Month: August 2021

Health officials concerned about kids as school is starting this week in Wyandotte County

Health officials in Wyandotte County would like to see kids wearing masks in schools.

At the morning medical update Tuesday at the University of Kansas Health System, Juliann van Liew, Unified Government Health Department director, said they are worried some Wyandotte County school districts are not going to have a mask mandate. A couple are still meeting about a masking policy, she added.

They’re worried that schools could become “hotboxes” for COVID, she said.

Some teachers may be immunocompromised and possibly at risk for getting COVID even if they’re vaccinated. Or they may go home to others in their household that may be at risk because of health reasons.

“Schools are not in a silo, they are part of the community,” Van Liew said. What happens there results in repercussions for the rest of the community.

Wyandotte County is seeing uncontrolled community spread, as are other parts of the metropolitan area, she said. While it is good that people are coming in to get vaccinated, it has mostly been in small numbers, and isn’t effective for two to four weeks.

“What masks do is offer the opportunity to intervene today,” Van Liew said. Vaccination is a long-term solution, while masks are a shorter-term solution that can stop the spread of the disease immediately, she added.

Last Thursday, the Unified Government Commission took schools out of the countywide mask mandate for indoor public spaces, and they also exempted Bonner Springs and Edwardsville. Each school district’s board now can set its own mask rules.

Van Liew said during a public hearing, they heard some untrue myths mentioned by the public. One myth was that kids were not affected by COVID. But she said there have been 400 deaths of children from COVID, as reported by the CDC in July.

Another myth that was repeated was that masks don’t work. She said after decades of wearing masks in operating rooms, they know that masks work.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson said the best advice is for children to wear masks at schools. Vaccination helps when children are old enough to get the vaccine. Those who are 12 and older should get a COVID vaccination, he said.

Wearing masks at schools has been recommended by the CDC.

Dr. Hawkinson said if a large number of children are infected, a percentage will go to the hospital, and also, children will bring the infection home, where caretakers and those at risk of disease may be infected.

“If you give children the vaccine, they will stay well and not be pulled out of participation of extracurricular activities such as sports or band,” he said. It also helps protect caregivers and school personnel who keep the schools open.

Van Liew said it is helping that some businesses were requiring vaccinations among their workforce.

“I think that’s pivotal,” she said. Large employers who require COVID vaccinations can become a game changer, she said.

For more information from the medical update, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/559591211729750.

School districts making decisions on mask-wearing

The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, the largest district in Wyandotte County, on July 20 made the decision to require masks in all district schools. (See https://wyandotteonline.com/kck-school-board-votes-to-require-masks-in-fall/) At the Tuesday night, Aug. 10, board meeting at 5 p.m., Dr. Stephen Linkous, chief of staff, outlined the COVID-19 measures that the school district is taking. Everyone will wear masks. He said rules have not changed since the July 20 meeting. Elementary students will have desk shields in the classrooms, while older students will have the opportunity to request desk shields, he said.

In the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville School District, masks are strongly encouraged but not required. District communications coordinator Kaela Williams said this policy could be changing in the future, as additional information is considered.

All Bonner Springs-Edwardsville staff will be required to wear masks indoors and all passengers on school transportation also will be required to wear masks, she stated. The situation is very fluid and any changes will be communicated in the future, she added.

In the Turner School District, the district is strongly recommending masks this school year but not currently requiring them, according to spokeswoman Lauren Aiello, director of public relations for the district.

“We were encouraged to see the majority of first through fifth-graders come to school today wearing masks and appreciate our parents making the choice to send their children to school with masks on,” Aiello stated. “We know parents want their children in school as much as we do, and wearing masks in our school buildings is one measure we can all take to ensure that we can continue supporting our students both academically and social emotionally in-person.”

The Piper School board voted at the Monday, Aug. 9, meeting to require masks of all students, staff and volunteers, according to a post on the district’s Facebook page. The vote was 4-3 in favor of requiring masks for everyone in the buildings and on district transportation. Masking will continue to be discussed at future school board meetings, according to the post.

Free vaccines available

Free COVID-19 vaccines will be available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday at the Kmart vaccination site, 7836 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas. Vaccines are free for people ages 12 and older. There are gifts available, and a “Spin to Win” promotion is ongoing for Wyandotte County residents, as supplies last.

