New King of the Hill

Students and teachers are wrapping up their summer break to return to the classroom next week, but there probably is not anyone more excited to start the 2012-13 school year than new Park Hill Superintendent Scott Springston, whose first day on the job was July 1st.

After nearly a five month selection process, Springston emerged as the final candidate to replace retiring Superintendent Dennis Fisher in February when he accepted a contract from the Park Hill Board of Education. Describing himself as a person with high passion and a focus on continually improving, Springston is now the top official overseeing the 15-school district responsible for the education of more than 10,000 students.

Educating and preparing students to become a part of a 21st Century workforce is what Springston said is one of his top goals for the Park Hill School District. It is a challenge schools are facing across the nation, but Springston believes it will require a working relationship with the business community to implement an effective strategy.

“We need to have conversations with businesses and industry to ask them what they need from their employees and how we can prepare them for that,” Springston said. “A lot of employers I’ve talked to in the past are saying they can teach the technical skills needed themselves, but soft skills are what employees need coming in.”

Like most school districts, Park Hill’s priorities are outlined in its annual budget and since the budget for the 2012-13 school year was developed and approved before Springston took office, a lot of what he will be doing in his first year is an evaluation of what works and what needs to improve.

“We want to be proactive, not reactive to issues,” Springston said. “It goes back to the question: if we want to be the best, what do we need to do? In this first year, I want to meet as many people as possible and help our staff get better. I want to meet with the kids to ask them how we’re doing, because they are our end-user and it’s their education.”

For Springston, coming to Park Hill is another opportunity to continue what he found to be a passion at an early age. Growing up in a family where his father was a teacher and coach, Springston shared an interest in working with young people and seeing their development take place.

“I did some volunteering and coaching in high school and really enjoyed seeing the growth take place,” Springston said. “When you take the teaching and learning aspect combined with system organization, this is a natural fit.”

After graduating from Gardner City High School and then Fort Hays State University in 1992 with a degree in biology education, Springston started working on his master’s degree right away while working as a teacher in the Hays Public School District.

“I started my master’s pretty quick because I knew this was what I wanted to do,” Springston said.

He went on to serve as an assistant principal and principal in the Blue Valley School District in Johnson County, Kan. from 1996 to 2004. But the accomplishments he is most proud of came from his work from 2004-12 in the Valley Center School District just outside Wichita, Kan. After earning his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 2006, he was named superintendent and identified two challenges facing the district that needed to be addressed. The first was a top-down focus from the administrative level, not bottom-up from the teacher-student level. The second was a rapidly growing student population that was beginning to grow beyond the district’s facility capacities, some of which were decades old.

“It was a very top-down culture that we needed to flip the other way,” Springston said. “We began to focus more on professional development for our teachers and staff, implemented a late start day to allow students extra attention they needed it, and created data based performance measures to compare our scores to state standards.”

To address the district’s growth, following a reported commissioned by Wichita State University outlining future growth projections and the critical need for more classroom space to keep class sizes as low as possible, in 2008 Springston along led an effort to pass a nearly $58 million bond issue. The comprehensive improvements included a new high school which opened last fall, additional classrooms to elementary schools, new transportation and administrative facilities, and increased security and access to technology throughout the district. Springston says it wasn’t just a matter of campaigning to pass the bond; it was about building a vision for the entire community, one which will affect students and teachers for years to come.

“We established a standard of excellence at Valley Center,” Springston said. “Park Hill is a high performing, high level district, and I want to work to make it better every day.”

When asked how the district could match and exceed the successes it has achieved by being honored with several prestigious state and national awards over recent years, Springston emphasized the classroom experience.

“Our focus needs to be on the teacher-student level and what happens in the classroom,” Springston said. “Awards just reflect that and will follow over time.”

Although the process which led to Springston’s hiring was somewhat continuous between the board members who led it and a group of active parents who voiced opposition to it, he didn’t take it personally. In fact, Springston believes it was a positive reflection of the district and showed a hint of the passion and improvement-oriented leadership Park Hill can hope to look forward to him uniting the district under in the future.

