DAISY BOLIN
FLU IS HERE
February, 2018
Floods of screenshots from Snapchat stories circulated group messages on Feb. 9 reading, “SME PSA: Currently 9.3% of people are sick. If it hits 10%, the school has to report to the Health Department. Then, school would be shut down. About 11 more kids need to go home sick. Make sure if you leave, office knows your leaving due to illness.” While some students were pushing for another day off from school, 164 students were focused on relieving their flu like symptoms.
The increased number of absentees with flu-like symptoms this past month has prompted questions from the community about varying levels of the severity of sickness, the impact of custodial services and the strictness of transfer absence rules. However, experts in each of their respective fields bring truth to these ambiguities.
According to Kansas Influenza Surveillance Coordinator Amie Worthington, who collects, tracks and communicates the influenza levels for the state of Kansas, the strain of influenza affecting East most significantly is AH3. The symptoms include fever, coughing, fatigue, vomiting, congestion and/or sore throat.
“[AH3] is known to cause more severe illness,” Worthington said. “It’s not surprising that we are seeing higher numbers [ill] with this strain.”
The severity of AH3 is stronger than past years’ flu virus according to Worthington. St. Luke’s Hospital Internal Medicine Doctor Christine Sankcill also said the number of flu cases last year were significantly less than this year. Last year, SMSD didn’t have any schools reach 10 percent absenteeism, according to SMSD Health Services Coordinator Shelbey Rebeck. This year, six of 47 total Shawnee Mission schools reached 10 percent.
Upon East reaching 10 percent total absences, school nurse Susan Varner informed Rebeck who reports it to the Johnson County Health Department and Kansas Health Department. All public schools in the state of Kansas are required to inform their county health department and further inform the state.
This procedure is for tracking and safety purposes according to Rebeck. After reporting to the health department, the Shawnee Mission Custodial Coordinator Judd Remmers, sends one to two extra custodians to each of the impacted schools for help with cleaning major touchpoints. Touchpoint cleaning is a state regulation requiring the custodial staff to deep clean door knobs, desks, bathrooms, light switches, water fountains and keyboards – central spots collecting germs, according to East head janitor Dale Clark.
These touchpoints are mostly cleaned at the end of each day according to Clark. Remmers said they should also be cleaned throughout the school day. AP government teacher Ronald Stallard said he sees less custodians around this year and spanish teacher Pamela James said that although the custodians are doing what they can with who they have, it seems as though the cleaning touch points throughout the day is minimal.
Clark said that the staff of 13 gets all of the jobs done with the staff East has, but that no matter what job whether it be teachers, administrators or custodians, they could always use more. Each school in the SMSD has an equal number of custodians according to Remmers, he does not feel that there is a lack of staffing.
“We know that when the doors open the next day it doesn’t take long to undo all that work with people coming in and immediately flipping light switches and touching door handles or drinking out of water fountains,” Remmers said. “It’s right back pretty quickly.”
For the SMSD, having six schools out of 47 total reach 10 percent absence is doing well considering the number of bodies in the buildings Rebeck said.
Spanish teacher Pamela James has seen a significant level of sick students in her classes. More specifically, in her first hour Spanish 3 class on Feb. 13, six students were absent from a class of 27. This level of absence has made teaching harder because of the steep makeup work required, James said. Worthington says that reaching the 10 percent absence rate is not “overwhelming,” but rather shows that there is a particular population, such as a school or company, affected by the flu.
“It is an arbitrary number,” Worthington said. “We just feel that that is a level of absenteeism that should be investigated as an outbreak and suggestion for control should be given.”
Although a number of students view “outbreak” as an distressing sign, an outbreak is not considered alarming to the state and does not reflect the cleanliness or environment of the school according to Worthington. Outbreaks are a general sign that the school should be investigated by the state. The “investigation” breaks down exactly how many students and teachers are absent with the flu or symptoms of the flu and ensure the district is taking proper precautions and informing their community of ways to prevent illness. The entire state and other districts are experiencing similar absentee levels to Shawnee Mission and taking necessary precautions.
