ENTERPRISE
Schools face learning curve on discipline – Columbia Daily Tribune, Oct. 21, 2009
Supplies with Obama logo surprise school – Columbia Daily Tribune, Dec. 3, 2009
School donation causes schools conflict – Columbia Daily Tribune, June 11, 2009
Omaha’s prize position – Omaha World-Herald, June 23, 2008
Big splash: Coaches say numbers will jump – Omaha World-Herald, July 9, 2008
Schools face learning curve on discipline
By JONATHON BRADEN
jbraden@columbiatribune.com | 815.1711
One sunny day years ago, Carl Hayes strolled to the playground of West Boulevard Elementary School with a classmate, headed off to do what fourth-graders do: play.
Hayes reads through a core curriculum book while studying Sept. 30 at Columbia Builds Youth. He is working toward a GED.
But before the two hit the swings, the problem that would come to plague Hayes’ academic days materialized.
“He got smart to me, bumped into me,” Hayes said. “I got smart to him. I bumped into him.”
The two landed a few punches before teachers intervened. West Boulevard administrators suspended Hayes from school for four days, he said.
Since then, Hayes has been suspended more than 10 times.
“I knew what was wrong,” he said. “I just didn’t have the motivation to fix what I was doing.”
Some of Hayes’ suspensions were for 10 days, a few requiring an extended-suspension hearing to see whether his stay away from school should last longer. Hayes’ misdeeds helped contribute to what has been a spike in those hearings during the past decade in Columbia Public Schools.
In the past year alone, the number of such hearings almost doubled, increasing from 98 during the 2007-08 school year to 192 last school year. In the 1999-2000 school year, the district recorded 17 hearings.
School officials hold an extended-suspension hearing after a student has been suspended for 10 days or more because of a “very, very serious” action, Assistant Superintendent Wanda Brown said, such as fighting a few times, punching a teacher or dealing prescription drugs.
The recent increase in hearings indicates a rise in the number of serious infractions on school grounds, and such incidents have had a wide-reaching effect on schools.
Students feel less safe, according to one school’s survey. Administrators devote more time to discipline issues. School and juvenile officials see Columbia’s youths respecting adults less and less, forecasting a frightening future.
And frequently suspended students, such as Hayes, fuel the achievement gap and the dropout rate, researchers say.
“The kids that are getting suspended repeatedly need to be in school more than anybody else,” said Tim Lewis, a professor at the University of Missouri.
There’s also the effectiveness of suspensions to consider. Educators mostly agree that suspending a student does not discourage disruptive behavior. Students go days without school and return further behind in their classes. After more than 10 suspensions, Hayes stopped going to Hickman High School last spring.
“It just keeps adding up until the point where they didn’t want you in school,” he said.
The spike in suspensions also has police and school officials discussing alternatives.
“Sending kids home for two days doesn’t change behavior,” Lewis said. “It’s predicated on assumptions that just don’t hold true for a lot of kids.”
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Principals can suspend students from one to 10 days. The superintendent of schools can suspend students anywhere from 11 days to 180 days, the entire school year.
In the past few years, Brown said, six or seven students have received the full school-year suspension, which usually happens when a gun is involved. The school district has not expelled a student in decades.
In 1996, after the Missouri General Assembly passed the Safe Schools Act in 1995, the school district started reporting each incident when a student was suspended for 10 days or longer.
At an extended-suspension hearing, Brown serves as chairwoman. Brian Gaub, principal of Douglass High School, and typically another principal also sit on the panel. The school whose student is affected brings a representative, the student and a parent or guardian. The panel decides whether the student should return to school or remain suspended.
During the late 1990s, the number of these hearings hovered in the teens to the low 20s until the 2002-03 school year, when the number jumped to 44. Two years later, in 2004-05, there were 86 hearings, and since, the number has stayed above 72. But last year’s increase to nearly 200 hearings still stands out.
Brown said the two main reasons for hearings last year were prescription drugs and fighting. Students might bring pills to school from home, hand them out or be using the drugs, she said.
