Truman Middle School has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for 2013 to 2015. Truman is being recognized for its innovative use of iPads in classrooms and a ceremony is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday. In 2012, Truman began its 1:1 iPad implementation, issuing an iPad to each student.
The Apple Distinguished School designation is reserved for programs that meet the criteria for innovation, leadership, and educational excellence, and demonstrate a clear vision of exemplary learning environments.
“Being selected as an Apple Distinguished School highlights our success at getting our students comfortable using technology to solve problems and engage the students in learning,” said Truman Principal Sandy Steggall. “We are proud to showcase how we have integrated technology into our daily teaching and learning to help prepare students for the 21st-Century.”
Students use the iPads daily in the classroom. They use them to solve problems, work on projects and interact easily with teachers, including using the cloud to share documents. “I think it helps our kids to take charge of their own learning,” said Assistant Principal Mike Dial. “The kids hold the knowledge; it’s just a matter of teaching them how to go find it.”
Teachers use a variety of mobile apps in classrooms. For example, teachers use an app to give quizzes at the beginning of class to immediately assess students’ understanding. Another app allows students to walk through the process of a math problem, so that a teacher can see where they are getting hung up.
Having individual iPads allows students to quickly and easily create multimedia projects. For instance, instead of book reports, they can now create book “trailers,” short videos that try to entice other students to get interested in the book.
“I think our kids are better prepared because of this,” said Dial. “Employers want kids that can have a problem and figure out ten different ways to solve the problem or create a presentation. It’s teaching them the skills that they can use anything to meet the objectives.”
Kansas ranked third in the nation in fiscal year 2013 in the number of federal firearms cases prosecuted, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.
Justice Department statistics show that among the 94 judicial districts nationwide only the District of Puerto Rico and the Western District of Missouri filed more federal firearms cases in FY 2013.
“Fighting gun violence and protecting the safety of our law enforcement officers are two of our top priorities,” Grissom said.
In FY 2013, Grissom’s office filed 298 firearms cases, compared to 291 cases in FY 2012, when the District of Kansas also ranked third in the nation. In FY 2011, the District of Kansas ranked first in the nation with 279 firearms cases filed.
Justice Department statistics show that in FY 2013 the District of Puerto Rico filed 349 firearms cases and the Western District of Missouri filed 299 firearms cases.
The totals include charges filed under federal statutes 18 U.S.C. 922 and 924, which prohibit convicted felons from possessing firearms and make it a federal crime to possess firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking or crimes of violence.
A lawmaker from Saint Joseph is proposing a state constitutional amendment aimed at reducing the government’s ability to get data about personal phone calls.
Senator Rob Schaaf wants to amend a section of the Missouri Constitution that already requires specific warrants to be issued before law enforcement officers can search places or seize things.
Schaaf’s proposal would add “electronic communications and data” to the list of items protected from unreasonable searches and seizures.
(AP) The federal government has fined the owners of a Kansas City apartment complex $20,000 for refusing to allow a disabled tenant to have a live-in caretaker.
The Department of Housing and Urban Affairs announced Wednesday that the refusal by Brentwood Manor Apartments violated the Fair Housing Act.
The apartment owners were ordered to pay the fine for refusing to waive a policy requiring the tenant to live in the apartment for six months before adding someone else to the lease. The woman had to move out because of the policy.
The department also said the apartment owner and managers must have a reasonable accommodation policy and train employees about fair housing.
(AP) – A top Senate Republican says an overhaul of Missouri’s criminal code will be high on the priority list for this year’s legislative session.
President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, of St. Charles, says he would like the bill to pass the Senate within the first part of the annual session that began Wednesday.
The measure is sponsored by the Senate’s top Democrat, Jolie Justus, of Kansas City.
It would create new classes of felonies and misdemeanors and give judges some more flexibility in sentencing.
The massive revision passed the House in the final weeks of the 2013 session but did not receive a vote in the Senate.
Leadership Saint Joseph launches its 2014 class Thursday.
Thirty area residents will work on problem-solving and team-building challenges during the year-long program. The United Way’s goal is to develop the skills of individuals to be effective leaders in the community.
It starts Thursday and Friday with a retreat at Green Acres facilitated by Dr. Tim Crowley of Crowley Leadership.
More than 700 residents have graduated from the Leadership Saint Joseph program.
(AP) – A Missouri lawmaker is proposing a state constitutional amendment intended to cut down on the government’s ability to get data about people’s phone calls.
Sen. Rob Schaaf wants to amend a section of the Missouri Constitution that already requires specific warrants to be issued before law enforcement officers can search places or seize things.
Schaaf’s proposal would add “electronic communications and data” to the list of items protected from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Schaaf is a Republican from St. Joseph. He said the intent is to require a warrant before law enforcement agencies can listen in on cellphone conversations. The measure is prompted by revelations that the National Security Agency has accessed the telephone records of millions of Americans.
