Now or Never

Rockets zoomed high and far or zipped up – like a pop-up fly – and fell, an airplane circled, dipped and looped and hot air balloons lifted off silently in the Osawatomie City Auditorium last Wednesday at the Osawatomie Public Library’s Take Flight Day as part of the Spring Break activities hosted by Elizabeth Trigg, library director, and her staff.

A radio-controlled airplane made of foam flew to the ceiling and down again, while being controlled by John Rayne from Paola. “The foam is bendable, so it bounces when it crashes. It’s also a good plane to use to learn with,” Rayne said.

Rayne said he was glad the demonstration was held inside the auditorium because of the strong winds outside. “The plane can go as high as I can see it and higher, but it is hard to fly in the wind. It is light weight. The plane cost about $60 and the controls about $100,” Rayne said.

Weekends, Rayne said, are spent at Hillsdale Lake, where he and other enthusiasts have a site for this purpose. “We’re at Hillsdale Lake just about every Saturday and Sunday on the dry side of the lake. It’s a nice field with good parking. Everybody is welcome,” he said.

When asked about what areas of science building planes teaches, he said quite a few. “There’s electricity, physics and aerodynamics. Plus, it’s fun. I’ve built 10 planes and used them for aerial combat missions. We have aerial battles, but because of the foam design, there’s not much damage,” Rayne said.

Hot air balloons floated high above young and excited faces with the guidance of Osawatomie High School art teacher Patty Trull. “I’ve never done this before, so we’ll all be learning together,” Trull said about what would become tissue paper balloons standing 4 feet tall.

She said hot air balloons are very colorful. “You’ve probably seen them floating by overhead with their bright colors. This was one of the first forms of manned flight,” she said.

Once the children were divided into groups with an adult, Trull explained how to use patterns to cut out “gores,” or the panels, and how to glue them together. Then, with a hair dryer for the hot air supply and tape for unexpected holes, the balloons lifted off. “This is why we use tissue paper,” Trull said, “because it’s light.”

The afternoon’s finale came with paper rockets which Trigg demonstrated how to make. “After wrapping a strip of construction paper around this plastic pipe, the secret to a good rocket is tape. Lots and lots of tape to prevent air from escaping! The top of the rocket is called the nose cone and the bottom is where the tail fins, the guidance part, will go,” Trigg said.

With Trigg operating an air compressor, Trigg allowed each child to mount their rocket for liftoff. “If you haven’t used enough tape, your rocket won’t go very far. Or if it is wrapped too tight, it might not take off at all,” she said. Many of the rockets flew the length of the auditorium.

During the Osawatomie spring break, Trigg scheduled four activity-filled afternoons and a couple designed to reach into the early evenings. Movie marathon day started the fun on Tuesday with movies running continuously from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Take Flight day was Tuesday. Toddler Time stories, dancing and a craft ran in the morning and were followed by Scrapbooking for Teens in the afternoon. Friday began with Story Hour in the morning and Bored Games Day brought families in to play, as Trigg said, “…good, old-fashioned board games”.

By Jeff Gulley

With sixth-graders sitting cross-legged in rows across the gym floor, flags marking the corners of the gym and homemade shields lining the bleachers, this was no ordinary gym class.

The Osawatomie Middle School boys and girls in the class were now gladiators divided into teams based on colors. It is part of a curriculum used by Dave French and Nancy Gagnebin to get kids moving and exercising both their mind and bodies in different ways.

“It’s interesting because with television and video games, I don’t think kids play games like these anymore,” he said. “It’s like it’s new to them and they love it.”

All of the OMS gym classes participated in the unit right before spring break. On Thursday, the teams participated in a mind game in which, on the count of three, a pair of students raised a hand with a certain number of fingers showing. The first one to say the number on their opponent’s hand won. Then the game was changed to be the first one to say the combined number of fingers on both hands.

From the reaction of the students, it was obvious they took the competition seriously.

Then came a dodge ball game and the homemade shields came into play. Shields of all shapes and sizes were used including some homemade body armor.

French and Gagnebin have presented the idea for the unit at teaching conferences and have received positive feedback.