Last year’s numbers also might have had a boost from administrators.
In October 2008, Hickman student Diamond Thrower tried to break up a fight between two other teens. Mark Brotemarkle, the school’s resource officer, pulled Thrower away from the fight and tossed her to the tile. Video of the brawl was captured on a cell phone, and MSNBC aired it later in the day.
Less than two weeks after the fight, administrators instituted a mandatory 10-day out-of-school suspension for fighting.
It’s unclear how effective the new rule was, though, as Columbia’s two comprehensive high schools have seen varying results.
At Rock Bridge High School, Principal Kathy Ritter said administrators recorded 11 fights between 22 students during the 2007-08 year, totaling 82.5 suspension days. Last year, six fights were recorded between 13 kids, but the total suspended time equaled 113 days, with the new 10-day suspension rule having gone into effect a few months into the term.
But at Hickman, the number of fights spiked. During the 2007-08 year, the school had 48 fights. In 2008-09, the number rose to 55. Jeffers said eight of 10 fights at Hickman were between girls.
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Community and school officials have varying opinions on why more extended-suspension hearings have been needed.
For 13 years, Lynn Barnett hosted every extended-suspension hearing. She retired in June as assistant superintendent of support services. “It’s a reflection of what’s going on in our community,” she said of the increase in hearings.
But data suggest juvenile crime might not be rising at the rate of hearings. In 2004, the Boone County Juvenile Office received 3,394 referrals in the county. In 2008, the office had 2,754 referrals from the same area.
Columbia police statistics also have seen a decline in juvenile offenses during school months, according to Missouri Uniform Crime Reporting statistics. From September 2002 to June 2003, police reported 1,700 offenses for individuals younger than 18. Since then, the number has never hit more than 1,719 offenses for the same period. From September 2008 to June 2009, police reported 1,619 offenses.
Officials observe, though, that many youths act more recklessly than in the past. Rick Gaines, director of the juvenile office, said he sees kids challenging authorities more often than he did when he started 23 years ago.
Jeffers said kids fight more out of fear of losing respect than actually having a disagreement. “It’s more about face,” he said.
Hayes — a slim 18-year-old, maybe 5 feet 6 inches tall — backs that idea: He didn’t back down from brawls, whether at school or at the Dairy Queen down the road. “I fought all my days,” he said.
Hayes was 3 or 4 years old the last time he saw his mother. He grew up in foster homes, including recently in the home of Ann McCauley for six months.
“If he backed down, then they picked on him more,” McCauley said. “If he didn’t back down, then he got suspended.”
When Hayes lived with McCauley from October 2008 to March, she said, he was suspended for five days at least once a month.
The higher number of fights at Hickman overall led to some students feeling unsafe. In a survey of 1,500 of Hickman’s 2,114 students last year, students ranked how safe they felt at school on a 1 to 5 scale, 5 being the safest. During the past five years, Jeffers said, the number has ranged from 3 to 3.9.
Last year, the school rated a 3. “They just felt it wasn’t really safe,” Jeffers said.
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To combat fighting and other disciplinary issues, schools have long used suspensions as a deterrent, despite their questionable effectiveness.
Lewis, the MU professor, specializes in preventing punishments such as suspensions. “In theory, a suspension is supposed to decrease that behavior,” he said. “What we know is it doesn’t.”
Hayes remembers suspensions well. “I kind of look at it like you get to go home and hang out,” he said. “I stayed home, slept in my room, ate” peanut butter “and jelly.”
When Hayes was living at McCauley’s home, he was smoking marijuana and getting drunk a few times a week. When he was suspended and not at school during the day, McCauley said, she didn’t know what to do with him.
“I was always bothered that the school system would suspend the student and offer no alternatives that were constructive,” she said. “It was almost like a reward.”
For a while, the Missouri Department of Social Services arranged a caretaker for Hayes during the day. But once he turned 18 in March, he was sent to a residential center in St. Louis to work on his drug and alcohol problems.
