Topeka Public Schools Media Coverage Booklet 2021

OUR FIVE PILLARS

Our Five Pillars support and guide our instructional vision for every student to be college and career ready when they complete high school. For each pillar, we have articulated professional outcomes that guide what we will accomplish to ensure students and staff are engaged, prepared and inspired!

COLLEGE AND CAREER PLACEMENT

Implement career pathways and prepare students for career and college placement opportunities.

Outcomes:

• Build an Innovative Project Based Career Academy (Topeka Center for Advanced Learning Careers)

• Offer 2 years of college courses in high school

• Implement career placement and internship programs

HIGHLY EFFECTIVE STAFF

Recruit, attract, develop and retain highly effective staff to carry out the district’s mission.

Outcomes:

• Implement innovative recruitment techniques (virtual hiring fairs)

• Implement a Teacher Academy training institute

• Integrate teaching and learning and professional development programs in Human Resources

• Implement a tuition based Preschool service for Teachers’ children

SCHOOL CLIMATE AND EQUITY

Create a safe and caring learning environment that includes a positive inclusive school culture and positive collaboration and communication throughout the school and community.

Outcomes:

• Student well-being: Implement school based clinics for dental services and health services for students

• Reduce poverty in Topeka by expanding supports for job placement, mental health and homelessness

• Implement a Parent Empowerment center to increase parent engagement

• Expand equity training for students, parents and staff (includes tiered interventions, trauma training and diversity and inclusion training.

• Expand student services support systems and implement an alternative school that serves general education students.

STUDENT LEARNING

All students will demonstrate academic growth and will have equitable access to academic opportunities.

Outcomes:

• State-level assessments: Meet or exceed state benchmark standards

• Subgroup achievement: Implement system for data utilization, interventions, data driven instruction

• ACT composite scores: Implement ACT tutoring and testing during the school day to expand participation

• Kindergarten readiness: Open a new early childhood center in 2018-19

DISTRICT FINANCE

Ensure efficient operations and accountability for responsible use of district resources.

Outcomes:

• Facilities plan: Construct a staff development center, an early childhood center and a career academy as services for students and families across the community.

• Balanced budget: Maintain a balanced budget and secure corporate sponsors and grants

‘We are either helping our children, or we’re hurting our children’: Biden team in Topeka to urge vaccinations

By Jason Tidd The Capital-Journal

Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona want Kansas parents, students and educators to keep schools open by getting vaccinated and masking up.

“We are either helping our children, or we’re hurting our children,” Cardona said. “There’s no gray area here. Vaccines are safe, and I think it’s our way as a country to get back into school and give you the best opportunity to be in those extracurricular activities, those games, those clubs, in-person. You’ve suffered enough, we have got to get it done.”

Emhoff addressed vaccine skepticism.

“There should not be skepticism about the science,” Emhoff said. “It is very clear from the evidence that these vaccines are safe and they work.”

Emhoff and Cardona visited a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Topeka High School gymnasium Monday afternoon.

They met for a discussion in a Topeka High classroom with student ambassadors DeAndre Hicks, Marissa Wagner, Kelm Lear and Ryleigh McLaury. They also visited student-athletes in the high school weight room for a conversation facilitated by school Superintendent Tiffany Anderson.

“I have a lot of young family members,” McLaury said. “While they can’t get vaccinated, I think it’s important for me to do my part so I can help protect them. And not only them, but everybody else in the community.”

Bernadette Quiroz, of Topeka, told Emhoff she was getting vaccinated after the COVID-19 hospitalization, intubation and death of a family member.

“Think of your loved ones” and protect them by getting vaccinated, said Emhoff, who is the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Any little bit of protection helps,” Quiroz replied.

The visit to a back-to-school vaccine clinic was part of the Biden-Harris administration’s “Back to School Week of Action.”

Emhoff and Cardona were joined on the tour by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla, Topeka Public Schools Superintendent Tiffany Anderson and Ximena Garcia, a retired physician who serves as the governor’s adviser on COVID-19 vaccine equity.

COVID vaccination rates

“You have all missed out on a lot,” Emhoff said. “I know it’s hard, and to see what’s happening with delta as well. We thought we were through the worst of it, and now delta is here and you’re seeing infections on the rise again.”

Emhoff, who is a father of two, encouraged parents to get their children vaccinated now. He said it was “the biggest relief, as a parent … I want you all as parents to feel the same way.”

Emhoff said vaccines are safe, effective and free. He said counties with low vaccination rates tend to have higher disease rates, while areas with high vaccination see fewer infections, serious disease and death.

“We have to got to keep going and get these vaccination rates up,” Emhoff said.

In Kansas, about 45.5% of the total population is fully vaccinated, according to data released Friday by the White House COVID-19 task force. That’s below the nationwide figure of 49.9% as of Aug. 5.

Vaccination rates are lower among teenagers, which has concerned public health officials as schools reopen amid a COVID-19 surge fueled by the highly contagious delta coronavirus variant. Children as young as 12 are eligible to be vaccinated, but only about 26% of Kansas children aged 12-17 are fully vaccinated. The national number is 33.3%.

Classes for the 2021-22 academic year are scheduled to begin this week for many Kansas school districts. Students return to Topeka Public Schools on Wednesday.

Cardona said 50 million students across the country will be starting class in the coming weeks.

“We owe it to those students … to do what

You can read the full article at: https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/education/2021/08/09/covid-19-kansaspresident-joe-biden-team-visit-topeka-coronavirus-vaccine-rates-masks-delta-variant/5537503001/

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona talks with students Ryleigh McLaury and Kelm Lear about the necessity to get vaccinated during a tour of Topeka High School’s vaccine clinic with Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff. [Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal]

Topeka USD 501 to offer daily ‘micro school’ option for elementary students

By Rafael Garcia The Capital-Journal

Topeka Unified School District will enroll elementary school families who had opted into the district’s hybrid learning option into a new five-day-a-week “micro school” learning model, superintendent Tiffany Anderson told The Topeka Capital-Journal on Thursday morning.

Under the model, the district’s elementary school students will attend in-person classes five days a week in classrooms that will be limited to 15 students or fewer. That will help limit each student’s exposure to 15 people maximum, Anderson said.

Families will still have the option to enroll in both completely remote learning and the hybrid learning model as earlier presented, although Anderson said she expects most families will prefer the micro school model.

The district will also continue to follow its reopening timeline, with the first day of school, Sept. 9, online for all students and in-person activities being phased back in as pandemic conditions and county health orders allow.

Anderson said the district had been looking specifically at East Topeka, where she said the pandemic has taken a stronger toll than on other neighborhoods in the city. More of the district’s lower-income households are in East Topeka, and many of the parents there are also service workers who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Additionally, district staff members were concerned that continued remote and hybrid learning options could cause students who already face other issues to fall behind their peers.

“We know that prisons are built based around the literacy level around third or fourth grade, and the longer we wait to have our early learners back and engaged in an instructional environment like school in a rigorous way, the more likely we may contribute to an academic gap that we may not be able to rebound from,” Anderson said. “Particularly for the young learners who may have had exceptionality — free or reduced lunch students who may

have had even less exposure to preschool and quality child care at the early levels.”

After looking at parent feedback, as well as the needs of students who might not have reliable access to internet, Anderson said, she and district staff began looking at the possibility of hosting micro classrooms at Quincy Elementary. Many of the school’s students come from the Topeka Rescue Mission, and Anderson said she worried those students wouldn’t have reliable access to internet for classwork.

The school’s staff eagerly bought into the plan, and district administrators later decided to expand the learning model to all elementary schools. The micro classroom model will also help teachers who might have their own children who would otherwise need child care during the school day. However, Anderson cautioned that COVID-19 spread could still force schools to send students home to quarantine, and she advised parents to keep backup child care plans.

To implement micro classrooms, Anderson

said the district will have to use more of its certified support staff — people like instructional coaches with teaching licenses but who typically don’t teach students directly — as regular day-to-day teachers. In theory, the learning model requires more classrooms, but Anderson said schools will use spaces like gyms and libraries to serve as additional classrooms, with the added benefit that the larger spaces will allow for social distancing.

Although the district is referring to the learning model as micro classrooms, Anderson said the plan is more of a modified version of what a traditional micro classroom school would look like. She said the model is also an opportunity to look at what teaching and learning in smaller settings could look like not only in a pandemic but afterward.

The district will release additional information on micro schools and broader reopening plans later Thursday and at the board of education’s evening meeting, Anderson said.

Superintendent Tiffany Anderson outlined a new five-day-a-week “micro school” learning model for elementary students during the pandemic. [Evert Nelson/Special to The Capital-Journal]

TPS explains Modified Micro Classrooms

By Sarah Motter

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Topeka Public Schools is closing opportunity gaps by launching modified micro classrooms.

Topeka Public Schools says it is launching a research-based micro classroom concept in its elementary schools to allow for inperson classes five days a week once Phase II is implemented in the district. It says all elementary schools will offer micro classrooms that consist of 15 children or fewer to reduce the spread and exposure of COVID-19 and to close opportunity gaps in those learning basic skills.

TPS says as part of its reopening plan, “Transforming Topeka Together,” all students will begin the school year by learning remotely in Phase I, then moving on to a hybrid-learning model where students will be on an A/B schedule spending two days in school and the remaining three days engaged in remote learning at home.

According to TPS, the new micro classrooms will allow all K-5th grade students to attend in-person classes five days a week in Phase II unless students opt to attend school using a remote model.

TPS says students in modified micro classrooms will be separated by six feet for adequate social distancing to allow staff members to serve scholars in person for the duration of the week. It says the benefits of the new concept include the following:

• Learning will be personalized to close academic gaps

• Staff will have personal contact with elementary students daily

• The spread of the virus will be reduced due to less exposure to others

• Stable groups of students will build relationships and will be transitioned back into school

According to the district, the micro classrooms will also address equity issued the pandemic has exacerbated. It says as an example, students on free reduced lunch will have daily meals, access to mental health services, access to onsite laundry facilities

and nursing services including free dental care.

“As a result of our staff collaborating to Transform Topeka Together, we are truly transforming teaching and learning through this innovative model that allows us to serve well our most vulnerable learners. Academic gaps that begin at early ages are difficult to close later in life and we know prisons in the United States are Built based on literacy rates in elementary school. Further, I believe this small classroom support for elementary age learners will ultimately contribute to the economic prosperity of our community as working families have reliable educational care throughout the week, “ shared Topeka Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. Tiffany Anderson, who is known for providing systems of support through innovative techniques. Mrs. Sonderegger, Quincy Elementary principal, (a school that serves many of the students living at the Rescue Mission), shared, “When Dr. Anderson contacted us my staff loved this small classroom concept because it’s just best for kids and we look forward to having our children back.”

TPS says in 2015, Dr. Anderson founded

the Hope House for homeless students in Jennings, Missouri, where she previously served as superintendent and is now bringing similar services to Topeka.

“The Transforming Topeka Together plan allows our dedicated staff to nurture, support and promote the wellbeing of our most vulnerable population,” shared Dr. Anderson. The Elementary modified microschool concept has been made possible by having all certified staff at all levels who may have supported pullout programs repurposed to carry out classroom teaching duties. Superintendent, Dr. Anderson who periodically teaches in the classroom is preparing to support schools as a remote or in-person teacher partially as needed as well. All hands are on deck in Topeka to make this happen. Teacher Kaylee Erickson shared, “ this new model will allow teachers to really support students in creative ways.”

TPS says it has established a web page where families and community members can learn more about the reopening plan, the various learning models and actions being taken to protect student and staff health and safety. The page can be found here.

Copyright 2020 WIBW. All rights reserved.

Joe Biden wants to provide millions of Americans with high-speed internet. It won’t be easy.

Ledyard King, Erin Mansfield, Matt Wynn and Joey Garrison USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – In Thompson Falls, Montana, schools practically came to a halt in the spring of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic forced children to learn remotely in a region where high-speed internet is almost nonexistent. In Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, the hospital was forced to transfer emergency room patients roughly 75 miles away to Las Cruces because a loss of connectivity meant it could not properly diagnose them. And in Cleveland and other large cities, access to broadband varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, often based on affluence.

Even before the pandemic, which largely confined most Americans to their homes for months, communities that lacked reliable high-speed internet began falling behind those that were well-connected. The pandemic exacerbated the nation’s “digital divide” – and those who suffered most were in low-income areas, a USA TODAY analysis of federal and private sector data found.

Washington and some internet providers are trying to solve the problem by expanding access, but experts and lawmakers haven’t settled on what specifically needs to be done, even as President Joe Biden and Republican lawmakers want to invest billions into a broadbandexpansion effort.

Social distancing restrictions forced businesses, schools and governments to conduct day-to-day functions online. As a result, tens of millions found their lack of high-speed internet a barrier that’s likely to worsen as the nation accelerates its transition to electronic forms of communication and commerce.

“People are living through what it means and seeing it in very stark terms what it means to be left behind, to be unconnected,” said Vickie Robinson, who runs tech giant Microsoft’s Airband Initiative to reach unserved and underserved areas of rural and urban America. “Even if we come out of it, things that have gone digital will probably remain that way. The world will become increasingly digitized, not less.”

That’s foreboding news for America’s poor.

In America’s 100 counties with the highest median income, about 95% of households have broadband access on average – while that number is 63% in the 100 poorest counties, according to data from the Federal Communications Commission, which tracks internet availability nationally. In terms of actual usage, Microsoft data paints an even bleaker picture. About 12% of those poorest counties’ residents use broadband on average, compared with 65% in America’s wealthiest counties.

A Pew study found 43% of adults in the USA earning less than $30,000 a year lack broadband compared with just 7% for those making $100,000 or more.

The numbers show the gap exists, but experts told USA TODAY the reasons why may be more nuanced.

‘Skews for the wealthy’

Like so many other facets of American life, wealth is a dividing line on access to broadband.

Internet companies generally find it more profitable to run high-speed cables to dense areas, where they can sell more subscriptions per mile, a problem that often leaves rural residents without the option of subscribing at high speeds. In urban areas where the technology exists, wealthier residents are more likely to be able to afford speed upgrades.

“You can pay for the higher speeds,” said Jessica Denson, the spokesperson for Connected Nation, which works to expand high-speed internet across the country. “It is a business for these providers, so for the higher speeds, they do charge a little more, so that skews for the wealthy.”

For low-income families weighing what they can afford, high-speed internet is not always at the top of the list, she said.

with various stakeholders underscore the difficulty of meeting Biden’s promise of providing “affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American.”

Though there’s wide agreement among Republicans and Democrats that the nation’s internet infrastructure needs modernizing, there’s less consensus on the solutions.

A big, and costly, problem to solve

The mission to plug more people into high-speed networks is a question of what strategy is best – not to mention a big federal investment.

There’s a question over whether to prioritize areas of the country, mostly rural, where the physical infrastructure to support broadband hasn’t been built, or whether to focus first on urban and suburban areas where the larger problem is affordability.

Given the poverty of the district – 73% of the roughly 13,000 students qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch – Topeka Schools Superintendent Tiffany Anderson told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee this year that those extraordinary steps were necessary because teachers didn’t have reliable broadband to teach from home, hundreds of homeless students needed hot spots and many other students, especially English language learners, had speeds too slow to adequately access lessons and learning materials.