“I don’t think it was ever about one particular person,” Springston said. “We all have more in common than we don’t in the end. I’d rather have parents with passion compared to apathy. Park Hill is more important than any one person.”

Local Dems leader supports GOP candidate

(Author's note: this piece is not intended to serve as an endorsement, but an example of principle over party, and should not be viewed as an indictment of the writer's personal preference towards the candidates mentioned)

With less than two weeks until Primary Day, this column could easily be dedicated to previewing a handful of interesting contests playing out in Republican and Democratic circles. But I’m confident Citizen readers will research the candidates, read The Citizen profiles on candidates, make an informed decision and show up to vote Aug. 7, so I’ll leave the prep work up to you.

Regular readers know by now I often go to painstakingly-long lengths to describe my desire for our elected leaders to make choices and decisions with good government principles behind them, not purely politics. I often have to use hypothetical situations, wishful thinking, and broad strokes of the brush to paint that picture. Last week, a tangible example was finally found.

When it comes to the competitive race in southern Platte County for County Commissioner of the 1st District, Pauli Kendrick and a handful of other long-time Democrats find themselves split between the responsibilities they have towards two different roles. As Chair of the Platte County Democratic Party, Kendrick is charged with promoting and supporting the party’s candidates and principles through thick and thin. On the other hand, her civic efforts have transcended into non-partisan activities without party labels at times as well. This includes her term as mayor of Weatherby Lake and a recent stint on the Park Hill Board of Education.

With no Democratic candidate filing to run in November, the winner of the August Republican primary between incumbent Kathy Dusenbery and challenger Beverlee Roper will go on to take office in December. As someone opposed to Dusenbery’s re-election for various reasons and a long-time Weatherby Lake neighbor of Roper’s, Kendrick decided to lend her efforts in support of Roper, whose candidacy has garnered significant support from the Republican establishment.

Despite the simple reasoning behind Kendrick’s decision, which has little to do with a shift in personal ideology, Roper’s Republican supporters have over-emphasized this as a positive indictment for their candidate’s wide-ranging appeal. This hasn’t been sitting well with local Democrats, who believe it is inappropriate for their chairperson to be involved in the race. Democratic central committee members went to great lengths voicing their displeasure with Kendrick at last week’s monthly meeting. Their argument was that as elected representatives of the Democratic Party in Platte County, no committee member should publicly support a candidate of another party, no matter who the candidate is or what the circumstances are.

After all the passionate and strong-felt opinions were expressed, the floor was open for Kendrick, who had calmly refrained from responding up to this point. Collected and composed, she delivered what I believe was one of the most well-reasoned political defenses I have heard in recent memory. She talked about the lack of cooperation between parties at the national and state levels, discussed her disapproval of the way Platte County business had been handled in recent years, and talked about the personal reasons she was supporting her candidate. It was a refreshing statement from a person who - no two ways about it - genuinely wants to see what she believed could be a positive change.

Kendrick is making a decision other Democrats might also make this August. They’re voting to have a say about the future of leaders in Platte County, in a race their party has failed to field a candidate for. As long as the local Democratic Party continues to fall short in recruiting and supporting qualified candidates like they have in recent years, it’s a dilemma their supporters will be forced to deal with more and more. Other than electoral defeat, this is one of the additional side effects of a local Republican Party whose organization and growth has outpaced Democrats in the last decade.

In the end, Kendrick and other Democrats who decide to pick up a Republican ballot instead of a Democratic ballot want to have a say in who represents Platte County at the local level. There are less than a handful of Democratic races on the state level, but they recognize the old adage that all politics are local still holds true and it makes the biggest difference in our daily lives. They aren’t doing it to compromise their political principles. Though in the absence of a candidate available from their own party, a higher standard of principles surface. They respect their right to vote and recognize that duty to country, state, and community comes before party affiliation.

Maybe if similar decisions were made more often in the course of actual governing, we’d think more highly of our elected officials.

