BOOKED: Jacob Vargas on Barton District Court warrants, bond of $577, $733, and $278 all for probation violation.

BOOKED: Kurt Woods of Great Bend on Great Bend Municipal Court warrant for contempt, bond set at $1,710 cash only. GBMC warrant for contempt, bond set at $867.50 cash only.

BOOKED: Jason Bitter on Great Bend Municipal Court warrants with bonds of $1,022.80 and $457.50.

BOOKED: Colby Hopkins of Great Bend for Barton County District warrant for probation violation, no bond. Great Bend Municipal Court case for contempt of court with bond at $797.50 or 175 days in jail. BCDC case for possession of methamphetamine, possession of paraphernalia, criminal use of a weapon, bond set at $10,000 C/S.

BOOKED: Sara Delgadillo of Great Bend for Barton County District Court case for possession of methamphetamine, possession of paraphernalia, bond set at $10,000 C/S.

BOOKED: Timothy Richardson of Great Bend for Great Bend Municipal Court case for assault DV, criminal trespass, bond set at $500 C/S.

RELEASED: Jericho Riddle of Great Bend on BCDC warrants for probation violation after he served his sentence in full.

RELEASED: Tiffany Parr to Reno County.

Two individual’s from Great Bend were arrested Tuesday morning by Wichita Police after finding them in possession of a stolen firearm.

According to Wichita P.D., officers tried to stop the two, identified as 36-year-old Johnathan Jensen and 39-year-old Michelle Detrich of Great Bend, near I-235 and K-42 Tuesday morning. The officers were acting on a tip of suspicious activity at the Motel 6 on W. Kellogg.

Police say, when officers tried to stop the vehicle, Detrich threw a handgun out of the window and Jensen accelerated and fled from police.

Officers chased the vehicle to Mt. Vernon and Palisade, where the two tried to get away on foot.

The two were arrested a short time later on charges of felon in possession of a firearm, aggravated weapons violation, evade and elude, traffic charges and outstanding warrants.

The gun was recovered. Police say it had been reported stolen out of Hutchinson.

12/31

BOOKED: Hollie Pribble of Hutchinson on GBMC warrant for failure to appear, bond set at $500 C/S and HMC warrant for failure to appear, bond set at $1,000 C/S.

BOOKED: Juana Flores of Great Bend on two Great Bend Municipal warrants for contempt of court, bonds were set at $297.50 and $752.50 cash only.

BOOKED: Tiffany Umphrey of Great Bend on Dickinson County District Court warrant for possession of marijuana with a bond set at $1,500 C/S.

BOOKED: Joseph Miller on Barton County District Court warrant for forgery x13 and theft by deception x13 with a bond of $10,000 C/S. BCDC warrant for forgery x3 and theft by deception x3 with a bond of $10,000 C/S.

BOOKED: Patrick Moody-Standlee of Salina on Barton County District Court warrant for failure to appear with no bond.

BOOKED: Kimberly Hamby of Ellinwood on EMC case for domestic battery, bond set at $1,000 C/S or 18-hour OR bond.

BOOKED: Jerry Hamby of Ellinwood on EMC case for battery DV, bond set at $1,000 or 18-hour OR.

RELEASED: Joshua Anderson of Great Bend on BTDC case for partial sentence.

RELEASED: Howard Johnson on Community Corrections arrest and detain for probation violation after serving.

RELEASED: Hollie Prebble on Hoisington Municipal Court warrant with $1,000 surety bond through Ace Bail Bonding.

RELEASED: Tiffany Umphrey of Great Bend on Dickinson County District Court warrant for possession of marijuana after posting a $1,500 surety bond through Ace Bail Bonding.

RELEASED: Juanan Flores of Great Bend on two GBMC warrants for contempt of court after posting $297.50 and $752.50 cash only bonds.

1/1

BOOKED: Eric Zecha on order to report case to serve.

BOOKED: Christina Manly of Great Bend on BTDC warrant for failure to appear with a bond set at $250 cash or 48-hour OR.

BOOKED: Shawna Contrerez of Great Bend on Great Bend Municipal Court warrant for failure to appear with bond set at $1,000 C/S.