“If you don’t have broadband, how are you going to access school?” she told lawmakers.

Biden and Congress are trying to remedy that, first through the American Rescue Plan passed in March that gave states for the first time flexibility to spend federal aid on improving broadband, and now through a mammoth infrastructure proposal that Democrats and Republicans agree should include billions to expand high-speed networks coast to coast.

The data USA TODAY examined and conversations

Then there’s the question of how best to bring down the cost of high-speed internet: continue long-term with federal subsidies for low-income households or push for more competition.

There’s a disconnect about the cost of solving the problem, which Robinson of Microsoft said could approach $400 billion. Biden’s original proposal would have provided $100 billion to address broadband,

You can read the full article at: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/2021/07/07/biden-trying-toerase-digital-divide-with-high-speed-internet-access/7831763002/

Assistant Principal Monifa Tippitt distributes a Chromebook Nov. 10, 2020, at Chestnut Ridge Middle School in Chestnut Ridge. [N.Y.TANIA SAVAYAN/USA TODAY NETWORK]

McCarter Elementary welcomes teachers, and their children, back into the classroom

By Joseph Hennessy

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Topeka Public Schools is allowing teachers to work from home or come to the classrooms and bring their own kids if they want to continue education for USD 501 students.

Some teachers have children of their own, so USD 501 is allowing them in the school while they teach their course through Zoom calls.

Pamela Munoz, a kindergarten teacher at McCarter Elementary for USD 501, is one of many trying to keep kids engaged while ensuring her children get their work done as well.

She said, “I have to be very animated and I have to make learning fun because if I’m just sitting there, in a monotone voice and going over basic information like they’re going to get bored right away and so I try to make it fun. I try to throw in a game, have them touch their head or touch their nose, like get them moving.”

“It is helpful because they have a place to come and I don’t have to worry about finding someone to watch them. They’re pretty self-sufficient which I am very proud of because they can do their thing while mom does her thing.”

Creativity across all grades, not just preschool and kindergarten, are being encouraged by TPS.

“Teachers have got to be flexible and with whatever is thrown at us, I mean, we just divide and conquer and we work together,” Munoz said.

Principal of McCarter Elementary, Kathy Cooney, said “For some teachers, it’s easier to teach from their classroom where their materials are, but at the same time, they have children especially elementary aged children that they cannot leave home by themselves. We were granted the flexibility to allow them to come back and be in the teacher’s classroom as the teacher is teaching her own personal children.”

Having no students in classrooms or walking in the halls at McCarter Elementary is unlike anything she’s experienced.

“It is like something out of a movie, that I would have never had imagined,” said Cooney. “Of course we’d love to have all the kids back. It was wonderful to finally get to the point yesterday where I could log on to a zoom classroom and just see them on the computer. That was just so rewarding just even that because we’ve all been

waiting for so long.”

TPS believes because it is a family unit utilizing the same space, the chance of increasing the spread is low.

Cooney said, “If they are a family unit they are all sharing the same germs already and so, we feel that it is safe to go ahead and allow that to happen because this year we are really trying to contain as much as we can. Once we get to phase two, and we enter what is known as the micro classes, we will have no more than 15 kids in each class M-F in person. So, we are really trying to make sure that we don’t cross classes.”

The curriculum hasn’t changed but the techniques and ways to stay productive are more challenging, but Cooney believes the core values have not changed.

“You just observed a kindergarten teacher and she spent a lot of her time just teaching the kids about the different buttons and how to operate, How to turn your camera on, how to un-mute yourself, stuff like that,” said Cooney. “It also takes teachers, we want to start with the curriculum and we are starting with the curriculum, but we also always start the year with some getting to know you activities to build those relationships.”

TPS believes they have a plan set in place, and with creative techniques and teachers, can continue to educate properly until it’s safe for the

kids to be back in the classroom.

“Kindergarten and preschool, they are just so hands on and they need to be able to do that and parents are doing a great job at home but in the classroom, they can get so much more handson learning and that’s what’s really needed,” said Munoz. “I’m excited to have them back, I’m looking forward to it. Yeah, it’s going to be different and we’ll get through it, but we can’t take away that hands-on learning. That’s a must.”

“We would never want to lose a life, we don’t want anyone to get sick, we don’t want the virus to spread in the schools so we have to watch the COVID numbers and in conjunction with the Shawnee County Health Department, I have all the confidence in the world that Dr. Anderson, our superintendent, will not bring us back until it is safe for everyone to be here,” said Cooney. “Of course, we’re rooting for that day but for now, airing on the side of safety as you saw, the kids are getting a wonderful education and I’m very proud, like I said earlier, of our response, it’s superior.”

Munoz and other TPS teachers have been recording video lessons since last spring when the pandemic began. USD 501 offers gym class lessons and music lessons on apps students can download as well.

Copyright 2020 WIBW. All rights reserved.

You can watch the video at https://www.wibw.com/2020/09/10/mccarter-elementary-welcomes-teachers-and-their-children-back-into-the-classroom/

Schools use home visits, calls to convince parents to choose in-person classes in fall

By Hannah Natanson WASHINGTON POST

As the school year ends and summer approaches, the persuasion campaign to convince families to choose in-person learning this fall is on with a vengeance.

In Florida, the superintendent of the state’s largest district is knocking on doors to talk up the benefits of face-to-face instruction. In Topeka, Kan., school officials are traveling around neighborhoods hosting mobile vaccination clinics, where they deliver shots alongside reminders about the effectiveness of inperson schooling. In Virginia, a principal visited the homes of 50 of her remote learners to assuage their fears about in-person schooling next semester.

And in the San Antonio Independent School District, Superintendent Pedro Martinez has for weeks sent out every available member of his staff, from social workers to central office personnel, to chat with the roughly 20 percent of families who indicated they’d like to remain virtual next school year. San Antonio will offer remote learning in the 2020-2021 school year — unlike some states and districts, which are ditching that option entirely — but Martinez is hoping he can convince most families to forgo it.

The all-out effort, which has stretched into evenings and weekends, is exhausting.

“My teachers are tired, there’s just no question about it,” Martinez said. He asked his staff to rest for the second half of June, so they could recuperate before the start of summer school in mid-July. Martinez views summer programming, targeted to students who have struggled most, as one of his best remaining chances to reel in reluctant families.

School districts nationwide have promised they will offer five days a week of in-person learning next year, representing a long-awaited return to normalcy. They’ve spent months blocking out unconventional classroom spaces and developing detailed guidelines so students and teachers can reenter school buildings safely in the fall at full, pre-pandemic capacities.

Many districts also brought back large portions of their student bodies over the course of the semester. Nationally, the percentage of fourth-graders and eighth-graders learning online-only had fallen to about 25 percent by April, down from a high of roughly 50 percent in January, federal data show.

But resistance to in-person learning is hard to eradicate, school officials say, especially in lowincome households and among families of color, who have been disproportionately devastated by the pandemic. For some, the death of a parent or sudden unemployment forced students to take jobs they can neither give up nor balance with a regular school schedule. In other households, parents fear for immunocompromised children or family members. And there is general, continuing fear of the virus, as vaccines remain unavailable for very young children.

“In previous decades, the doors open and you expect students to show up,” said Alberto M.

Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. “This is the opposite.”

The stakes, school leaders and education advocates say, could not be higher. It’s clear the pandemic slowed academic progress across the board and widened equity gaps in education. In-person learning is seen by most as the best way to start making up for some of these discrepancies.

Moreover, another divide is starting to emerge: As grades come out for this semester, many school districts are noticing that remote learners lagged behind their in-person peers.

In Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County, West Springfield Elementary Principal Kelly Sheers said she is certain “we can provide the best learning in person” — and she has set a goal of returning 100 percent of her 565 students to physical classrooms next fall.

That’s why, when she learned some families were feeling hesitant, she started phoning parents.

Sheers also spent a day driving through leafy neighborhoods to visit the homes of dozens of her roughly 150 remaining remote learners. In every case, the parents had already selected in-person instruction for the fall — but she wanted to make extra-sure of their intentions.

At home after home, Sheers gave out brightly colored sunglasses. She praised child after child for their hard work during a difficult year, saying she was proud of them. And she ended every visit with the same message.

“We’re excited to see you back in person next year,”

she said. “Five days!”

Building ‘relationships and trust’

Tiffany Anderson’s strategy to get as many of her roughly 13,200 students back into classrooms as she could, over the past year, followed what she calls the “wraparound” approach. The superintendent for Topeka Public Schools Unified District No. 501 asked all her principals to establish direct contact with every single family they serve. She mandated that two unexplained absences in a row trigger a home visit, including for remote learners.

And she sent employees out to community hubs — grocery stores, laundromats, “wherever families go to get their needs served” — to explain the district’s fall plans and argue for the advantages of in-person instruction.

“We have a mobile vaccination clinic, and we take it to the parking lot, and while we’re there we talk to everyone about the return to school,” Anderson said. “Without relationships and trust, you can’t do anything.”

Dr. Tiffany Anderson

Now, she is merging this effort with the push for vaccination.

Her strategy appears to be working. As of January, she had returned 70 percent of her families. Over the course of the past semester, she returned 20 percent

You can read the full article at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/schools-in-person-learningoutreach/2021/07/03/4cb7e512-c9f2-11eb-a11b-6c6191ccd599_story.html

Henry Ellison, 5, poses for a selfie with his principal at West Springfield Elementary School, Kelly Sheers, as she conducts home visits in June in Fairfax County, Va. [Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post]

A Superstar in the making

Highland Park High School Sophomore Gets Admitted to Washburn University

By Linda Ditch Topeka Lifestyle

In 2018, USD 501 Topeka Public Schools began College Prep Academy with 43 seventh and eighth graders. That first group from Eisenhower and Chase Middle Schools followed a rigorous course of study, working two grade levels above the traditional curriculum with year-round academic opportunities. The goal was to see them graduate high school with 30 to 60 hours of college credit or an associate’s degree, and a clear plan for their future.

One of those original students, Highland Park High School’s T’ahjanae Ray, will spend her junior year also as a freshman at Washburn University. Ultimately, she will graduate with both her high school diploma and liberal arts associate’s degree at the same time. The district has secured community partner donations to provide a full scholarship for Ray, who has also secured scholarships to complete her bachelor’s degree.

“I’m ecstatic,” Ray says of attending college. “So excited and a little nervous just because I’m the first, so I have a lot of pressure on me just to make sure I’m doing everything right. I want to set an example, and I want to show other students they can do this too.”

“This is a superstar in the making,” says Dr. Alan Bearman, Dean of University Libraries and the Center for Student Success and Retention at Washburn. Schools all over America want students just like this. We’re going to help her live her dream, and she’s going to be a star.”

The TPS College Prep Academy was the brainchild of District superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson, who implemented this type of program in her previous school systems. What began with middle school students has not expanded to the elementary level with the creation of Early College Prep Academy at Lowman Hill Elementary.

“I’m so excited not only for T’ahjanae but for all the students she represents,” Anderson

says. “She’s demonstrating that working at the highest levels of rigor in middle school and high school can lead to college opportunities very early. College Prep Academy also closes that economic gap for families who simply may not be able to afford college expenses. We take care of almost two years of college.”

Ray feels prepared for university studies. She will major in political science at Washburn while staying involved in theater and other

extracurricular activities at HPHS. Her plans include obtaining a law degree to help women in need.

“College Prep Academy was hard, but I feel like it made me a better student because it made me take charge of my own learning,” Ray explains. “It really makes you understand who you are as a student and what you need to grow and be strong academically.”

Topeka High School senior organizes face mask drive

By Kimberly Donahue WIBW

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Topeka High School Senior Kelm Lear has spent his summer as many on the verge of graduation do: thinking about his post-grad plans, figuring out the future of organizations he’s been involved with and spending time with family.

The pandemic has added one extra item to his checklist for the summer: planning how to keep his fellow students safe when they eventually return to the building.

Topeka Public Schools, which includes Topeka High, has a three phase re-opening plan and every student and staff member will be given two reusable face masks provided by the district.

Lear is the president of Topeka High’s Interact Club, which specializes in community service and spearheaded the club’s latest project to collect additional masks for every student.

“The idea came from the fact that the CDC released guidelines for reopening schools that stated students should wear masks when they return,” he said. “We figured that the district is going to be so busy with so many other things in terms of organizing how the school year is going to work that we thought ‘let’s try to help in anyway we can and we thought masks were a good way to do that.”

Lear and other club members have been collecting reusable and disposable face masks at Topeka High School every Wednesday since the last week of May.

Their original goal was to collect 2,000 face masks, which was surpassed last week.

The masks have been coming from members of the community, businesses and even loved ones out of state.

Lear said it’s important that face masks are accessible to all students.

“I think it’s a difference that needs to be made in the community because everybody needs masks and students are going to

lose them they’re gonna forget them so it’s important that they have them and don’t get sent home to get a mask they can come to school and be safe.”

The project has added purpose to the lives of donors.

Joe Miller has been battling Parkinson’s for the last two years and when he started making masks for his daughter who works at an area hospital, he found out that making masks was a good tactic for coping with his diagnosis.

“It keeps my brain active because I’m constantly doing math and then it enables me to try to learn different ways to control my tremors,” he said.

Miller has since learned how to use a sewing machine and has made over 200 masks for Topeka High School.

“This whole thing helps me feel good and useful cause a lot of the thing with Parkinson’s is that you feel like you’re getting left behind but this has made me feel more useful and I know I’m helping a lot of people,” he said.

“I think the masks are important and I try to encourage them and by making them

I feel like by making them I’m keeping the encouragement going on them.”

Lear said he is excited to eventually return to the halls of Topeka High knowing everyone is safe.

“It just makes me feel proud that our school was able to make school safer for us to return to given all the other things we’re going to have to do to make sure everyone stays safe I’m glad that we could help in anyway that we could.”

Lear is also Topeka High School’s Senior of the Month for September and said he wouldn’t be where he is without his fellow members of the Interact Club.

Lear and other members of the Interact Club will continue to collect reusable and disposable face masks at Topeka High School every Wednesday from 12 to 12:30 pm through September 2nd.

If you want to help but are unable to donate during that time, email the club’s sponsor Murray Moore at mmore1@tps501.com to figure out a way to donate your masks.

Copyright 2020 WIBW. All rights reserved.

You can watch the video at https://www.ksnt.com/news/education-21st-century/therapy-dogs-back-to-work-for-topeka-public-schools/

Photo from video by Kimberly Donahue/WIBW

CapFed Best News: Topeka USD 501 making masks for medical community

By Todd Fertig Special to The Capital-Journal

Hundreds of masks to guard against the spread of COVID-19 are being produced and donated by Topeka Unified School District 501, some through traditional sewing methods and some through cutting-edge technology.

Rather than sit idle during the school shutdown, a lab of 3D printers at the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers is humming all day long, creating high-quality masks for medical providers to use.

At the same time, some USD 501 school staff are putting their sewing skills to use to make fabric masks, many of which have embroidered messages of support from the district.