Bonner Springs High School Nurse Kim Bolewski said they were seeing an increase in student absenteeism due to illness. The Olathe district Director of Health Services Sharon Morris said that in the past two weeks there have been six schools with over 10 percent of the student body absent. According to the Blue Valley District Health Services Coordinator Kari Szukalski, when any of their 37 total schools reaches five percent absence, they notify custodial services. This is a caution taken so that their district doesn’t reach the 10 percent level of absences according to Szukalski. Still, Blue Valley has had three schools reach 10 percent absenteeism in the past two weeks.
“Right now we are reporting widespread activity,” Worthington said. “We are seeing outbreaks of influenza in every region of Kansas, there isn’t necessarily an area of Kansas not being affected by the flu right now.”
This widespread activity of AH3 holds a heavy hand over the entire country, not just Kansas, as seen on CDC.gov’s weekly flu map. Kansas has been deemed one of the sickest states in the nation, alongside Missouri, in 2017-2018, according to the Center of Disease Control and many other news sources. Nationally, seven and a half percent of the population is affected, compared to Kansas’ 11 percent according to Worthington.
Kansas reported “no activity” of the flu from 2009 until 2015 according to CDC.gov, meaning very insignificant levels –– a vacancy compared to last year’s report of sporadic infection and this year’s widespread condition. There is no definite reason for the flu taking flight this year, however, Sankcill said that the flu comes in waves such as the H1N1 influx in 2009. She has seen more patients sick with the flu this year than last year, but the flu is a consistent issue. Rebeck said she believes that a contributing factor to Kansas’ leading position in illness is good statewide reporting. The information the state reports to the nation is collected based on the number of flu tests and visits to doctors, physicians and school or company reports of absences.
According to Sankcill, testing has become more sensitive, both in the science of testing and rate of swabbing ER patients with remote symptoms. Increased accessibility to tests at places such as urgent care clinics may be a contributing factor, Sankcill said.
In order to prevent further infection, SMSD pushes out information about ways to keep from getting sick and reminders for teachers to wipe down the desks in their classrooms according to Rebeck. Sankcill said in addition to precautions like washing your hands regularly, keeping your hands away from your face and getting the flu shot, staying home or away from people is “very important.”According to a Harbinger poll of 158 respondents, 74 percent said they had recently been sick. However, 25 percent of those who were sick didn’t stay home. Rebeck said that spreading illness isn’t something a district does, it spreads naturally.
“You can clean and clean and clean, but if folks come to school with a virus, they’re gonna spread it just by sneezing in the air,” Clark said.
Junior Anika Radidya believes that many students don’t stay home just because they aren’t vomiting or don’t have a fever, a misconception about illness.
Radidya is not excluded from the people who only stay home for a fever, however, she was on antibiotics. She developed a small cough on Feb. 7, still going to school, and by Feb. 9 was fainting and vomiting. She stayed home for one day and was one of the 164 students absent and sick with flu like symptoms, although she was never diagnosed with the flu officially.
Radidya said she doesn’t like to miss school because she has IB classes and debate work but was also under the impression she couldn’t miss another day of school because she is a transfer student. Transfer students have a cap of 10 days to be absent for each school year in order to continue attending the school they are transferred into. After staying home sick on Feb. 9, Radidya used all 10 of her permitted absences –– six days due to an in-school debate activity, two due to traveling and two because of sickness according to her Skyward.
However, according to Assistant Principal Brinton Haney, in-school activities are not counted against transfer students. Each transfer is looked at case-by-case and if the student has communicated beforehand that they are sick, the number of days they are absent with an illness is often times counted as just one absence.
