Elk Konnected Hand out at County Commissioners meeting on 4/25

[srkruzich]

Steve I 'm sorry to tell you but you are barking up the wrong tree.
That was me saying that:
It was in reference to the West Elk School Board calling for unity among board members. It just ain't suppose to work that way. That is why there are so many of them. A check and balance of sorts.

Oooops  ok sorry diane i got it wrong.  I didn't realize it was tounge in cheek reference.

[Diane Amberg]

I almost bit your head off. I'd never said any such thing, nor would I. Thank you for correcting, but I'm sorry you feel the need to always hammer me for something. I haven't even been on here for several days.

[Ross]

I promised you some documents from West USD 282. These are public information and if the school board really was interested in having people involved in the school as they claim they could post these on the Schools web site, so people could understand what is really going on there.
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I have never used a site like this before so please bear with me.
Play around with the site and enjoy.

I'd suggest right click and click open in a new tab.

You can down load the PDF's to your computer for easier reading if you wish.
There is a box near the top center of the page with a blue arrow and the word download, click and download, if you wish.

Just a short note at https://www.box.com/s/gv1t5t8jqz71gvro3xl7

West Elk USD Trailer Expenses PDF at https://www.box.com/s/c0xebcwvgf9zd7xru3pp

West Elk Efficiency Study by Wichita State University @ Emporia https://www.box.com/s/wuv2a28917tqclvx0vbk

I do plan to add at least one more PDF.

I hope this works for you.

[Ross]

When I asked the School district office for copies of the report from Emporia State University I was told they did not have it.
I was told they had nothing to do with that report and neither did the School Board.

While asking the Wichita State University for copies of the report they found the people involved with the effectiveness and efficiency study at Emporia State University and I received several e-mails one of which included the PDF of the report. And also an e-mail saying that the district office received their copy when the study was completed. Here is a copy of one communication with the man addressing it to the School Superintendent as well:

-------Original Message-------

From: Hein, Patrice
Date: 6/20/2013 10:41:49 AM
To: ross_lw@yahoo.com;  mooreb@westelk.us
Cc: Lefever-Davis, Shirley
Subject: Study involving USD 282

Good morning,

We have tracked down the research project you mentioned in your email of 6/18/2013. Dr. Pat Terry, faculty in Educational Leadership participated in an efficiency study of USD 282 in fall of 2011. It was through the Center for Innovative School Leadership at Emporia State University. William Sailors is the director of the center and should be able to provide you with a copy of the report.

E-mail: wsailors@emporia.edu .
I hope this is what you were looking for.
Patrice Hein
Assistant to the Dean – Operations
WSU College of Education
1845 N Fairmount, Box 131
Wichita, KS  67260

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Also, as I thought the School Board has to approve any outside activity such as this study before it can happen. It is my belief that this study was requested by the school board just as the one performed by Dr. Christman and I feel we were lead to believe he was performing a Pittsburg State University when actually he was working for a privately owned company out of Missouri. So why all the shenanigans claiming they did not have the report and had nothing to do with the report from Emporia State Univ
-------Original Message-------

From: William Sailors
Date: 6/27/2013 7:36:15 AM
To: Ross
Subject: Re: West Elk USD 282 efficiency report

Good morning. The school administration usually visited with us first but the BOE must approve the process. We present an executive summary to the BOE at a board meeting. The full report you received is sent to the Superintendent . We assume he/she shares that report with the BOE and other appropriate people. Thanks for your interest.

Wsailors@emporia.edu
Sent from my iPad

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Who are the appropriate people? You and me, the taxpayers that's who? This is all public information konnected to a public school funded by you and me the taxpayer.

What is it , does the Konnected School Board President want to avoid letting the public know what is really going on at West Elk?

Why don't them Konnected folks want to come out in the open and have a truthful and honest dialog?

Why don't they Kommunicate with the real and actual community of Elk County, instead of some imaginary Konnected Kommunity/

I am still waiting to get a full copy of  Dr. Christmans report. What I have received is missing several pages. When I get the full report I will post it along with the other reports.

I find it amazing that the report say us old folks don't understand the importance of technology and yet the school board ask for a study to be done by a kind and apparently retired professor that is apparently elderly, perhaps pushing eighty or more. Isn't that amazing us old folks don't understand and yet they hire an old folk. No, I am not knocking Dr. Christman. I found him to be a very sweet old gentleman, kinda reminded me of Colonel Sanders of KFC with beard and physical build and all.  And I enjoyed our short visit.

[Ross]

I would like to hear from someone if these links are working for you!
Can you read the PDF's?
Can you down load the PDF's if you want to?

Here are the links again:

Just a short note at https://www.box.com/s/gv1t5t8jqz71gvro3xl7

West Elk USD Trailer Expenses PDF at https://www.box.com/s/c0xebcwvgf9zd7xru3pp

West Elk Efficiency Study by Wichita State University @ Emporia https://www.box.com/s/wuv2a28917tqclvx0vbk


If you don't want to reply openly I would appreciate a PM, personal Message. Thank you.