USD 501 superintendent Tiffany Anderson personally handed over 50 fabric masks to staff from Stormont Vail and another 50 to representatives of the University of Kansas Health System St. Francis campus, with whom the district has a partnership to provide medical services in the schools.

And in a win-win scenario, the district has incorporated students in the effort, providing a hands-on, problem-solving experience.

The 3D printing lab is producing about 120 masks a week under the direction of engineering and applied mathematics instructor Evelyn Eubank. The masks are printed with a filament made from thermoplastic polyester. They have three parts that snap together to hold a filter and can be easily sterilized. The design was provided to Eubank by Shawnee County sheriff’s deputy Paul Fernkopf.

Several students have been granted permission to enter the otherwise locked TCALC facility to run the 3D printers. One such student, senior Garrett Jones of Topeka West, is putting his education to work in a way he couldn’t have anticipated a few months ago.

“It’s interesting to say the least,” Jones said. “I never expected for any of this to happen and for this to be how I’m spending the end of my senior year. But at the same time, I’m glad that I can be here to help and to get a good experience.”

Jones, who plans to study computer science in college, said the mask is a relatively simple project, having been challenged with tougher assignments in Eubank’s class. It takes about four and a half hours for a printer to make each mask, using just pennies worth of filament. With 13 printers running all day, the lab is producing about 120 a week. Jones said he is happy that the hospitals will benefit from the efforts of him and a few fellow classmates in the lab.

“I feel like I’m helping in a great way,” Jones said. “I’m really thankful that I can come in and watch

over these as they’re printing. It’s exciting to do something that is real and practical.”

Eubank said her lab at TCALC acquired the 3D printers about 14 months ago. For making the masks, she said she chose students who were responsible and had the necessary expertise for the project.

“I really like showing the students that they aren’t just learning theoretical information, they are learning something very practical, very useful, very applicable that works in the real world,” Eubank said. “And it’s always wonderful to teach students about being of service.”

Anderson said after some school staff perfected sewing the cloth masks, they used video meetings to teach students to make them as well.

“We’re really just embedding this into problem solving and learning real-life kinds of things currently being seen today,” Anderson said. “It’s really powerful to see this come to life. You talk about project-based learning. This is real projectbased learning.

“It started in part because we needed masks ourselves,” Anderson said. “We had to purchase masks for people working on food service. So then we asked once we were thinking about providing our own masks, how could we help to meet the needs of others. It came from asking the question ‘In the midst of challenge, how do you help others?’”

Anderson said not only does USD 501 want to help all medical professionals, but that the district is particularly grateful to St. Francis for the medical care it provides to Topeka students.

“The clinic is in its first full year,” Anderson said. “They have been generous in the furniture, the time, the services. As a special show of appreciation, for they are giving us these services at no cost to Topeka, we are donating masks to them. We want to demonstrate that a partnership is a two-way street.”

“We are extremely grateful to the Topeka staff and students for their donations and their kind words,” St. Francis CEO Steve Anderson said. “We will be using the fabric masks to protect our outpatients and support people who enter our facilities and need a mask. As our staff continues to work day and night caring for patients and making plans to ensure we are prepared in the event of a critical care surge, we are inspired by the outpouring of support from our community.”

Tiffany Anderson said the school district will continue to look for ways to bless the community in various ways, including placing signs of thanks around the hospitals. She said the district will donate masks to a local nursing home.

“We look forward to continuing until there’s no longer a need,” she said of the making of masks. “It’s really love in action.”

Garrett Jones, a senior at Topeka West, explains Wednesday how 3D printers operate to create masks at the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers lab. Jones said students are able to create 24-26 masks a day using these machines. [Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal]

Kansas seeks to boost vaccine rollout with clinics for kids 12 and up

Rebekah Chung Nexstar Media Wire

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas is taking a step to make the vaccine more accessible, introducing new vaccine clinics across the state, aimed specifically at kids.

Governor Laura Kelly toured Topeka High School’s vaccination clinic on Monday, one of the first of several vaccination sites across the state.

“School districts have this opportunity to get as many kids vaccinated as possible, as quickly as possible,” Kelly said.

This comes after a CDC panel approved Pfizer’s vaccine for use in children ages 1215. Kids and parents lined up early Monday morning to get the vaccine for the first time.

“I am excited to be vaccinated, and to keep others safe, to keep me safe,” said 15-year old Ainslee Bolejack.

Ainslee is the last in her family to get the vaccine. She was accompanied by her father, Richard Bolejack, who said he was excited to see his daughter get vaccinated, after becoming fully vaccinated himself.

“It’s time. She’s 15 and she’s waited, and she’s just fortunate that the government said 15year old’s can get the shot,” he said.

Other parents and children filled the gymnasium, which was prepped with tables and nurses ready to administer the vaccine at

the first vaccination site in the Topeka School District. According to organizers of the event, translators were also available to help address language barriers and provide information about the vaccine.

Topeka Public Schools superintendent, Dr. Tiffany Anderson, said this is one step in helping make the vaccine readily available to marginalized communities and prepare students for upcoming spring and summer breaks.

“We have the opportunity right here, while we have students at school every day to make this an easy access point,” Anderson said.

Looking ahead, the governor said she plans to introduce other efforts to make the vaccine accessible.

“We want to make sure that we have these vaccines in family practice offices, internal medicine offices, and we will also do pediatricians,” Kelly said.

You can watch the video at https://fox4kc.com/news/state-seeks-to-boost-vaccine-rollout-with-clinics-for-kids-12-and-up/

Photo from video by Cassie Nichols

Topeka natives return to district as first-year teachers

By Alyssa Willetts WIBW

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - First-year teachers within Topeka Public Schools are getting their classrooms prepped and ready for students.

Two of Jardine Elementary School’s newest teachers said they are eager to begin their careers in their hometown.

Gracie Ortega is a Washburn University graduate and will teach 2nd grade.

She said, “I’m excited for the kids to be in here and actually get to do stuff with them in person, instead of just being online.”

Hunter Wolfe, a graduate of Emporia State University, is also getting her classroom ready to welcome 4th-graders in just two weeks.

“I think I’m most excited to see their faces and get to know them and kind of hear their stories,” she added.

For Wolfe, becoming a teacher was always the plan.

“Ever since Kindergarten I actually wanted to be a teacher,” she continued saying, “When I first stepped in, I loved school and I loved my kindergarten teacher. Then throughout high school, it kind of changed a couple of times, but I always came back to working with kids and wanting to love on kids.”

Ortega took a different route. She started out studying political science in college but found her love for elementary education halfway across the world.

“I went on this school trip to Belize with the

You

education department randomly and I just started talking to the woman in charge of the Elementary Education Program at Washburn and she kind of got me into it,” she said.

In their final semesters in college, Topeka Public Schools hired Ortega and Wolfe to remote teach, to allow for smaller class sizes at the height of the pandemic.

Ortega said, “I just had Zooms with the kids, sometimes we had drop-offs so I could see them a couple of times.”

“That was an interesting experience having 5th graders online and navigating a new role and a new job, while also being virtual,” Wolfe

added.

However, that opportunity has now given the pair confidence ahead of the first day of school.

Wolfe said, “I’m really excited now to have kids in person and get to kind of experience a first-year, but also have some experience under my belt.”

Both women grew up in Topeka and said they wanted to teach in the district because of its diversity.

Ortega and Wolfe now hope to be positive role models in the community that shaped them.

Photo from video by Alyssa Willetts/WIBW

‘The kids, they’re amazing:’ New school year off to better start in

Topeka

By Kelli Peltier Nexstar Media

TOPEKA (KSNT) – School is back in session and some local teachers say it’s already off to a better start than last year.

McClure Elementary in Topeka started the 2021-22 school year last week with both mask and social distancing mandates. Officials from the state and CDC recommend school districts require masks for everyone, regardless of vaccination status. Locally, some other districts are starting the school year not following those recommendations.

McClure’s Principal Chelsea Artzer said last year was stressful for staff and students with so many unknowns, but now with a year of practice, she said learning with mandates feels like the new normal for many.

“Especially for some of our students who were kindergarteners last year, they haven’t experienced anything else,” Artzer said. “So the kids, they’re amazing in terms of following the protocols. They wear their masks, they follow social distancing

guidelines, and they do what needs to be done to maintain safety here at the school.”

Topeka Public Schools is also offering a full-time virtual school for families who

don’t want to send their students in person. Less than 0.5% of elementary students in the district chose this virtual option this year.

You can watch the video at https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/the-kids-theyre-amazing-new-school-year-off-to-better-start-in-topeka/

Photo from video by Kelli Peltier/KSNT

Topeka Public Schools deploy COVID-19 response team

By Danielle Martin

Topeka Public School’s said in a release that a COVID-19 Team is being formulated to provide mobile food distribution and other support services to TPS families, as well as engage the entire community in supporting each other in ways that are in accordance with the health department’s regulations.

“As the situation around the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, Topeka Public Schools has suspended all classroom and extracurricular activities until March 29th, 2020. Topeka Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson is coordinating community services and agencies to serve students during this critical time.”

“Topeka Public Schools has partnered with the local food bank supplier and area clergy to share pantry sites for groceries. On Monday, the district will be sharing details about free meal options for students, as nearly 78% of our 13,500 students rely on free or reduced lunches. Information will

also be shared Monday about a help desk phone line for parents, a newly launched webpage with resources focused on COVID 19 and a special video message will be shared from Dr. Anderson. Distance learning

opportunities for students will be provided starting March 23, 2020 and the COVID 19 Instructional Team will be planning the delivery of those services this week.”

Copyright 2020 WIBW. All rights reserved.

Therapy dogs back to work for Topeka Public Schools

By Kelli Peltier Nexstar Media

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – The pandemic has put a lot of people out of work and taken some out of the classroom. Both of which happened to some four-legged employees in Topeka’s 501 school district.

But with COVID cases dropping, the pups are getting back to work doing what they love.

Oscar Munoz is one of those furry friends. He’s a 7-year-old Shitzu Lhasa Apso mix and a rescue, turned professional working dog, at Topeka High. “He’s got such a funny little look to him, it’s impossible not to smile at him even if you’re having a bad day,” said Norella Munoz, Oscar’s owner and a special education social worker.

Oscar went through nine months of training to become a therapy dog by a company called Cares Incorporated in Concordia. The extensive training teaches dogs like Oscar to be calm and obedient in any type of situation, and provide comfort to people who need it.

“A lot of times they don’t even have to talk to me, they just interact with the dog, they get calmed down, they feel better,” Munoz said.

He’s one of 14 dogs that work in the district’s therapy dog program. He roams the halls, loving on staff and students to help brighten their day.

“People just love, you know, sitting by him having them on their lap,” Munoz said.

Junior Zoe Roth met Oscar the first time during his interview and talked about why she’s excited the program is offered in the

district.

“I know a ton of people who routinely get anxiety attacks, especially now,” Roth said. “And I know people with therapy dogs and it helps them a lot.”

And now that Oscar’s back in business, he’ll be busy all over Topeka High, making days a little less rough for those he meets.

You can watch the video at https://www.ksnt.com/news/education-21st-century/therapy-dogs-back-to-work-for-topeka-public-schools/

Photo from video by Kelli Peltier/KSNT

The benefits of paid internships stretch far beyond a classroom. For students and communities, they can be crucial

By India Yarborough The Capital-Journal

Completing internships before stepping into the workforce full time can be crucial for students, as such opportunities offer hands-on experience and help them determine whether a career is a good fit.

That has been the case for Allison Montague, a rising senior at Topeka High School.

This past school year, Montague completed a paid internship at Stormont Vail Hospital, where she served as a patient safety monitor and helped Stormont nurses with some of their daily tasks.

“I’m really excited about the exposure and getting different hospital experience,” said Montague, who wants to become a physical therapist after completing college.

And her Stormont internship helped solidify that decision, potentially giving her an advantage over peers who might enter college not knowing where they want to land.

Normally, you wouldn’t see high schoolers helping with patient care in a hospital setting, but thanks to a partnership between Stormont Vail and Topeka Unified School District 501, Montague and other high schoolers in the district have had the opportunity to do just that.

The Stormont Vail alliance is one of several official partnerships Topeka Public Schools has formed with area employers to offer local highschool students paid internship opportunities. Other partners include Advisors Excel and, as of last month, Hill’s Pet Nutrition.

USD 501 Superintendent Tiffany Anderson sees the paid internship program as “projectbased learning at its best.” But the benefits of such partnerships stretch far beyond the classroom, as paid internships have the potential to improve student outcomes, promote career readiness and enhance the Topeka community’s local talent pipeline.

Paid internships prepare students for careers

“In order to feed the talent pipeline right here in Topeka and to keep Topeka a place — like under Momentum 2022 — where people want to work, live and play, we have to create opportunities for students,” Anderson said.

Thirty to 40 students from Topeka Public Schools and other districts in the area participate each school year in 501’s paid internship program, which is offered through the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning & Careers.

“This is all our students. It’s not a Topeka

problem or a Topeka opportunity,” Anderson said. “If there’s an opportunity, a pathway, a program, an innovative system that you want to be part of, if we have it, it’s available and open to any student.”

Matthew Carmona, a rising senior at Jefferson West High School, is one such student from another area district who is taking advantage of the paid internship program.

Like Montague, Carmona interned this past school year at Stormont Vail, but since he has an interest in law enforcement, he worked in the hospital’s security department.

“I love it,” Carmona said. “I think it’s really helped fuel my interest for this career field.”

And along the way, he has learned some helpful information about how best to go down that path.

“There’s a time period in law enforcement when it’s incredibly hard to get into the career, and that’s from when you’re 18 to when you’re 21,” Carmona said. “While I was interning at Stormont, I was talking to a bunch of people in the security department, and they were like, ‘The best way to fill that spot is to go and get your EMT certification.’

“So they’ve all walked me through that process,

and now, I’m going to get my EMT certification next summer. ... I had never even considered it.”

Edwin Koc, director of research, public policy and legislative affairs for the National Association of Colleges and Employers, said gaining knowledge of a profession and getting work experience under one’s belt are key benefits of participating in internships.

“When we ask employers what’s the cuttingedge choice in terms of picking one individual over another in terms of their hiring decision,” Koc said, “the No. 1 factor is workplace experience.”

Though the association’s research focuses primarily on college students and their internships — which tend to be more common, as many college programs include internships in their graduation requirements — Koc indicated such opportunities, both paid and unpaid, have become critically important when it comes to landing jobs and negotiating a young adult’s starting salary.

“We’ve been tracking this for 10-12 years,” Koc said, “and what we see is that kids who have had internship experience tend to get jobs quicker. They have a higher offer rate. They have a higher acceptance rate. So they end up with a job sooner.

You can read the full article at: https://www.cjonline.com/story/business/2021/06/14/topeka-usd-501-paid-high-school-internships-partnerships-benefit-students-community-stormont-vail/7602416002/

Allison Montague, a rising senior at Topeka High School, talks about her experience as a paid intern at Stormont Vail Health, where she has served as a patient safety monitor. [Evert Nelson/ Special to The Capital-Journal]

Doyle Touts Pandemic Relief Funding To Boost Broadband Access

By Lucy Perkins 90.5 WESA

Americans who can’t afford to pay for internet access, or who live in rural parts of the country without broadband infrastructure, could get help from Congress’s next pandemic relief package. On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle led a Congressional hearing to evaluate how federal support would impact students and families who have had trouble getting online during the pandemic.

