USD 489 settling into school year

On this episode of the Post Podcast, USD 489 Superintendent Ron Wilson shares updates from the Hays Public School district. 

 

Transcript:

EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.

 

James Bell 

USD 489 has kicked off their school year and they're settling into a routine superintendent Ron Wilson stops by to share some of the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.

 

Ron Wilson 

If you count my days, we've just completed two weeks, of course, we started in the middle of the week. So we're just on the next day of two weeks, one day.

 

James Bell 

You know, I'm glad you mentioned that maybe that's a perfect way to start. Because I've always been curious. And this has been the way since I was in school. It always seems like it starts on Wednesday or Thursday. Is there a reason for that?

 

Ron Wilson 

Well, there's not particularly reason that we we try to start on a Wednesday or Thursday, sometimes there is make some sense, you know, you have to consider that people have been off for a couple of months, sometimes, kind of just easing back into it is always a good thing for kids, especially younger kids, as they kind of transition from the summer, summer lifestyle to school lifestyle. And so when you get in that Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it makes for a nice, three day increment that then you get a two day break and kind of didn't get back after it. So it's not always intentional, but it does make a lot of sense.

 

James Bell 

Okay, very cool. So how has things been going the first couple

 

Ron Wilson 

of weeks? Boy, it's really been awesome. I mean, things are starting to fill fairly normal, I always say the key to starting the school year is just finding our groove. And I feel like you know, I don't know if that's all we found our groove, as you know. And I say that because schools are probably one of the unique organizations, businesses, whatever you want to classify us as, because we shut down for for two months, two and a half months, and then we have to restart, which is very exciting in a lot of ways, because it's new, it's fresh, all those things that come with it, but also there's some other sides to it, when you shut something down for two and a half months and have to restart it brings on some other elements that sometimes creates a lot of work. But now things are good. And like I said, we're just trying to find the groove. And I think we're almost there and things activities are starting of course, and that makes it feel very normal. You know, of course, high school football kicks off Friday night, a lot of our other activities with cross country volleyball. Those have already started. Middle School has some activities tonight. So very, very normal things going on in our world. So

 

James Bell 

very cool. You know, and you mentioned easing back into it. I think about two you've had some not a whole lot. But some staff changes, and especially in the school level administration, I think that probably those folks are taking the reins and kind of making that their own.

 

Ron Wilson 

You bet. I think a couple, a couple of people, especially on our administrative side, we have Chris Romic, our new principal at Roosevelt Elementary, Chris was a school psychologist at Roosevelt. So she just moved down the hallway to a different office. But I think Chris will be a great addition that Roosevelt in a leadership capacity she's done has has a lot of experience and a lot of great ideas. And we're very excited about Chris being the building principal at Roosevelt Elementary. Also at our West Side school, we've had some changes this this summer, with the district taking on the role as the as the lead in that in that school. Previously, for the last many, many years. The district partnered with high plains mental health over the summer, we we decided that we would, you know, split and go a different direction with that. And Lindy McDaniel, who is Assistant Director for our special ed cooperative here in the district is taking on that role in addition to her assistant directors for the for the cooperative as well. And we're very excited because Lindy has a lot of background and working with kids and structures and things that we feel are important to adding to Westside school. So I think Lindy will be a great addition there as well.

 

James Bell 

Very cool. Any other differences as we're going into the year that you think people should know about?

 

Ron Wilson 

Well, you know, I don't know if there's, I don't know if I'll be able to pull all of them off there. All of them are fairly small or minor. One of the things that we did, but changes are what was always known as the Learning Center of Ellis County is now referred to as the Hayes virtual school. It was a small change, and it really doesn't change anything in terms of how we're operating. But we just really wanted to get the message out to people that that we do offer a virtual school sometimes when you say the Learning Center, people didn't really know what that meant and what kind of what actually went on there. And sometimes we were missing families that maybe wanted a virtual option. So making that small little change and calling ourselves Hayes virtual school identifies the people immediately of what we do and what we offer. So that's a minor change, but that's one thing that come was to the top of my head and thinking of some of the things that are different.

 

James Bell 

You know, have you seen? No, no, we're, you know, but a full year out of COVID at this point or the worst of it anyway, and the lockdowns and all that, etc. Do you find that you still have a lot of students taking that virtual option? Or are you kind of back to normal or enrollment wise? Well,

 

Ron Wilson 

I would say we were we have seen a return to to the majority of our students, of course, we still have students who do choose the virtual option. And that's definitely if that's what they feel is best for their family and their their students. Yeah, I think that's we want to be able to offer that. And so for the most part, I think we've we have most of our students back that we had pre COVID. And, you know, as far as enrollment numbers, our enrollment numbers are good. Of course, nothing is official until September 20. And there's so much that goes into an enrollment count. It's not as simple as UA on September 1, counting how many heads are in school? I

 

James Bell 

think it'd be an easy process, but absolutely not.