Political discourse often reverts to childish rhetoric

The most effective way for a person to make a difference in government has always been to take on the role of an elected or public official

Having the appetite for holding public office isn’t something a lot of people want to do, so the next best way to have a positive effect on the process can simply be contributing to the conversation. This means not necessarily being the loudest voice in the room, but by promoting respectable, informed, and productive public discourse. All too many times, though, it results in the opposite, resembling more of an argument between children than an actual discussion that can bring us closer to positive results.

You remember when you were a kid or maybe you’ve witnessed your own kids try to win a petty argument, right? They might go back and forth for a short period of time, and then one side just decides they don’t want to try anymore so they throw out a line like “You’re stupid” or “You’re dumb.” The other side goes on to react with “No, you’re stupid, you’re dumb.” No matter what the argument was previously, it’s lost all credibility at this point.

When I think of political discourse in this country, frequently that same argument between children is what I’m reminded of. Legitimate discussion of the issues all too often evaporates because one side or the other decides to take the dive into name calling, stereotyping, or simply polarize the issue. It transcends Washington D.C. and is present anywhere from your local newspaper to the coffee shop to the workplace.

While kids can be excused for this type of behavior for just being kids, there’s a term for when adults act the same way in regards to their political interactions. Whether intentional or not, it goes by the name of demagoguery, a word you may have never heard of before that is just as loaded in meaning as it is in syllables. It’s the “stupid” and “dumb” of adult American politics.

It’s important to distinguish the difference between an information based talking point and an emotionally driven act of demagoguery, which can be broadly described as the use of impassioned, crude, or agitating appeals to prejudices of the public. That is, rational and intelligent reasoning is not always at its core. Its vocabulary is often a hint that you’ve wandered off the path of productive discourse. Terms like Satan, nazi, communist, marxist, welfare queen, fair share, and the war on (insert cause) seem to be a few used to turn attention away from a mature debate.

Republicans sometimes express the idea that President Barack Obama is a socialist. In return, some Democrats have accused Republicans of being racist. Both are forms of demagoguery, whose purpose is to appeal towards a certain audience in order to support a cause. The extent of the statement’s accuracy is not important. Once it is said, its purpose of rousing a sense of emotion in people has been served.

In a democratic and free society like the one we enjoy here in the United States, demagoguery is all within the scope of free speech, as it should be. It’s seen on a daily basis from our country’s top leaders all the way down to average citizens. The responsibilities we generally associate with free speech are perhaps the most intangible and unenforceable of all, so they can only be promoted by example, which should be on display first and foremost from our elected officials, who more often than not choose to be intellectually lazy, using insults instead of engaging in policy discussions.

On the other hand, we can’t really expect others to discuss the issues in a sane and logical way unless we do so ourselves. Only then will results fueled by logic and reason replace those of emotion and passion. Good government and the discourse surrounding it isn’t supposed to be exciting; it was never meant to be compacted into 30 second sound bites, split-screen television interviews, or Hollywood movies. It was meant to be approached more like long-term relationships between people, because in the end that’s all good government is: quality interactions between groups of people over time. So ask yourself, how do we achieve the best solutions to just some of the following questions facing our local, state, and federal governments?

What is the best balance between Platte County’s park tax and making sure law enforcement and road needs are also maintained? How can Missouri’s education formula be fully funded again to ensure local school boards don’t have to levy higher property taxes? Are there any bipartisan solutions Congress can adopt to address both our short-term economic and long-term debt problems?

All are legitimate questions that have so far been met with little serious debate. We may not be debating on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives or even at the County Courthouse, but a lot of those discussions stem directly from how we talk about them around our own kitchen tables with family and friends. The difference between it turning into actual policy or just another name-calling, shouting match really depends on the discussion we have first.

South Platte ditches KCFD, goes for better coverage with cheaper AMR

The Southern Platte County Ambulance District will have a new service provider effective October 1, 2012. Americal Medical Response (ARM) will take over the coverage area currently be serviced by the Kansas City Fire Department at that time. AMR's contract was approved unanimously at Wednesday evening's meeting after being previously narrowed down as the final candidate at last week's board meeting where board President Bobby Kincaid was given approval to negotiate the contract. Wednesday was the first time AMR had been named publicly as the selected service provider.

