Special to the Leader & Times

Southern Pioneer Electric Company (Southern Pioneer) announced the expansion of its Board of Directors to include four additional at-large seats. The addition of new board seats follows the company’s recent transition to self-regulated status after the passing of Senate Bill 348 by the Kansas Legislature earlier this year. These additional four seats will be selected through an application and interview process.

Consumers interested in applying must hold primary residence in Southern Pioneer’s service territory and meet all required qualifications outlined on the company’s website. Application packets are available digitally online or by reaching out to Southern Pioneer’s administrative team. Complete packet must include: a completed application form; a biography (limit of 500 words) submitted digitally at www.southernpioneer.net, or typed, printed and included with the submission of the completed packet; a photo (headshot) submitted digitally; resume including relevant experience and information outline the candidate’s expertise; and a statement of application (with a 250 word limit) expressing the candidate’s interest in serving on the Southern Pioneer Board of Directors.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Liberal has been working hard in recent years to make sure it has a voice in state politics, and Tuesday, the Liberal City Commission got to hear an update on some of those efforts from Watkins Public Strategies.

“As the commission is aware, Aug. 4 was when the primary elections took place, and people went to the polls and selected Roger Marshall as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate and Adam Hamilton as the Democratic candidate. There’s going to be a lot of money invested in that race as voters make a decision in November in regard to that race,” Watkins Public Strategies Vice President Jessica Lucas said. “This is also the time when all of the statewide elections are going on, so Kansans will be electing a new governor, secretary of state, insurance commissioner, attorney general, and treasurer. The gubernatorial race will be between current Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and current Sen. Cindy Holscher, and that primary was pretty highly contested this time around, so we expect to keep hearing from them in the coming months. With the attorney general race, that will be a matchup between incumbent Kris Kobach and Chris Mann, and this is a repeat matchup from a few years ago. The insurance commissioner race will be between current Kansas Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins and current Sen. Dinah Sykes. With the state treasurer’s race, that is going to be between Steven Johnson and Juan Luengo, and the secretary of state race will be between Pat Proctor and Jennifer Day. All of those races will be happening, plus the 125 House races, in which Liberal’s Rep. Shannon Francis will be running unopposed. There are a lot of unknowns in the races, and we will definitely be keeping an eye on the results of all the races going on. After all of that is said and done, a few weeks afterward is when the senate majority and minority leaders will be chosen as well as a few other positions and committee positions.”

Special to the Leader & Times

With National Call Before You Dig Day here, Black Hills Energy is reminding customers to contact 811 to have utility lines marked before starting any project that requires digging.

Whether planting a tree, installing a fence, building a deck or completing a larger home improvement project, contacting 811 before digging helps protect underground utility lines and keeps communities safe.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The USD 480 school board heard some important updates and items at its most recent meeting Monday evening.

One of the reports to begin the meeting concerned the Needs Assessment.

“As the board is aware, the Needs Assessment is a template provided by the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE), and the building principals filled that out based on their individual needs,” Assistant Superintendent of Academics Dr. Maria Gomez-Rocque said. “They completed this in the spring before the end of the school year. As we did an analysis of the common themes, one of the top ones was staffing, and that’s something that’s come up year after year – every building identified some staffing challenges. Another theme was the need for stronger behavioral social-emotional support, and that’s something that was again mentioned by every building. Professional learning was another common theme that keeps coming up every year, and the schools consistently noted requests for deeper implementation support. Also mentioned was a need to close achievement gaps – across all building levels, leadership reported at-risk populations as the district’s highest instructional priority. Also mentioned was the need to support new teachers and interim teachers – six buildings mentioned continued investments in these supports. A final theme was parent participation – while we have strong communication with families, we are facing a challenge in having the parents participate in different events.”