A new bill, if passed by the State of Kansas, would ban personal electronic communication devices during school hours.
Senate Bill 302 is on the table and could be signed into law some time soon.
“It appears that there’ll be more restrictions statewide, and instead of being a school rule or a board policy, it actually is a law. So there’s more weight to schools getting it right,” Dorst said.
According to the proposal, the bill’s approval would “authorize students to not bring personal electronic communication devices to school by leaving such devices at a house or in a vehicle”, unless the device is “approved by a licensed physician as a medical necessity to support the health or well-being of the student.”
The bill’s signing would make restrictions stricter than USD 383’s current arrangement, banning such devices from the start of the school day until the final bell rings.
Interview season to hire teachers and administrators to fill open posts for the 2026-2027 school year is in full swing.
“We have a handful of teaching positions that we still have open,” Dorst said. “…Right now there’s a lot of focus on our athletic director position with the retirement of Mr. [Michael] Marsh,” Dorst said.
Interviews for Marsh’s successor started Jan. 27 and will wrap up Feb. 4.
“The athletic director position is a very, very large, very public position,” Dorst said. “We want to make sure we get that right.”
A teaching/coaching hire that has already been made is the addition of Brock Leroux. Leroux will serve as both a business teacher and as the head coach of the MHS girls golf team; two roles held by Paige McCarthy who recently announced her retirement. Dorst though says Leroux isn’t a direct replacement for McCarthy.
“He could be teaching different things than Mrs. McCarthy teaches, because remember, we’re adding in the CTE-business department,” Dorst said. “We’re adding the graduation requirement of personal finance. So we’ll have three new business teachers.”
Other notable roles to filled for next year include director of the Big Blue Marching Band and a counselor slot after the retirement of Eric Ross.
MHS is working towards a plan to install a video board in the North Gym.
“I think we are very hopeful that we’ll have one for next year,” head principal Michael Dorst said.
The North Gym has long been the home venue of many sports at MHS including boys and girls basketball, volleyball, wrestling, as well as housing pep rallies. Few concrete details have been established on the matter, but a plan is beginning to be formed.
“We are in planning phases to see what would be installed, what our community supporters are willing and able to fundraise for and purchase and looking at a coordination plan to see if there’s any additional things in our North Gym that could be placed in a purchase-and-install timeframe to be able to be utilized for next school year’s season,” Dorst said.