Prior to the board going into closed session Wednesday night to review the contract with a representative of AMR, Kansas City Fire Chief Smokey Dyer addressed the board. In his statement he threatened to cut a mutual aid agreement with any selected contractor should the Southern Platte County Ambulance District decide to choose another provider. In the end, it did not deter the board and sets in motion the end to a relationship which has been on unsure ground since the district's previous provider, MAST, was merged with the Fire Department in 2010. Tensions have escalated over recent months as response times have continued to deteriate with KCFD response times with the recent report indicating ambulance calls only met contract standards 42% of the time. KCFD will be issued a 90-day cancellation as outlined under their current agreement.

Under the newly approved contract with AMR, SPCAD will pay an annual amount of $437,000 for ambulance services with a medical price index adjustment each year. The $437,000 contract price with AMR compares to the price of approximately $478,000 being paid currently to KCFD. Coverage under the new contract is also scheduled to increase as the district will have the 24 hour a day ambulance dedicated to the district it already has along with another ambulance which will be on-duty during the 12-hour period which has historically had the highest call volume.

"Having the ambulance dedicated to Platte County, and not other areas outside of Platte County, will mean they are just servicing the South Platte Ambulance District," AMR Operation and Communications Manager Cam Hendry said. "We didn't submit our proposal with only one ambulance, we felt it was important to have at least one and a half to meet the response time needs we were given."

Over the next 90 days, AMR will be responsible for making arrangements so the transition is smooth.

"I've asked for an operational plan to be added as an amendment to the contract, but it takes time for them to figure how many calls are placed in a year from a certain area to determine where to locate," Bobby Kincaid said. "As far as mutual aid agreements and other issues, this is AMR's contract so they will need to iron those issues out."

Hendry did not see a reason why Dyer and KCFD would not cooperate with the transition and hoped to work together in order to ensure everything is handled professionally as it has been in the past.

"We will need to work with both the KCFD and Platte County Sheriff's office to make sure the dispatch is transitioned well," Hendry said. "We expect to work with them as we have in the past to make sure the transition is smooth."

SPCAD to consider proposals

Board members of the Southern Platte County Ambulance District will meet Wednesday evening for their regularly scheduled June meeting. They plan to consider proposals submitted in response to the board’s request for proposals (RFP) for ambulance services to the district. According to the unofficial draft of May’s board meeting minutes, bids were requested from four local service providers. They included the Northland Regional Ambulance District (NRAD), the Weston Fire Department, American Medical Response (AMR) of Independence, and Heartland Medical Center of St. Joseph. The minutes, which are scheduled to be approved as drafted at Wednesday’s meeting, indicate Board President Bobby Kincaid’s belief that AMR and Heartland Medical were the two most interested in the opportunity to provide services in southern Platte County, but as detailed in last week’s Citizen, NRAD has also submitted a bid proposal while the Weston Fire Department has decided to turn down the opportunity to bid.

The proposals will be evaluated in addition to the Kansas City Fire Department’s proposal to revise the contract for services currently in the place between the district and KCFD. Since the district’s previous service provider, MAST, was merged into the KCFD in 2010, response times have failed to meet the standards outlined in the contract. Recently SPCAD board members began to explore alternatives which would lead to the nine minute standard response time to be met a higher percentage of the time. Whether a revised contract with KCFD or contracting with a new emergency medical service provider is the answer has yet to be determined.

NRAD wants to expand south

The Southern Platte County Ambulance District (SPCAD) appears to be moving forward with its exploration of possible alternatives to improving its current ambulance service.

This became evident last week as the Board of Directors of the Northland Regional Ambulance District (NRAD) approved a proposal for ambulance service to submit to SPCAD in response to a recent SPCAD request for proposals (RFP). NRAD, which is based in Platte City, services the Camden Point, Dearborn, Smithville and Central Platte Fire Districts, and provides emergency medical services to much of northern Platte County.

“Our neighbors to the south have asked for our help and we are excited about the opportunity,” NRAD executive director Scott Roy said. “We’ve worked with them (SPCAD) in the past and provided some services to their current provider. We think we can help them. We share the same passion for great ambulance care. We know how important it is.”