The center kicked Hayes out for fighting. He then moved back here, living with his brother.
Unlike Hayes, for kids who consistently have had strong parental support, Lewis said suspensions might work. “You have to be a kid who doesn’t want to get kicked out of school.”
Administrators don’t disagree with Lewis regarding suspensions. In previous districts where Columbia schools Superintendent Chris Belcher worked, he said he saw how students fell behind in classes when suspended.
Jeffers said he doesn’t like handing out suspensions. “But at the same time, it’s the only thing we have to really get their attention.”
Lewis tries to offer alternatives for schools. He does not blame the teachers or staff, but rather the school systems themselves. He helped create a process called Positive Behavior Support, or PBS, which works with schools to identify troubled students before bigger events happen.
In Columbia Public Schools, almost every building uses the process. Rock Bridge High School does not, but Jeffers said Hickman is in its second year of using it, aligning discipline policies and talking with students.
For punishments, PBS focuses on using in-school suspensions, in which a teacher or counselor homes in on what got the student suspended. PBS also emphasizes data-based changes.
Jeffrey Parker wanted to fix the numbers he was seeing. In 2006-07, the year before Parker took over as principal at G. James Gholson Middle School in Landover, Md., the school handed out 867 out-of-school suspensions. In 2008-09, about 275 out-of-school suspensions were given.
The difference came after Parker started a “student referral intervention center,” in which students receive an in-school suspension but still work on homework. For minor offenses, the middle school hosts a Saturday morning program, during which students might copy down the Constitution. Parents have become more involved as well.
“I can’t get that education for them if, in fact, they’re not here,” Parker said.
The Columbia school district has alternatives in place, such as a three-hour period Hickman hosts at Jefferson Junior High almost every Saturday for issues such as skipping school. This year, Hickman also had its in-school suspension program restored, replacing out-of-school suspensions for less serious offenses.
Douglass High School also hosts an after-school credit-recovery program. Students try to obtain credits in a subject area needed for graduation, Douglass Principal Brian Gaub said. Eleven students, including some suspended students, enrolled in the computer-based program this quarter.
Hickman also has an after-school program for students with an individualized education plan, and most attend for a disciplinary reason, Jeffers said.
School officials have discussed other options, including a diversion program with police that would cut a 10-day suspension in half, with the other five days being spent on a behavioral program.
And fewer jabs have been recorded this year at Hickman. So far this year, faculty has recorded 11 fights, down five from this point of last school year.
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For students like Hayes, though, the goal is trying to move past the days of suspensions.
After first being denied, Hayes has been accepted into Columbia Builds Youth, a program for 16- to 24-year-olds who seek an education and career construction skills. He works another job in addition to the program, and he plans to get his GED in May at Columbia Builds Youth.
Graduates of the program have opportunities to earn $25 to $35 an hour at construction jobs.
McCauley, Hayes’ former foster mom who encouraged him to enter Columbia Builds Youth, is the assistant director of the program.
“Over here, he’s probably one of the most peaceful students we have,” she said of Hayes, who has also passed every drug test he’s taken at the program.
For Columbia Public Schools, the 192 suspension hearings last year represent a relatively small number, considering the school district hosts more than 17,000 students. But for a superintendent and a Board of Education that offer much rhetoric on narrowing the achievement gap between groups of students, these statistics seem to carry more meaning and could lead to more action in the future.
“It’s a systems breakdown,” Lewis said. Of the kids who keep getting suspended, he said, “we’re basically just passing them onto the next system. It’s going to be either juvenile justice, it’s going to be mental health, it’s going to be somebody else that’s going to take these kids.”
Reach Jonathon Braden at 573-815-1711 or e-mail jbraden@columbiatribune.com.
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By JONATHON BRADEN
jbraden@columbiatribune.com | 815.1711
Pencils and notebooks resembling President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign ads have been sold in at least one Columbia school and other public schools, causing the company that distributes the materials to travel around the state yanking the supplies out of machines.