RELEASED: Dalton Miller on OR.

RELEASED: Jerry Hamby on Ellinwood Municipal Court case for domestic batter after 18-hour OR bond.

RELEASED: Kimberly Hamby on Ellinwood Municipal Court case for domestic battery after 18-hour OR bond.

RELEASED: Christina Manley of Great Bend for Barton County District Court case for failure to appear after posting a $250 cash only bond.

Barton County Young Professionals approached the City of Great Bend and Sunflower Diversified Services and explained a desire to make the community more “green” with easier access to recycling.

Sunflower, who has operates the Recycling Center on west 10^th Street, moved ahead with an idea to place a recycling trailer in downtown Great Bend.

Sunflower Director of Marketing Debbie McCormick says the trailer has separate bins for a variety of recycling materials.

Debbie McCormick Audio

The Recycling Center at 5523 10^th Street closes at 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and at noon on Saturday. The new recycling trailer placed at 18^th Street and Williams Street will be available 24 hours a day.

The City of Great Bend purchased the trailer for $6,000 while Sunflower maintains and empties the receptacle.

Debbie McCormick Audio

McCormick says the plan is to empty the trailer every two weeks, but hopes it will be heavily used to increase emptying times.

McCormick added Sunflower is still looking into the possibility of implementing residential curbside recycling.

K-State has hosted numerous Fulbright Scholars from Australia through the years, exchanging ideas in many academic areas. The Department of Agricultural Economics currently has welcomed one professor from the University of Southern Queensland. Geoff Cockfield has studied the U-S and Australian farm economies, comparing and contrasting their makeups to seek improvement for both.

Geoff Cockfield Audio

Cockfield says that research and extension, especially in Kansas, is a program that he feels is especially lacking in Australia.

After highlighting American strengths, he challenges policy makers to look at the Australian agricultural system’s relations to government.

Geoff Cockfield Audio

That was Fulbright Scholar Geoff Cockfield from the University of Southern Queensland. He has been studying agricultural policy in the Department of Agricultural Economics at K-State.

The educational buzzword for this year is “personalized education.” This computerized revival of individualized instruction from the 1970s also wins the 2018 oxymoron award. Pitched by the techno-educational industry, so-called personalized education isolates a student in a digital world, progressing alone at their own speed, essentially the most “depersonalized” form of instruction possible.

If there was any bright light in the dark world of modern teaching, it was the demise of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). After over a decade of teaching-to-the-test to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), the requirement that one hundred percent of students be proficient by 2014 was finally seen to be as unattainable as having one hundred percent of those who enter a hospital emerge completely cured. The best of doctors lose patients and the best of teachers lose students.

But its replacement (ESSA) has not restored teachers’ professional judgement or jurisdiction over classroom content and testing. External assessments remain. And AYP was replaced by AMD (annual meaningful differentiation) involving four different measures. It is applied building by building, rather than by district. The bean counting continues.

Veteran teachers continued to retire early or switch professions, often from assessment fatigue. Education Week reported the most common teacher had 15 years of experience in 1987-88, but today is in their first 3 years of teaching. Average age of a teacher was 55 in 2007-08, but is now in the mid-30s to mid-40s. Forty-four percent of new teachers continue to leave the profession within five years.

2018 data from Kansas regents universities show only 5,273 students are enrolled in programs leading to teacher certification, compared to 8,991 in 2011. An initial decline in students entering teaching that began with the introduction of NCLB in 2001 accelerated with the loss of teacher tenure in Kansas five years ago. In several states, including Oklahoma, where teacher salaries were very low and were significantly increased, college students have not returned to teacher-training programs. While the numbers of special education students nationwide has declined one percent, the number of special education teachers has fallen 17 percent.