Osawatomie Middle School seventh grader and Little, Alicia Dillard, prepared with other Littles in other lanes to roll to begin the Bowl For Kids Sake event Saturday in Olathe

By Kevin Gray

For a 10th year, bowlers and non-bowlers alike joined together at Olathe East Lanes wearing special lane shoes and sending balls, either down the lane or gullies, to raise funds for Miami County Big Brothers Big Sisters. Cinco de Marcho was the theme. Bowl For Kids’ Sake has been ongoing, said director Erin Lyon, now for 10 years. “Everybody could come dressed up in costume or come as you are. Many dressed up wearing colorful sombreros and fringed ponchos.

One of the biggest fundraisers of the year, Lyon said, Bowl For Kids’ Sake brought 29 teams from Miami and Johnson counties together, including the cities of Osawatomie, Paola, Louisburg and Spring Hill. “We raised $23,400, and George Hall was our top fundraiser,” Lyon said.

Back for their 10th year, Cindy Lewis and Jennifer Wagner of Osawatomie’s First Option Bank Loan Sharkettes said they had been there for the first Bowl For Kids’ Sake. “We had a few member changes and now have Amy Nuessen and Lori Donahue, but Jennifer and I have been here every year,” said Lewis.

In their green and pink neon T-shirts, the Sharkettes said they believe in helping others. “This is a great opportunity to help such a great program. Even if you’re not able to mentor a child, this is a great way to help so many Miami County children,” Lewis said. In addition, to the Loan Sharkettes, First Option also fielded two other teams of members from surrounding communities.

And wearing a sling after a recent surgery, Osawatomie Pizza Hut manager Thomas Anderson still managed to send bowling balls down the lanes. “Don’t take a shot of the ball hitting the pins,” Anderson said about his accuracy, “ but this is definitely a good and fun way to help kids for a good cause and it’s fun.” Anderson’s Pizza Hut team included Bailey Buche, Jaxon Kinder, Melinda Archer, Andrea Barnes and Wenndee Kinder.

Osawatomie’s streets still stood protected Saturday, even though five representing public safety, police, and the fire fighters took time out to bowl for the kids. David Stuteville, Donnie Basore, DuWayne Tewes, Angela Peuser and Debbie Henson all agreed they couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday.

Teams from Miami and Johnson counties included the M&Ms from Spring Hill, North Point Skilled Nursing in Paola, the Miami County Attorney’s Office, Legacy Contractors LLC., Great Southern Bank, Auburn Pharmacy in Paola and Louisburg’s Broadmoor Elementary.

The Chadbots or members of the Bigs in Schools group from Louisburg High School said they were having a great time. “It’s fun every Wednesday morning, when we walk in the room to excited faces and our Littles are all excited to see us actually show up. We get together with them to do homework, mentor and just let them talk,” said Nick Stefan, a senior.

Paola’s Taylor Forge turned out with two teams — one from the shop, the other from the offices. They had made up their own blue shirts with Bowl For Kids’ Sake emblems on the sleeves.

Joleene Kingston from the Allstate Insurance’s Good Hands Bowlers said they had never put a team together. “It’s fun doing this and helping the kids. We had never done a team event before, but now this means we probably will more in the future,” Kingston said.

Employees from the Town Center Shopping Center at 119th Street and Nall On the Border said they brought the food. “This is our first time and my first time to participate in this event. This is nice and for a good charity. I am a bowler and enjoy a good time. This is a great turn out and put together well,” said James Schumann. On the Border supplied chips and salsa and the enchiladas.

The Speedy Gonzales team, two teams actually, from Paola Middle School won best costume. They also chipped in $1,000 having held bake sales at school, said seventh grade Communications teacher Cindy Dial. “We sold cup cakes, puppy chow, brownies, cookies. This year we raised a $1,000 and last year we raised a $1,000 for BBBS. Before we started the bake sale idea we didn’t raise near that much money,” Dial said.

El equipo de la Diversión or the Fun Team was made up of a group of BBBS members and families, and there was also “Just the Girls and a Boy made of friends and family from Osawatomie,” said Ruth Everhart.