“Don’t be mad at us,” said Greg Jones, a sales representative with Pencil Wholesale. “It was a total accident.”
Pencil Wholesale distributes supplies to six Columbia schools: Parkade Elementary, Cedar Ridge Elementary, Paxton Keeley Elementary, Mill Creek Elementary, Smithton Middle School and Hickman High School, said Linda Quinley, the district’s chief financial officer.
At Mill Creek, at least one pencil and a notebook with designs similar to Obama campaign advertisements have been sold out of a supply machine. Two families have complained about the politically tinged materials.
Three Missouri schools have contacted Jones since the beginning of the school year asking that the materials be removed, and Mill Creek Principal Mary Sue Gibson this week said she also planned to call Pencil Wholesale.
“I just don’t want to get into that political arena at all,” she said.
The bound three-ring notebook bears a photo of literal change — pennies, quarters, dimes and nickels stacked into piles. Above the photo, white text reads “CHANGE” over a navy background.
Below the photo, “WE CAN BELIEVE IN” sits above a logo similar to Obama’s campaign image — three red stripes separated by white stripes in front of a white circle with a blue background arching over the circle.
The supplies were designed by the art department of Harcourt Pencil Co., based in Milroy, Ind., Jones said.
“The art department was trying to be cutesy,” he said.
There was no response this morning to a phone message to Harcourt.
Jones delivers the supplies to about 800 schools. He remembers seeing the Obama-esque notebook when it was first designed, but “I didn’t think one thing about it,” he said.
Jones has agreed to go to schools that might have received the supplies and remove them.
“I wish I could do it over,” he said. “But, for now, I can just make it right.”
Harcourt plans to give Jones a refund on the supplies as well, he said.
But first, Jones has to find the supplies. Out of a case of 72 notebooks, three of the controversial notebooks can be found, he said.
“It’s turned out to be really ugly,” Jones said. “We’re trying to get them out of the schools as fast as we can.”
He also wants to be clear that neither he nor his company created the design. In fact, he said, he’s a registered Republican who voted for John McCain in last year’s presidential election.
“It’s a total nightmare,” Jones said.
Reach Jonathon Braden at 573-815-1711 or e-mail jbraden@columbiatribune.com.
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School donation request causes school conflict
By JONATHON BRADEN
jbraden@columbiatribune.com | 815.1711
A supplier of janitorial products has accused Columbia Public Schools of using pay-for-play tactics in an unusual fundraising approach by school officials last spring.
During the school district’s effort to promote a 54-cent tax levy increase, which voters eventually rejected by almost 62 percent, the school district sent out letters asking its vendors and other businesses to donate to its political committee.
Such requests had previously been avoided, said Jim Ritter, a former Columbia superintendent now serving as interim superintendent, because of assumptions vendors could make about pay-for-play — a term referring to the exchange of donations for contracts or other benefits.
At least one company that didn’t donate to the campaign has seen its level of business with the school district fall about 25 percent. Until its failure to donate, the company had seen increases in its account for three years.
Though other vendors that did contribute to the campaign also have seen decreases in their business with the school district over the past year, only one vendor — janitorial product supplier Hillyard Inc. — has expressed frustration about the donation plea and its effect on district contracts.
The accusation of pay-for-play, which school officials deny, comes as school officials work to regain the public’s trust and act more transparently. The claim also comes as the school district prepares to possibly ask the community to support a $120 million bond issue on the April ballot.
“I’m convinced that it didn’t happen in our case,” Ritter said of pay-for-play tactics, “but the perception can always be there. That’s why you don’t do it.”
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Missouri campaign finance law, section 115.646, prohibits school districts from spending any public funds to “advocate, support, or oppose any ballot measure or candidate for public office.” The school district can, however, make public appearances or issue news releases to explain ballot measures, according to the statute.
Columbia Public Schools has long had a campaign committee independent of the school district, the Committee for Continued Excellence in Columbia Schools.