[Jo McDonald]

Ross, I had no problem viewing the aforementioned sites..and was given a choice to download.
  thanks,
Jo

[Ross]

Ross, I had no problem viewing the aforementioned sites..and was given a choice to download.
  thanks,
Jo

Thanks a whole bunch I appreciate the feedback.
I had never used that site before and I figured it would work fine for me because I set it up, but that would not have necessarily been true for other people.

I hope you have a Happy 4th of July.

Ross

[Ross]

I just received a complete copy of Dr. Christman's study and report by snail mail.
The original copy I was provided, which I paid for, had several pages missing.
They failed to copy the back side of each page. They did correct this error in the present copy.
I wish to thank them for sending me a full copy.

I have scanned the report into my computer in PDF format and posted it at https://www.box.com/files/0/f/0/1/f_9067438167 for your viewing. It can also be down loaded to your computer if you so desire.

[Ross]

Hi Folks,

It was an interesting evening at tonight's School Board of Education tonight.

Well look here, I can no longer say, "Mr. Konnected School Board President", shuckens!

He got voted out of the position by a 6 to 1 vote, and Mr. Matt Hilton was voted in as President of the School Board of Education for West Elk USD 282. Congratulations to Mr. Hilton.

Let's see West Elk USD 283 School Board of Education had an efficiency study performed I believe at no cost by Emporia State University and a study and report from Dr. Christman of :

Let's look at the West Elk long term Educational Plan that we paid T.D. and Associates of 506 Ridgewood Circle, Carl Junction, Missouri  a $1500 consulting fee and mileage of 840 miles times $.55 a mile for $462 for a grand total of $1962.00 taxpayers dollars. That was Chris Christman who has email address at Pitt State.

And now we follow that up with $19000.00 wasted paying Heckman and Associates for Master Planning only to say good bye to them at the board meeting.

It seems Heckman and Associates sent a 3 or 4 pages of Master Planning Facility Questionnaire. And they were supposed to be present tonight but from what I gathered the School Superintendent told them not to come. They were costing too much. Yea, at $85 an hour and mileage and getting nowhere with them that is very expensive. One of the board members said he was under the understanding that the $19,000 was suppose to see them through to a final plan. The Superintendent said he had issues with the Questionnaire and would not want to provide it to the public, I wonder why? It is public information and the taxpayers have paid for it. Why the secrecy?

When I asked for a copy of what they use to refer to as attachments, I was denied. I was told I would have to ask in advance. I will be checking into this further.

Hackman & Associates told the School Superintendent that the class rooms were luxurious. The Superintendent said he explained to the man when the school was built, it was built to house 600 children and they had 35 kids per room on average.

My previous mention that the school was built has been questioned by a few people and I was not at liberty to disclose the name of the person that told me. But this 600 number was mentioned at tonight's school board meeting by the School Superintendent and therefore public information.

Well, that was $19,000 spent towards nothing and then we had another $365,969.05 or there about spent on trailers and another trailer recently bought for $6000 and Lord knows how much it will cost to install it.  But if the total cost for 4 was  $365,969.05, then one more might cost in the neighborhood of  $50,000 to $80,000, just a very rough estimate.

So let's see adding up all those numbers comes to a bunch doesn't it?

    $365,969.05 for 4 trailers
        $1962.00 for Dr. Christman
     $19,000.00 for Heckman and Associates
     $50,000.00 a poor estimate for another trailer
    ------------------
     $436931.05 nearly a half million and that is not including all the expense for a computer technician and all the wiring and massive computer expenses.

What are they doing over there, how many servers and computers are needed at a high school?

This is not a Computer Technical College teaching information technology (IT) is it?

The Information Technology Association of America has defined information technology as "the study, design, development, application, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems". And then there is computer animation are they capable of teaching either one? I don't think so!

Do they even have the capable of teaching beyond the basics? I doubt it. So why do they need to spend so much money on technology.

As I understand it, those thing called white boards are nothing more than a computer that can be programmed to run a class. We do have high school classes on line for home schooling. The boards could do the same thing. Also if I remember right the school is paying a company to provide curriculum and the kids can sit at their desk and answer questions that are posted on these white boards and the white board grades the student's responses. So why do you need a teacher?  How about a room monitor to operate the machine and to make sure the kids stay in their seat and comply with what the computer wants. If I were a teacher I'd be worried about my job. The computer could register who shows up for class and report any absences to the office all nice and neat and clean.

No us old folks don't understand the importance of technology, so just ignore the above paragraphs.

Just ignore this whole post and let the money flow, especially for a Taj Mahal of a School which only rates average in teaching in Elk County, Kansas. Build another gym and a community storm shelter for Howard's Community outside of it's city limits for millions of dollars. The school has been operating just fine for a couple of years and another gym is not a necessity but some ones want? Isn't it time to consider the difference?

(Sarcasm on)
Oh, what the heck build a stadium and get it over with. (Sarcasm off)

Just my thoughts and opinion, not important.

Why do you people read this garbage? Just asking?

[Diane Amberg]

Ross, you are talking about Smart boards, not white boards. Research them for yourself to see what they are all about.