“Americans throughout the country have struggled to get connected and to stay connected,” said the Democratic chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. “Too many households are going without broadband service because they can’t afford it, either because it was too expensive before or it’s too expensive now.”

Last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee, of which Doyle is a member, pushed a proposal to create $7.6 billion for eligible schools and libraries to provide services and devices for students and teachers to use at home. According to a recent Congressional report, 35% of Native American students, 30% of Black students and 18% of white students in rural communities lack broadband internet.

“This investment is long overdue - we have known about the homework gap for years - and the pandemic has really laid this inequality bare,” Doyle said at Wednesday’s hearing. “It’s critical that we give students and families the resources they need to allow kids to participate in their own education.”

Dr. Tiffany Anderson, the superintendent of Topeka Public Schools, testified before the committee, and said students and teachers in her school district lack adequate resources for online education. She said students with limited English proficiency needed translation services but didn’t have internet to access it, and Native American students did not have the infrastructure to get reliable internet.

“Many of our teachers live in rural areas in Kansas and they were unable to teach without adequate or reliable broadband services from home,” she said. “The needs of the underserved grew exponentially during the pandemic, where access to devices and remote services that relied on adequate Wi-Fi was crucial.”

Dr. Tiffany Anderson

Anderson said the school district provided hot spots to as many students as possible, and also put hot spots in parked school buses in places where students could walk to.

Doyle asked Anderson how the new funding Democrats want would impact school reopening. “Some of our colleagues are arguing rather strongly that the funding for distance learning would actually slow down the reopening process,” he said. “What do you think?”

“That’s not going to slow down reopening,” Anderson said. “Because prior to the

pandemic, we needed these services. Virtual schools were already in place. Telehealth was already in place. I believe that we could open schools more quickly if we had the flexibility to address the current pressing needs from the pandemic, but we also have the flexibility to address the problems that were already existing.”

Doyle has long sought to address inequities in broadband internet service, and the pandemic has given new urgency to the cause. Democrats hope to pass the funding through budget reconciliation, a process which allows them to quickly advance priorities as part of a massive COVID-19 relief bill.

In December, Congress passed a pandemic relief package that included money to temporarily help address the high costs of internet access relied on by both kids learning remotely and adults working from home. $3.2 billion was set aside to provide low-income households with a $50 monthly credit on broadband bills, and a $75 monthly credit to people living on tribal lands.

[Matt Nemeth/90.5 WESA]

Kansas racial equity panel calls attention to early childhood, maternal health disparities

By Noah Taborda Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — A Kansas racial equity panel report has pinpointed maternal and early childhood health, vaccine equity and Medicaid expansion among areas that could improve racial inequities in health care.

Among the specific recommendations in the 2021 interim report from Gov. Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice is an extension of Medicaid coverage for mothers through 12 months. Currently, coverage for new mothers is only 60 days.

The task force also highlighted the ways grant funds could be used to support community resources for early childhood health. David Jordan, chairman of the commission subcommittee on health care and CEO of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, said panelists identified health issues early in life as a top priority for review.

“Investing in maternal and child health is not just the way to improve the health of Kansans and reduce health inequities, but it’s also a way to improve educational outcomes long term and it’s an economic development in some ways,” Jordan said. “So, it’s really critical that if we’re going to make a difference that we invest early.”

The commission report features 51 recommendations on ways state agencies, the Legislature and local governments can improve racial disparities surrounding health care economics and education. The commission report centers around the social determinants of health — the social and economic factors impacting group differences in health — and their role in racial injustice in Kansas.

Topics covered include teacher diversity, tax policy and early childhood education, in addition to health care-related issues.

Beyond maternal and child health, the commission pushed timely pandemic recommendations to bridge divides in COVID-19 vaccination rates. Jordan said additional data should also be a focus for Kansas.

“Both in vaccine equity and maternal and child health is just the need for the state to continue investing in good data so that we understand, for instance, who’s getting access to vaccines and we’re able to disaggregate that data based on race and ethnicity,” Jordan said.

Kelly established the commission in June 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and demands for solutions to racial inequalities in Kansas. The commission began work last year

focusing on law enforcement and policing, releasing a report in December 2020 with more than 60 recommendations for all levels of government.

Since the first report, the commission split into three subcommittees — health care, education and economics — to establish a broader focus for the second year of work. Each group has met as frequently as once per month with the larger commission meeting monthly to come to a consensus on a second report to the governor.

“This commission has again developed a thoughtful and well-researched report, full of recommendations that the state and local governments can take up and implement both short-term and long-term,” Kelly said. “My administration remains committed to advancing equity and justice for all Kansans. By working together to pursue these policies, we can improve the health of all Kansas communities.”

While subcommittees overlapped in many areas, each had a unique set of recommendations. In the economic subcommittee, overseen by commission co-chairwoman Shannon Portillo, the focus was cast on tax policy and the use of COVID-19 federal funding to address racial disparities.

One recommendation was that lawmakers

explore ways to use federal funds to reduce administrative burdens for utility and housing assistance, as well as using funds for wage assistance programs.

“We know that we have quite a bit of federal relief coming down to the state through the American Rescue Plan Act, so we had some specific recommendations with how the state and local governments should consider using those funds,” Portillo said. “And then also decision making in those funds and making sure that we’re hearing from all constituents when it comes to those funds.”

Education recommendations in the report included more thorough diversity training for teachers across the state and doing away with racist or controversial mascots.

Future courses of study include housing issues, unfair lending policies, broadband and student loans. Tiffany Anderson, commission co-chairwoman and Topeka Public Schools Superintendent, said community voices would also drive future work.

“We want to give (Kansans) an opportunity to have a voice into this space,” Anderson said. “So in addition to the speakers that we have, the community is really helping drive this across the state of Kansas.”

The Commission on Racial Equity and Justice, chaired by Tiffany Anderson, left, and Shannon Portillo, submitted a report his month containing 51 recommendations to Gov. Laura Kelly, right. The focus was on the social determinants of health. [Submitted to Kansas Reflector]

Students embrace return to school as parents fret over what the future

By Savannah Workman Topeka Capital-Journal

At the beginning of school last year, every student was remote. For some students, online classes didn’t cut it.

Parents and teachers said they noticed the decline in academic responsibility placed on students, as well as a social and emotional aspect that was missing from an online format.

Community members voiced their concerns for the future of in-person schooling as they pick up their children and grandchildren Wednesday at Whitson Elementary School, 1725 S.W. Arnold Ave., after their first day.

Kat Leuhring, mother of Kaleb and Genevive, said going back to school was a good thing for her children.

“My son is autistic,” Leuhring said. “I feel OK with bringing him back. He needs this. With him trying to do school remotely, he can get up and leave for 20 minutes and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

While 9-year-old Kaleb attended school online, Leuhring’s 16-year-old daughter Genevive monitored his progress. Leuhring said that she couldn’t afford a babysitter. She began to worry about her daughter’s education and well-being.

“Her going back (to school), it gives her that sense of responsibility,” Leuhring said. “She needed that contact. She needed her friends.”

At the end of the day, Leuhring said that all children deserve some kind of normal after the COVID-19 pandemic. Leuhring said she does worry about moving back to remote learning.

“The teachers have to be more involved with these students,” Leuhring said.

Wally Fischer, a former teacher of 21 years at Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School commended teachers for their hard work to make in-person school possible. He said he couldn’t imagine the pressure that was placed on teachers during the pandemic.

“There’s a rhythm that happens when kids are able to attend school on a regular basis,” Fischer said. “That rhythm also develops a relation between instructor and the student.

Not having that connection takes out a small piece of that relation building.”

To make up for the gaps in learning, Fischer and his wife developed a Grammy and Pappa Academy for his grandchildren, due to the couple’s background in education.

“In my 42 years of teaching, I have had some challenging times,” Fischer said. “But nothing compared with the load that was put on teachers by trying to balance out real-time instruction and online instruction.”

Parent Nicole Hammell said she isn’t sure of how the year will unfold for her daughter Melody. Hammell said she is hoping it will be painless.

“I know a lot of parents had problems with online school,” Hammell said. “But for her, she did really well. It was being away from people that she didn’t do well with. She’s a very social child. Only being able to see people virtually made her degress.”

At McCarter Elementary School, 5512 SW 16th St., principal Katherine Cooney said students slowly trickled in the school

at a steady pace. She said the first day went smoothly.

“The only tears I saw was from a sibling that was crying because he didn’t want to leave his brother that was coming to school,” Cooney said. “The older kids are excited to be back to see their friends.” Cooney said districtwide, schools reached max capacity for some grades. From kindergarten through first grade, there’s up to 20 students per teacher. For grades second to fifth, the ratio is up to 25 per teacher.

“We have a lot of grade levels that are at their maximum capacity as well,” Cooney said. “We’re very full. Overall in Topeka Public Schools our enrollment is up, which is wonderful.”

Cooney said districtwide, schools reached max capacity for some grades. From kindergarten through first grade, there’s up to 20 students per teacher. For grades second to fifth, the ratio is up to 25 per teacher.

“We have a lot of grade levels that are at their maximum capacity as well,” Cooney said. “We’re very full. Overall in Topeka Public

You can read the full article at: https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/2021/08/12/schools-around-topeka-started-their-first-day-back-person-classes/8108840002/

Second-grade students in Jenna Sackman’s class at McCarter Elementary School, 5512 S.W. 16th St., wear masks as they work on art projects on the first day of classes Wednesday. [Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal]

Topeka West’s new principal ready to work through pandemic

By Joseph Hennessy WIBW

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Topeka West High School’s new principal Ardy Dehdasht is ready to get the year started with new protocols and recommendations to follow.

He’s been a teacher, administrator, assistant principal and principal across schools in the state and Missouri. He said he’s ready to take - charge - of the chargers classrooms.

“I’ve always said kids are kids and schools are schools. It doesn’t matter if there are more of them here and more teachers here. You just take a little bit from everywhere,” he said.

He takes over for Interim Principal Colin Cathey who will return to his position as associate principal. Amid Friday class meetings, Dehdasht said he wants to see the students, staff and parents involved in making the school operate as best as possible.

I’ve always said this, ‘Give us your 100% of what you got that day.’ Your 100% every day is a little different but you know, give me 100% of what you got that day and that applies to everyone.”

He was most recently the principal at Osawatomie high school. He said working through COVID-19 there was tough because we didn’t know much about the virus at the time.

Now, he feels they have a better

understanding of it, and how the vaccines, masks and social distancing can help schools succeed.

“Make sure we implement all the safety measures that are set forth by Shawnee County Health and the CDC and make sure that we are doing what’s best for our kids and staff and their families.”

He said the landscape of Topeka West is relieving him of some stress that students, parents and staff may be feeling to start the year.

“We have a unique campus, we have a lot of outdoor area at our campus so it being a college-style campus so they get a little extra mask breaks as they’re outdoors, but yeah. We’ve been blessed to have a lot of teachers and students that are just excited to be here.”

Topeka Public Schools are requiring everyone in their buildings to wear a mask. Students and staff do not have to wear them outside.

You can watch the video at https://www.wibw.com/2021/08/13/topeka-wests-new-principal-ready-work-through-pandemic/

Photo from video by Joseph Hennessy/WIBW

Car dealership drives $20K toward Topeka school

By Melissa Brunner WIBW

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - A local car dealer is driving its support to a Topeka school.

Laird Noller Ford presented a $20,000 check to Topeka Public Schools. The money will go to provide uniforms and other supplies for students at Lowman Hill College Prep Academy.

This is the third year Laird Noller has supported the school. Chelsea Ramirez, business development manager for the dealership, said partnerships like this were important to Noller, who passed away last summer.

“Laird was always a big part of the community and he knew, without the community, we would not be here the 60plus years we have been,” she said. “In order for us to show that appreciation, we do try to give back to the community at every possible chance that we can.”

Dr. Tiffany Anderson, USD 501 superintendent, said Lowman Hill College Prep Academy has about 300 students. She said the school requires uniforms, which is an added expense for parents. She said the

donation means no student will be in need.

“This has been a crazy year with the pandemic,” Anderson said. “So many families have lost jobs, they’re in transition with their housing, they’ve had various other struggles and health issues so if we can just take one thing off their plate, let’s do it.”

Last year’s donation provided hand sanitizer, face masks, and iPads for at-home learning. Anderson said the supplies - from backpacks to pens and paper - are a huge help for families.

You can watch the video at https://www.wibw.com/2021/08/12/car-dealership-drives-20k-toward-topeka-school/

Photo from video by Melissa Brunner/WIBW

Five Steps for Trauma-Informed Ed. Leadership

By Dr. Tiffany Anderson Education Week

Schools in high-poverty communities are more likely to serve families that have experienced trauma. Whether families deal with homelessness, lack of access to such basic resources as food and health care, or unsafe neighborhoods with high crime rates, these adverse experiences trigger toxic stress—which has an impact on a child’s developing brain. If children do not receive support to deal with this stress, they are more likely to experience long-term academic and social-development delays.

Students from low-income backgrounds have represented the majority population of public schools (51 percent) since 2013, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. School leaders must equip themselves with the skills to lead schools where many children have experienced trauma and be prepared to develop solutions.

When I began serving as the superintendent in Jennings, Mo., in 2012, the district—one of the lowest-performing in the state—was at risk for losing its provisional accreditation. We served more than 2,500 students who qualified for free lunch, and whose situations had an impact on their attendance and behavior. During my tenure, Jennings became nationally recognized for its work to serve students in poverty as the first trauma-informed school district in the county of St. Louis. Educators in our schools focused on services to reduce instability in students’ lives, and the district redirected funds in order to support these resources. By the time I left in 2016, the district had reached full accreditation status with a 95.4 percent four-year graduation rate and a 100 percent college- and career-placement rate.

Now, as the first African-American female superintendent to serve the Topeka, Kan., public schools and a 23-year educator who has spent a majority of that time as a school leader, I have learned that it’s possible to replicate effective systems of trauma support from one school district to another. There are several steps leaders should take to successfully build trauma-informed schools in their districts, including:

• Get to know the community and schools you serve.

Before setting a clear vision for working with trauma, leaders must understand the needs and feelings of the community. As a new superintendent, it’s important to understand what systems are already in place and build on existing work before identifying gaps that call for new initiatives. When I arrived in Topeka, the district’s principals and I held community meetings and made home visits, including one to the local shelter, to gain an understanding of our schools’ homeless families. I also held discussions with teachers to learn more about issues they faced in the classroom through an informal “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” hour. New leaders must be accessible to

staff and students to foster relationships that serve as an important support system.

• Build teacher and parent capacity for understanding the effects of trauma.

