Endowment created for NHS’s 125th

In honor of Newton High School’s 125th anniversary, the Newton school district is undertaking an endowment campaign for the high school.

The district is calling the campaign Railer 125.

The campaign hopes to get 1,000 people to donate $125 each and 125 people to donate $1,000 each.

The Central Kansas Community Foundation has agreed to a match up to $100,000 for the contributions.

Barb Burns, the district’s grant writer, said it has not yet been determined what the endowment will be used for, but it will be separate from the existing district endowment.

Burns said the district will be doing a mailing soon asking for contributions.

The district has a directory of about 15,000 alumni. Additionally, it is connecting with grads online through Facebook.

There will be an alumni celebration May 14 through 16. The district hopes to have a golf tournament fund-raiser during the weekend.

Board member Darrell Conrade encouraged the board members to send a message of support to the community for the campaign by making a pledge to the campaign.

“I think the sky is the limit with what we can do with this,” Burns said.

The board will conduct an executive session at its next board meeting to discuss talking points that have been developed for the Schools for Fair Funding group.

A meeting of the group was conducted Friday, and Superintendent John Morton said 44 districts were represented at the meeting.

The talking points urge the state to increase funding to school districts.

Schools for Fair Funding filed and won a lawsuit that forced the state to increase school funding. Since the recession, funding to school districts, including Newton, has been decreased.

The talking points say, “Filing suit against the state is not the preferred way to secure adequate funding; unfortunately, it seems to be the only way to force the Legislature to meet its responsibility.”

The document said turning to the courts is less harmful to students than depriving them of their educational rights.

Assistant Superintendent Gary Jantz also discussed the progress on the schools bond projects.

Construction at Santa Fe Middle School is nearing completion.

The addition to Chisholm Middle School is enclosed.

The drive between Slate Creek Elementary School and Chisholm Middle School likely will be completed by the end of the week, Jantz said.

Work on the interior of area of C of the high school is ongoing. Ground work is being done on the high school’s new media center, and it should be “coming out of the ground soon,” Jantz said.

Underground work is ongoing at Cooper Education Center.

Jantz said the construction is a couple months behind, but area C of the high school should be ready for use by sometime in November.

In other business, the board:

• Approved a change order for the Newton High School Vocational Building for $10,798.

• Received a report from Morton that the basket fund-raiser raised $2,000 for the USD 373 endowment.

• Approved a bid for a four-wheel drive riding lawn tractor and mower for $43,547 from Kansas Golf and Turf.

• Approved the sale of outdated welding technology program equipment, including a plasma cutting system and a TIG welding machine.

• Approved the adoption of the policies and procedure manual.

• Accepted a gift from Rotary International Gift for six Wii Sport and Wii Fit bundles for the elementary and middle school fitness programs. The gift is valued at $2,250.