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District honors exceptional teacher
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City supports full inspection and placards for rentals By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
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STUDENTS SURROUND JOHN BODE, who won the district’s Master Teacher award on Tuesday at New York School, 936 New York St. Below, Superintendent Rick Doll, right, congratulates Bode at the school assemby in Bode’s honor.
New York School educator earns Master Teacher award By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
John Bode, a third grade teacher at New York School, received a big surprise during an allschool assembly on Tuesday when he learned the assembly was being held specifically to honor him. Bode was named the Lawrence school district’s 2013-14 Master Teacher, an award given each year to an outstanding educator. “I don’t really feel all that deserving of this award when I look around at so many great teachers at New York, and all over the district, really,” Bode said. “Nothing that happens at New York with our great achievement happens from one person. It happens from all of us caring about the kids and work-
ing together and from the families and the parents, and really from the whole community around New York.” Bode has taught in the Lawrence district since 1995, first as a speech and language pathologist, working with students at Woodlawn, New York, Sunset Hill, Deerfield and Langston Hughes schools. He became a full-time
classroom teacher at New York school in 2003, where he has taught both third and fourth grades. Before coming to Lawrence, he had worked as a speech pathologist in Denver and at the Turner school district in Kansas City, Kan. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Kansas University. “Having a teacher like John in the building helps
us to continuously evaluate our goals, what we are doing and how we could do it better,” New York principal Nancy DeGarmo said. The award comes with a $2,500 check from Truity Credit Union, a member of the Lawrence Education Achievement Partners, which supports the district’s teacher recognition programs. Bode’s photo will be displayed at the school district office, and he will automatically be nominated for the Kansas Master Teacher program, which is sponsored by Emporia State University’s Teachers College. ESU will announce Kansas Master Teacher awards in the spring. — Peter Hancock can be reached at 832-7259. Follow him at Twitter.com/ LJWpqhancock.
Sparks fly in Kansas congressional delegation over funding for biosecurity lab and budget deal By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — Kansas’ highly anticipated $1.15 billion biosecurity lab has become a focal point in the Republican Party’s struggle over federal spending and the recent budget deal. The brouhaha has split the all-Republican Kansas delegation and unleashed a flurry of assertions and counterassertions. Last week, U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, whose district includes Lawrence, said she voted for the bipartisan budget deal, in part, because it would ensure appropriations for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, to be built in Manhattan.
No budget plan, she said, would have meant a “stop work notice” for NBAF, which will study animal diseases Jenkins and develop measures to protect the nation’s food supply. The budget bill passed in the House and is now being considered by the Senate. But members of the Kansas congressional delegation who oppose the budget deal say Jenkins was wrong to invoke NBAF. U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who was one of the leaders in helping Kansas land NBAF, opposes the budget deal. His
Huelskamp
spokesperson, Sarah Little, said, “A budget does not guarantee funding for any project, appropriations bills do.” Rep. Tim Huelskamp, of Fowler, whose district includes NBAF, voted against the budget, saying it raised Please see NBAF, page 4A taxes and overspent. But NBAF, he said, could be funded through agree- More on budget bill, ments outside the budget page 8A bill.
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“With or without passage of this deal, the current funding for the federal government expires on January 15th. The House, Senate and President have until that date to pass a spending bill. We can appropriately comment on what may or may not have been included for NBAF at that time,” Huelskamp said. But Jenkins pushed back in her defense of voting for the budget plan that had been negotiated by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and U.S.
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Rental units in the city should get a full safety inspection, and now all 18,000 rentals in the city may get a special placard that would tell tenants how to file a complaint against their landlord with City Hall. On a 3-2 vote, Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday rejected a proposal that would have eliminated 38 of the 66 possible violations a landlord could be cited for under a proposed rental licensing and inspection program. A majority of commissioners also agreed with a suggestion of City Commissioner Jeremy Farmer that would require each rental unit in the city to have posted somewhere in its interior a placard that provides CITY a telephone number and other COMMISSION information on how to file a city complaint about living conditions in their rental units. “We need an ordinance to protect the vulnerable and innocent in our community,” Farmer said. A majority of commissioners also rejected the idea of a sunset provision that would have automatically ended the new rental registration program at the end of 2017, unless the commission at that time reauthorized the program. Please see RENTAL, page 2A
Federal panel suggests delaying state expansion of KanCare TOPEKA (AP) — A presidential advisory panel says Medicaid should delay KanCare’s upcoming takeover of long-term services for the developmentally disabled in Kansas and consider having the U.S. Justice Department review whether the state has properly administered its Medicaid program in the past. In a letter on Friday, The National Council the National on Disability asked the Council on Center for Medicare Disability told the Center for and Medicaid Services Medicare and for a one-year pause Medicaid Ser- in KanCare expansion, vices to study saying Kansas hasn’t the state’s K a n C a r e adequately considp r i v a t i z e d ered concerns about managed-care the switch. program for poor and disabled Kansans, The Wichita Eagle reported. The council, which is appointed by the president to advise the administration and Congress on disability policy and laws, asked CMS for a one-year pause in KanCare expansion, saying Kansas hasn’t adequately considered concerns about the switch. The council wants CMS to delay granting Kansas a waiver, which the state has to obtain before Jan. 1 to move the disability services into KanCare. “We find the start date on January 1, 2014, with public comments open until December 17, 2013, and final CMS approval yet to be Please see KANCARE, page 2A
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Students at Southwest Middle School communicate via Skype with KU researchers studying ice sheets in Antarctica. Page 3A
Vol.155/No.352 40 pages