Sophomore Will Mohr, a non-transfer student, stayed home for four days due to his sore throat, headache and chills. Mohr doesn’t like to miss school much like Radidya because it’s easy to fall behind and become overwhelmed with makeup work. However, he said teachers have been accommodating and his pressure to do well comes from himself.
Students in Mercedes Rasmussen’s marketing class questioned their ability to go home while being sick due to the listed absence rules, however, Haney clarified that the rules are for county reporting and that with communication with the administration, absences are able to be figured out.
Despite hestations to miss school whether due to self-induced pressure or due to thinking that there is a maximum number of days a student (transfer or not transfer) is allowed to be absent, it is best to stay home when you are sick according to Worthington. Because this strain of the flu has no direct root, it’s important to take the health precautions seriously Sankcill said. Staying away from people and wearing a mask when around people are important ways to avoid spreading your illness.
“This is just an extension of the house and just like any other parent, my kids go here and I want it to be clean and safe,” Principal John McKinney said. “As important as being in school is, it means nothing if kids aren’t safe or healthy.”
WHAT IT TOOK...
Sources were of no challenge in this story, although just five of 25 school districts returned my persistent calls and emails. Doctors, students, staff and health departments were highly responsive. Over the course of 22 interviews the only difficulty I faced in understanding this topic was the SMSD maintenance budget – changed two years prior. Janitorial staffing was altered and in the end I understood this didn't mean cutting but a redistribution of man power. However, no source in the district could be clear on what this impacted staffing-wise for basic school cleaning. I reported the information I received and leave the reader up to deciding whether this ambiguity intrigues them or not.
CUTTING MORE THAN SPENDING
March, 2016
Building administrators discussed staffing for the 2016-2017 school year in late February. They planned, considered and debated funding for programs and teachers. However, there was one piece of information they had to work without: how much money East would receive from the state next fall.
The uncertainty was due to the Kansas Supreme Court decision on Feb. 11 that stated the way public schools were being funded was unconstitutional. The court ruled that the budget’s current funding formula, known as the block grant system, infringed on Article 6 of the state constitution because of the unequal distribution of funds. The block grant is a set amount of money provided by the government for local systems to use over a range of school services, from buying supplies to running buses.
The ruling said that the legislature had to have a new formula finalized and approved by June 30, or public schools will not open for the 2016-2017 school year. Sophomore Denny Rice believes that if states can’t pay to keep schools open and pay teachers adequately, the quality of our education will be greatly affected.
The block grant was set to run for two years while the legislature created a new funding plan, which they have yet to accomplish. Until a new formula is approved, each one of the 286 public school districts in Kansas is trying to estimate what funds they will have, and when they will know this number.
In an education board meeting on Feb. 22, SMSD superintendent Dr. Jim Hinson described the best and worst case scenarios to expect for next year’s budget. That includes losses ranging from $4-8 million, as well as the possibility of teacher layoffs and rising class sizes in the 2016-2017 school year.
“So $4 million we’re already in the hole to start with, that we have to reallocate,” Hinson told the Board of Education. “I do not see any scenario where we will see an increase in revenue…The likelihood that we will lose millions of dollars we are currently receiving is pretty high.”
The district is currently looking at where they can reallocate funds from the equipment and supplies portion of the budget to the staffing section in order to avoid cutting staff members, according to Dr. Rick Atha, the Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Support for SMSD. Though after they go through the equipment section, there is a good chance they will have to dip into the staffing budget as well, Atha explained.
East Associate Principal Jeremy Higgins also believes the budget could affect how many teachers will be hired.
“Around 85 percent of the operating budget revolves around staff members,” Higgins said. “If you’re losing $8 million in funding, there’s a good chance that will cut into staffing.”
With the millions that SMSD could lose, comes the reconsideration of Signature Programs like the IB program next year, explained IB director Monique Goodeyon. Other programs like the Broadmoor program, the Biotechnology program, Project Lead the Way and the Legal Studies program will also all be reconsidered. The district wants to make sure it can afford the programs, as well as make sure the programs are reaching as many students as possible, explained Goodeyon.
