions, Coady instructs the class in the foreign language. But it’s not in the call and response method many of us had in our high school for-
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eign language classes. guage together,” she said. It’s taught much in the “It is kind of like movement way that preschoolers pick class.” Mandarin Chinese came to up their native language: through play. The group sits Prairie Moon at the start of the school year with in a circle passing the arrival of Sonia bean bags and sings. Coady’s husband, They play Simon Says, Jared Coady. The following Coady’s fourth- and fifthcommand. And there grade teacher, Jared is much singing and Coady had spent the reciting of poems that past six years teachare accompanied with SCHOOLS ing English in Taiexaggerated hand mowan. He met his wife tions. Language and movement there. Previously at Prairie Moon, are intertwined. Rarely does Coady speak students were taught Gerto the class in English. And man and Greek, but that lanwhen she does, it is to pass guage teacher had left and the along instructions, not to pro- school asked if Jared would teach Chinese. This semesvide translations. “We sing together, we play ter, looking to lighten Jared’s together, we create the lanPlease see CHINESE, page 2A
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