Math scores on the ACT have dropped to the lowest level in twenty years, causing a call for major reform of teaching math nationwide. Scores fell for all subgroups, except Asian American students whose scores went up! Nevertheless, all blame was directed toward teachers and math curriculum without considering that the ethnic study-effort might be a factor. And while Asian-American students were a discussion point in the Harvard University affirmative action lawsuit, they are dramatically “over-represented” at the specialty science high schools in New York, leading Mayor DeBlasio to propose affirmative action against them at the secondary level.
Lumina and other educational policy groups have called for increasing high school graduation rates. Many school district administrations complied, raising high school completion from below 70 percent to the mid-80 percent and higher. However, many administrative actions resulted in passing students who were chronically absent or otherwise failing. Some schools are heavy users of “credit recovery” programs, computer-based easy click tests that are substituted for actual class achievement.

More Kansas high school students are taking dual credit courses that provide both high school and college credit. As of September of 2017, the high school instructors of such courses were to possess a masters degree including 18 graduate credit hours in the field taught. Since their courses awarded college credit, the Higher Learning Commission requires instructors to have one degree higher than the course being taught. Regents schools who accept those credits could apply for a time extension to get the high school instructors credentialed. However, some did not, and some Kansas high school students are continuing to take dual credit courses under non-qualified high school teachers. Neither the KSDE nor the KBOR polices these credentials. In addition, the Kansas Legislature has moved to increase funding to make dual credit available to high school students across Kansas whether they are college able or not.

The second most common reason for teachers leaving the public school classroom is student discipline problems. The continued movement toward “no touch” policies and “restorative discipline” talk sessions has caused some teachers to feel helpless to address physical misbehavior.

If tobacco use across America has gone down, the use of e-cigarettes or Juuling in schools is soaring. Vaping devices are particularly difficult to curtail; they are small and resemble recharge devices.

Meanwhile, use of opioids has caused life expectancy in the United States to actually decline, the only lifespan decline in a developed country in modern history. Meth addiction still remains a serious problem, contributing to an unprecedented need for foster homes. Combined with the growing rate of childhood poverty and homelessness, many more teachers find their job involves counseling, food distribution and much more than teaching.

But to end on a more sunny note, some middle and high schools are moving forward their start times to begin school after 8:30am. Initial reports suggest that their students are getting more sleep at home and improving their performance in classes and on assessments at school.

John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.

The Great Bend City Council will welcome three new members to the board in January. Dana Dawson, Jessica Milsap, and Chad Somers will be plugged into the eight-member council. All three won contested races this past November. Dawson and Somers eased by their opponents while Milsap won a close contest for the Ward 1 position.

Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis plans to bring each of them up to speed prior to their first meeting January 21.

Kendal Francis Audio

Francis hopes to create a more formal orientation for new council members in the future, but will be open to answer any questions the council members have.

Brock McPherson also won an uncontested race in Ward 4 as he will begin his second two-year term. The four of them will officially be sworn into office on January 14 by City Clerk Shawna Schafer, but will not have their first meeting until the following Monday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Francis says a good council member is open to listening and has the best interest of the city in mind.

Kendal Francis Audio

Once the council members get acclimated, facility tours will be provided to show them how the city operates and what each department handles.

Dawson returns to the council after stepping down last year. Dawson received 73 percent of the vote in November and spent 14 years on the board before not running for reelection in 2017. Milsap, a licensed realtor and personal trainer, garnered 53 percent of the General Election votes. Somers picked up just under 69 percent of the vote to win the Ward 2 seat and is co-owner of Golden Belt Cinema 6.

After holding his new position for just seven days, Barton County Attorney Levi Morris has announced a change in filing criminal complaints that he says will save 35 working days between his staff and law enforcement officers in the county.

Morris told Barton County Commissioners Monday that the change involves the way criminal complaints are finalized. In the past, once a complaint had been processed, the officer who had originally filed the complaint was required to come to the County Attorney’s Office to sign the document. Now Morris says an attorney in the office will handle that responsibility.

Morris says he got the idea from other counties where he has practiced law in the past.

Levi Morris Audio

Morris estimates that this one simple change will save his staff a combined seven working days a year and law enforcement 28 days a year since officers will not be taken off the streets to make a stop at the Barton County Courthouse.

In his first few days in office, Morris has focused on the administrative side of his job before settling into the prosecution of cases.

Levi Morris Audio

Last year, the Barton County Attorney’s Office filed 678 criminal complaints, 94 of which were juvenile cases.