… Buffalo Dunes, Garden City’s municipal golf course, … is halfway through converting more than 20 acres of irrigated bluegrass to buffalo and other native grasses. The move is expected to save up to 20 million gallons of water a year and 16 to 18 hours of labor each week. … The project launched in 2019 and is planned for completion in time for the course’s 50th anniversary in 2026. What’s happening at Buffalo Dunes, roughly a 10-minute drive from Garden City, melds nicely with Lee Richardson Zoo and the town’s parks and recreation infrastructure. The city did away with an iconic public swimming pool and built a new one, complete with a water park that preserves water rather than letting it seep through century-old concrete. Leaders and residents have bought in to water conservation, said Fred Jones, Garden City’s water resources manager. He oversees the water and wastewater departments. “We’re focusing on conservation, ensuring the city has adequate water supplies,” Jones said. “We’re involved in the conversation regarding water in the region, paying attention to what’s going on legislatively and in the field.”
Source: High Plains Journal

It’s been a decade since a major tornado hit the Wichita area, and during that time, technology has advanced — to say the least. On Friday night, just after a tornado ravaged the Andover area, social media was suddenly flooded with high-quality photos and videos from citizen journalists who’d spotted the twister outside their houses or captured it from their cars.
Source: Wichita Eagle

In Olathe, Kansas, where the school system is cutting 140 jobs, Deputy Superintendent John Hutchison said the extra federal money merely put off the inevitable. Now it is trimming millions of dollars from its budgets because enrollment, having peaked at more than 30,000 students in fall 2019, fell by around 900 in the first full school year of the pandemic. Less than 100 of those students have returned. “Where did those kids go?” Hutchison asked during a recent public meeting. “Where are they? They didn’t come back this year. That’s what’s laying on that additional reduction in our funding.” Families opting for homeschooling, private schools and other options sent enrollment down sharply in the first full school year of the pandemic, and generally it has been slow to recover.
Source: Wichita Eagle

The Andover elementary school slammed by a tornado Friday night will not be used for the rest of the school year, the Andover school district said Saturday night. Prairie Creek Elementary School “suffered significant damage,” the district said in a Facebook post. “Some rooms were untouched, while others were heavily damaged.” Students who attended Prairie Creek will not have school this coming week while district leaders determine where they will attend for the rest of the school year.
Source: Wichita Eagle

Public school teacher pay in Kansas continues to improve in the years since the state Supreme Court ruled the Legislature was unconstitutionally underfunding education, according to a national ranking of teacher salaries. But teacher salaries in the Sunflower State still lag below the national average, as well as that of Kansas’ neighboring states.
Source: CJonline