While the Kansas City Fire Department is the current contract provider of ambulance services for SPCAD, poor response times have led to debate on what options are available to provide improved service. Currently, KCFD is under a five-year contract — that began on May 1, 2011 — to provide ambulance service to SPCAD. The cost is $453,165 per year. But the contract includes a cancellation clause which can terminate the contract with notice of 30 days, 90 days or 120 days.

SPCAD April meeting minutes obtained by The Citizen detail that KCFD will no longer provide the board with a monthly record of response times and has no plans on moving forward with the current contract as a performance based service despite violating language in the contract which makes it a requirement. SPCAD documents also show discussion was held concerning whether KCFD had the legal right to discontinue services leaving the district without a provider, which had previously been implied by Chief Smokey Dyer. SPCAD Board President Bob Kincaid mentioned he would explore other options and RFPs would be sent to other ambulance service providers.

When contacted by The Citizen, Kincaid declined to comment on the details of the situation or offer what other area ambulance service providers had been solicited, citing possible legal concerns. SPCAD’s next regularly-scheduled monthly meeting is June 20.

In addition to NRAD, other ambulance service providers which may have been solicited include the West Platte Fire District and Heartland Health Clinic, which operates an ambulance service in St. Joseph and is constructing a new clinic in Parkville. West Platte officials said it has not submitted a proposal. Calls to Heartland by The Citizen were not returned as of The Citizen’s Tuesday evening deadline.

Roy, who took over for retired former executive director Tom Taylor June 1, was not able to disclose the specific price included in the approved NRAD proposal, but did indicate it was higher than the one currently in place between SPCAD and KCFD. Roy said the increase was needed to meet the same standards and goals NRAD provides its current coverage area.

“The RFP proposes that we provide them with the same level of service and dedication that we provide our current district,” Roy said. “In the price, we offered to match the same response time standards and reliability that we currently provide, which would be at a higher price than they currently have.”

Roy emphasized that any contract with SPCAD would not affect service NRAD currently gives to its coverage area.

“We are a tax appointed entity, so we have to be responsible to our home base and the citizens we’re already committed to,“ Roy said. “We take that very seriously, so we couldn’t jeopardize that level of service. The proposal takes all those factors into mind, the amount reflects that. There are a lot of things we have to weigh as an organization. We have to make sure we’re not giving a service somewhere else that’s going to neglect what we’re already committed to.”
When asked why MAST, the district’s service provider prior to 2010, was able to provide a high quality service at a lower price, Roy believed it could stem from several different reasons.

“I think there was a small benefit with the economies of scale they had with resources in close proximity back then. They could maybe move ambulances in easier,” Roy said. “Changes in economic times and changes in the reimbursements from private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid can go a long ways in describing the situation.”

While the SPCAD is a smaller, more densely populated area, it shares a border with the current NRAD service area and the call volume is similar which leads them to believe they can help meet their goals in several areas.

“We would dedicate an ambulance to their popular center and make it a priority when that ambulance goes out to use our collaborative resources to fill in its place. That is what we took into account when we put together our cost estimate,” Roy said. “They run about 1,000 calls a year, we run about 1,000 calls a year, so we looked at what we already do to meet that nine minute response times. Not every call will be met in nine minutes, but we’d like for the average to be nine minutes.”

Roy also says one of NRAD’s biggest advantages comes from their dispatch being shared with the primary service answering point at the Platte County Sheriff’s department. This means the same person who dispatches the ambulance is the one who answers the 911 call and there is little time between the call be placed and an ambulance being dispatched.

“The amount of time between when the call is answered and the ambulance dispatched is a very short period of time because there is no delay, which is the case with the KCFD,” Roy said. “We’ll see a little bit of savings in time in that regard. As we know thirty seconds to a minute is a big savings. It’s more of a simple system.”
Although competing for a possible contract award, Roy says all the ambulance districts work together from time to time and the goal is the same for all of them.

“If as elected representatives, they decide to go a different way, we’ll still be their biggest supporters and still provide any assistance we can. We’ve worked with them in the past and provided some services to their current provider,” Roy said. “We have nothing but good things to say about all these providers, even the current one, SPCAD is just looking for alternatives right now. Either way, we share the same passion for great hospital care. We know how important it is.”