Understanding the stories of trauma behind student behavior empowers educators and school leaders to brainstorm solutions. One step is to ensure teachers and leaders make positive parent contact. For example, teachers in Topeka deliver difficultto-access school resources to students’ homes, and staff members make home visits for lengthy student absences. Educators across the district, including me, are in a yearlong mental-health training for the neurosequential model in education, or NME. This helps educators apply knowledge of brain development, trauma, and student behavior to the teaching process, and also supports the well-being of staff members. I also meet with principals and community agencies to examine best on-the-ground practices for dealing with trauma and learn ways to build resiliency in schools.

• Use data to drive interventions.

As schools in Topeka began to use data dashboards to look at student trends in academic performance, behavior, and absences, I set the tone that this utilization is for information and transformation, not judgment and evaluation. Schools should review students’ academic history and develop intervention plans that treat trauma and academic health in the most effective manner. Once a month, members of the central office meet with each principal to review adverse childhood experience, or ACE, indicators— such as poor attendance, discipline, and academics— for students who may be experiencing trauma.

• Engage community partnerships.

In Jennings, the district partnered with the local community to offer support services. Business leaders mentored individual students yearlong; mental-health agencies had offices in our schools; and local universities helped implement pediatric services in schools. To provide full-time support, the district also converted several buildings into a food pantry and homeless shelter for youths and opened schools on Saturdays or during the winter when services were normally closed.

• Make space and time for well-being.

While schools often feel they don’t have time for extra responsibilities that trauma-informed settings require, leaders can set goals and expectations for their schools. Educators play a critical role in helping children cope with adverse experiences. Staff members, including the principal, serve as support in separate well-being rooms, and peace corners designated in the classroom enable teachers to help children de-escalate their behavior. Some schools in the district, such as French Middle School, also utilize therapy animals with students and circle gatherings for educators. I serve as a support in classrooms and the lunchroom for ongoing opportunities to interact with students. Leaders must have high visibility in schools to identify ways they themselves can provide direct support.

School leaders must become trauma-informed leaders who can address the complex needs of young people entering schools. Through a systematic approach, which integrates trauma-informed practices within existing structures, school leaders can provide unique support to students and families—an approach that makes all the difference.

Science teacher Dianne Denmark quiets her 6th grade class during an animal-therapy session at French Middle School, in Topeka. [Dave Kaup/Education Week]

Address trauma; raise achievement

By Michelle Healy

The early May heat wave that settled over Topeka was just another reminder that summer break was fast approaching. But the usual end-of-the-year routine was shattered when word spread that a kindergarten student had been critically injured at a weekend pool party.

Tiffany Anderson, superintendent of Topeka Unified School District 501, and her staff visited with the family at the hospital. When word arrived late Sunday of the student’s death, the district readied a mental health team (consisting of a psychologist, counselors, social workers, and key administrative and school staff) to assist students and the school community.

By early Monday, that team was supported by other school staff who would lead instruction in music and art therapy, meditation, journaling, and movement activities to help students begin to build the coping skills needed in the face of such a senseless tragedy.

There had to be “a level of sensitivity, but also a level of understanding about how do you support students” after such an incident, says Anderson.

That same focus on resiliency and coping skills is being infused throughout the district to assist students who experience trauma and adversity as a result of living in poverty.

Exposure to “adverse childhood experiences” (ACEs) can result in traumatic stress that impacts the mental health and brain development of children and adolescents. These expe-

riences include crime, violence, homelessness, abuse, neglect, and parental death or incarceration.

For some children, chronic stress can spark disruptive and volatile classroom behavior. It can cause poor academic performance, social and emotional developmental delays, disengagement from family and school, and even poor health in adulthood.

Topeka is working to lower discipline problems, raise academic achievement, and build student resiliency by using a variety of trauma-informed strategies and interventions throughout its 28 schools. Those strategies include mental health training for all teachers, secretaries, custodians, and bus drivers; home visits for lengthy student absences; and conflict circles and other restorative justice practices to prevent and de-escalate behavior issues.

In Topeka and other school districts around the country, “our mindset is beginning to change regarding how to teach children with trauma issues,” says Anderson, who helped spearhead trauma-informed initiatives as superintendent in Jennings, Missouri, a 3,000-student, high-poverty community outside of St. Louis. She also served as superintendent in Virginia’s Montgomery County Public Schools when the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shootings occurred nearby.

Key to being trauma-informed is “making sure that we’re building relationships in ways that are beyond just greeting kids when they come in the classroom, but really building

relationships on a social-emotional level,” Anderson says. Schools need to “understand deeply what’s going on with our students and our families.”

Mental health and equity

In Topeka, where 77 percent of the district’s racially and ethnically diverse student population (39 percent white, 30 percent Hispanic, 19 percent black) is eligible for free or reduced-price meals, the school board began looking at trauma-informed care several years ago, says board member Peg McCarthy.

“We were really aware that we needed to think about ways that we could transform classroom practices that would respond to kids who had been traumatized and allow them to learn better,” she says.

With Topeka’s storied history in education and civil rights as the site of the segregation-ending Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case, and its deep roots in mental health research, most notably as the original home of the Menninger Foundation, it is fitting that the public school system is emphasizing mental health as an issue important to equity and achievement.

It was district teachers who first expressed concern about the growing numbers of preschool and kindergarten-age students who were showing mental health needs and disruptive behavior, says McCarthy, a practicing psychologist. Students’ exposure was taking a toll on those teachers, a common result of secondary or indirect trauma, she adds. “I would say it was almost at a crisis level.”

Address trauma; raise achievement

At Pine Ridge Prep, “being trauma-informed is everything,” says Shanna McKenzie, lead principal for early education programs. Families served by the school, located in the Pine Ridge Housing Development in East Topeka, live well below the poverty line with an average household income of about $8,600 a year.

With that comes the “chronic stress and crises that come up every day” in the community, she adds. “Unless we address those stressors and those crisis issues, then we’re never going to get to the learning part. So, we really focus on making sure basic needs are met and crises are taken care of so that kids are available to learn.”

The 3- to 5-year-olds at the school display trauma in multiple ways, McKenzie says. “We’ve got everything from kids that show extreme explosive behaviors, running away out of the building, attention seeking, violent, throwing chairs, hitting other kids, yelling, screaming, cussing.

“But then we also have kiddos that we need to almost watch out more for” because they keep everything bottled up, she says. “They will internally shut down or stop talking.”

The school, a joint effort among the school district, the Topeka Housing Authority, and the United Way of Greater Topeka, is a prime example of the district’s use of community partnerships to help deliver trauma-informed services.

In a tiny room overflowing with papers and folders in a corner of Pine Ridge Prep, family services worker Heather Hayden makes check-in calls and schedules home visits to students’ families. Her job is to provide “a bridge between home and school,” she says, and assist families in accessing the social services (food, housing, clothing, medical and dental care) that will keep them and their children healthy and safe.

Recently that included accompanying one parent to a disability hearing and another to an adoption proceeding. “My job is to walk hand in hand with families, making sure their viewpoint is heard,” Hayden says.

Outside of Hayden’s office, the Pine Ridge classroom areas are in full swing as a small group of students practice writing letters on desks coated in shaving cream while another

group listens and answers questions as a story is read aloud. Tucked away in a little nook, a student receives some one-on-one time with a staffer, while another goes off to gather the trucks he will use during a play therapy session.

Behavior interventionists work with individual students who have difficulty self-regulating, helping them learn to calm down and “label their different emotions,” says McKenzie. The goal is to be working with them when they’re not already angry or upset, she says. “Then, when they’re in a crisis moment, we can start pulling out those tools they have.”

Coloring books and a bulldog

Across town, at French Middle School, Gus, a 133-pound, 2-year-old American Bulldog, is an invaluable aide who connects with and calms students.

Very often, students who have experienced trauma come to school unable to focus on work. “There are other things happening, preventing them from being able to come here and just learn,” says Dianne Denmark, a sixthgrade science teacher and trained therapy dog handler.

Denmark has seen firsthand, however, that when these students can spend time bonding with Gus, they’re able “to decompress and find their center.”

Petting him and relaxing with him is therapeutic, Denmark says. “He has a calm energy that is transmitted to students who interact with him. It helps them slow down.”

Gus is regularly “worked into behavior plans” of individual students, “much like a motivator,” Denmark says. If a student accomplishes a task, the reward might be spending time with Gus, working on commands, brushing him, even clipping his nails.

Sixth-grader Sarah Peterson sidles up to Gus on the floor, then gently rubs his broad, square head. It’s hard to believe that she was once afraid of dogs, but having spent mornings walking Gus, filling his water bowl, and learning to trust him, she now says he makes her feel comfortable. If you’re having a bad day, “he makes you feel happy,” she adds. “He never hurts us, and he always stays calm.”

A short walk from Denmark’s science classroom is a dimly lit, cozy room with overstuffed furniture and large exercise balls. There’s a

mini-trampoline, a soft, weighted manikin for punching —or cuddling —coloring books, stress balls, and other fidget toys. Gentle music and a soothing aromatherapy scent fill the room.

Principal Kelli Hoffman says the school’s wellness center was created as a place for students to go to de-escalate and get ready for instruction: “Students can come and listen to music. They can take a short nap. Sometimes they need a place where it’s just peace and quiet.”

A majority of schools in the district have trauma-informed wellness centers or trauma spaces in classrooms this year that provide students a safe place to disengage and center themselves, Anderson says. At French, students can request a pass to go to the room; parents sometimes call the school and suggest that their child might benefit from a visit; and teachers, noticing that “a student just isn’t ready for instruction but [their response] hasn’t quite reached a level of a discipline issue,” will sometimes make a referral, Hoffman says.

An adult is always on duty—administrative staffers volunteer for one-hour blocks each week— so students have someone to talk to if they want or need to. “But if they just want to come in and sit and take in the quietness, then that’s always an option too,” she explains.

After just one year of having the wellness room, French Middle saw a decrease in both out-of-school suspensions and discipline referrals.

Anderson believes it’s no coincidence that, along with the introduction of trauma-informed strategies, the district’s preliminary scores on state assessments increased overall in 2017 at the elementary, middle, and high school levels for the first time in 17 years.

Being trauma-informed has allowed the district to “really restructure what our actions are,” she says. “Structures create behaviors. Behaviors and structures create systems. So, we’re really talking about a systems movement. Creating a system that’s trauma-informed and trauma-equipped so that we can ensure every student succeeds at the highest possible level.”

Michelle Healy (mhealy@nsba.org) is associate editor of American School Board Journal.

Topeka Public Schools say microclassrooms approach is working

By Danielle Martin

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Topeka Public Schools says it successfully completed its first full week of the micro model classrooms in Elementary schools.

Through phase 2 of the micro-classroom model approach, Quincy Elementary School are ensuring students have more interactions with their teachers in a safe way.

“We have so many things in place to keep the kids safe,” Principal of Quincy Elementary School, Katie Sonderegger said. “So, we do have several classrooms that are at 15 students, but we have several classrooms that still only have 12 or 13 students.”

“What that allows us to do is really spread the students out, gives them some space to move, it gives them their own individual kind of bubble that they can stay in all day, which is great when we’re keeping them safe,” Sonderegger said.

As students return back to the classroom, the principal of Quincy Elementary School says students are able to participate in other activities too.

“You can see that each student, kind of has their own bubble, and their free to move, and dance, and do whatever they want to do in that space,” Sonderegger explained. “This is the first day, and you can see that they’re all so excited to be here. In addition to our art room, luckily are students get to still go in. They’re able to still social distance in our art room.”

Students will see more changes when they return back to school.

“So, normally lunch would be a very social situation where that’s the kids time to chat with each another, and we had to take that away from them a little bit,” Sonderegger explained.

“Not only are they facing the same direction, but they’re six feet apart. So, we do everyday give them a little break and we put on some educational videos that they can watch,” she added.

Though school may be different this year, one student says having face to face interactions with teachers helps with learning.

“It feels better, and safer instead of being at the house and being board,” fifth grader at Quincy Elementary School, Celne Coots said. “We can learn better in school. We know the instructions instead of online school.”

“I think that’s the biggest thing for them right now is just knowing that, “I’m here with my students its different but will take different over not having them here at all,” Sonderegger added.

Topeka Public Schools announced on Tuesday that they will allow all students who selected in-person learning to return next week.

USD 501 finds creative ways to welcome preschool, kindergarten back to school

By Cassie Nichols

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – Topeka Public Schools welcomed its preschool, pre-k and kindergarten students back in style. The school district found creative ways to make the students excited about the school year ahead of them.

Shaner Early Learning Academy had a red carpet out for the students to walk to their classrooms. They wanted to help make their “Shaner stars” feel welcome.

“Make sure they were comfortable and excited and knew that this is still their school building that they know,” said principal LaManda Broyles. “But we have a lot of new families as well so we just wanted to make sure families felt comfortable and that they knew we were going to take good care of their kids.”

Their overall goal is to keep students safe. They do this by teaching them

how to social distance in an age appropriate way.

“So we actually have foam stars marked every six feet with googly eyes and real fun faces so that we can be telling students are you by your buddy,” Broyles said.

Meadows Elementary also found creative ways to help the children social distance. They held a popsicle party at recess and taught them how to sit six feet apart.

You can watch the video at https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/usd-501-finds-creative-ways-to-welcome-preschool-kindergarten-back-toschool/

Photo by Cassie Nichols

USD 501 welcomes first group of freshmen to high school

By Joseph Hennessy

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Topeka Public Schools welcomed their first group of ninth graders to their high schools for the first time after weeks of remote learning.

USD 501 announced they were dividing students into groups, with one group attending in-person Monday/Tuesday, and the other group in-person Thursday/Friday. On days they are not in-person, students will attend classes remotely and today was the first day of school, at school, for many.

Starting next week, all middle and high school students who have chosen the in-person model will be allowed in the building. The A-Group will attend in the morning from from 7:55 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. with meals served. The B-Group will attend in the afternoon from 12:20 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. with meals served as well.

Avery Zimmerman, a freshman at Topeka High School, said it’s not what she expected her first day of high school to be like.

“Not at all, no. The opposite of what I thought, to be honest,” she said.

Principal of Topeka High School Rebecca Morrisey said it’s been the longest prep for school in her nearly 40 year career. She’s happy to see kids with backpacks and school supplies again.

“It’s a little challenging to read faces, when you see eyes so a lot of things changing for both the adults and the students, but you can still see the crinkle to the eyes which means you still see the smile on their face. You can tell they’re glad to be here. You can see a little angst when they can’t find a class,” said Morrisey.

There are signs all across the building to social distance, classrooms have barriers between

students and arrows in the stairwell to manage traffic flow. They have always had arrows by the stairs, but Morrisey said it helps enforce distancing more now. They are still adjusting to the changes.

“The biggest challenge we’ve had so far is figuring out how to use the standing thermometer-temperature-readers rather than the handheld,” said Morrisey. “So, just adjusting to some of those kinds of things but the challenges have been pretty minimal so far.”

Zimmerman wishes she could be with her friends, but is happy to be in her high school for the first time with fellow students.

“I’m missing out on a lot of my friends because some of them are remote and some of them are back here and some of them are at home, which

is hard,” Zimmerman said. “But, I’m glad because I get to meet a lot of new people.”

