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‘We weren’t very good at it. But we were doing it.’
Senior flash mob a big sensation By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com
ONLINE: See the video at LJWorld.com
With nearly a half million YouTube views and mentions on NPR and the Huffington Post and Time magazine websites, a group
of senior citizens from Meadowlark Estates has become an overnight sensation. “We are literally shocked,” said Andrea Wyatt, activity coordinator at Meadowlark, a retirement community in northwest Lawrence. In a 4-minute video taken last week at the Lawrence Target, eight Meadowlark
The first step was explaining to the residents what a flash mob was. “I still don’t know what it is,” joked performer Nancy Yeager, 76. Kevin Anderson/Journal-World Photo There was also the issue of RESIDENTS OF MEADOWLARK ESTATES who took part in the flash mob the music quality. “Two pages of such drivel at Target: from left, Jackie Marrs, 83, Bob MacLeay, 86, Glenda I’ve never seen in my life,” Anderson, 77, Charlotte Marino, 69, Nancy Yeager, 76, Lorna Allen, Please see FLASH, page 2A 89, and Roberta Lewis, 76.
City to send wish list to state
Gotta dance!
Intermittent snow
High: 36
residents perform a “flash mob” dance routine to the song “Last Christmas” from the television show “Glee.” The group surprises staff and shoppers, breaking into a rehearsed routine in the middle of the store. Wyatt said the idea came from Meadowlark’s home office in Vancouver, Wash.
Low: 17
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE
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Items include finishing SLT, higher fines for speeding Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos
Davidson upsets KU Davidson held Kansas to 40 percent shooting overall and 26 percent shooting from the three-point line as the Wildcats stunned the Jayhawks, 80-74, on Monday night in Kansas City, Mo. Page 1B
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ABOVE: Hugo Cowardin, 4, center, shows why he’s No. 1 on the dance floor as he participates in a movement class with his classmates from the Lawrence Arts Center preschool Monday. The activity is part of a grant from the Kansas Health Foundation for incorporating SmART Moves into the 2011-2012 early-childhood programming. The once-aweek program engages children in multidisciplinary, physical movement to connect kinesthetic learning with creativity and is taught by LAC dance specialist Ashley Boyack. BELOW LEFT: The preschoolers, in teams of two, play horse and buggy during a SmART Moves activity. BELOW RIGHT: Boyack, top left, leads preschoolers in a movement activity where they pretend to be icicles freezing into crazy shapes.
QUOTABLE
The situation could become extremely volatile. What the North Korean military does in the next 24-48 hours will be decisive.” — Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has made several high-profile visits to North Korea, on how the death of Kim Jong Il might affect efforts to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons. Page 7A
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ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Bond support builds; consolidation plans lag By Mark Fagan mfagan@ljworld.com
If there’s one thing members of the Central and East Lawrence Elementary School Consolidation Working Group can agree on, it’s this: A bond issue to upgrade elementary schools should be prepared, proposed and approved. The details, of course, would need to be worked out, several members of the working group mentioned during a meeting Monday night. And key to that would be whether closing elementary schools might be considered an impediment to building public support for a bond issue to finance new roofs, additional classrooms and other upgrades that have been stuck on a waiting list as the Lawrence school board waits to see what the future holds. The working group may have been formed to decide
which two or three of six its three remaining schedconsolidation candidates uled meetings to provide a — Cordley, Hillcrest, Ken- plan for shrinking the disnedy, New York, Pinckney trict’s roster of elementary and Sunset Hill schools — schools from 14 to either 11 should close within the next or 12. couple of years, but Monday Whether or not the night’s conclusions focused working group makes its more on finding additional end-of-January deadline or financing in the future than compiles a plan that meets dealing with an increasing the board’s instructions scarcity of operaremains an open tional revenues in question. But group the present. members appear The district alsettled on acceptready has endured ing the idea that a operational budget bond issue — an cuts from the state idea suggested by amounting to more the board to finance SCHOOLS than $9 million durconsolidation, a ing the past three way to save operayears and faces the possibil- tional money through capiity that more could be on tal spending — should hapthe way. Earlier this year, pen, regardless of whether another volunteer advisory consolidation does. group recommended clos“Even if we come to a ing Wakarusa Valley School conclusion that our charge and appointing the working is somehow flawed, we group to identify two or still … want a bond,” said three others. Kelly Jones, a representaThe school board closed tive from Cordley School, Wakarusa Valley, appoint- whose representatives ared the working group and is gued Monday night that waiting for the group to use all schools should remain
Next meeting The next meeting of the Central and East Lawrence Elementary School Consolidation Working Group is set for 7 p.m. Jan. 2 at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive.
open. “We want a bond. We all want that recommendation to come out. We all want improvements to our schools.” Group members debated what to discuss during their next meeting before coming up with a list that includes identifying “common themes” and discussing what each school community would need if it faced closure. Consolidation possibilities also will be discussed. — Schools reporter Mark Fagan can be reached at 832-7188. Follow him at Twitter.com/MarkFaganLJW.
By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
From roads to the speeders who drive on them, Lawrence city commissioners have items they hope state lawmakers will address during the upcoming legislative session. City commissioners are set to approve a list of priorities for the upcoming session of the Kansas Legislature calling for work to complete the South Lawrence Trafficway, higher fines for speeders on Kansas Highway 10 and efforts to establish a new sales tax on Internet shoppers. City Hall leaders, though, would be happy enough if state lawmakers just don’t throw any surprises their way in the new year. “In many cases, one of the best things the Kansas Legislature can do for us is to leave us alone in terms of unfunded mandates or changing laws Corliss that impact our operations,” said City Manager David Corliss. Commissioners at tonight’s meeting are set to approve the commission’s Legislative Priorities Statement, which will be presented at a Jan. 9 breakfast meeting with legislators. Among the issues included in the draft version of the legislative statement are: !" Maintain funding for the South Lawrence Trafficway. Funding for the uncompleted bypass project is included in the T-Works comprehensive transportation program, and the city wants it to stay that way. The statement calls completion of the SLT a “key” project for Lawrence. !" Higher fines for speeders on K-10. The statement says Lawrence supports designating K-10 as a “Highway Safety Corridor.” Such corridors allow the state to charge higher than normal fines for traffic violations that occur on the road. The higher fines then could be used to fund more frequent patrols of K-10. The idea of a safety corridor for K-10 has emerged because several serious and sometimes fatal accidents have Please see PRIORITIES, page 2A