G&G
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B&B beats
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EGW
JANUARY 16 AND 17, 2016
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PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
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WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
COMMUNITY DAY CARE NEEDS
FUNDING TO FINISH RENOVATIONS
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
The second floor of Emporia Child Care’s new building on C of E Drive. The goal is to renovate the second floor so staff can move all three centers into one building.
By Kerri Jackson
The Emporia Gazette
The Emporia Community Day
Care is still in need of funding to
complete a full transition to the
new location at 1320 C of E Drive.
The day care currently has three
center locations, but the goal has
been to move all three centers,
which are divided by age group,
to the new location, which once
served as the National Teachers
Hall of Fame building.
“We’re still fundraising to have
the money to do the renovations
to move them there,” said Deb
Crowl, administrator of the centers. “We’re accepting donations
and we, for example, we did a
walk-run in September. Anytime
we can participate, we’ve done so
Please see Child Care, Page 3
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
Jenna Peters makes a paper snowman with Eli and Vivian at
Emporia Child Care.
E M P O R I A
S C H O O L
Lexis reads the book “Gingerbread Baby” in one of the classrooms
at Emporia Child Care.
D I S T R I C T
FOURTH CANDIDATE INTERVIEWED FIFTH CANDIDATE INTERVIEWED FOR
FOR OPEN SUPERINTENDENT POSITION OPEN SUPERINTENDENT POSITION
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
The fourth candidate for
the open superintendent position in the Emporia Public
Schools was interviewed
Friday morning. Robert
Diepenbrock, accompanied
by his wife Nancy Diepenbrock, met with staff and
community members and
was interviewed by the USD
253 Board of Education Friday morning.
Diepenbrock is currently
the superintendent at Kingman-Norwich, a position he
has held since 2010. He was
superintendent at USD 492
Flinthills Public School for
four years. He was also an
elementary principal and
middle-high school principal at Flinthills prior to becoming superintendent.
Diepenbrock grew up
in Herrington and his wife
graduated from Emporia
State University. He says
the couple likes the feel of
the community. However,
COURTESY PHOTO
Robert Diepenbrock is
one of five candidates
for the superintendent
position at USD 253.
just need to do more bragging on your schools.”
He is strongly in favor of
the current trend of placing
more focus on individual
plans of study for students
and moving away from highstakes testing.
With Emporia facing a
large number of staff retirements in the near future,
Diepenbrock says recruiting efforts will have to be
creative. He says the district will have to maintain
a strong presence at career
fairs across the state and
even consider branching out
to other states.
Collaborating with community partners is important to Diepenbrock. He is
also in favor of advocating
for education through contact with local legislators.
“I think we have to continue to talk to and engage
legislators as much as possible,” Diepenbrock said.
“Really ultimately we have
he also says that Emporia
has a reputation of employing stellar teachers.
“You all have great
schools, great facilities, you
have a lot to offer,” Diepenbrock said. “If anything you Please see Diepenbrock, Page 3
Good Evening
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
The fifth and final candidate for the open superintendent position in the Emporia
Public Schools was interviewed on Friday afternoon.
Andy Koenigs, accompanied
by his wife Valerie Koenigs,
visited with staff and community members and was
interviewed by the USD 253
school board Friday evening.
Koenigs, the only internal
candidate for the position
currently serves as associate
superintendent for Human
Resources in Emporia, a position he has held for three
years. Previously he was associate superintendent for
Academic Affairs at Andover
Public Schools for 12 years.
From 1992 until 1998 Koenigs was assistant principal
and activities director at Andover High School.
Koenigs shared that he
grew up on a family farm,
learning the value of hard
work from his parents. His
other trait passed down to
Koenigs.
“Public education is for
the common good,” Koenigs
said. “
He says that the Emporia
Public Schools have many
strengths, one of those is
teacher training including
Professional Learning Communities (PLC). Emporia
was one of the first districts
to implement PLC and they
have seen great success with
the program. PLC is time
built into the schedule for
teachers to focus on lesson
planning, lesson design and
COURTESY PHOTO collaboration with other
teachers.
Andy Koenigs, the only
Preparing all students for
internal candidate,
college and career readiness
interviewed for the position will be a challenge according
to Koenigs, especially with
of superintendent of
Emporia Public Schools on less funding. However, he
says that quality teachers in
Friday. Koenigs currently
the classrooms, early childserves as the associate
hood education for students
superintendent of Human
and individual education
Resources for the district.
pathways can create enviparents encouraged and valued education greatly, an- Please see Koenigs, Page 3
VOL. 124, NO. 169
Looking forward to the Emporia School Board’s decision.