ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

The Kansas Legal Service is in the process of helping community members with criminal convictions or arrests across the state who may qualify for legal assistance to clear their records and open the door to better employment and housing opportunities.

As part of KLS’s Workforce Development Initiative, the agency hosts Free Expungement and Driver’s License Clinics, including one recently in Liberal.

The clinic aims to remove barriers preventing Kansans from fully participating in the workforce. As part of the clinics, KLS Director of Pro Bono Services Joy Springfield said attorneys and legal staff are available to review cases, answer questions and guide participants through the legal process, with services offered at no cost to eligible participants.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Schools throughout USD 480 continue to show progress through the High Reliability Schools (HRS) program, and Eisenhower Middle School has indeed been making great strides.

“We had a great response rate from the students at 92 percent, and we always have great numbers from the students since it’s mandatory for them. 78 percent of our staff participated in the survey, so that was also pretty strong engagement,” Principal Randi Jones said. “Our parent response was the lowest, we had only 25 percent of parents respond, which might indicate some concern about how this data would be used. I went back, and we’ve been doing a similar survey with our Leader In Me work for the past five years, and for our first year in 2022, we also saw a low response rate there, but as we’ve utilized that data and shared feedback with the parents about how we’re incorporating their voices, the response rate trickled up each year and now we have almost half of parents responding to the survey. As you all have seen with past presentations, there are eight indicators in Level One of the HRS framework, and we identified all the indicators that scored 3.5 or higher as a strength indicator, and for Eisenhower M.S., those were indicators 1.1 through 1.5 and then 1.8. We also identified a couple indicators we created some action plans for in order to make some improvements, and those were 1.6 and 1.7.”

Kansas Department of Transportation

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) and the Kansas Department of Revenue (KDOR) are alerting the public to a sophisticated “smishing” (SMS phishing) scam targeting residents by using fraudulent text messages.

Scammers are impersonating the DMV and toll authorities and sending urgent texts that demand immediate payment for “unpaid traffic tickets” or “outstanding tolls.” These messages often threaten license suspension to pressure victims into clicking malicious links.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The Liberal City Commission will have a full meeting on its hands this evening starting at 5:30. This evening’s meeting will be in the commission chambers at the Liberal Recreation Center at 950 S. Grant Ave.

Up first on the agenda will be the commission revisiting changes to the fireworks ordinance.

“The ordinance was first presented at the Feb. 10 work session and subsequently at the Feb. 24 regular meeting. The revisions requested by the commission have been incorporated. Specifically, changes have been made to discharge dates and hours, as well as to sale dates and hours,” the agenda information noted. “Staff recommends the commission adopt Ordinance 4643, amending Chapter 7, Article 7 of the city code relating to fireworks.”