Heartland Medical out of St. Joe and the West Platte Fire and Ambulance District are rumored to also have submitted proposals in response to the RFP, which are likely to be considered at the next SPCAD board meeting.

South soccer surge short-circuited

Even the greatest seasons sometimes end with a loss. Those which don’t are the rarest and most special kind. The Park Hill South Panthers got close to a taste of what that might be like, but came up just short of their first state semifinal appearance in school history with a 4-0 loss to Lee’s Summit North in the state quarterfinals last Saturday. Nonetheless, the 2012 Panthers will add conference and district titles to the school’s trophy case well as a valid argument towards going down as the program’s best along with the 1999 and 2000 teams, also state quarterfinalists.

After coming from behind to beat a talented Kearney team in the sectional round several days prior 3-2, the Panthers weren’t worried when they fell behind in the first half 1-0. It was a first half featuring several strong defensive displays which produced very few shots on goal for either team.

Park Hill South came into the second half looking to be more aggressive after playing defense most of the first half, leading to more of an offensive approach. Lee’s Summit North exposed a brief defensive vulnerability to add on another goal early in the half, putting them up 2-0. Down two scores with their season on the line, South mounted their most offensively efficient possessions of the game, getting several quality shots on goal. Their last, a strong footed ball by leading scorer Courtney Claassen, found its way into the goal, but was negated when a handball penalty was called.

“They’re a tough team to score goals on and at that point, we’ve got to score three to win,” Park Hill South coach Joe Toigo said.

Having come away with no results in their most productive offensive possessions of the game, the penalty not only could have cut Lee’s Summit North’s lead in half, but seemed to take away the much needed momentum the Panthers would have needed to mount such a difficult comeback. Lee’s Summit North would tack on two additional goals in the latter half of the game, widening their margin to the final 4-0 score. While this year’s Panthers team may go down in the record book tied for the school’s best finish in school history, what won’t be obvious is the adversity the team had to deal with throughout the year.

“The biggest problem we had was a lot of injuries; we didn’t have the same group on the field very much,” Coach Joe Toigo said. “We only had two players who started every game. Our lineup was changing all the time with injuries, conflicts with other events, illness, etc.”

Senior captain Katie Riojas, one of the two players to start each game, says the team became a close group throughout the year and those obstacles forced them to do things which would ultimately benefit them.

“We’ve all been through so much together,” Riojas said. “Even during our conference games, we were trying to do different things and figuring out what works, so that when we got to these important games we were prepared.”

With three seniors going on to play college soccer and a handful of juniors getting serious looks, Toigo said their focus to become better players allowed him to have more of an impact on guiding the direction of the team.

“I don’t like to compare teams year to year that much, but this team was different. I tend to believe your best teams will usually have the most players going on to play in college,” Toigo said. “So no matter win or loss, they’re constantly working and improving, that’s how I judge my teams. I think a coach can have more of an impact with kids who are also focusing on playing college.”

Park Hill South ends the season with a 19-5-2 record on the year.

Spring Roundup: May 21-27

Park Hill Boys Track

…placed 15^th as a team at the Missouri Class 4 track meet in Jefferson City last weekend. Three Park Hill athletes brought home top-eight finishes in their respective events. Dondrell Hardiman took fourth in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 38.57 seconds. Also placing fourth in the 800 meter run was Joey Walton with a time of 1:57.18. Devon Belew finished seventh in the 400 meter run with a time of 50.43 seconds.

Park Hill Boys Tennis

Park Hill’s lone state qualifier in singles, Michael Jones, was unable to advance from the first round of the state tournament last weekend. Jones fell in consecutive sets, by close scores of 7-5 and 6-4 to Robbie Nicolli of Francis Howell North. In his consolation round appearance, Jones fell in two sets by scores of 6-2 and 6-2 to Juan Jarmarillo from Central High of Cape Girardeau.

