Free complimentary copy June 24, 2016 • Volume 3, No. 35
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Xtreme Wrestling Center celebrates 2 years in Raytown
RHS debate coach receives 7th Diamond Award
By Kris Collins Xtreme Wrestling Center in Raytown recently celebrated two years in businesses. The training center is discretely tucked away in Woodson Village Shopping Center, and the signage outside is nearly invisible if you aren’t seeking it out, but the company is making a name for itself on the pro wrestling scene in just two years. “I just wanted to find a wrestling company to be a part of and do something positive for pro wrestling,” said Jordan Rogers, general manager of Xtreme Wrestling Center (XWC). “One thing led to another.” Rogers, along with David Cattin and Adam Houck, founded the company, which is essentially a wrestling school, and a year ago the trio formed Kansas City Xtreme Wrestling, a promotion in which students at XWC can wrestle. The student body is growing and the school has graduated 10 wrestlers, two referees and two managers. Cattin, head trainer at XWC, attributes the success of the school and its students to the training and the opportunities students get to wrestle. “We’re here to teach a craft,” he said. “You don’t want a carpenter to
Photo courtesy Raytown C-2 School District Raytown High School Speech and Debate coach Mark Harris recently received his seventh Diamond Award from The National Speech and Debate Association. The organization gives the award in recognition of excellence and longevity in the activity.
Photo by Kris Collins Xtreme Wrestling Center Head Trainer David Cattin shows wrestling technique on a student.
go out and put together a house and learn how to put it together on your house. No, you want him to be able to put that house together before he goes out and hammers that first nail. You want him to have a good concept of what he’s doing. That’s what we’re doing here. We have
practice matches, we teach psychology, we go over character; it’s really across the board.” Most wrestling schools, Cattin said, guarantee a student a first match after graduating. Students at XWC wrestle in multiple matches before graduating. Actually, Rog-
ers said it is crucial experience that must be gained before graduation. “The opportunities here to actually get out and work are immense,” Rogers said. XWC recently partnered with Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to
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$2.9 grant, matching funds to put healthier food in low-income homes
By Kris Collins A coalition of health and hunger organizations in the Kansas City Metro Area aims to put more produce on the table for low-income families. In early June, the U.S. Department of Department of Agriculture awarded a $2.9 million grant to the Double Up Heartland Coalition to expand Double Up Food Bucks, a healthy food incentive program that helps low-income families eat more healthy food and supports local farmers, into 117 grocery stores and 68 farmers markets in Missouri and Kansas by 2019. The Double Up program allows Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit customers to received up to $25 per day to
spend on locally grown produce for each dollar spent at participating stores and farmers markets. Barbara Hensley, public affairs director for Mid-America Regional Council, said those dollar-for-dollar credits or tokens can be spent on the same day, or not. “You get the SNAP benefits at the beginning of the month and by the end of the month you’re getting a little low, but if you save them you can go back and get more fresh fruits and vegetables,” she said anecdotally, also making mention of one customer who saved the credits for Thanksgiving this past year. Local governments and private organizations have provided an addition $2.9 million in matching funds for a total of $5.8 million. “This program is a win for all,”
said Donna Martin, senior public health planner at Mid-America Regional Council, one of the coalition leaders. “It helps low-income families eat more healthy food, helps local farmers sell more produce, and keeps more food dollars in the local economy.” Other coalition leaders are Cultivate Kansas City; Douglas County, Kansas; the East-West Gateway Council of Governments in St. Louis; and the Fair Food Network based in Michigan. Feeding America, a national network of food banks fighting against hunger, reports that food insecurity in Missouri was approximately 17 percent in 2014, the most recent year data was available. Double Up reports there are more than 1.1 million Kansas and Missouri residents
who use the SNAP program. Over the next three years, coalition partners will expand Double Up to all 52 Price Chopper stores and four Whole Foods stores in the Kansas City Metro Area, 57 Schnuck’s stores in the St. Louis area, and four independent groceries in eastern Kansas. The farmers market programs will grow from the current 23 markets to 68, including several in rural Kansas and Missouri. This expansion will also build on similar programs already in place in the area, such as Douglas County’s Market Match program or Cultivate Kansas City’s Beans&Greens program, in which the Raytown Farmers Market participated this past year. The Raytown Farmers
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Raytown school board approves $126M budget By Kris Collins This past week the Raytown C-2 School District Board of Education unanimously approved a $126 million 2016-2017 budget. The budget calls for approximately $8 million less than this past year’s, and has $4.4 million deficit. (The 2015-2016 budget included more bond improvement projects). However, Steve Shelton, associate superintendent of operations, said the sky isn’t falling. He said the district, in addition to budgeting revenues conservatively, expects not all
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budgeted expenditures will be needed, and is attempting to spend down a healthy reserve fund to bring the account with the percentile range outlined by the board of education’s list of goals. The district has approximately $26.5 million in reserves, or roughly 26 percent of the operating budget. The goal is to have 15 to 20 percent of operating costs in reserve. “By spending down our balances a little bit we want to be closer to that 20 percent in reserves rather than closer to 30 percent in reserve which we’re starting to creep up to,” Shel-
ton said. “The taxpayers give us their tax dollars to spend on the education of their children and not to sit in a bank somewhere. … We’re spending it down by serving our students at a higher level.” To that end, Shelton said, the district is adding 13 new staff members, is expanding programming at the high school level for on-the-job training and internship opportunities, and is continuing the one-to-one technology initiative that aims to put a laptop in every student’s hands. The district typically has $1
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million to $1.5 million in vacant positions through the district, but the budgeting software the district uses, SIFN, accounts for all expenditures, even the ones the district believes won’t be realized. “The reality is revenues, traditionally, have come in a little higher than we budgeted and we typically don’t spent every dollar we’ve budgeted,” Shelton said. “We believe actually what will happen is instead of a $4.5 million deficit, we’ll have about a $1.9 million deficit for
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Raytown High School Speech and Debate coach Mark Harris recently received his seventh Diamond Award from the National Speech and Debate Association. The award is given annually to speech and debate coaches who exude excellence and longevity in the field. The National Speech and Debate Association has only recognized 17 seven diamond winners since 1925. Coaches earn Diamond Awards through a point system based on the number of merit points his or her students earn. A coach gets one point per the students’ 10 points. Coaches are eligible to receive the first Diamond Award after reaching 1,500 points. A five-year gap is required between each award. Harris has earned a Diamond Award every five years for the past 35 years. Harris’ students have earned more than 243,000 merit points during his career. During Harris’ 35 year of coaching, more 100 students have participated in 34 national tournaments, 11 students have been named competitive All-Americans (top 25 in the nation), and 18 students have earned Academic All-American honors (top 3 percent in the nation). Harris will receive his award at the National Speech and Debate Tournament during the Donus D. Roberts Diamond Assembly in Salt Lake City Utah this month.
Two Rivers Behavioral Health hires new CEO
Photo courtesy Two Rivers Behavioral Health System Terry Trafton, CEO and managing director of Two Rivers Behavioral Health System
In mid-June, Two Rivers Behavioral Health System named Terry Trafton as the organization’s CEO and managing director. “I am thrilled to bring my energy and passion for mental health treatment to Two Rivers and its history of serving behavioral, mental health and substance use needs in the Kansas City region,” Trafton said. “I am eager to begin
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