This year, most teachers gained an extra class where they once had a planning period, which meant a 15 percent increased workload, according to Linda Sieck, the Shawnee Mission President of the Educational Association. Sieck explains that this, on top of increased class sizes, results in additional papers to grade and less one-on-one time with students – with no salary increase. Goodeyon also recognizes the additional time she has to put into grading tests and homework assignments.
“Because of the funding cuts, there are things happening in the building that kids don’t necessarily realize,” Goodeyon said. “All teachers have put in hours of more time every week.”
Increasing student body sizes along with the inability to keep up with the inflation of the economy is in part to why the block grant was ruled as inequitable.
“If we had kept up with the cost of inflation, today we could be spending $6,400 per pupil instead of $3,800,” Republican Senator Melissa Rooker said. “We are several thousand dollars off the base level, not even accounting for weightings.”
The block grant system also didn’t account for the additional weightings that less fortunate districts needed, according to Mary Sinclair, the Legislative Chair for East PTSA. These weightings accounted for differences in the cost of educating kids based on a variety of factors, like special education, learning the English language or living in poverty. Students that live greater than 2.5 miles away from school also have an additional weighting for the busing cost.
Prior to the block grant system, a more complex formula was in place from 1992 up until 2015. According to Atha, the previous formula was said to be “too complicated” for the state to keep up with.
Rooker believes that people think the old formula is complicated because it involves a lot of calculation, when in actuality the weightings are just calculated through a computer.
“I will be fighting very hard to put a formula back in place that responds to changing demographics and operates like our old one did,” Rooker said.
Supporters of the block grant system explain that the total amount of money being provided to districts is the highest it has been in the history of Kansas at $13,300 statewide, according to an email from Republican Senator Jeff Melcher. While the total amount of money has grown, the number of expenditures this total includes has grown as well.
“[Legislators] are looking at the total of all funds that flow to schools and the budget line item education,” Rooker said. “Within that line item, there’s money going to sources that schools cannot access to operate the building and populate classrooms with teachers, materials and programs.”
The block grant changed the way the state accounts for some of the dollars schools receive, according to Rooker. Money from The State of Kansas Retirement System for Public Employees (KPERS) and bond measures passed by school districts are qualified as state aid for education.
Not only is next year’s budget uncertain, but districts could potentially face another round of cuts when April revenues come in.
“The fact that districts don’t know what to expect is a real problem,” Rooker said. “There are budget cuts to come before this year is over. I think there’s real concern and uncertainty for schools right now wondering if there will be another round of cuts before the school year is complete.”
WHAT IT TOOK...
Gathering information and getting ahold of sources was a beast of its own, however, understanding the complex budget was the hardest. The most important part about understanding the budget was to talk to both political parties because depending on who we spoke with, the budget distribution changed and most people were highly opinionated. Dissecting the many parts of a budget and comparing numbers based on category, such as block grants versus money allocated to staffing, was both difficult and intriguing. This is when I learned, in "real life" context, that numbers can be skewed any way a person wants.
VILLAGE SHOPS UNDERGO RENOVATION
April, 2017
Something old:
Tiffany Town’s owner Bob Harsh was in his seventies when his store closed in January. The owner of Spangler’s, WIlliam Spangler, was 94 when he closed his 60-year-old shop in the Village Shopping Center this February. Fleet Feet was next to go. Then it was Bruce Smith Drugs.
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In the last few months, four long-standing shops in the Village closed due to retirement of shop owners and the need for retiring outdated products and services, according to Donna Potts from the Prairie Village Merchants Association.
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Senior Chace Prothe filled his prescriptions at Bruce Smith Drugs and bought birthday cards at Tiffany Town. He remembers Bruce Smith’s being a hub as a middle schooler at Indian Hills.