Upperclassmen are ready to be back according to Morrisey.

“They’re, I think, a little jealous of the freshmen in the building, they want to be back as well. So, it’s hard to be patient and wait at home when you’ve waited this long,” she said.

USD 501 held an orientation with juniors and seniors for the freshmen if they have any questions related to high school on Monday for the first group. The next group of students to go on Thursday/Friday will have their orientation Thursday.

All USD 501 students spent the first week of classes entirely on remote learning.

Copyright 2020 WIBW. All rights reserved.

You can watch the video at https://www.wibw.com/2020/09/29/usd-501-welcomes-first-group-of-freshman-to-high-school/

USD 501′s middle, high schools report smooth return to in-person learning

By Rafael Garcia The Capital-Journal

Now finishing up the second week of their return to in-person learning, albeit with a few modifications, Topeka Unified School District’s middle and high schools are reporting a smooth transition.

Principals, parents and students from the schools spoke with the Topeka Board of Education on Wednesday about their experiences with the modified, in-person learning plan. Half of all inperson students attend classes four days a week (all students are online-only Wednesday) for the first half of the day, while the other half of students work on at-home and online learning activities. Then, at midday, the students switch.

Alyssa Dipnarine, a junior at Topeka High who returned to in-person classes, said she has come to love the modified schedule, since it gives her more freedom to structure her day outside of school.

“I will say that in the beginning I was actually very scared about how things were going to work, and I was a little worried,” Dipnarine told the board via Zoom. “But honestly, going to school, the staff has been so helpful and just wanting to know what the students need and how we can all help each other.”

She said the biggest issue high school students have seen is transportation. For students like her who have a car, getting to school isn’t an issue, Dipnarino said. The district doesn’t offer bus services for high school students, instead giving city bus passes to students who request them. But high schoolers without cars are opting to walk, Dipnarino said, since they are unfamiliar with how to get around using the city bus system.

Superintendent Tiffany Anderson said the district would explore putting together informational materials to help students learn how to use the city’s system.

T’ahjanae Ray, a Highland Park sophomore who opted to do fully remote learning, said she has enjoyed her experiences as well.

“I have more time to go at my pace,” she said. “I’m able to break up my assignments and allow myself to focus more. I sometimes have trouble focusing, but because I have so much time since I am remote, I am able to refocus myself and really sit there and do my assignments without too many distractions like being in a classroom.”

Brenda Kelsey, a parent of a fourth-grader in the district’s Avondale virtual school, shared her experience with switching from remote learning to the virtual school. The school, which offered online education for sixth- through 12th-graders before the pandemic, is piloting fourth- and fifth-grade virtual programs this year.

Students, parents and principals at Topeka Unified School District 501’s middle and high schools on Thursday evening told Topeka Board of Education that the return to in-person learning has been smooth so far. [Rafael Garcia/Special to The Capital-Journal]

Kelsey said remote learning was pushing her son, a gifted student, enough, and he was getting bored with his classwork.

“When we switched him to virtual, he’s now able to stay on task better, he’s able to focus better because he doesn’t have the distractions of the other classmates,” Kelsey said. “Honestly, once the pandemic is over, we might stick with the virtual, because it’s working so well.”

District officials and principals said teachers have seen a few challenges in making the transition back to some in-person learning, but that the district’s schools and teams have worked collaboratively to get over those issues. Some buildings are even sharing teachers and lessons to streamline teaching during the pandemic.

Kelli Hoffman, principal at French Middle School, said teachers have also been thankful to have students back, as they are better able to address any needs they might have.

“The other very important piece that schools have a chief role in playing is not just maintaining a good educational environment, but also checking on that social-emotional piece with kids and having eyes on kids every day, even if it’s a shorter amount of time than we’re used to,” Hoffman said. “Even if it’s on a screen, that is key to us being able to connect with families and know when we need to

make a porch visit or when we need to call a parent and check in.

“It’s been critical in making sure kids and families are maintaining and doing as best as they can.”

In other business, Aaron Kipp, general director of demographics and assessment, updated the board on the district’s enrollment, which is at 13,183 this fall. That is about a 300 student loss from last fall, Kipp said, and much of that loss came from the kindergarten class, which had been trending downward for the past few years.

The decline is in line with what most other school districts are seeing, though, Kipp said. Specific populations of students mostly stayed the same percentage-wise.

About 3,000 students are in full remote learning, although Kipp said he expects some of them to switch to the district’s in-person learning model after the district sends out a survey on preferences next week.

Kipp said a few elementary schools currently have waiting lists for certain grades, as the schools can only accommodate so many in-person learners to keep classrooms under 15 students per class as suggested by best social distancing practices. However, he said, most schools and classrooms still have plenty of space.

CapFed Best News: USD 501 will feed students during break

By Linda Ditch Special to The Capital-Journal

Topeka Public Schools USD 501 shared details Monday about free meal options for students, as nearly 78% of their 13,500 students rely on free or reduced-fee lunches.

At a gathering of clergy and community leaders at New Mt. Zion Church on S.E. Indiana, superintendent Tiffany Anderson explained how the meal distribution would work.

Topeka Public Schools Food Service will provide grab-and-go meals for breakfast and lunch for students. Meal distribution will occur 11 a.m. to noon beginning Tuesday and run every weekday until March 27. These meals are restricted to students age 18 and under and may be collected once a day.

The meal distribution sites are based on the summer food program, and include:

Highland Park High School, 2424 S.E. California Ave.; St. David’s Episcopal Church, 3916 S.W. 17th St.; First United Methodist Church, 600 S.W. Topeka Blvd; Meadows Elementary School, 201 S.W. Clay St.; Ross Elementary School, 1400 S.E. 34th St.; Quincy Elementary School, 1500 N.E. Quincy St.; Pine Ridge Prep, 1110 S.E. Highland Ave.; French Middle School, 5257 S.W. 33rd St.; Landon Middle School, 731 S.W. Fairlawn Road; Robinson Middle School, 1125 S.W. 14th St.; Jardine Middle School, 2600 S.W. 33rd St.; Shaner Early Learning Academy, 1600 S.W. 34th St.; Chase Middle School, 2250 N..E State St.

“Really, any opportunity to come together and address a challenge that seems mighty, but collectively is certainly possible to be tackled, energizes me,” Anderson said. “For me, seeing a room full of people trickling in to talk about how do we serve students well — oh my gosh, I feel blessed, privileged and energized to do as much as I can to make sure we meet the needs wherever they are.”

Anderson also announced that 501 employees will continue to be paid during the break. A district COVID-19 Response Team was formed to not only deal with the students’ food needs, but to also address their educational and mental health needs for the next few weeks. A special COVID-19 help line was set up so families and students could call with any needs or questions they may have while away from school. The number 785-438-HELP (4357).

Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla also attended the gathering and said she was humbled to lead the capital city and humbled by those in

attendance.

“This is what makes this community the one that it is, because at times like this, it would be very easy to cower,” De La Isla said. “We stand together and we pray, and then we move forward with the work that we have to do.”

Anderson suggested area churches adopt a school if they haven’t already done so. This would give principals of those schools another resource for help if needed. Churches could also volunteer to help distribute the lunch sacks and be involved in the distribution of the backpacks filled with food prepared by Harvesters. They could be a Harvesters food pick-up site for the community, as well.

De La Isla did caution senior citizens with preexisting conditions to please stay home and not volunteer.

“It’s a great time for us younger people to step up and volunteer,” she said.

Seaman USD 345 Food and Nutrition Services have a grab-and-go lunch program at Logan Elementary School, 1124 N.W. Lyman Road, for children ages 1-18, from 11 a.m. to noon. Each child will receive a to-go lunch meal and a breakfast meal that can be picked up at the same time. The district is also coordinating

with Topeka North Outreach to continue its Operation Backpack weekend food sack program from this site on Fridays.

Auburn-Washburn USD 437 is offering graband-go breakfast and lunch sacks at Pauline Central Primary Elementary School, 6625 S.W. Westview Road, from 9-10:30 a.m. A canopy will be set up outside so students and families can pick up without entering the school.

Shawnee Heights will provide grab-and-go lunches from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Starlite Skate Rink, 301 S.E. 45th St.; Eastgate, 7th St. and Brookside; Tecumseh United Methodist Church, 334 SE Tecumseh Road; Shawnee Heights High School, 4201 S.E. Shawnee Heights Road.

Kaw Valley USD 321 will provide mobile drive-through meal service to children ages 1-18. They will provide kids with free breakfast and lunch meals for up to three days at a time, and the children must be present when picking up the meals. Meals can be accessed Monday through Friday at Delia Community Center, 11 a.m. to noon; Emmett Grade School, 11 a.m. to noon; Rossville Library, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.; St. Marys High School, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Tiffany Anderson, USD 501 superintendent, speaks to an invited crowd at Mount Zion Baptist Church on Monday to announce the Topeka Public Schools COVID-19 Response Team to help support students. [Evert Nelson/Special to The Capital-Journal]

CapFed Best News: USD 501 will bring lunch to student homes if needed

By Linda Ditch Special to The Capital-Journal

Just two days after Topeka Unified School District 501 began its mobile lunch and distribution program, superintendent Tiffany Anderson said Thursday the district already had distributed meals to about 3,000 students.

Anderson anticipates that number will climb to nearly 4,000 by the end of the week as board members and school staff also are delivering the lunch-breakfast combo bags to homes of families who need that service.

“Our children are everything to us in Topeka Public Schools, and the first thing we thought of was how are we going to feed our kids that aren’t in our buildings because so many people need that,” said board of education member Sue Bolley, who was at Chase Middle School on Thursday to help distribute meals. “And the need is going to grow as people are laid off.

“So I’m hoping all of our area food pantries are gearing up to help feed our city. It just means everything to make sure our children are fed and to comfort our families.”

Topeka Public Schools Food Service will provide grab-and-go meals for breakfast and lunch until March 27. Meal distribution will occur from 11 a.m. to noon each weekday. Next week, educational enrichment packs will be included with the meals.

Then, starting March 30, the district’s school bus drivers will drop off meals and instructional materials at students’ designated bus stops.

Anderson delivered meals to Debbie Cruz’s family on Thursday. Cruz has stagefour cancer and isn’t able to bring her grandchildren, whom she is raising, to pick up meals. The family was also adopted by the district office at Christmas.

“That level of support not only lets kids know we’re here to support them and love on them, but we haven’t forgotten that there are some really critical needs our families are struggling with, especially families that have recently become unemployed because their businesses have closed down or their hours have been reduced,” Anderson said.

The meals are free for children ages 1-18. For now, distribution sites include:

• Highland Park High School, 2424 S.E. California Ave.

• St. David’s Episcopal Church, 3916 S.W. 17th St.

• Lowman Hill Elementary, 1101 S.W. Garfield Ave.

• Meadows Elementary School, 201 S.W. Clay St.

• Ross Elementary School, 1400 S.E. 34th St.

• Quincy Elementary School, 1500 N.E. Quincy St.

• Pine Ridge Prep, 1110 S.E. Highland Ave.

• French Middle School, 5257 S.W. 33rd St.

• Landon Middle School, 731 S.W. Fairlawn Road

• Robinson Middle School, 1125 S.W. 14th St.

• Jardine Middle School, 2600 S.W. 33rd St.

• Shaner Early Learning Academy, 1600 S.W. 34th St.

• Chase Middle School, 2250 N.E. State St.

A number of faith-based organizations have sent volunteers to help distribute meals. In conjunction with the district’s meal plan, volunteer organizations continue to distribute backpacks of snacks to students.

“In times of adversity and challenge, it gives us all an opportunity to be our better selves and to demonstrate how we can beat any challenge by working collectively. This is a great example of that,” Anderson said.

Topeka USD 501 offers a COVID-19 helpline, 785-GET-HELP (785-438-4357), that parents can call to inquire about general questions and needs. The district’s website, topekapublicschools.net, also has information, as do its Facebook and Instagram pages.

Topeka USD 501 board member Sue Bolley, right, places lunch items on a table while Tiffany Anderson, left, talks with Woaini, a USD 501 student, during a home food delivery Thursday morning. Anderson and Bolley were out delivering food while other school sites provided drivethrough services to get school lunches into the hands of hungry students. [Evert Nelson/Special to The Capital-Journal]

USD 501 teacher find ways to teach their students through digital learning

By Danielle Martin

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -- School buildings are closed due to the coronavirus, but educators are still finding ways how students can receive their education through digital learning.

Kathy Foster of USD 501 College Prep Academy is working hard to keep her students learning.

“I just can’t even imagine what this would look like if we did not have technology in place,” Foster said. “Even though it’s a zoom atmosphere, it’s still an exciting time to reconnect and to be with one another.”

Students will receive detailed lesson plans in their homes through google classroom.

“It still gives us the connection, which is very important and it still allows us to continue instruction exactly where we left off,” Foster explained.

Foster says students will meet at least once a week via zoom, and have dates to submit homework assignments.

“I’ll be able to go in and check and if I don’t see an assignment completed, I can always then connect directly with that stu-

dent. They still have opportunity to submit it later,” Foster explained. “Nothing has really changed since location, expectations are still the same, assignments are still highly rigorous.”

She says the change will be difficult for her, too.

“The most negative part is just not being in their presence. Not having that connection, that personal contact with them,

not being able to see their faces when they walk through the door because that’s how i know if they need something or maybe their stressed.”

But, she’s looking on the bright side, “we’re still going to move forward, and that’s what is so important.”

USD 501 says teachers will continue the digital teaching method until KHDE says otherwise.

Photo by Danielle Martin

CapFed Best News: ‘Strong, resilient’ USD 501 class of 2020 graduates virtually

By Tim Hrenchir The Capital-Journal

The members of the high school class of 2020 were born in a time of chaos marred by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and have now been prevented by COVID-19 from properly enjoying graduation in person, Christie Michelle Green noted Saturday.

Still, Green hopes those things are “proof of the great strength of your character” and “the amazing adventure you will all have in the future,” she told those graduates Saturday morning in a message on the Topeka Public Schools Facebook page.

Green, the proud mother of graduating Topeka West High School senior Matthew Leibold, was among those who posted messages on that page as it aired virtual graduation ceremonies for Topeka West, Highland Park and Topeka High schools.

Topeka West’s grads included three sets of triplets, said Erika Hall, USD 501’s senior communications specialist.

Though Topeka USD 501 hopes to host an in-person graduation in late July, the district’s officials wanted to celebrate students this month, Hall said.

“We want this to be a special occasion and we want students to know we love them and we congratulate them on graduating despite the challenges of a pandemic,” said USD 501 superintendent Tiffany Anderson. “We want them to know the entire community celebrates their accomplishment, even if it is virtually.”

Saturday morning’s ceremonies took place online and involved the use of the Zoom teleconferencing application.

The district did as much as it could to enable the festivities to resemble normal commencement events. There were speakers, singing and the reading of names of graduates.

The festivities featured recorded messages from Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla.

The class of 2020 is strong and resilient, De La Isla said.

“It’s been a hard year,” she said. “We’ve had some tough losses, and my heart goes out to all of you. But I think that these difficulties are going to help all of you see the world through a different lens.”

