Smoky Hill
PROGRAMS & SERVICES
Academic Learning Software Programs
Online Tools Include Apex Learning, Achieve3000, Carnegie Learning, and Edmentum Solutions
Smoky Hill ESC provides many digital resources and learning software packages at discounted rates. Whether they are needed for closing learning gaps, remediation, credit recovery, extended learning opportunities, interventions, enrichment, or full virtual learning, licenses are available.
For more information contact Chris Moddelmog at cmoddelmog@smokyhill.org.
The ACT® is a national college admissions examination that consists of subject area tests in English, mathematics, reading and science. The ACT® Plus Writing preparation course includes the four subject area tests plus a 30-minute writing test. ACT® results are accepted by all four-year colleges and universities in the United States.
Smoky Hill Education Service Center offers an online ACT® prep course via Odysseyware that covers:
Modules on English, math, reading and science
Includes orientation to the ACT® Prep Test
Four practice tests, each with 215 assessment items with rationales
This preparatory course is for ANY STUDENT in Kansas who is looking to prepare for the ACT® Test. All you need is a computer or tablet and an internet connection to prepare for the ACT® anytime, anywhere and at your own pace. This course is $150.
Contact our Learning Center staff at 785-825-0435 for details.
Defensive Driving Training
SHESC offers defensive driving training courses for bus drivers, coaches, teachers, and transportation directors. Courses can be offered at SHESC locations or at school districts.
For more information or to sign up for the next scheduled class please contact Noalee McDonald-Augustine at 785-825-9185 or NMcDonald@smokyhill.org
Digital Citizenship and Technology
Programs for Students, Teachers, and Community Members
Technology has created many opportunities for people to learn, communicate, and interact in the 21st century. However, it has also increased the chances that they will be targeted by scammers, spammers, phishers, and predators. As more people get involved with remote learning, social networking, online communications, and e-commerce, it becomes more important that they know how to act safely and protect themselves while in cyberspace. These Smoky Hill ESC programs focus on suggestions for being a good digital citizen.
For Questions or Additional Information, Contact: Chris Moddelmog at 785-825-9185 or cmoddelmog@smokyhill.org.
Resource Library
Search and see what we have available in the library
Library items are available for checkout by employees of our member school districts.
Most items are checked out for a period of four weeks. New items are available for a period of two weeks.
There are three ways to receive your library materials:
1. USD 305 will pick up and deliver on Tuesday and Thursday each week.
2. We can mail items to your districts.
3. If we are coming to your area we can drop off items at your school office.
If you would like assistance finding items you may email Nicole Harmon-Hendrix at library@smokyhill.org or call her at 785-825-9185.
From books and videos to puppets and science kits, there are resources to fit teachers' needs in the SHESC Resource Library.
Feel free to stop by our Salina office at 605 East Crawford St. and see what we have available.
If you would like to put items on hold or reserve them online you will need a patron barcode and password.
E-Rate Services
The E-Rate assistance we provide includes, but is not limited to:
Meeting with school officials yearly to determine needs and start the E-Rate process for the upcoming school year.
Filling out all forms necessary to request reimbursement.
Guiding you through the bid process.
Responding to program review questions.
Following up with school officials to make sure credit was received.
Assisting with any level of an audit.
Retaining documents.
Being available for one-on-one support.
How can Smoky Hill Education Service Center help me take advantage of the savings?
The Smoky Hill Education Service Center has been providing E-Rate assistance to schools since the federal program started in 1998. The SHESC E-Rate team has diverse backgrounds in education and technology, ensuring that you are able to take full advantage of the program.
Our team’s primary focus is to ensure that you receive the maximum amount of reimbursement. We stay current on program changes by attending trainings and keeping abreast of E-Rate news. Our goal is to make the process as painless as possible for you, allowing you to focus on other challenges. On average we secure more than $1.5 million in savings for our schools in a school year.
For E-Rate assistance please call or email:
Tamera Burke at 785-825-9185 or TBurke@smokyhill.org
Joshua Dinkel at 785-825-9185 or JDinkel@smokyhill.org
Deb Steward at DSteward@smokyhill.org
Health, Safety, & Transportation Services
Schools and school districts have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure that students and staff are healthy and safe. To help meet these needs, SHESC offers environmental services that include:
Basic First Aid, CPR and AED
Mold Inspections: SHESC can help develop a plan for any of the issues described by the EPA here.
Playground Safety: We can provide assistance with recommendations based on the Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines to administrators concerned about the safety of their school playgrounds or who are considering upgrading an existing playground area.
Defensive Driving Training
Asbestos Awareness, Re-inspection and Sampling
Asbestos is a category of fibrous, silicate mineral that is composes of long, thin crystals. It was often used through the 1970s in construction and fireproofing until its role in cancer and other serious lung conditions - when airborne - became widely acknowledged.
To mitigate the risk of asbestos in older buildings, all public school districts and non-profits schools must create, maintain and update asbestos management plans, with copies kept at each school. The plan must include:
The school's name and address.
The type of asbestos material in the school (if any).
The location of any asbestos in each school, including blueprints that clearly mark any asbestos materials that are remaining.
The date of the original school inspection.
The plan for re-inspections.
Recommended asbestos response actions.
Any actions already taken for removing or repairing the asbestos-containing material, including preventive measures to reduce the possibility of exposure.
Copies of any asbestos materials analysis conducted, along with the name and address of any laboratory that sampled and tested material.