In spring 2008, a few weeks before the 54-cent levy increase would go before voters, former Superintendent Phyllis Chase wanted more money to help with the levy increase campaign. She sent letters to the district’s largest vendors and other businesses, asking for donations to help the campaign.
Even though the letters ask for donations to the campaign committee, they were printed on school letterhead and signed by Chase. Chase, who left her post as superintendent in August, now lives in the Kansas City area and was unavailable to comment for this story.
Nick Boren, the school district’s chief operations officer, received copies of Chase’s letters. In an interview, Boren said he remembers seeing the letters but didn’t think anything of them at the time.
“On April 8th of this year, our community will be asked to support a tax levy increase to help the district continue to do what is right for Columbia’s children,” the letter begins. “We need your assistance.”
Chase’s letter lists the address where vendors could send donations.
Hillyard Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of janitorial products and sanitary supplies, was one vendor that received the letter from Chase. A spokesman said the company had plans to donate and respond to the letter but didn’t do so in time.
In a letter dated April 24, 2008, Norris McKinzie, assistant director of the district’s building services department, wrote to Mike Bond, the general manager of Hillyard in Columbia.
“In reviewing the responses for this request for help, I notice that there wasn’t one from the Hillyards Co.,” wrote McKinzie, who declined to comment for this story.
He wrote that he was disappointed Hillyard didn’t respond to the letter asking for money.
“I can only assume from the ‘no response’ that a two hundred fifty thousand dollar a year account is not as important at (sic) it once was,” McKinzie wrote.
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In a letter to the Columbia Board of Education, dated April 13, Bond accused the district of pay-for-play tactics. He also addressed Hillyard’s lack of support for the political campaign, calling the lack of response an “internal oversight.”
“We fully intended to financially support this measure,” wrote Bond, who declined to comment further for this story.
In the same letter, Bond wrote he believed the school district is doing less business with the company because the company didn’t donate to the campaign.
“We apologize for our mistake and take responsibility for it,” Bond wrote, “but we also feel like the district has intentional (sic) moved away from us due to this.”
Boren said McKinzie’s letter to Hillyard was a mistake. “The one sentence you’re referring to should not have been there,” Boren said of the “no response line” from McKinzie.
Once Ritter became aware of Hillyard’s accusation, he said, he looked into the claim.
“All the evidence shows me that we’ve not discriminated against Hillyard,” Ritter said in a recent interview. “I’ve known Norris for a long time. There’s no one with greater integrity than Norris. He signed a letter that he wishes he hadn’t.”
The amount of business Hillyard was doing was on the increase until the 2008-09 school year — after the company didn’t donate to the tax levy campaign.
In the 2005-06 school year, Business Director Linda Quinley said, Hillyard did $251,858 worth of business with the school district. The next year, Hillyard’s account rose to $258,320, and in 2007-08, it totaled $264,681.
In 2008-09, however, the amount of business Hillyard received from the district fell below $200,000 — dropping about 25 percent from the previous year. Hillyard did $197,243 worth of business with the district for 2008-09.
Ritter said the drop in business doesn’t indicate pay-for-play by the district.
“If Hillyard got $250,000 worth of business a year ago, and it got $20,000 this year,” Ritter said, “you would have to wonder, wouldn’t you?”
In his letter to the school board, Bond said he believes the district moved away from doing business with Hillyard and refers specifically to four bids: a chemical and floor- care product; a Filmop system for dust mopping; a paper towel and tissue system; and a hand-soap dispenser.
Hillyard had provided chemicals and floor care products to the schools for more than eight years, Bond wrote.
In each bid request, the district specified a product that Hillyard does not provide, Bond wrote in the letter, such as a Tork dispensing system for paper towels and tissues.
In a response to Bond’s letter, Boren touched on each of Bond’s complaints. Boren said each request required a specific product based on testing the district had done during the past year to determine the best option.
“You’re not always going to be the guy that gets the job,” Ritter said.