 

Ron Wilson 

It's, it's really fairly intricate. And lots of things go in to that in terms of weightings, what we call weightings in terms of what we offer to students and the additional costs that come with some of those things, in terms of some transportations and special education. Some those have received some help with meals at during lunches and those kinds of things. So there's lots of different things that go into figuring out your enrollment. But we'll be doing that over the next couple of weeks and September 20 is when we send everything into the state and then we kind of know what direction we're going for the school year.

 

James Bell 

Yeah. And that really, that's just a function of funding, right? They have to know exactly how many students so you know how much money you're getting in. And that's a multi year complicated process that just kind of snowballs as it's going along.

 

Ron Wilson 

Yes, it is. But right now, I would say that just headcount we're, we look really good. And we've we're, that's we're very optimistic about that. Now, I would tell you looking around the state, a lot of districts have have seen some decline in numbers. And a lot of that is just because as, as the state of Kansas has decreased in population in terms of, you know, burst live births coming into the, into the, into the state of Kansas. So we're, we're, we're, we're feeling fortunate that right now, our enrollment seems to be holding steady.

 

James Bell 

Okay. You know, before we run out of time, I'm gonna hit on this. I think, as we're wrapping up the school year, last year, we were talking about the bond issue, and now we're past the summer, I wonder if you want to update us with any activity going on there with the as that process kind of moves forward?

 

Ron Wilson 

Oh, absolutely. We're always loved to talk about the bond and the future of high schools and just the future for the Hayes community in the things that we're going to be able to see and experience together as this all comes together. Of course, this summer has been a lot of design work, we have spent a lot of work and basically focusing on the new high school at this point, with with the architect group, and have had lots of meetings with high school staff, including administration and teachers. We've did some work in terms of going around and seeing other schools that have have recently built new high schools that by our architect company, DLR. And so that was an exciting part of the summer. We've though like I said, we've had some design meetings where we, we've started the process of trying to put together what it's going to look like and what what's important to us, and what do we feel like our direction in terms of educating kids and Hayes and so some really great conversations this summer. And we're we're very excited, I think, as far as our community being able to see anything specifically that would say, oh, yeah, it started, I think we're looking at possibly as a target date of November that you'll start seeing some dirt moved out there east of the current high school. Of course, that will be the first piece and it's very important piece, because you got to get that foundation laid out exactly right. For the for to put a building that's going to be there for hopefully, 100 years or so that will take several months of of moving dirt and making everything the way it should be. And then we're hoping that we would see some actual construction starting in the spring. And then of course, it's gonna be a couple of years before that building is completely ready to move into but that was what we indicated during the bond. And I think everyone understands that, but it'll be an exciting piece coming coming down the road as everyone starts to see the future.

 

James Bell 

Absolutely. So is that the that's the first piece the big focus, but I'm wondering, are you Is there going to be any work going on the smaller kind of side projects at the schools or is that just going to be it for now and then it all rolls behind it?

 

Ron Wilson 

Now what you'll also see coming next summer, so just a year, just a little year, about a year from now is that you will will see some things being done and some of the other schools, the idea is that we'll do little pieces and all of our schools during the summers over the next two to three summers. And then of course, there might be some some different layouts as we, you know, as the as the new high school is completed, we move students out of the current high school, there will be a period where that building will be empty, and they will go in full force and do some things there. But of course, we'll be working on smaller projects that don't disrupt the the next school year and we that can be done during the summer. So yeah, there'll be lots of work going on for the next two to three summers.

 

James Bell 

Okay. Yeah, I'm there's so many moving pieces. I just imagine that's a crazy, complicated process. It

 

Ron Wilson 

is that there's some really smart people, it's not myself, that put this all together and figure things out. And I think it's, it's, it's really it's fun to watch. It's fun to be a part of, I think it's, it's, it's just something that it's just hard to imagine, you know, we can visualize it, but we don't really can't, but I think and going back to what I talked about with the tours, that's the thing that I realized, you know, and I had seen pictures and I've envisioned what it might look like but when I started walking in those high schools that had been built recently, kind of gave me goosebumps, to fit to know that our community will see something, something that's going to be looked very similar even maybe even a little better. And it's just it's unbelievable once cycles, souls