Prizes, donated by a variety of sponsors, made the fun competition even more fun. Thomas Anderson won the big screen television. Paola Middle School teachers will receive a day rental on a pontoon from Jayhawk Marina for Best Costumes. Taylor Forge also won a pontoon rental and Dan Lynch’s team won for highest team score.

Lyon said there were many other prize giveaways. “Each person left with a sweet treat thank you candy bar with BBBS information,” Lyon said.

Bowl For Kids’ Sake could not have been possible without sponsor support, Lyon said. Gold sponsors included: Auburn Pharmacy, First Option Bank, Jayhawk Marina, KC Photo Booth, Legacy Contractors LLC., the Miami County Bar Association, North Point Skilled Care, Target Lawn Care, Taylor Forge Engineering Systems and Second Saturday Store.

Silver sponsors were Antisdel’s, Comfort Design HVAC, Farm Bureau Financial Services, Landmark National Bank and Mid-Am Building Supply.

Bronze sponsors were Bryan Ohlmeier Construction Co., Citizen State Bank, Dr. Ryan Sanders, Dr. Bill Whitesell, eSolutions, First National Bank, KC Court Research, Leon and Pat Briley, Louisburg Cider Mill, Peoples Bank, Reliance Label Solutions, WEB Contracting, Walmart Distribution Center and White’s Automotive.

By Jeff Gulley

Trojan Elementary students had heard the message before about the state assessment tests. Eat a good breakfast, take your time and do your best. But when that message was delivered by former Kansas University basketball player and world champion NBA player, it may just have sunk in a little deeper.

Jayhawks great Wayne Simien was at Trojan Elementary Thursday to encourage students to do their best on the state assesment and give some advice for reaching their goals. Simien played on the Jayhawks team that won three Big 12 titles and advanced to two final fours and was a member of the Miami Heat’s world championship team.

Simien’s talk came while students were gearing up for the most intense part of state testing.

The testing window for Kansas students is Feb. 16 through May 6 which was extended because of the number of snow days.

According to director of student improvement, Susan Gorman, said there will be only eight days in the time period where no student is testing.

Encouragement from celebrities like Simien, who promised to join the Trojan kids for a bowling party in Lawrence if testing goals were met, is only a part of the effort the district is making to keep up with the adequate yearly progress goals established by the No Child Left Behind act. Smaller class sizes with a emphasis on continuing improvement to curriculum, instruction and support services has also been cited as points of emphasis.

In 2010, district schools won several Standard of Excellence awards. The award is based on the number of students who exceed standards or score “exemplary” on the reading and math assessments.

* Trojan Elementary School received a building-wide Standard of Excellence in math, the fifth grade received SOE awards in math and reading and the third grade received an SOE in math.

* Osawatomie Middle School received a building-wide SOE in reading, while the eighth, seventh and sixth grades all received SOE awards in reading.

* Osawatomie High School received building-wide SOE awards in reading and math.

At OHS, 88.1 percent of students met the reading standard, 5 percent above the required 83.1 percent. And 91.4 percent of students met the math standard, nearly 17 percent above the required 76.4 percent.

The district saw 84.2 percent of OMS students meet the reading standard, topping the 83.7 percent requirement. In math, 70.7 percent of OMS students met the standard, which was below the required 82.3 percent. The middle school was not placed on “needs improvement” status.

At Trojan Elementary, 86.3 percent of students met the reading standard, above the required 83.7 percent. And in math, 90.9 percent of students met the standard, well above the required 82.3 percent.

This year, Osawatomie teachers will administer 4,503 testing sessions before May 6.

Grades 3-8 and 10th will take reading and math assessments with three sessions for each students. Ninth-grade students will test in geometry.

Grades 4-7 with have two session of science testing. Ninth grade will have one session of physical science, 10th grade one session of life science and 11th grade will take one session of physical science and a session of world history.

Osawatomie High School recognized Jean and Joe Vasquez for their years of support with the Kansas State High School Activites Association Award of Excellence Friday night during halftime of the boy's basketball game. The couple recently donated a new popcorn machine in memory of their son Jon Vasquez, a member of the class of 1986.