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Unlike Hillyard, other companies donated when the school district asked for money, according to a post-election campaign finance report filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
DLR Group, the architect for the new high school, donated, as did Professional Contractors and Engineers Inc., the company building the district’s newest elementary school, Alpha Hart Lewis, according to the campaign report.
The other companies listed include Lifestyle Homes Inc., Engineering Surveys and Services, Naught-Naught Insurance Agency and R & R Inc. in Harrisburg. Quinley said R & R Inc. and Lifestyle Homes Inc. don’t do business with the district.
Like Hillyard, though, some companies that donated to the levy campaign also saw decreases in the amount of business they did with the district. For example, Engineering Surveys and Services gave $200 to the campaign, but its account with the district fell from $119,860 in 2007-08 to $39,354 in 2008-09.
Naught-Naught Insurance Agency donated $100 to the campaign and saw its account slip by $135,347, from $447,453 in 2007-08 to $312,106 in 2008-09.
DLR Group donated the most money to the campaign: $1,250, including $1,000 received May 5, 2008, according to the campaign report, almost a month after the April 8 election. Andy Anderson, DLR Group principal and office leader, said the company sent the check a couple of weeks earlier — still post-election — but it takes about two weeks for checks to run through the company’s internal system.
Hillyard also tried to donate after the election. After Bond realized the company hadn’t donated to the campaign, he contacted McKinzie about donating.
“Our offer was rebuked,” Bond wrote in the letter to the school board.
Ritter said Hillyard’s donation was refused because it was after the election. But the committee accepted the donation from DLR Group.
DLR Group gave after the election “to financially support the committee to continue its work,” Anderson said in an e-mail.
Before DLR Group’s donation, Ritter said, the company was already the architect for the new high school. “So it’s not like they gave the money and all of a sudden the district changed architects,” Ritter said.
But out of the companies involved in the campaign report, Hillyard is the only instance in which the district switched vendors rather than buying less of a product. For example, Naught-Naught Insurance saw its business with the district drop because “we made a conscious decision to buy less insurance,” Quinley said.
Business with Engineering Surveys and Services, DLR Group and Professional Contractors and Engineers Inc. is all project-based, Quinley said. If the district has no buildings or schools to build, it won’t be spending money on engineering or architectural services.
In Hillyard’s case, Quinley said, “they just don’t have the product we want to buy.”
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Legally speaking, school officials say, they did nothing wrong. The only statute governing school campaign finances restricts officials from spending public money on a campaign.
Officials at the Missouri Ethics Commission declined to comment specifically on the situation in case they have to rule on it in the future. “I can tell you that we don’t have statutes that regulate pay-to-play,” said Betsy Byers of the ethics commission.
Richard Reuben is a law professor at the University of Missouri who often comments on campaign finance cases.
“It smells like there would be some kind of conflict of interest, especially when you would be looking at like a public trust like a school,” Reuben said. “You don’t want to have that kind of a stench associated with school” district “activity.”
Ritter said it’s about people’s perceptions of the donations. “There could be a perception that someone got business or didn’t get business because he gave or didn’t give.”
During Ritter’s time as superintendent, he or other administrators occasionally asked Shelter Insurance Cos. or the local banks to help out with campaigns, he said. But the district didn’t do more business with a bank because it gave to the district’s campaign, he said.
The decision to ask vendors might have been a one-time move for school officials, but it could have years of implications with Hillyard, other vendors and the community. For future campaigns, school officials already have ruled out asking vendors for contributions.
“You have too many potential problems when you start asking vendors to support issues,” Ritter said. “I don’t do it. I’m telling” incoming Superintendent Chris “Belcher that’s not how we do things here.”
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Omaha company makes all of NCAA trophies
BY JONATHON BRADEN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
The 10 men and women who work on Frank Pankowski’s crew are far from famous.
But when a College World Series team is crowned champion this week, the eyes of the college sports world will be on their craftsmanship.
In a nondescript factory a few blocks from Interstate 80 in southwest Omaha, these workers are now creating every NCAA trophy presented year-round, from Division III women’s ice hockey to the CWS.
