Tony Evans stands at the entrance to his Wichita Heights High School classroom each morning and greets each of the nearly 40 students in his Jobs for America’s Graduates – Kansas classes. He makes small talk with some or jokes to get the attention of others – especially when the students might not be fully […]
Rafael Garcia
Posted inEducation
Students are back at Wichita colleges, but the COVID-19 picture remains murky
It’s Olivia Compton’s sixth spring semester in college, her third in the COVID-19 era and her first at Friends University. At this point, she has an air of having seen it all, even as the omicron variant shatters what looked like the light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic during the fall […]
Posted inEducation
Cutting through ‘the chaos’: What happened at Wichita’s school board meeting on Monday
The Wichita Board of Education is off to a rough start for the new year. The board had been set to ceremonially swear in three new board members and one incumbent at its first meeting of 2022 on Monday at Wichita North High School. But that meeting never happened after the three new board members […]
Posted inEducation
Why Wichita USD 259 is fast-tracking repairs to this 99-year-old high school
Wichita East High School students and teachers are back to class for the spring semester, but some of them are returning to different classrooms. After discovering structural issues in the building’s science wing in the fall, school officials are shuttering the wing’s 18 classrooms until repairs can be completed. Teachers from those classrooms are continuing […]
Posted inEducation
School lunch is a food and people business. Wichita USD 259’s challenge is finding either.
Rows of racks in Wichita USD 259’s vast School Service Center on Hydraulic Street in northeast Wichita are the second-to-last stops before distribution to the district’s dozens of schools. In the adjacent industrial kitchen, pizzas roll through conveyor-belt ovens, while enormous mixers pipe mashed potatoes into a machine that seals the food into large plastic […]
Posted inEducation
Wichita teens want a bigger voice in meeting their mental health needs
Editor’s note: We updated this story on Dec. 20 to show that Truc Dao and Andrew Le are director and vice director of Students Empowerment, respectively, and members of ICTeens in Mind. One of the things Truc Dao has relearned in 20 months of high school during the pandemic is how to catch her breath. […]
Posted inEducation
How you can snag a spot for your student at one of Wichita’s magnet schools
Students are wrapping up the fall semester at Wichita USD 259, but enrollment for the 2022-23 school year is already starting for the district’s 24 magnet schools. The district’s magnet program offers schools that focus on subjects like science, leadership and performing arts, with some specializing even further into fields like aerospace engineering and health […]
Posted inEducation
A KU Wichita Pediatrics pilot program brings health care into schools, and it’s keeping students in class
Editor’s note: We updated this story on Dec. 8 to clarify that Krista Weaver is an advanced practice registered nurse. On Dec. 9, the story was updated to clarify that KU Wichita Pediatrics operates the school-based clinics. There’s no telling who or what Krista Weaver will see every day in her classroom-turned-clinic in Haysville USD […]
Posted inEducation
How to find your student’s Kansas state assessment scores and what they mean
Kansas teachers, education leaders and policymakers use Kansas Assessment Program data to inform decisions on how to address education challenges. Parents can also use the state assessment scores to understand how their students are doing. The Wichita Beacon has put together a guide on how parents can access state assessment scores for their students, and […]
Posted inEducation
‘Our kids are grieving’: Children’s mental health is a national emergency, and Wichita isn’t immune
In his job as a Wichita East High School social worker, Samuel Paunetto knew he’d be dealing with all the traumas teenagers routinely go through. But he’s been floored by the amount of grief he’s seeing in students every day — not just from the loss of family and friends to COVID-19, but from the […]