KCK school board changes academic eligibility requirements for athletes

The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools Board of Education amended the athletic eligibility policy on Tuesday night.

The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools Board of Education voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to approve changes to academic eligibility requirements for athletes and for students involved in activities.

The new policy amendment calls for athletes who are failing or whose grades are below a C average to have a student support plan in place at their school in order to practice or play. The students who do not follow their student support plan would not be allowed to practice or play, according to the policy.

The plan calls for students to attend after-school tutoring for 30 minutes before they go to practice. Also, weekly grade checks are part of the program.

Those students who do not participate in the student support plan would not be allowed to practice or play, according to the policy.

School board members discussed whether or not the students would be required to bring their grades up within a certain time period, such as two or four weeks.

Board member Dr. Valdenia Winn, who voted against the policy change, said an end time was not clearly stated in the written policy. Dr. Winn said there were internal contradictions in the policy.

She said she was for a policy with more accountability.

Tammie Romstad, the district’s athletic director, said if students who need to bring up their grades do not make an appointment to work with their teachers the next week, they would not get to play.

Romstad said she surveyed districts in Wyandotte County, and that other districts did not have any eligibility policies different from Kansas State High School Athletic Association on their websites. The KCK district had stricter eligibility guidelines than KSHSAA. The KSHSAA guidelines are measured by grades at semester, according to officials.

Romstad said she was a proponent of setting higher standards. However, there has been a difference in getting assignments done and graded, caused by quarantines, she said.

She said the athletic directors at schools would be sending her weekly reports on grades, and she would review them. If the student support plan for each individual wasn’t working, it would be modified, she said.

Stephen Linkous, chief of staff, said they went to weekly grade checks two years ago, and the students’ grades greatly improved,prior to COVID.

“This does bring a positive push to keep students engaged,” Linkous said.

Dr. Stacy Yeager, a board member, supported the change in eligibility policy.

“Students and coaches are doing everything possible to do the best they can do,” Dr. Yeager said.

Parents are telling board members to give them policies similar to their counterparts, Dr. Yeager said.

Board Vice President Yolanda Clark said a lot of kids need their coaches, and when they remove students from the coaches, they set them up to fail.

Board member Wanda Paige said students should be required to keep their grades up in order to play, and that federal funds are available to help athletes with mental health counseling.

She suggested making mental health counseling a part of the SSP program, “because something is obviously wrong.” However, the board did not amend it to add mental health counseling.

Voting yes for the eligibility policy change were Yolanda Clark, Maxine Drew, Janey Humphries, Randy Lopez and Stacy Yeager. Voting no were Wanda Paige and Valdenia Winn.

The issue also was voted upon in September, with a similar result. It was a “third reading” for the policy.

Andrew Davis, candidate questionnaire

Andrew Davis

Name and office sought: Andrew Davis, 8th District Commissioner

Age: 26

Occupation and experience: Community engagement coordinator at Harvesters Food Network (current)
Previous management analyst intern for the city of Lawrence (2020-2021)
Youth and college pastor at Vintage Church in Lawrence (2018-2020)

Education: KU ‘18 BA, double major in political science and religious studies
Minor in African American Studies

KU ‘22 MPA
Public Administration with an emphasis in local government management

Organizations, clubs, groups to which you belong: Voter to Voter Network (2020)
Learning Club (January of 2021)
Judge for Young KCK Entrepreneurs (2021)
Timbercrest HOA (current)

Reasons for running: I am running to bring a new voice and a fresh perspective to the 8th District and the rest of the Dotte. We have so many challenges that our residents are upset about: lack of transparency, lack of communication, lack of access to city hall, arduous bureaucratic processes, high utility bills, high taxes and lack of amenities. I want to bring more innovation, transparency and equity to the Unified Government to improve the quality of life for everyone.

What are the three most important issues facing this position and how would you handle them? All of these issues (safe and welcoming, access to voting, youth investment etc.) are important but for the sake of brevity I will pick 3.
Lack of communication from leadership
Solution: Host regular town halls throughout the 8th district to build trust, transparency and familiarity with the community.

Lack of community involvement in economic development deals
Solution: Create a streamlined Community Benefit Agreement process so neighborhoods and community members play an active role in development deals.


Lack of small business investment (especially those that are veteran-owned, minority-owned and woman-owned)
Solution: Create the Dotte Business Directory to support all locally owned businesses to residents and visitors.

If you are not an incumbent, what would you change if elected?

