tschram

tschram

New bus approved for Skyline Schools students

On Monday, September 12, the USD 438 Board of Education met to discuss new purchases, bills, and updates. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 P.M. by Vice President Nicole Curtis, as President Rex Robinson was absent.

Pratt student performs at the State Fair

Addison Hopkins, Pratt High School student, was among the two dozen students from around the state of Kansas who performed at the sixth Kansas State Fair Forensics Showcase. The event held at the State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson last Thursday, September 15 and was sponsored by the Sterling College Forensics/ Debate team. Forensics is competitive speaking and interpretation events.

Welding program has a new home

Pratt Community College has purchased the Pioneer Tank and Steel facility near the airport in Pratt. A lot of time was spent over the summer getting the facility ready and students officially began classes in the new building in the Fall.

FFA plans national convention trip

The USD 382 Board of Education met on Monday, September 12, where they discussed several purchases, bills, and other topics concerning the district. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M. by President Bill Bergner.

Dance photographer drawn to Pratt by stained glass window at Pratt Presbyterian Church

It was a stained-glass window in the Pratt Presbyterian Church that brought Doug McMinimy, dance photographer from San Diego, CA, to Pratt last week. McMinimy’s interest in church windows began after the memorial service for a cousin in Wichita this past Spring. He returned to the family farm in Sitka which he had visited since his childhood. His sister wanted to attend the Ashland Presbyterian Church to view the stained-glass window of Mary Magdalene facing the tomb with Jesus standing behind her. McMinimy said, “It was like a meditation on death and grief and resurrection and hope. It is a beautiful church with gorgeous woodwork that was built over a hundred years ago.” McMinimy learned from a parishioner that the membership is down to just a handful now and was told it would probably “close up shop” in a few years. Mc-Minimy said,“I was mourning [that] and thinking that I would really like to do my best to photograph it and capture something of the love and faith that has been poured into that building for over a century.” He said that often photographers go into decaying buildings and ghost towns in ruins and, “I wanted to capture it while it was still alive and vibrant and had a heartbeat. I didn’t want it to be postmortem.” He shared that it was the church his grandparents had attended and his parents were married there. He decided then to return to Kansas and do the best he could to record the church. When he made the decision to make the car trip from CA to KS, Mc-Minimy thought, “Well, if I’m coming back for that, I should look around for other churches in the area.” He started a search on websites and came across Pratt Presbyterian Church. He was especially interested in the stained-glass window of the Sower sowing seeds. He said, “It is so meaningful in farm country to have that window. That was really poignant to me. I also saw that the exterior of the church was very beautiful, so it seemed like a good candidate.” He spoke

Let’s help each other escape the web of prescription addiction; beware of fentanyl

Since the 1990s, prescription pills have been overprescribed leading users to become addicted to opiates. People would go to pill mills to obtain large quantities of prescription opiates. After the government started cracking down on these pill mills, addicts turned to the streets to self-medicate. The danger now is Fentanyl is being pressed to look like a real prescription pill.

Consumerism is all that connects America these days

Sure, the United States is a big country, but most Americans live in a much smaller world, and many live in tiny burrows of their own making. Education and common citizenship are supposed to draw us all together, but that isn’t happening anymore.