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“[The stores] were very convenient to have,” Prothe said. “I’m not really sure where else to [buy those things] in the Village now.”
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The Village will primarily be filling the open spaces with services like restaurants, Potts said. In order to modernize, Prairie Village city planners have to comply with the internet and online shopping, which decreases the demand for retail stores.
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“Shopping malls are going to services,” Potts said. “You’re going to see more restaurants and things like that.”
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Village Shops’ real estate agent, Anna Rainbolt from First Washington Realty, said that the shops leaving is the “normal rhythm of retail.” Retail goes out in groups, services fill their spots. Most recently, places like Story, Chocolate Frog, Chipotle Mexican Grille and Etiquette Boutique took the place of decade-old shops.
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One well-established shop in the Village, TCBY, has been standing for 19 years, so co-owner Nancy Bream has seen businesses come and go. She knows that this change is inevitable.
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“We all know things change over the years,” Bream said. “I am going to have faith that they will bring in stores that will keep that friendliness and that local flare.”
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Something new:
This year, with Tiffany Town, Fleet Feet, Bruce Smith Drugs and Spangler’s leaving, the Little Gym and the owner of the Mixx are among the first to officially sign leases to replace these storefronts. Both replacements will ultimately attract a younger crowd and comply with the tight-knit community feeling of Prairie Village, according to Potts.
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Although no other future stores are set in stone, Potts said the Village’s stable places anticipate the addition of more local-friendly businesses to increase the customer traffic the Village has recently lacked.
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Based on the popularity of the Mixx, Potts hopes the owner Jo Marie Scaglia’s plans for the village location will fix this lull. However, the traditional Mixx is not what will appear in the Village, as she is in the process of creating a variation of the same concept.
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“[The] new concept has a different name and will offer different foods, but stay in line with the Mixx food philosophy of making everything from scratch and customized meals,” Scaglia said.
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Scaglia’s original motivation for creating the Mixx stemmed from noticing a lack of healthy, fast-casual restaurants in the Kansas City area. Her vision was clear: “There’s no simpler pleasure than a good lunch with good friends. I truly believe that it nourishes the soul. I crafted the Mixx first and foremost as a space where I would want to have lunch with friends.”
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She utilizes other local markets such as Farm to Market bread, the Roasterie coffee and Scratch Bakery, while creating an uplifting and casual atmosphere which meshes will with the Village community. According to Scaglia, the Village will also offer a marketplace for prepared salads, meals and side dishes.
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Junior Katie Uresti, who lives along the perimeter of the Village, is excited for the upcoming variation to be close by.
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“I wish there were more restaurants that teens could go to in that price range,” Uresti said. “Right now there are a lot of random expensive places [in the Village] so more casual [restaurants] will be good.”
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On the other hand The Little Gym, which was previously A Fairytale Ballet, will open April 10. As a center for “parent/child classes, kids dance, gymnastics, sports skills and karate,” it aims to attract younger families, according to their website.
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“The Little Gym will be great for mothers with kids,” Potts said. “[And] there’s a lot of those in Prairie Village.”
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Although the increase in customer traffic will benefit business, Bream hopes the diversified clientele which new stores and restaurants attract, will maintain the local, friendly and safe appeal Prairie Village currently provides.
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“Customers become friends and you are interested in each others families and kids and you go through hard times together and that’s what Prairie Village [has always] meant to me,” Bream said. “The people that live in PV are what make it special, it’s a real neighborhood.”
This story is written in two parts, one about past Prairie Village and the other about the renovations being done. We chose to write this in two parts because examining the trends of changes in the past of Prairie Village was important in writing about the future. The challenge with writing the new portion of this story was that many of the soon-to-be storeowners were hesitant to reveal much detail regarding their shops. Luckily, the history of Prairie Village, Kan. was easy to talk about with neighbors who lived in the area for the majority of their life. I spoke with surrounding storeowners, students in the area and parents living nearby.