For more information on the Unified Government Health Department’s vaccine schedule, see WycoVaccines.org.

Mobile vaccines can still be requested online at WycoVaccines.org or by calling 3-1-1 (913-573-5311).

Other sites available for vaccinations

Some doctors’ offices now offer COVID-19 vaccinations. If you haven’t received your vaccination yet, call your doctor’s office to see if it is available now.

Free vaccinations at KU Health System are open to the public. Current patients may use MyChart to make an appointment. Others may call 913-588-1227 or visit kansashealthsystem.com/vaccine to make an appointment to get vaccinated. KU Health System currently is vaccinating residents of Kansas and Missouri who are 12 or older, by appointment only. Those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian throughout the appointment.

There are also pharmacies giving free COVID-19 vaccinations in Wyandotte County by appointment, when available. These include Price Chopper and Hen House pharmacies, which are now also accepting walk-in vaccinations or appointments, and are starting vaccinations for age 12 and up at those pharmacies that are giving Pfizer vaccine (see https://www.ballsfoodspharmacy.com/).

CVS has announced walk-in appointments for COVID-19 vaccine at some of its stores. Those interested in getting a vaccination at a CVS pharmacy are asked to visit a CVS website in order to make sure there is vaccine available. The website is at www.cvs.com/. Walgreens and Walmart also were listed on www.vaccines.gov as giving vaccinations.

Other pharmacies and sites giving vaccines are listed at www.vaccines.gov. The website also tells whether vaccines are in stock at the locations.

Case numbers reported

The University of Kansas Health System reported an increase Tuesday morning in the number of active COVID-19 patients, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. Forty-three patients with the active virus were inpatients on Tuesday, an increase of three since Monday. COVID patients range from age 3 to 93. Eighteen COVID patients were in the intensive care unit, an increase of three from Monday.

Wyandotte County reported a cumulative 20,846 cases on Tuesday, an increase of 52 since Monday, according to the Unified Government Health Department’s COVID-19 webpage. There was a cumulative total of 313 deaths reported, the same as Monday.

On Wednesday, Aug. 4, the Unified Government Health Department reported that 42.36 percent of Wyandotte County residents had received at least one dose of vaccine. Those completing their vaccinations totaled about 35.87 percent.
The percentage of Wyandotte County residents who were age 12 and older who had received at least one dose was 52.1 percent.

The Mid-America Regional Council on Tuesday reported 183,445 cases in Greater Kansas City, a nine-county area. There were a total of 2,478 deaths. The daily average of new hospitalizations was 142.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 342,196 cumulative COVID-19 cases in Kansas on Monday, Aug. 9, an increase of 2,669 since Friday, Aug. 6. There was a total of 5,322 cumulative deaths reported statewide, an increase of 23 since Aug. 6.


The KDHE reported 64,998 cumulative COVID-19 cases in Johnson County on Aug. 9, an increase of 490 since Aug. 6. Leavenworth County had 8,295 cases, an increase of 88 since Aug. 6. Sedgwick County (the Wichita area) reported 61,624 cases, an increase of 931 since Aug. 6.

On Tuesday, there were a cumulative 36,050,630 COVID-19 cases in the United States, with cumulative 618,108 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.


There were 532,245 vaccine doses reported administered Monday in the U.S., with 51 percent of the population fully vaccinated. States reporting large numbers of vaccinations included California, 69,202; Florida, 68,368; Texas, 60,097; North Carolina, 50,605; and Illinois, 37,913.


Countries with high numbers of vaccine administered included India, 5.836 million; Japan, 3.262 million; Turkey, 1.516 million; Indonesia, 1.484 million; and U.S., 532,200.

Countries with rising numbers of COVID-19 cases included U.S., 184,350; Turkey, 46,400; Iran, 40,808; Spain, 39,638; and India, 28,204.

Free testing available


Free COVID-19 testing is available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday at the UG Health Department’s central location, the former Kmart, 7836 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas. Free gift cards are available to those who get a test, while supplies last.

Besides Health Department sites, COVID-19 testing is available at several locations in Wyandotte County.