This year’s seniors are graduating in an “extraordinarily challenging and difficult time,” said Kelly, who closed Kansas schools in mid-March for the rest of the 2019-20 school year in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“I know this isn’t the way you imagined your

senior year would come to a close, but please note that there is still so much to celebrate,” Kelly said. “The threat of COVID-19 may mean you will accept your diploma through virtual ceremony, or find yourself celebrating your proud achievement with family and friends over a Zoom call. Either way, never forget that you have reached a true and important milestone in your lives.”

The governor said she feels confident the class of 2020 “will go on to be our state’s most resilient, hard-working contributors.”

“You’ve demonstrated an ability to adapt and overcome adversity,” she said, “life experience that will prove invaluable as you move forward.”

Student vocalists took part in graduation ceremonies for Topeka West High School[Tim Hrenchir/Special to The Capital-Journal]

Topeka 501 summer enrichment kicks off with a splash of creativity

By Kelly Saberi

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – The Topeka 501 School District kicked off their summer enrichment program with a splash of paint and a dash of creativity.

Since the program requires distance learning, three teachers from different schools in the district have come together to create a summer enrichment program that will help kids cope with the current social and political climate.

It’s open to middle and high school students – and it’s completely free. In fact, these teachers hand-delivered the supplies to the over 70 students who are signed up for their program. These are used for daily drawing activities, as well as weekly art projects with the teacher’s via Zoom.

“For a lot of our students, art is, it’s a very important tool for processing,” said teacher Amy Cline. “It’s a different way for them to process

feelings and thoughts that sometimes are really hard to formulate into words.”

They say this is not only a great way for the students to continue creating art, but also a way for them to cope with these changing times.

“The kids have been stuck at

home for so long, and we’ve already touched on everything that’s kind of happening outside, and how important this is and how quickly our class filled up just kind of shows how important this is,” said teacher Barbie Atkins.

You can watch the video at https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/topeka-501-summer-enrichment-kicks-off-with-a-splash-of-creativity/

Photo from Chastity Latham

CapFed Best News: Since start of pandemic, Kansas schools have served over 10.7M free meals (and counting)

By Rafael Garcia The Capital-Journal

Even in a typical summer, Auburn-Washburn Unified School District 437 food service supervisor Stan Vallis and his crew of child nutrition workers probably would have been working, serving free meals to the community’s children.

Each summer, most school districts participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s summer food service program, which funds free meals for all children, but especially those who might not eat a breakfast or lunch otherwise during the months off from school. The federal program funds summer food service sites specifically in neighborhoods with high rates of children on free or reduced lunch status.

But in a school year when summer essentially started in the spring, Vallis said those meals have taken on added significance — not just for the children receiving free and reduced lunch during the school year but for families who might be seeing new financial hardships as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some families would show up to feeding sites with “tears in their eyes” to suddenly have to rely on the free food to feed their children, he said.

“You didn’t ask them how they were doing,” Vallis said. “You just showed them that you were glad they were there. It’s been a hardship, no matter what the income bracket. People are sometimes having a hard time accepting that free food, but they’re grateful. That’s meant a lot to our people serving them, and we’re pleased and honored to do that.”

Between mid-March and the end of June, preliminary numbers show Kansas school districts and community organizations served over 10.7 million free breakfasts, lunches and at some sites, snacks and dinners. The actual number is likely a few million more, too, since most summer food programs continued through June, with a few still serving meals through the end of August.

So far, that is more than a tenfold increase in the number of free meals served in past summers, said Cheryl Johnson, child nutrition and wellness team director for the Kansas State Department of Education, which administers the federal program in the state. More school districts and community organizations also participated in the federal program this year, bumping meal totals up even more.

“It makes my heart happy that people have really stepped up to help Kansas kids stay fueled and ready to go for learning this fall,” Johnson said.

In the Shawnee County area, schools and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Topeka served over 826,000 breakfasts, lunches and snacks in that same time period, with the number likely topping 1 million once food service officials finalize July and August numbers.

“We have a lot of kids out there who really needed (the summer food program), and a lot of them take advantage of it,” said Chris Wagner, children’s nutrition specialist for Topeka USD 501. About 74% of the district’s students are on free or reduced lunch during the school year, and USD 501 is averaging about 1,500 students each day of the summer feeding program, which continues through the end of the month.

Becoming the schools’ public faces

As schools switched to remote operations in the past year, cafeteria workers and volunteers were often the only school workers children might get to see in person as they came by to pick up meals, said Kaye Kabus, director of child nutrition for Seaman USD 345.

“We were so lucky to be the ones who got to see the kids,” she said. “We would get to know these kids, and I hope it was

helpful to them to get to see a familiar face and know that we were still there for them. This was the one time they might get out of the house — to come see us.”

Taking into account the summer, districts served free meals for essentially as long as students had been attending in-person classes from August 2019 through spring break, Kabus said.

“When we started (remote operations) on March 16, nobody had a clue what would happen,” she said. “If you had told me we’d still be serving through Aug. 14, we wouldn’t have believed it.”

Cafeteria and child nutrition managers often had hours, not days, to plan their free meal services as state and federal officials changed regulations on food service. Ordinarily, children had to be present to receive free meals, but officials relaxed that rule to allow families to register their children just once for all future meals.

Similarly, as districts began to plan meal service locations, administrators had to figure out where to open or move new sites while following regulations on service to neighborhoods with high rates of free or reduced lunch students.

Ultimately, if that work saved a single family a worry, Shawnee Heights USD 450 food service director Tara Cox said, it was all worth it.

“I know that our families that participated in the meal service appreciated it very much,” Cox said. “The relief on their faces to know they didn’t have to worry about feeding their kids, the number of thank you notes, but mostly the smiles — people in school food service need to have a passion for what they do in order to make it all work.”

Lunch in the coming year

While the Kansas State Department of Education issued guidelines for food service and cafeteria operations in its Navigating Change reopening plan, districts are able to customize operations plans to fit local needs, Johnson said. In any case, school meals are guaranteed for students in any of the potential learning scenarios.

“Schools aren’t closed, and even if they’re doing entirely remote learning, the schools are still considered open, so at that point, we do have to serve meals through the national school lunch and breakfast programs,” Johnson said.

Schools that start or move to remote learning will

continue to offer several forms of meal pickups, with planning still underway for each potential scenario. In any case, families who aren’t on free or reduced lunch plans will have to start paying for their meals again.

“It makes it so hard for us to go from a program where everyone ate at no charge to them, to now having to charge individual students accounts,” Kabus said. “But that’s what we know the rules are, and we’ll follow the rules that the state gives us.”

However, meals could become free again should the USDA or Congress act on funding an extension of the program. House Education and Labor Committee chairman Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., in July brought a bill to the floor that would make all breakfasts and lunches served at schools free, regardless of income, during the 2020-2021 school year, although that bill has yet to advance through the committee.

Local child nutrition managers said food offerings will largely mirror what districts have traditionally offered, although cafeteria managers are working to eliminate any potentially shared surfaces — such as tongs for grabbing fruit or other handheld items — and instead are serving individually wrapped food portions. Similarly, cafeterias are removing things like ketchup dispensers and replacing them with condiment packets.

Plans for seating children during meal times differ from building to building. Some schools are opting to make space in cafeterias to put six feet of distance between each student, while other schools are sending students and their lunches back to their classrooms to eat.

But no matter what academic operations look like as schools work through the pandemic, Johnson said child nutrition departments across the state will continue to meet whatever needs students might have.

“They’ve been out in the rain or in the hot, but they were out there, and they had those meals available day in and day out,” Johnson said. “That to me has really shown their dedication and passion, and I appreciate the fact that it’s helped people understand the importance of child nutrition and our food service professionals out there working hard every day.”

Bags are lined up ready to receive meals at Topeka High School for the USD 501 summer school meal program. With the program ongoing through the end of August, children’s nutrition specialist, Chris Wagner estimates the program will eventually have served over 400,000 meals. [Evert Nelson/Special to The Capital-Journal]

TPS 501 partnering with COX to offer reduced internet prices for families ahead of school year

By Kelli Peltier

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – A cable company in Topeka is helping schools in our area to close the digital divide during the pandemic.

The ‘Connect-2-Compete’ program by Cox Communications offers internet from $9.95 a month to families who don’t have extra money to spend.

“For less than the price of a movie ticket, families are able to get quality internet services,” Dr. Aarion Gray with Topeka Public Schools said.

The program’s been around since 2012, long before the current pandemic, but it’s coming in handy for families now more than ever as students start heading back into a school year of virtual learning at home.

“Connectivity and the way we’re learning, the things that we’re doing at home…that just gets more and more and then you throw in COVID and a pandemic, and now here we are. And we’re all shifting and pivoting,” Mandy Wilbert with COX said. “So, not only are we working from home, but we’re now learning from home.”

The program is good for any student K-12 who qualifies for

free or reduced lunches or another government assisted program.

“For our families, we feel that this is empowering and also, it provides equitable resources and opportunities for students across the district,” Dr. Gray said.

The district said 78% of students at 501 qualified for free or reduced lunches just last year so potentially that many students could qualify for this ‘Connect-2-Compete’ program this year.

“It’s not just a luxury item, it’s something that people need. And we

want to bridge that digital divide, we want to make sure these kids aren’t falling behind,” Wilbert said.

She said just because the internet is cheaper, doesn’t mean the quality is.

The internet deal comes without a contract, free installation and free modem rentals.

To see if you qualify for free and reduced meals, click here.

To apply for the reduced Wi-Fi cost, click here.

You can watch the video at https://www.ksnt.com/news/education-21st-century/tps-501-partnering-with-cox-to-offer-reduced-internet-prices-forfamilies-ahead-of-school-year/

Photo from video by Kelli Peltier

Topeka USD 501 takes to streets to welcome students back to classes

By Rafael Garcia The Capital-Journal

On as abnormal a first day of school as any, superintendent Tiffany Anderson, with balloons and a bouquet of rainbow flowers, almost danced up the driveway, knocked on the door, and said good morning to kindergartner Olivia Henson, her first princess of the day.

Normal would mean Olivia and her brothers Declan and Lucian, second- and fourth-graders, would have gone to their first days of school at McCarter Elementary.

Anderson likely would have been at a crosswalk wearing her bright orange safety vest and waving students across the road with her handheld traffic stop sign. There is no telling about the weather, but a normal, midAugust first day of school would probably have been at least warmer, if not drier, than the more-like-October first day the Hensons and other Topeka Unified School District 501 children had Tuesday.

But like it or not, it is the first day of school they got, and Anderson was bent on making it as special as ever.

Right around the time when school bells would have been ringing in the day, Anderson drove from house to house Tuesday morning, delivering tool kits filled with all of the supplies needed for online learning, a “welcome back” basket filled with treats and snacks, and a bouquet of rainbow flowers for new kindergartners. It was her way of bringing love, she said, and in those visits, she declared the girls she met “princesses for the day.”

“It gives me a chance to connect with our parents, but it also gives me a chance to say welcome back. We’re excited,” Anderson said.

USD 501 was one of several of Kansas’ largest districts that waited until after Labor Day to start classes. All of Shawnee County’s school districts are now in session, albeit with different education models.

Enrollment figures won’t be finalized until later this month, but officials are expecting about 13,200 to 13,500 students will attend USD 501 this year. About 3,000 students’ families opted for the district’s completely remote option.

All students in USD 501 are starting in the district’s phase 1 learning model, meaning remote-only instruction. Using county data on the spread of COVID-19 and district data on staffing needs, officials will make a later decision on potentially returning the district’s elementary students to modified, in-person microclassrooms.

Those microclassrooms would be capped at 15 students per room, and the district would use every available space — including gyms and libraries — as classrooms and every

teaching-licensed staff member to spread elementary children out in buildings. Middle and high school students would remain in remote learning.

Anderson said she and other district officials will continue to evaluate the weekly county data, and she anticipates the district will give parents updates on the district’s status every Thursday night. Parents will get at least a week’s notice before any changes, she said.

Before leaving the Hensons’ house, Anderson knelt down to eye level with Olivia and asked her if she was excited to one day return to school inside an actual school building.

“I’m so excited to come to kindergarten,” Olivia said.

“I know,” Anderson said. “I’m excited, too.”

Kindergartner Kassie Vandyke receives a welcome Wednesday morning for her first day of school as Tiffany Anderson, right, USD 501 Superintendent, and Sue Bolley, Topeka Board of Education member, surprise her and her mom, Pam Vandyke, Wednesday morning by supplying them with school supplies. [Evert Nelson/Special to The Capital-Journal]

Schools must go beyond slavery, civil rights in teaching race and equity, USD 501 superintendent says

By Rafael Garcia The Capital-Journal

As students return to school this fall, they are coming back not only in the context of a pandemic but that of a society grappling with the social justice issues, and Topeka Unified School District 501 superintendent Tiffany Anderson said schools need to teach students how to approach conversations on race and equity.

Anderson, who also co-chairs Gov. Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice, spoke on the topic on The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Teaching Topeka podcast. She said discussions on racial equity must begin on the foundation that opportunity gaps exist not only in Kansas but across the nation, based on the color of a person’s skin.

“We know that race is a social construct, but because of the color of your skin or how you appear, there are injustices that may take place and are viewed quite publicly,” she said. “Whether it’s the disproportionate number of people in prison or the treatment of people of color by the police on camera, there are other inequities based on race that we can back up with data that we know to be true, regarding a pattern of inequity solely based on this social construct of race.”

Tackling those issues and creating strong justice requires society to look at patterns and trends of inequities, and schools are one of the best places to look at those patterns, since other issues are often tied to education, or lack of access to quality versions of it, she said.

Most of the nation’s incarcerated population are people who didn’t graduate from high school, she said. That is particularly a problem when there is a disproportionate amount of people of color, particularly men, who are in prison.

Anderson said schools also have an “incredible opportunity to have courageous conversations about the things students see,” since all citizens have to go through school at some point. For that reason, schools are uniquely situated to play a role in created an informed, socially conscious generation, she said.

“Students are not colorblind, and I don’t want them to be,” she said. “I want them to be color conscious, because our color brings something into the classroom, our history. Schools can place a role in understanding race as a social construct, understanding ethnicity — which is different — but also understanding our differences and how that makes us collectively better as individuals in the community.”

The education field also has an opportunity to be a great “disruptor” of the status quo, Anderson said. Before arriving at USD 501, Anderson was the superintendent of Jennings Public Schools, near and during the Ferguson protests in 2016, and she led community social justice reforms in the wake of those protests.

This summer’s protests have been different, she said, and there has been a bigger groundswell of support for social justice movements and conversations on racial equity. More people, who may have previously been hesitant to approach the topic, have been willing to at least talk about it this year, and that is something that has carried over into the schools, she said.

Anderson said recent protests have brought more light to Black history, specifically things students may never have learned about in school. One example is the 1921 Black Wall Street Massacre in Tulsa, a riot that killed dozens of people and destroyed a neighborhood that was considered the wealthiest Black community at the time.

In USD 501, teachers use a revamped curriculum to make sure students learn about racial equity starting in kindergarten, in an age-appropriate way.

