U.S.D. #350 St. U.S.D. #350 St. U.S.D. #350 St. ---JohnJohnJohn––– HudsonHudsonHudson

April 2016 505 N. Broadway  St. John, KS 67576 

  Recently the Kansas Supreme Court issued a ruling in the ongoing school finance case. This part of the ruling has to do with the equity of funding across the state. Property values vary widely be-tween districts and have an effect on property tax rates. The state provides funding for districts with low property wealth. This aid is intended to provide some measure of equality in tax rates between school districts.

The Court ruled that the legislature has failed to provide a reasonable level of equity in this area of school funding and directed the state to fix the problem by June 30. At the time of this writing, the legislature has passed a new school finance bill that essentially holds funding flat for one more year. If the governor signs it into law, the Court will review it to determine if it meets the requirements of the state’s constitution.

This school finance issue is further complicated by the fact that Kansas is essentially broke. Even if legislators wanted to provide additional funding, there is just no money available. The state is set to end the year with an end-ing balance near zero and the outlook for revenue is not good. There is a very real possibility that cuts will be required before the end of the fiscal year in June.

With all of this uncertainty with our budget, it is very difficult to make decisions about person-nel and programs for next year. Nearly 80% of our operational budget is devoted to personnel costs. Most of the rest of the costs like, utilities, fuel, and groceries, are not easily controlled. This means that it is difficult to make real expense cuts without affecting jobs and student programs.

Recently Sen. Jerry Moran was in St. John on his listening tour of the first congressional dis-trict. When asked about the role of the federal government in public education, he replied that there should be a limited role. Sen. Moran said that educational decisions are best made at the local level. I could not agree more.

However, we have seen legislation in Topeka this session that is contrary to this idea. From de-termining local tax rates to what our kids should learn in our schools, many bills would remove control from our locally elected boards, councils, and commissions. Local government is the most responsive to the needs of constituents. I would encourage our legislators to remember this concept when represent-ing us in Topeka.

There have been some changes in our administrative staff recently. At their March meeting, the school board named Travis Olive as Jr/Sr High principal for next year. Mr. Olive currently serves as the elementary principal. I know that he will do a fantastic job. He will not only continue the tradition of excellence at SJH but will also find ways to improve the school to better meet the needs of students.

The St. John Elementary PTO is sponsoring a school carnival on April 23rd from 3:00 to 6:00 in the main gym and cafeteria. Parents are invited to bring kids of all ages, to join us in this fun family/school event. There will be game booths sponsored by elementary classrooms or school clubs. Other booths include face painting, inflatables and a photo booth. We look forward to seeing you at the PTO carnival.

The calendar for the 2016-17 school year has been approved by the board. The first day of school will be August 25, 2016 and school will end on May 23, 2017. You can find the calendar on our district website. The full activity calendar will be completed this summer.

As always, if you’d like to visit about any of these topics or have other questions or concerns, I can be reached at 620-549-3564 or meyerj@usd350.com. I am proud to be a Tiger and proud to serve USD 350 with Purpose, Passion, and Pride.

-Josh Meyer – USD 350 Superintendent

Fifteen seniors and twenty juniors, along with the help of six sophomore girls, will present the play UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE, from the book of the same title by Bel Kaufman, dramatized by Christopher Sergel, and published by The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois 60098 which has grant-ed us the rights to produce the play. It is a very clever, funny play for anyone to view who has ever attended school. The time period is the 1950s. The students have teenage opinions of Shakespeare, math, grammar, poetry, and so on. The audience may hear some things they as individuals have thought and felt before, dur-ing their own school days. Miranda Garner (“Sylvia Barrett,”) plays a brand new high school English teacher, with all the ide-als of her first job in education—her dreams about what she will accomplish with the students she will come to care about and try to make impressions on their lives. The other members of the faculty and staff are listed as follows: Triston Long as “Dr. Maxwell Clarke, Principal”; Marsena Irvine as “Beatrice Schachter, Teacher”; Jeremy Crockett as “Paul Barringer, Teacher”; Isabella Martinez-Haskins as “Miss J.J. McCabe, Administrative Assistant in charge of Discipline”; Bailey Burns as “Ella Friedenberg, School Counselor”; Christy Garcia as “Frances Egan, School Nurse”; Nathan Ward as “Samuel Bester, English Department Head”; Kerisa Brown as “Sadie Katherine Finch, School Clerk”; and Landon Behr as “Charlie Wolf, Librarian.” Jacob Milton pops up as “A Man Who Advertises” and other voices. Brandi Clark appears as “Ellen, Sylvia’s old college chum who writes to her often.” The Students in Room 304 with Miss Barrett as their teacher, who tries so hard to get through to them are: Ryan Woodward as “Lou Martin, class clown”; Cade Roberts as “Lennie Neumark, wiseacre”; Leslie Ramirez as “Carole Blanca, in search of an identity”; Kourtney Brown as “Alice Blake, with a head full of romance”; Diana Long as “Vivian Paine, struggling with her self-image”; Nick Schwein as “Rusty O’Brien, distrustful of all women”; Julia Taylor as “Linda Rosen, glamour girl”; Alexis Valenzuela as “Jose Rodriguez, painfully shy”; Ramsey McVey as “Carrie Blaine, sarcastic and distrustful”; Allen Schwein as “Harry Kagan, student politician, stuffed shirt”; Estrella Fernandez as “Jill Norris, aspiring journalist”; Katrena Brown as “Rachel Gordon, an enigma”; Olivia Falk as “Elizabeth Ellis, poet, a bit existential”; David Kristjansson as “Charles Arrons, spends time in detention”; Jorge Calleros as “Edward Williams, struggling with a new school in new times”; Derek Hacker as “Joe Ferone, brainy, re-bellious, ‘bad’ boy”; Sabrina Nicacio-Gomes as “Helen Arbuzzi, a dropout who finds her way back”; and Taylor Clark as “Francine Gardner, a frustrated office runner.” The scene called “A Doze of English” should bring a chuckle to all former and present students who have sat in school English classes: Troy Devine, Tanner Wycoff, Ramsey McVey, Sabrina Nicacio-Gomes, Jacob Milton, and Taylor Clark add their voices to others in sharing opinions of English class. Our Student Directors are Devin Willinger (also Stage Manager); Estrella Fernandez; and Derek Hacker. Klayton Rodarmel has been helping with set construction. In the light and sound booth are Audrey Mercer, chief; Brennyn Woolf; and Sabrina Nicacio-Gomes. The many names on the crews will be listed in the program. Wendy Hacker is the director and Jane Bennington is producer. Please plan to support our young actors and crew members by attending one or both of these perfor-mances. They will certainly appreciate your being in the audience!

UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE Junior Senior Play 2016

St. John High School Auditorium Saturday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday Afternoon, April 10, 2:00 p.m.

6th Grade Clarinet Ensemble (1) Jordan Taylor - Piano (2) Nevaeh Fischer - Trumpet (1) MaKayla Meyer - Clarinet (1) MaKayla Meyer - Piano (2+) Kaylynn Claussen - Trumpet (1) Lexie Brummer - Piano (1-) Preston Dunn - Snare Drum (2) Bree Meyer - Vocal (1+) Lochlyn Duntz - Snare Drum (2) Dayton Long - Vocal (1) Darby Smith - Piano (1-) Elijah Delp - Trumpet (1) August Siefkes - Piano (1+) Darby Smith - Trumpet (1) Lexie Brummer - Vocal (1) Baylee Lauffer - Vocal (1) Jessica Owens - Vocal (1) 6th Grade Woodwind Trio (3)

6th Grade Mixed Trio 1 (2) McKayla Miller - Horn (1) Mackenzie Hacker - Vocal (1-) August Siefkes - Xylophone (AP - Advanced Performance) Cooper Rockenbach - Flute (2) 6th Grade Mixed Trio 2 (3) Lexie Brummer - Flute (2) 6th Grade Trumpet Trio (1) Mackenzie Hacker - Trumpet (2) Emma Koelsch - Flute (1) 5th Grade Mixed Trio (2) Of the 30 solos and small ensembles, there were 19 "1" ratings or better (including one AP rating), 9 "2" ratings and 2 "3" ratings.

The Lacrosse Middle School Festival was this past Friday and the 5th-8th Grade students of St. John were awesome!!! The 6th - 8th Grade Band earned an overall "2" (Excellent) rating, the 5th/6th Grade Choir earned an overall "1" (Superior) rating and the JH Choir earned an overall "1" (Superior) rating. Phenomenal performances by all of the students in these groups! I am super proud of not only the performances, but also how our students represented our music program, school and community! Fantastic job by all!!! We had 30 solo/small ensemble performances for the day and here is what they earned:

The CPL Music Festival was held on Tuesday, March 8th at Barton County Com-munity College. SJHS was well represented with great performances throughout the day.

The high school choir earned a 1 (Superior) rating for their wonderful performance! We have work to do before we perform at the regional festival on Saturday, April 2nd, but this is a great start. Six St. John soloists performed at the festival and performed excellent-ly: Sabrina Gomes - Vocal (2) Olivia Falk - Vocal (1) Bella Isabella Martinez-Haskins - Vocal (2) Taylor Clark - Marimba (1) Taylor Clark - Snare Drum (1) Ramsey McVey - Alto Sax (2)

Great performances by all of the stu-dents! As the host school, we were also in charge of running the whole operation for the day. Our students received numerous compliments from many people during the day. They handled everything during the day like professionals!

Cosmosphere Trip

  Thanks to the STEM project dona on from Bonnie Dudrey's family, the Sophomores, Juniors, 

and Seniors were able to take a trip to the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson on March 3,  where 

they par cipated in a simula on  tled “Cosmo Crisis”. The simula on involved student groups assign-

ing themselves Na onal Security Council jobs and par cipa ng in “government” briefings where they 

learned about chemical forensics, the role of the weather, budget analysis, a military briefing involving 

the defini ons of Def Con, possible naviga on, photo evidence, the design of the V2 Rocket, an emer-

gency plan, a possible impact map, and possible health complica ons all so they could give a recom-

menda on briefing to the President of the United States about their plan to deal with a nuclear threat 

on Hutchinson, Kansas. In prepara on for this event, students studied projec le mo on, using primary 

sources, Hiroshima and the atomic bomb, the Execu ve Branch of government, and using evidence to 

support decisions in Mr. Delp’s, Mrs. Hacker’s, Mr. Bauer’s, and Mrs. McAlister’s classes. The students 

enjoyed a working pizza lunch followed by videoing their briefing on IPads to send to the President. 

They ended their day at the Cosmosphere with an IMAX movie about the Serenge  Plains.  

  The freshmen class previously took a trip to the Cosmosphere as part of a flight unit and the 

Dudrey family dona on.  

USD #350 ST JOHN 

505 N BROADWAY 

ST JOHN KS 67576 

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED 

POSTAL CUSTOMER 

CLASS OF 2016: 

A reminder that local scholarship applica ons are due APRIL 15! 

CPL HONORS BANQUET 

SJH students were recognized 

at the league honor banquet 

recently at Lacrosse. Ryan 

Woodward, Cade Roberts, Jere-

my Crocke , Devin Willinger, 

and Brandi Hanson (not pic-

tured Miranda Garner).