Visit gogettested.com/Kansas and https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19 for more sites.

Wyandotte County residents may contact the Health Department at wycohelp.org to sign up for a test to be delivered to their home.

For more details about free COVID-19 testing offered by the UG Health Department, visit https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19, https://www.facebook.com/UGHealthDept or call 3-1-1.

To view the new mask order in Kansas City, Kansas, visit https://www.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/mask-mandate-resolution-r-47-21-effective-august-6-through-september-16-2021.pdf and https://www.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/ug-issues-mask-order-for-kck-and-other-portions-of-wyco.pdf.

Kansans ask lawmakers to ‘put aside politics’ at launch of redistricting tour

by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

Manhattan, Kansas — Kansas residents unloaded frustrations with the GOP-led redistricting process on Monday as lawmakers launched a 14-stop, five-day blitz of town halls to gather public input into how political boundaries should be redrawn.

Republicans characterized the online streaming of public forums as “unprecedented transparency,” brushing aside complaints about the short advance notice of meetings and a compacted schedule with gathering times mostly during working hours.

The meetings also preempt the release of detailed information from the U.S. Census Bureau that serves as a basis for drawing congressional and legislative districts.

At the first stop, held at the Kansas State University student union in Manhattan, residents repeatedly asked a panel of Senate and House members to hold additional meetings later this year after census data can be reviewed.


They also asked lawmakers to keep the new district maps as similar as possible to current ones.

The majority party invited criticism of the redistricting process by announcing the meeting times after 6 p.m. on Friday, July 30, and by not consulting with Democrats on the schedule. Democrats fear the GOP will rely on its supermajority power in the Legislature to gerrymander districts and override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto power.

Tucker Graff, a 33-year-old Manhattan resident, said he could attend the first town hall only because he is a nontraditional student who just finished an internship and hasn’t yet started his new job.

“I struggled to understand how we can recommend fair maps or what we think you should do before the census data is even released,” Graff said. “I don’t know why you’re having these meetings.”

He said he understands Kansas is a Republican state.

“The impulse is going to be, because we have a supermajority in the state Legislature, that we can just kind of ignore Governor’s Kelly’s veto and just push whatever maps we want,” Graff said. “But I hope we do make an effort to try to stay as bipartisan as we can to come up with maps that make everybody happy through the process.”

Sen. Rick Wilborn, a Republican from McPherson who serves as chairman for the redistricting panel, said in an interview after the meeting that complaints about transparency are “a false narrative.” Video of the meetings has never before been available online, he said, and there is no deadline for residents to provide written statements to the committee.

Wilborn said it was too early in the process to decide whether to hold additional meetings after the census data is available. The U.S. Census Bureau plans to provide a first look at the data on Thursday, and provide a more detailed database in September.

During the last redistricting process a decade ago, lawmakers spread the 14 meetings out over a four-month period. Wilborn said the one-week lineup this time was set for the convenience of lawmakers, and was preferable to “spreading it out and ruining two weeks.”

“This is a citizen Legislature,” Wilborn said. “Bear in mind a lot of us have careers and activities and vacations.”

Residents who can’t make it to a particular meeting can drive to another one or watch them online, Wilborn said.

During the public forum, Marsha Tannehill objected to Wilborn’s assertion that lawmakers were interested in transparency and bristled at the decision to schedule the meeting for 9 a.m. on a Monday.

“This is the most inconvenient time for people to be here,” Tannehill said. “It is not open and transparent, as you have just stated. If it was, there would be more meetings, and there would be many more opportunities for other citizens to be here. I think this was very inconvenient, and I think it was done, perhaps, purposefully.”

Martha Mather described herself as an average citizen and voter who doesn’t have detailed knowledge of how the redistricting will be done. But, she said, she is an American who is committed to doing the right thing for her neighbors.

“You are smart people,” Mather told the lawmakers. “You know what the right thing is to do. I ask you to put aside politics and do the right thing for everybody in Kansas and make sure there is fair representation. Yes, you have the power to have a very biased representation, but please think about the country and think about the citizens of Kansas. And don’t think about right and left. Think about right and wrong.”