All of my platforms and ideas to improve the quality of life in the Dotte can be found on my website – Andrewdavisforug.org. If elected I would change the following:
I’d advocate to make voting day a county wide holiday so we all can celebrate our rights as American citizens.
I am a yes vote for Safe and Welcoming because time is overdue for us to protect immigrant communities and give them access to services.
I’d invest in our youth through a youth advisory board and advocate for internships for them in our economic development deals. I’d also encourage summer activity through ATSIF (Annual Teen Summer Involvement Fair).
I’d be a big advocate for criminal justice reform by decriminalizing cannabis and removing municipal laws that target the poor by advocating for non-monetary accountability measures for ordinance violations. Our law enforcement officers should have to focus on the real threats to our safety, not petty crimes.

First Lady Biden convenes charla in Kansas City to explore challenges of Latino trailblazers

First Lady Jill Biden and Isabella Guzman, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, visited El Centro in Kansas City, Kansas, to learn more about the experience of Hispanics living in the region. (Photo by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector)

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

First Lady Jill Biden toured the nonprofit El Centro serving Latino communities throughout Wyandotte and Johnson counties Monday for insight into challenges of trailblazing entrepreneurs, a university student and a poet.

Biden marked Hispanic Heritage Month with Isabella Guzman, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, for a conversation, or charla, that touched on stories of people striving to overcome educational, social and economic barriers to build on sacrifices of their parents and previous generations. It was part of a daylong trip that also took President Joe Biden’s wife to Pennsylvania and Illinois.

“During the campaign, I talked to a lot of young Hispanic youth and they told me, ‘I don’t know that we’re being heard.’ So I started some charlas,” Biden said. “I can’t wait to go back and tell him all your stories and how inspiring you all are.”

First Lady Jill Biden said during an event at El Centro in Kansas City, Kansas, that more people should realize that government can be a force for good and that reality could be seen in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector)

The first lady made passing references to the infrastructure bill pending in Congress and appreciation for the DREAM Act, which granted temporary conditional residency with the right to work to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as minors.

Another element of the trip was to emphasize how the administration of President Biden had supported Latinos across the country as they endured the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. She said it was important to talk about the Biden administration’s championing of the needs of businesses and families.

“I hope that people of Kansas see that government can be good and can do good things and does help people,” Biden said. “People don’t have a really positive image of the government.”

Biden and Guzman heard from Olivia Caudillo, a 20-year-old junior in aerospace engineering at the University of Kansas. She was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, and was salutatorian at Sumner Academy of Arts and Science. Her career goal is to work at NASA.

“Education is a value that is extremely important to my family,” she said. “My grandma, she only made it to elementary school. My grandpa dropped out halfway through high school. They always pushed education on their children and eventually their grandchildren. For me, that meant the world to me.”

Caudillo is among 10 women in the aerospace engineering program at KU, and the lone Latina.

“The first day I felt scared. I felt out of place and underrepresented,” she said. “There’s been many times, not because the course work was so hard, but because I was so alone, I thought about switching to something else that I knew wasn’t for me. Then, I thought about my grandparents and my family. I wanted to keep doing that for them, to kind of be a role model.”

Olivia Caudillo, right, a junior in aerospace engineering at the University of Kansas, is the lone Latina in the program but has persevered to be a role model for other young women. She told First Lady Jill Biden her dream is to work at NASA. (Photo by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector)

“Olivia, you have to pay it forward,” Biden said. “It’s so important that we get more young women interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. Your story is so beautiful. You have to mentor other young women.”

Ari Rodriguez Boog, owner of the Lenexa sustainability-focused architecture firm Archifootprint, was born in Michigan while her Venezuelan mother studied medicine and her father sought a degree in engineering. In her mid-20s, Boog returned to the United States to earn a master’s degree. Her architectural career has centered on work with U.S. clients in the energy sector, but she launched her own firm in 2018 to spend more time designing sustainable housing.

Her business suffered as the pandemic took root and may not have survived without federal financial support including Paycheck Protection Program loans, Boog said.

“To be honest,” Boog said, “I don’t think we would be here otherwise. We are on the road to recovery.”

Huascar Medina, a 38-year-old Lawrence resident who had a Panamanian mother and Puerto Rican father in the U.S. Army. He moved to Kansas in 2001 after graduating from high school in San Antonio. He found a home in books and developed into a writer in Spanish and English.

He served as poet laureate of Kansas from 2019 until this year — the first Latino to hold that job in Kansas.

“Poetry has been the only constant thing in my life. Poetry is how I’ve learned to explore and share hard truths. I’ve been able to travel the state and share my story of being a second-generation immigrant in the United States. I personally prefer the word ‘new American’ to describe myself living here in the U.S.”

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