“The NCAA sponsors 88 championships,” said Mike Johnson, rough mill manager at Midwest Trophy Manufacturing. “And we provide trophies for all 88.”
Altogether, the company’s Omaha factory makes the NCAA’s 400 team trophies and almost 15,000 individual trophies.
“Omaha is so proud of the College World Series,” Johnson said, “and nobody knows that the trophies are getting made here now.”
The smell of wood filled the air and sawdust covered the floor late last week in the small factory near 67th and F Streets. Stacks of lumber rested on metal shelves. Wood-cutting machinery buzzed continually.
Al Vasiliauskas, 59, fed long, thin pieces of wood into a machine that forms them into picture frame edges.
About 30 years ago, this factory produced about 42,000 9-by-12 frames a year, said Pankowski, the location manager. The company – then under different ownership – supplied businesses that handed out certificates and photographs for employee recognition awards.
Now, it’s lucky to get orders for 500.
In April 2007, Midwest Trophy Manufacturing, headquartered in Del City, Okla., signed a five-year, $2 million contract with the NCAA.
The contract has salvaged the factory’s slacking demand. Companies want cameras and computers these days instead of trophies and plaques, Pankowski said.
“Fortunately, the NCAA wanted a wooden trophy,” he said, “and we were here to provide it.”
Once the trophy wood – maple – was ready for sealing, staining and lacquering, Dee Ebeltoft took over, rolling a wheeled table of wood to her work area. On Friday, Ebeltoft was teaching Alma Denton, a temporary employee, how to add a coat of sealer to the risers, or edges, of the individual trophies.
“Use the same speed,” Ebeltoft told Denton. “Don’t slow down or go fast.”
The risers were stacked on a pole similar to a paper towel holder. Denton twisted the pole as she aimed a spray hose at the wood.
It took the crew about two weeks to make the eight team trophies and almost 340 individual trophies for the College World Series.
Making a team trophy involves at least 112 steps, Pankowski said. Individual trophies take 73.
The factory has changed hands over the years. Opened in 1958 by Craft Guild, it was sold to Jostens in 1969 and to Midwest Trophy in 1993.
The way the work is done has been altered, too.
Twenty to 30 years ago, three shifts of 60 people worked on an assembly line. Now, all the members of the small crew perform multiple tasks.
The company has made everything from clocks to plaques to trophies for companies ranging from General Electric to McDonald’s to Union Pacific.
“Just about anybody in the country that’s had a recognition awards program,” Pankowski said, “we’ve made stuff for them.”
In the assembly room, Charley Trout, who has worked here since 1975, and temp Elma Semmons were whistling away as they packaged and labeled individual trophies for Division I women’s basketball.
“Getting close to the end, Elma,” Trout said.
“I see that,” Semmons replied.
“I don’t think I’ll make it before break, though,” Trout said.
“I know I won’t. That’s OK. I’m not going anywhere.”
For each smaller trophy, Trout cleaned the glass, placed the risers, set the base of the trophy and put a block of wood in between to stabilize the risers. Then he screwed the trophy together. After removing the wood block, he wiped down the glass again and used an air hose for the final cleaning.
In his 33 years at the factory, Trout has earned some bragging rights. He helped make the extra-large box that holds William “The Refrigerator” Perry’s extra-large Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX ring and the 2004 World Series Championship ring boxes for the Boston Red Sox.
He also helped make the base that holds the pen and ring given to the Washington Redskins for Super Bowl XVII.
After Trout and Semmons finished packaging the basketball trophies, they started wrapping wooden plaques in newspaper, preparing them for shipping. Trout warned Semmons to steer clear of paper with colored ink, which could stain the wood.
“Got to be black-and-white, not colored,” Trout told her. “Don’t make the same mistake I did when I started in 1975.”
This summer, the crew will concentrate on fall sports trophies almost exclusively. They hope to stay ahead of the pace so that when they need to make the 8,000-plus trophies for winter sports, they’re not working 15-hour days, which is what happened last year.