Linda Uthoff, of the League of Women Voters of Manhattan and Riley County, asked lawmakers to develop guidelines and criteria for forming districts that result in fair maps. She asked them to end the practice of including party affiliation and incumbent addresses in the database used for redistricting.

Jim Swim, of Marysville, urged lawmakers to reunite Marshall County residents who currently are divided by congressional districts and Kansas Senate districts. People there don’t know who to call when issues within the community require attention at the state or federal level, Swim said.

“Dividing counties and municipalities should be avoided because this dilutes the voice and representation of these communities,” Swim said.

Judson Jones, a Pottawatomie County resident, complained that the meeting began without the Pledge of Allegiance. He said he doesn’t care where the lines are drawn. All the talk about nonpartisanship is wrong, he said.

“The winning party gets the opportunity to pick who and how they get represented,” Jones said. “Don’t consider a nonpartisan activity is going to be fair. It’s not going to be fair because the nonpartisanship gets put away when people walk out the door. Everybody knows that.”

John Nachtman, GOP chairman for Dickinson County, attended a public forum on redistricting for the first time just to see what goes on at one of these meetings. He dismissed concerns about the town hall schedule.

“Everybody ought to have a chance to go to one meeting,” Nachtman said. “Everybody can take time off. If they stretched it out too long, they’d be complaining it’s too slow.”

Redistricting town halls


9 a.m. Monday, Aug. 9
Kansas State University, Student Union Ballroom, 2nd Floor, 918 N. Martin Luther King Boulevard, Manhattan
1:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 9
Kansas State University-Polytechnic, College Center Conference Room, 2310 Centennial Road, Salina
6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 9
Fort Hays State University, Memorial Union Room 212, 600 Park St., Hays
9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10
Colby Community College, Cultural Arts Center, 1255 South Range Ave., Colby
1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10
Garden City Community College, Tedrow Student Center, Endowment Room, 801 Campus Drive, Garden City
6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10
Dodge City Public Library, Lois Flanagan Room, 1001 N. 2nd Ave., Dodge City
9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11
Hutchinson Community College, Stringer Fine Arts Center, B.J. Warner Recital Hall, 600 E. 11th Ave., Hutchinson
1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11
Wichita State University, Metropolitan Complex, 5015 E. 29th St. N, Wichita
6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11
Neosho Community College, Student Union, Room 209, 800 W. 14th St., Chanute
9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 12
Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium, 503 North Pine St., Pittsburg
1:45 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 12
Matt Ross Community Center, 8101 Marty St., Overland Park
6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 12
Kansas City Kansas Community College, Upper Level Jewell Hall, 7250 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas
9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 13
Riverfront Community Center, Riverview Room, 123 S. Esplanade St., Leavenworth
1:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 13
University of Kansas, Capitol Federal Hall, Room 1111, 1654 Naismith Drive, Lawrence

Kansas Reflector stories, https://kansasreflector.com/, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/08/09/kansans-ask-lawmakers-to-put-aside-politics-at-launch-of-redistricting-tour/

KCK teachers hear inspirational message at convocation

Kansas City, Kansas, Public School teachers and staff heard an inspirational message from keynote speaker Morris Morrison at the convocation on Tuesday morning at Wyandotte High School.

Morrison, who was an orphan, shared lessons he had learned while growing up.

“We change and we grow either when our minds are open or our hearts are broken,” Morrison said.

He encouraged teachers and other district employees to be open, not close-minded, and to not miss the music around them.

He said he built his life around three lessons a doctor told him: Don’t be a victim; take ownership and responsibility for your life; and never expect somebody to give you anything that you don’t work for. He added he started companies on these values and his relationships are also based on them.

Morrison, whose latest book is “Disrupt Yourself,” was speaking in conjunction with the superintendent’s theme this year, “Re-Bound, Re-Imagine and Re-New.”

Superintendent Anna Stubblefield said at the convocation that this year’s theme came out of last year’s experiences, when the district was forced to be adaptive, flexible and meet the needs of the students in the moment. This year will be about rebounding from what they experienced last year, she said.

Dr. Stubblefield this year will focus on high quality Tier 1 instruction while meeting the social and emotional needs of all students.

School starts Wednesday and Thursday in the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools.

The convocation was online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2o9dt4JjME.