Park Hill South Boys Tennis

Park Hill South’s Zack Royle faced a difficult draw in his first round match at the state tournament last weekend in Springfield. Christian Brothers College’s Alex Pozo defeated Royle in straight sets, 6-1. Royle went on to lose his consolation round matchup against Brian Heifner of Lee’s Summit West 6-0, 6-3.

SPCAD doesn’t have to put up with KC response times

Nine minutes or less.

That’s the amount of time southern Platte Countians should expect to receive emergency assistance from an ambulance. Often times it could be a situation where each passing minute could literally mean the difference between life and death. As important as it is, it’s a standard which is consistently not being met by the Kansas City Fire Department, leaving the board of the Southern Platte County Ambulance District (SPCAD) in recent months no choice but to demand better service or make a change.

For those unfamiliar with SPCAD, it was a board formed in August 2006 to oversee and carry out ambulance services in the increasingly growing areas of unincorporated and rural southern Platte County. It serves all areas outside the city limits of Kansas City including Parkville, Houston Lake, Northmoor, Lake Waukomis, Platte Woods, and Weatherby Lake (District 1) along with Ferrelview and Farley (District 2). The first ambulance service provider for the district was long-time emergency responder, Municipal Ambulance Services Trust (MAST), and provided superior service for the district, reporting response times of nine minutes or less 85-90 percent of the time until 2010.

In 2010, the City of Kansas City decided to merge MAST with the Kansas City Fire Department. It was a controversial decision made by the mayor and city council, opposed by many, including SPCAD board members, but one which left the district with few options other than to contract with the newly merged entity. Since that time, response times within the district have dropped dramatically with only 48 percent of the emergency calls placed from District 1 in the first quarter of 2012 being responded to in nine minutes or less. It’s also important to note, KCFD is reportedly not meeting response times within the actual limits of Kansas City (north or south of the river), either.

Causes for the poor response times include traffic issues, weather conditions, types of calls they don’t include in their service (life alerts or touch technologies), and how much information the dispatcher needs before a unit can respond. Some people believe the main problem is simply the fact that a single ambulance, regularly stationed out of the Price Chopper parking lot in Parkville, can’t effectively service all of southern Platte County. It provides little room for chance, or in one recent case, a GPS error. MAST similarly dealt with these issues, yet met their contract obligations nonetheless.

With an unacceptable level of service, SPCAD board members recently engaged Kansas City Fire Chief Smokey Dyer by demanding response times be improved. Coming off a handful of budget cuts and political setbacks of his own within Kansas City, Dyer does not seem too eager to fix the problem and has only presented two implausible solutions to amending the nearly $39,000 monthly contract to meet MAST performance levels: lowering the coverage period from 24 hours to 12 hours or more than doubling the price of the contract. One will leave southern Platte County without a primary emergency provider 12 hours a day; the other will require an increase in taxes. Neither is acceptable at this point, nor should they be.

Thankfully, SPCAD is not limited to those options alone though. They actually have several options. First, they could contract with another provider, either exclusively or with more than one. There are several area providers credible and qualified enough to exceed KCFD’s performance, which can’t get much worse. Second, the district could create and implement their own ambulance service. Third, SPCAD could continue negotiations with Smokey Dyer hoping an unlikely agreement can be reached resulting in neither a cut in coverage or increase in taxes. Each option comes with a different set of concerns and complexities.

The board members of the ambulance district recognize this isn’t a frivolous political battle, they know their role is to provide a service that ensures lives can be saved. Being a part of a new entity in a fairly unique situation, there are few precedents for them to draw parallels. Unlike areas within the city limits of Kansas City who have no choice but to accept decisions and failures by their elected and bureaucratic leaders, the good thing is south Platte doesn’t have to and likely won’t continue accept sub-par emergency service any longer. It certainly won’t be bullied by someone who’s just walked out of City Hall with their tail between their legs.

Spring roundup: May 14-21

Park Hill and Park Hill South Boys Tennis

…ended their season against Rockhurst in the state sectional round last weekend with a 5-0 loss. In a season where the Trojans found themselves achieving more than expected, Park Hill come into the tournament after winning their sixth district title the week before and knew the deck was stacked against them as the Hawklets. Rockhurst advanced, winning their quarterfinal matchup as well, and moved onto the state final four to be held this weekend.