Employees say they feel proud when they see players hoist up their trophies in celebration.
“To see something you made, and it’s in the national limelight, it makes you feel good,” Pankowski said. “Even my family members get excited when they see it.”
They’ll be especially proud every year when June rolls around.
As Vasiliauskas said:
“’College World Series: Made in Omaha.’ That sounds good, doesn’t it?”
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Big splash: Coaches say numbers will jump
BY JONATHON BRADEN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
What played out at the home of Tina Silva, the theory goes, probably occurred in many homes around Omaha the past couple of weeks.
Here’s what happened at Silva’s house: Before the Olympic Swim Trials, Silva’s three oldest children wanted simply to enjoy summer swim lessons and hesitated to join a recreational swim team. But after watching the trials on television and reading about them in the newspaper, they’re now thinking about joining a competitive swim club this fall.
“They’ve been really motivated with the Trials here in town,” Silva said. “It’s really gotten them excited.”
Local swim coaches say they’ve seen this before. It happens every four years after the Summer Olympics, when, they say, an estimated 10 percent to 50 percent more kids splash into Omaha pools. It would stand to reason that the uptick in interest would be even greater this summer and fall after eight days of exposure to the U.S. swim trials, which ended Sunday.
“The local clubs really do need to make sure they’re ready,” said Tom Beck, head coach at both Creighton Prep and the Greater Omaha Aquatics Club. “Because there are going to be a lot more kids who are going to want to try the swimming thing.”
In 2004, after the Athens Olympics, Millard West’s boys and girls swim teams both nearly doubled in size, gaining enough kids to assemble junior varsity programs. The Millard Aquatic Club also saw nearly 30 new families join in both 2000 and 2004. Tracy Stauffer, aquatics director for Millard Public Schools and head coach at Millard West, said the increased interest has sustained itself since 2004.
With the Trials in Omaha, Stauffer said, “I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like.”
Beck said he usually sees a 30 percent increase after the Summer Olympics. “Olympic Trials being in our hometown,” he said, “we might see 50 percent more kids involved.”
Coaches aren’t sure where they’re going to put all of the new Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin hopefuls.
“We’re going to have to get creative,” Beck said. “Because there is a big problem with pool time and space in Omaha.”
One recent morning, under an overcast sky and in wet, sticky air, about 40 swimmers crammed into Westgate Park’s six-lane pool.
Beck shouted times to the swimmers.
“48.0. 49.2. 49.8.”
“Let’s go,” one of the swimmers yelled. “Keep it up!”
Even without the seven swimmers who were visitors in town for the Trials, the numbers still would have made for tight quarters.
“It gets crazy,” Beck said. “I’ll go seven per lane. That’s as high as I’ll go.”
He said he isn’t sure what will happen when the expected wave of new swimmers join in the fall.
Omaha currently has three 50-meter pools — one each at the Jewish Community Center, Hitchcock Park and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Omaha teams and clubs can and often do compete in smaller pools.
To accommodate more swimmers, Beck said, a new facility would have to be built.
Come fall, some clubs could be turning kids away, said Docker Hartfield, head coach for both Ralston High School and Swim Omaha.
“It just can’t flourish unless we have a great facility to put our kids in,” he said.
Coaches say the momentum and excitement surrounding Omaha swimming may be at its highest to date.
“If there was ever going to be a major influx, it would probably be now,” said Lori Benson, head coach of Metro Omaha Swim Team.
Kids become more motivated when they see the United States’ best in person, said Lynn Weaver, head coach at Papillion-La Vista and of Monarch Swimming.
“I think the whole aquatic scene in our area is going to jump to the forefront,” said Doug Krecklow, Omaha Westside coach.
One of the biggest benefits of the Trials, though, may not be visible until 2012.
Coaches hope to have at least one Omaha swimmer representing the city at the 2012 Trials, especially if Omaha is again the host.
“We just got to get the kids locked into the fact that they can get there,” Krecklow said. “It’s only going to take one to make that decision.”