Dietician Kelly Green measured Maria Alano of Overland Park during Alano’s recent visit to the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment. County officials say they are worried that other pregnant women are not taking advantage of the federally funded nutrition program.-photo by Mike Sherry
by Mike Sherry, KHI News
For officials in Johnson County and across the country, it’s plain to see that enrollment is down in a federal nutrition program for low-income pregnant women and their children.
Less clear, though, is why.
“That seems to be the question that no one has the answer for,” said Laura Drake of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment.
Drake is county manager of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, more commonly known as WIC. The federal program started as a pilot in 1972.
Those familiar with the program said a number of factors could be suppressing WIC caseloads, even as some families continue to struggle with the effects of the recession. The potential causes include demographics or simply an inability among potential applicants to make it to an office.
According to Johnson County data, the number of WIC participants dropped about 14 percent in 2013. The county now has a caseload of about 5,800 individuals on an annual budget of approximately $1.1 million.
Yet poverty is not declining in the county, according to United Community Services of Johnson County, a research and advocacy organization.
UCS officials said the poverty rate in the county stood at 6.8 percent in 2012, up from a pre-recession level of 4.7 percent. Children under 18 accounted for a third of county residents living below the federal poverty level, according to the data.
The number of WIC participants nationwide dropped by about 5 percent during a five-year period running through early December, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
During that period, caseloads in Kansas and Missouri dropped 8.3 percent and 6.4 percent respectively.
The national caseload now stands at about 8.6 million individuals. WIC provided about $6.8 billion in grants to states last year. In addition to serving women who are pregnant or new mothers, the program covers children up to age 5.
Applicants must have income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, which would equal $43,567 for a family of four. They can also receive food stamps.
Eligible purchases through the program include juice, milk, fruits and vegetables, breakfast cereals, and whole wheat bread.
Officials at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the declining enrollment in WIC, could be the result of more-or-less routine fluctuations of the sort that occur when a major employer comes to or leaves a community.
They also said some clients might have assumed WIC had closed during the partial shutdown of the federal government in October, though that was not the case, an agency spokesperson said.
Drake said she also has considered the government-shutdown as a possible cause for the office’s caseload to drop significantly in November compared with the year before.
Other factors, she said, could be a lack of transportation among potential clients or a fear among undocumented workers that the office will report them to immigration authorities, though Drake said that isn’t done.
Ather possibility, she said, is that potential clients view food stamps as an easier alternative with a broader range of acceptable food purchases. WIC requires clients to undergo nutrition counseling and come in for periodic weighing and measuring.
Drake said she worried that a continued drop in enrollment could mean less state funding for the Johnson County program, even though she is convinced there is unmet need in the county.
She said officials on the state and local level were redoubling outreach efforts to get the word out to potential clients.
In Washington, D.C., the nonprofit National WIC Association lobbies on behalf of state and local WIC agencies. The Rev. Douglas A. Greenaway is president and chief executive of the association.
He said it would be nice to attribute the smaller caseloads to a lack of need, but he said, “With poverty at levels it hasn’t been in some time, the level of income inequality that is out there, stagnant wages for those at the bottom, WIC still obviously has a place.”
He said caseloads might rebound if birthrates increase once families feel more financially secure as the recession eases.
Greenaway said more women might also turn to WIC now that additional funding for food stamps, authorized as part of the 2009 federal stimulus bill, expired in November.
On the day before Christmas, Maria Alano, 24, of Overland Park, was at the Johnson County WIC office in Mission. She was pregnant with her third child, a boy, due in April.
The program, she said, supplements the income she and her boyfriend make as nursing aides in retirement centers.
Through WIC, Alano said, she can buy the grapes that her children love. It also satisfies her occasional craving for milk.
“And that’s the thing,” she said. “With pregnancy, it’s kind of what you are in the mood for.”
Leaders of the two parties in the Missouri Senate are talking about working together during this year’s legislative session but there will be no middle ground on one issue.
Majority Republicans in the Senate want to cut taxes. Democrats say they do, too, but they will differ with Republicans on the specifics and the beneficiaries.
Both sides say reforming the state’s criminal laws is a priority. School transfer legislation is important to both.
But Right to Work? No way is there going to be a compromise on that issue.
Senate leader Tom Dempsey, a Republican, who admits discomfort with the issue, says, “It’s a part of , looking at labor environment, looking at the legal climate, looking at tax policy, looking at regulatory environment.”
But Democratic floor leader Jolie Justus says her members will stand with organized labor. “Right to Work is kind of an all or nothing proposition. We are opposed to it, absolutely,” she says.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says less than eleven percent of Missouri’s workforce is unionized. But Dempsey says people wanting to locate a business here see an unfriendly labor environment. He says he’ll let the Senate debate the bill if the House approves it first.
When Dempsey was the Senate floor leader, he allowed Right to Work to have little debate time.
In 2012, Truman began its 1:1 iPad implementation, issuing an iPad to each student.
