Easy Vacation Ideas

Pillsbury Crossing, located near Manhattan, Kansas, is a shallow river with a few surrounding waterfalls.

“The falls are just a few dozen feet down river from the crossing and can be reached from parking spots next to the east side of Pillsbury Crossing,” according to Kansas Travel.

The river is a busy spot during the summer, with several visitors making it an activity spot.

“The site gets a fair number of local partying teens, as well as fishing, hiking, canoeing visitors in the summer,” according to Kansas Travel.

There’s a variety of different fish to catch and a few trails to hike on.

“There is a short hiking trail or hikers may follow the sides of Deep Creek. There is good channel cat fishing both above and below the crossing. Other species include spotted bass, largemouth bass, bullhead catfish and carp,” according to Kansas Travel

Manhattan is also about a two hour drive from Olathe, making it a relatively short drive.

by Mia Pham reporter

This old villa in Atchison, Kansas is said to be haunted by spirits of many different people.

“Over the course of its existence, the house has been the location of nine documented deaths,” according to NPR in Kansas City.

Allegedly, sounds, noises, and the movement of inanimate objects have been encountered while visiting the villa.

“Footsteps, voices, babies crying, a creaking rocking chair, figures in the windows, cabinets that open after they’ve been closed, a shadow figure in the hallway,” according to NPR in Kansas City.

Besides just the McInteer Villa, Atchison itself is known to be the city with the most haunted houses.

“Atchison is just an hour north of Kansas City. It’s famous as the birthplace of Amelia Earhart, and as home to one of the nation’s most haunted houses,”according to NPR in Kansas City.

Although it isn’t Halloween, the house is still open for night time ghost tours and sleepovers.

The Konza Prairie is 8,616 acres of tallgrass prairie filled with tons of different species of plants and animals. While you aren’t able to freely roam around the prairie, the nature trail is available for tourists.

“The Konza Prairie Trail offers many things to many people -- runners, hikers, photographers, and those interested in nature,” according to The Outbound.

Although it is available for tourists to hike the trail, the prairie is also used as a place for ecological research for students of Kansas State University.

This means that there are rules for visiting, and they should be followed to keep the prairie in good condition.

“Continued public access to the Konza Prairie depends on everyone’s cooperation by observing the following rules,” The Outbound wrote. Similar to Pillsbury Crossing, in the yellow box, the Konza Prairie is located in Manhattan Kansas and is free to visit.

What’s going on with the other districts?

What is teacher life like at other districts?

by Kailey Donnell reporter

Education as a whole is struggling in a post-pandemic world. Teachers are quitting or disappearing and funding is running low. Is it this generation, or was it bound to happen?

“It would probably be the same as here. There’s always a certain amount of turnover and I think younger teachers are kind of pulling the lever quicker,” substitute teacher Roger Ramseyer said. “So there’s a certain amount of people that get into teaching and realize this isn’t really what they want to do. They don’t realize how hard it is. And so that’s true of all districts.”

Ramseyer thinks that teachers are not going to subject themselves to the worsening conditions of students’ behavior.

“Teachers have decided that some things that they put up with in the past are worse now than they used to be. And some of the changes in students’ attitudes have had a change in that too,” Ramseyer said.

Junior Maddy Angell thinks that teachers leave early in their career because there isn’t a lot keeping them there.

“I think there tends to be not great benefits for teachers in public schools. They don’t get good incentives to stay. It’s a lot of work and a lot of effort and for very little reward, and typically very little respect,” Angell said.

Ramseyer hears more and more talk of retirement around the halls than there used to be, and decrease of effort in the substitutes.

“This walking [out] is not good, they just disappear,” Ramseyer said. “In this building I was subbing for a sub who just walked out, and didn’t send in a lesson plan. They were only after a paycheck honestly.”

Ramseyer said.

At Gunnar Galloway’s old school, it was a lot smaller and poorer compared to Olathe South.

“It was interesting. It was a poor school so it wasn’t a lot of the lunches weren’t as extravagant and it was not the best money wise. There weren’t a lot of things to do in classes. It was mainly just core classes, not a lot of electives,”

Gunnar Galloway said.

“It would probably be the same as here. There’s always a certain amount of turnover and I think younger teachers are kind of pulling the lever quicker so there’s a certain amount of people that get into teaching and realize this isn’t really what they want to do. They don’t realize how hard it is. And so that’s true of all districts.” Roger Ramseyer said.