While the Trojans team season is over, top singles player Michael Jones will be advancing in the individual bracket to the state tournament this coming weekend in Springfield after winning in consecutive sets last week to advance past sectional play. He'll be joined by Park Hill South's Zack Royle who also advanced after clinching a win in consecutive sets of his sectional round appearance last week.

Park Hill Boys Track

…has just barely trailed Liberty all season, having finished second to them in several meets throughout the spring. Saturday’s state sectional track meet at Ray-Pec was no different as the Trojans accumulated 64 team points, a performance placing them in third place behind Liberty and Blue Springs. Park Hill secured two first place finishes, one from Dondrell Hardiman in the 300 hurdles, and the other from Cain Winebrenner in the 800 meter run. 

For Winebrenner, a junior, his trip to state represents the result of a mixture including pure determination and overcoming adversity. After tripping and breaking his clavicle, or collar bone, at the beginning of the season, forcing him to sit out for the better part of two weeks, Winebrenner has mostly been unstoppable the last month having wrapped up first place finishes in the conference, district, and now sectional 800 races.

"What it comes down to is his work ethic because he simply hates to lose," distance coach Jason Parr said. "Him and Joey (Walton) both have a shot at state in the 800 this weekend."

Walton wasn't too far behind Winebrenner as he took second in the 800 along with being a big part of the 4x800 relay team, also featuring Winebrenner, along with Riley Farenholz and Vince Tutorino. Devon Belew in the 400 meter run along with the 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams, took third place finishes. All will be making appearances in the Missouri state track meet this weekend in Jefferson City.

Park Hill Girls Track

….ended their season Saturday with a sixteenth place finish in the Missouri state sectionals. The Trojans earned 11 team points from performances by Kim Rau in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs (6th and 7th), Mercedes Robinson in the 3200 meter run (8^th), and Taylor Cofield in the pole vault and triple jump (7^th). Park Hill was unable to qualify any athletes for the state meet this week.

Park Hill South Boys Track

…had two athletes finish in the top eight at sectionals last weekend. Cody Kildow finished sixth in the discus and Max Rodgers placed sixth in the pole vault. Both came up two places short of advancing to the state track meet.

Park Hill South Girls track

…Morgan Keesee qualified for the state track meet this weekend after finishing third in the discus. Keesee, a sophomore, already set the school record in the shot put earlier this year and heads into state with the seventh best recorded throw in the discus out of the projected field according to coach Andy Keefer. Other top performances from the Panthers were Blake Reser in the triple jump (6^th) and the 4x200 relay team of Jordan Hammond, Sydney Minnis, Chandler Termini, and Blake Reser (8th).

Park Hill South Golf

Nick Schleisman finished out his high school career with a two-round score of 164 (78 & 86) last week at the Class 4 state golf tournament. Schleisman finished 58^th in a field of nearly 90 golfers. Teammate Matt Barry shot a 78 the first day as well, but did not finish his final round.

Park Hill South Girls Soccer

…scorched a path through district play last week as they dominated the Class 3, District 15 tournament with a 9-0 victory over Winnetonka and a 5-0 win over Truman in the championship game. The Panthers advanced onto the Class 3 sectional round Tuesday night where they were taking on District 16 champ Kearney as The Citizen was going to press. The Bulldogs advanced to their matchup Tuesday by beating Liberty in their district title game.

While Park Hill South may feel realized to a certain extent by not having to face Liberty, who has ended their season the last three years, the Panthers have no small task in front of them with Kearney, who is currently 24-2 on the year. The Bulldogs defeated Liberty in penalty kicks, a game which may have been an upset in year’s past, but South coach Joe Toigo doesn’t see it that way.

“That was not really an upset, Kearney is the better team this year. If they were playing last year’s Liberty team that is an upset,” Toigo said. “We will have our hands full. They possess the ball very well and do not give up many goals.”

Courtney Claasen will lead a Panther offense with 31 goals and 16 assists on the year. South came into Tuesday’s game with an 18-4-2 record on the year.