“In Kansas, if you follow the state’s curriculum, it would be possible that you’d be interpreting history from the lens of slavery in Kansas as the first introduction for students, which is unfortunate, because that should not be the first introduction for students,” Anderson said. “But if that is the first introduction for students in upper elementary and middle school grades, then students might form this impression, an inaccurate impression, that slavery is where all things started.”

While topics like Black Lives Matter have taken a political undertone, Anderson said any movement on racial equity has to be political, since any legislation to protect people of color will ultimately require political movement.

Social justice work is never over, Anderson said, but the current national climate has been promising in that it has given people a new perspective on the issue. In addition to overhauling curricula to make sure students are introduced to these concepts early in their school careers, Anderson said schools have to take an “unapologetic look” at systems that might promote the school-to-prison pipeline.

Anderson said societies build prisons based on the

number of students who haven’t mastered literacy skills by third or fourth grade. That is one of the reasons Anderson requires that any new principals in USD 501 visit the local prisons and juvenile detention centers and look at student data on ethnicity, free/reduced lunch status and other patterns.

“Systemic racism is held up by the legs of oppressive attitudes, mindsets, biases and discrimination,” she said. “We have to break down those legs and move those, so that this table is level, and we level the playing field for everyone. Until we’re able to do that, we’re going to be in this place for a long time.

“Just the fact that I’m the first Black female superintendent in Topeka Public Schools, and one of five in the state of Kansas, and there’s almost 400 superintendents in Kansas, one has to ask themselves, what’s the system that prevented more people of color from being in (superintendents) in Kansas?”

And while lasting social justice might take years to achieve, Anderson said schools are playing their part by training the next generation of leaders. Their voices will be key in effecting change, she said.

“Voiceless people are overlooked, and individuals without hope feed systems of injustice, so our young people have the opportunity to not only be heard but to really make sustainable changes that will generations to come,” Anderson said.

Listen to the full interview online in the third episode of Teaching Topeka, The Capital-Journal’s new podcast series exploring education topics during the pandemic.

Topeka Unified School District 501 Tiffany Anderson, who serves as co-chair of Gov. Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice, discussed how Kansas educators can bring that topic into classrooms on the Topeka Capital-journal’s Teaching and Topeka podcast. [Rafael Garcia/Special to The Capital-Journal]

USD 501 officials confident in plan to return students

By Rafael Garcia The Capital-Journal

With their plan to bring all students back for five-day-a-week in-person learning, Topeka Unified School District 501 leaders said students and parents should start to see an easier, more stress-free learning experience starting Monday.

USD 501 officials gave the Topeka Board of Education an overview of the plan Thursday evening at the board’s meeting. Except those who have opted to continue in full-time, all students will return to schools five days a week, although students will be divided into A and B groups.

The A groups will attend in-person classes in the mornings, while the B groups will attend in-person classes in the afternoons, with a short period between the sessions to clean and disinfect classrooms and common spaces. When they’re not attending in-person classes, each group will continue to work on homework and class projects, with the goal of reducing the need for students to rely on occasionally tricky technology and software.

District officials, who announced the change in scheduling earlier this week, told the board that the new learning model will eliminate some of the challenges and issues students had faced with hybrid learning in the first few weeks of the school year.

Parents had told school principals that one of their biggest concerns was ensuring internet connectivity, and by making the switch, the principals believe both parent and teacher morale will go up as teachers now get the chance to meet with all of their students at least once a day.

“It’s going to help teachers meet the needs of all kids when the kids are all on campus,” said Mike Haire, principal at Jardine Middle School. “When students are just Zooming from home, it’s hard to keep kids accountable, hard to keep kids in that process. This will help them give more direct instruction, so teachers really know where their kids are and provide them with an education that they deserve.”

Administrators said they recognized the hardship that half days might put on families. But in conversations with parents, principals said most families were excited to adjust and find ways to deal with those hardships if the hardships meant the students could return to school five days a week.

“There’s not going to be any model that is 100% perfect,” superintendent Tiffany Anderson said.

“This is about getting to know your families,

personalizing and letting every principal do that in ways they know best. As a district, to think that for 13,000 students, that we’ll be able to do that — we don’t know every one of those 13,000 (students’ situations), but our principals do, and this has become a relationship builder.”

For example, given social distancing requirements on busses, USD 501 will not be able to provide all children bus rides to and from school each day. Students in A group who need to ride the bus will only have a ride to school, and in most cases, parents will need to make other arrangements to bring students back. That’s because the district’s bussing contractor, Kansas Central, said it could not guarantee bus availability for routes for both groups in the middle of the day.

However, school officials said they are working with parents to determine any hardship needs, and in some cases, students may be moved from A groups to B groups, which will have bus routes to take them both to and from school. In other cases, students may be put into study halls, or they may be returned to their teacher’s classroom for “double doses” of instruction.

Additionally, some student groups, like students who don’t speak English, will continue to receive full-day, five-day-a-week instruction,

said Haire, since they need more support than their peers. Organizations like the Boys and Girls Club are also assisting with any childcare or supervision needs as a result of the switch in learning schedules.

In other business, the board heard a report on the various ways the district’s fine arts classes have adapted to the pandemic. Art and music teachers have switched to using materials that don’t have to be shared between students, and at the secondary level, larger groups of choirs and bands will be taking social distancing measures in their performances.

For example, choir rehearsals will move spaces every 30 minutes to ensure students don’t spend too much time in areas where droplets of breath vapor could hang around. Band groups are also using “puppy pads” to help collect condensation from instruments as students play.

USD 501 fine arts teachers are also exploring hosting a fine arts fair later this semester, where the district’s schools would invite music program representatives from local colleges to come and meet student musicians and artists. Another idea the teachers are exploring is hosting a fine arts “combine,” or showcase, in the spring, for music, theater and art students to have the chance to publicly exhibit their work.

Topeka Unified School District 501 officials told the Topeka Board of Education Thursday evening that their plan to bring students back for half-day, five-day-a-week learning will help fix a lot of the issues the district has seen in the first few weeks of hybrid learning. [Rafael Garcia/ Special to The Capital-Journal]

USD 501 middle and high school students ride for free on Topeka Metro

By Blaise Mesa The Capital-Journal

The return of in-person instruction in Topeka Unified School District 501 schools also brings the return of free bus passes to middle and high school students in the district.

Students may receive a free bus pass by going to their school’s main office because USD 501 purchased passes for all students in the district, according to an Topeka Metro news release Wednesday. French and Jardine middle school students don’t get free passes because bus routes don’t serve those areas, the news release said.

“We’re pleased to collaborate again with the USD 501 administration to offer students transportation,” Topeka Metro general manager Bob Nugent said in the news release. “If the kids don’t have a ride to school or their vehicle isn’t working, having these passes ensures that they do get to school, and on time. Once a student obtains a pass from their school, they are guaranteed to have a ride with Topeka Metro for the duration of the school year.”

USD 501 middle and high school students began half-day, in-person classes on Monday. Students will be in school for four days a week. Passes for students are active throughout the

school year when the fixed-route buses are running, the news release said.

Topeka Metro is reminding students in USD 501 that bus passes are free for middle and high school students now that they are attending in-person classes. [File photo/Special to The Capital-Journal]

Jardine Middle School adding class for bilingual students

By Cassie Nichols

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – Jardine Middle School is adding a class for students who move into the USD 501 district from another county.

Bilingual students moving to the district become part of their ‘newcomer program,’ which helps them learn the english language and assist them in classroom activities. Now the program is also adding classes taught entirely in spanish. Teachers at Jardine said they don’t want language to be a barrier in core classes.

“This way if they have that science curriculum in spanish when they go home it’s so much easier for them to complete their work. It’s so much easier and they can understand it,”

Angie Shelton, a teacher at Jardine, said.

The program also helps the parents

feel more involved with the school and helps them understand what their children are learning each day.

You can watch the video at https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/jardine-middle-school-adding-class-for-bilingual-students/

Photo from video by Cassie Nichols

Jardine’s kindergartners couldn’t go to the pumpkin patch, so the school brought the patch to them

By Rafael Garcia

The Capital-Journal

Here’s the comprehensive, must-know 2020 guide to picking out a pumpkin at a pumpkin patch, as told by Jardine kindergartner Jordan Wyant:

‒ Find the heaviest one you can.

‒ That’s it (there really isn’t too much to pumpkin hunting for a kindergarten boy).

Jordan and his classmates in Da’Maris Meadows’ class, as well as Jardine Elementary’s other kindergarten classes, may not have been able to take their annual trip to Gary’s Berries pumpkin patch this year, but if the teachers couldn’t take their students to the pumpkin patch, then they would at least bring the “pumpkin patch” to them.

On Friday afternoon, the kindergarten classes got to hunt for their own soon-tobe jack-o’-lanterns in a shady lawn just outside the school. Classes staggered turns outside hunting for pumpkins briefly, to stay socially distanced, and the kindergartners darted around the lawn looking for the best pumpkins they could.

The makeshift pumpkin patch was a collaborative project with the school’s parentteacher organization, said principal Angela Pomeroy, and the PTO was able to provide and scatter grapefruit-sized donated pumpkins around the lawn for the students.

“Seasonally, it’s the feeling of fall, and getting to take a pumpkin home and having the fun of being out here with their classmates and having a break from school, they’re all of the things that field trip provides,” Pomeroy said. “It’s an experience they don’t get to have.”

Now a month into the school year, teachers are still figuring out how to maintain school year traditions, such as the pumpkin patch field trips, that can’t happen as they normally do because of COVID-19. One example of

that is figuring out how to still safely celebrate and learn about Halloween later in the month, since regular Halloween parties won’t be possible.

As far as field trips, though, Pomeroy said the school’s teachers have found other ways to take students “beyond” the school, and even the city, with virtual field trips.

“Our teachers have been able to provide some of those kinds of experiences as well,” Pomeroy said. “Maybe we go to the Topeka Zoo, but we can also go to the San Diego Zoo virtually. The teachers have found really creative ways to provide these experiences even if they can’t physically get out and go.”

After being asked about his pumpkinhunting strategy, Jordan started to secondguess himself, and he dropped the pumpkin he had picked and started looking for an even bigger pumpkin.

His time was cut short when Meadows called her class back to line up and return inside, but Jordan carried the pumpkin he had found — possibly the same one he had dropped earlier, since the pumpkins were all more or less the same — triumphantly back to his classmates.

That one would do, at least until he could get a heavier one with his family, he said.

Students in Da’Maris Meadows’ kindergarten class start looking for pumpkins Friday afternoon in a yard outside Jardine Elementary. The school put together a makeshift pumpkin “patch” at the school, since the school’s kindergarten classes can’t make their annual field trip to an actual pumpkin patch this year because of COVID-19. [Rafael Garcia/Special to The CapitalJournal]

Remote learning in the spring was unexpected challenge for USD 501. This time, they’re prepared.

By Rafael Garci The Capital-Journal

The first time Topeka Unified School District switched to remote learning back in the spring, it was amid the chaos and uncertainty that everyone shared in the beginning stages of the pandemic, and learning suffered as teachers scrambled to adjust to the sudden switch.

This time, after months of planning — and a week of knowing a switch was likely after spikes in the number of Shawnee County COVID-19 cases — several USD 501 principals said they are better prepared to tackle the move to the disappointing yet expected restrictive learning phase.

“We’re just trying to teach kids right now, whether they’re learning in school or learning at home,” said Mike Haire, principal at Jardine Middle School. “The only difference is that their seats are going to change for a week, or a few weeks, or however long we have to do this. Their seat changes, but everything else stays the same.”

Unlike other Shawnee County school districts, USD 501 began the school year with a few weeks of remote instruction, with elementary students returning to in-person learning in mid-September and middle and high school students beginning a four-day-a-week, hybrid learning model in early October. In that short time, teachers have been able to teach students, especially at the elementary level, how to use remote learning software, said McClure Elementary principal Jennifer Gordon.

With schools out Thursday and Friday for parentteacher conferences, the district — in anticipation of closing schools for in-person learning — sent students home with computer equipment and other at-home learning materials, such as pencils, papers, crayons and math manipulatives. Teachers had prepared thousands of at-home learning kits for the students to take home, Gordon said.

“We sent our students home prepared to be learners, and I don’t know how many districts can say that,” she said.

Teachers were also able to outline individual education plans for special needs students, who typically require additional or different educational services, as well as contingencies for those students at the beginning of the year.

That had been a time-consuming process in the spring, and McCarter Elementary principal Katherine Cooney said having those IEPs in place already this semester will allow teachers to focus on actually teaching those students.

Engagement

One silver lining to remote learning is that teachers and parents have been able to develop closer understanding of the other group’s needs. But the principals acknowledged that it can be

frustrating for parents who for the first time ever are directly exposed to the chaos of the classroom.

“Kids are falling asleep at home? Guess what they do at school? They lay down their head on their desk and fall asleep,” joked Meadows Elementary principal Nicole Johnson. “You’ve got to be careful when you say (remote learning) is worse or better — it’s just different.”

In any case, teachers will continue to rise up to meet the needs of children and families, Johnson said, and it’s been helpful now that parents and guardians are able to closely see classroom curricula and expectations, in a way that one or two parentteacher conferences a year can’t convey.

“To see a mom or dad or uncle sitting side by side in a Zoom with a kid — my heart could just explode,” Johnson said. “They are so much more engaged in the educational process. There are, with any challenge, silver linings, and I always look for an opportunity to shine a light on those and not just come down on the challenges.”

For some students, remote learning has been a blessing, since they can much more easily dictate how and when they learn. For others, the lack of constant and in-person guidance has been a challenge, the principals said, but one teachers are hoping to help their students overcome.

The principals said teachers are employing various existing methods to keep students engaged with their learning at home, and schools are also providing teachers with professional development

to learn better ways of teaching during the pandemic. Students themselves, more likely to be better versed in using technology, are also stepping up to help teachers learn how to use remote learning software best, the principals said.

At the high school level, Topeka High principal Rebecca Morrisey said teachers have had to learn how to give students greater autonomy over their education, but that has also allowed students to better learn crucial adult skills like time management and self-discipline. She likened their experiences to those of college freshmen, who attend class for a portion of the day but must learn how to study in their free time.

“It is a challenge, because they don’t have the skills yet, but it is also a blessing,” Morrisey said. “It’s made us teach differently, it’s made us be much more deliberate about the 40 minutes that we do have contact with the student, what we really need to be there for, and what can students do away from us that doesn’t frustrate them.”

Consistency

Part of the reason that USD 501 made the call to transition back to remote learning was because it was seeing an ever-increasing number of students and teachers testing positive for the virus or going into quarantine. To be clear, the data suggests that none or few of those cases have been from classroom spread of COVID-19, but rather from external transmission at home or in the community.

Still, schools aren’t immune to the intensifying

You can read the full article at: https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/education/2020/11/13/remote-learning-inspring-was-unexpected-challenge-for-usd-501-this-time-theyrsquore-prepared/114937352/

Topeka Unified School District 501 sent students home this weekend with laptops as the district prepares for remote learning. [April File photo/Special to The Capital-Journal]