The name, address and phone number of the designated contact person who is ensuring the duties of the school district or non-profit school are completed.
A description of any steps taken to communicate to and inform workers, teachers and students (or their parents / legal guardians) about any inspections, re-inspections, response actions and regular surveillance.
Clearly, the process can be lengthy and complex, so SHESC helps as a guide through the process - ensuring that each step is completed and properly documented.
For more details contact Noalee McDonald-Augustine at 785-825-9185 or nmcdonald@smokyhill.org
Fast ForWord
The company Scientific Learning has combined years of neuroscience research with the latest multimedia technology in developing the Fast ForWord family of products. These learning activities help students attain the language and reading skills necessary to achieve the requirements of state language arts standards.
After working on Fast ForWord exercises, students often find they have mastered the basic skills they need to fully engage in their educational experience, not only in language arts, but also across the curriculum, as language and reading comprehension are keys to every subject area.
Fast ForWord K-12 products also correspond to the requirements of most dyslexia legislation for an instructional program.
Fast ForWord products provide assessment, intervention and proven results, which align directly with the goals of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Read more information about Fast ForWord here and contact Mary Albers at malbers@smokyhill.org for more information about what Smoky Hill Education Service Center offers with the program.
High School Credit Recovery
This program is for students who are currently attending high school in Kansas and need to retake a high school course. It is our goal to help you stay on target to graduate with your class. Students will have access to certified teachers and may complete courses online while attending their local high school.
What’s the next step?
Interested students must get permission from current high school officials - a school counselor, principal, or both. We need this permission in writing, either a letter or e-mail. This letter must give us permission for you to take courses through our program, as well as provide us with the course that you have permission to take.
Fees
The fee is $300 per semester course, which SHESC will bill your school for. However, some schools may rather have you pay that fee directly to us, so we will do whatever your district prefers.
Credit Recovery Policies
All pre-tests and semester tests must be taken in our facility or proctored by a school official.
Don’t wait any longer, get back on track with our high school credit recovery program. We have core and elective courses available. If you have any questions, please contact us at 785-825-0435
Leadership Support
◊ Meets all KSDE mentoring requirements for new principals. ◊
◊ Additional meeting dates can be arranged if requested. ◊
Being a district or building leader is a great opportunity that comes with awesome responsibility. There are times where you will feel accomplishment, pride, and joy in the position. There also might be times where you feel confused, burdened, isolated, or even overwhelmed. The SHESC Leadership Support program is designed to allow you to share your accomplishments as well as get support and feedback from people who are, or have been, in your shoes.
We will discuss the hot topics of the day, special concerns or questions that you have from your building, and what trends or requirements are on the way in education. We will occasionally be joined by Kansas administrators, policy makers, and content area experts as well to share their points of view on current topics.
Join us to learn about how to balance the everyday demands of running a building or district while still accomplishing those “big things” that will mean better outcomes for your students!
Topics will include: leadership theories; using data to inform decision-making; the 21 responsibilities of school leaders; how to bring about lasting, meaningful change; doing the right work; and how to be an effective leader.
Dr. Lydia Gerzel-Short - Smoky Hill Education Service Center Assistant Director - will facilitate these monthly mentoring sessions. In addition, you will hear from other Kansas leaders, policymakers and content experts to make your school or district leadership as effective as possible.
Learn360
Digital Media Content is Available Through SHESC
Smoky Hill ESC Partners with Learn360
Learn360 is a great media-on-demand service, which allows subscribers to stream or download thousands of video clips and other K-12 educational media.
The content is searchable by keyword, subject, grade level, state standard, media format and more.
Users have access to content provided by a variety of vendors including National Geographic, History Channel, Bennett Watt, Sunburst, A&E, and many other well-known publishers. With all content thoroughly vetted and age-appropriate, users can feel confident they'll avoid unpleasant surprises inherent in a basic internet search for video.
Videos and individual video clips are correlated to Kansas College and Career Ready Standards. All videos can be easily viewed on any device - including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and even smartphones. Everyone in the school district, including students, can access media anytime, anywhere.
A robust administration functionality offers a variety of reports, site customization, and connections to district media content.
To learn more about Learn360, preview accounts are available through Smoky Hill Education Service Center.
If you have questions, need more information, or want a trial login, contact Chris Moddelmog at 785-825-9185.
Adventure Program
Looking for Something EXCITING and HANDS-ON for Staff or Students?
Try the Smoky Hill ESC Adventure Program!
The Smoky Hill Adventure Program - and the NEW Smoky Hill Virtual Adventure Program - is an adventure education service dedicated to personal and professional growth and development through experiential learning (experience, reflection, generalization, and application). Experiential learning emphasizes three areas:
• Individuals learn best when they are personally involved in the learning experience.
• Knowledge has to be constructed by the individual if it is to mean anything or make a difference in his or her behavior.
• A commitment to learning is highest when one is free to set his or her own learning goals and actively pursue them within a given framework.
This learning process can help students increase knowledge, develop skills, and clarify values. It also allows participants to be involved in individual and group challenges that support and enhance Social, Emotional, and Character Development skills. These challenges require a combination of teamwork skills, individual commitment, problem solving, goal setting, and emotional risk-taking.
Smoky Hill Virtual Adventure Program
The NEW Smoky Hill Virtual Adventure Program provides a perfect event for individuals to practice and grow these skills through a virtual experiential learning opportunity.
In this current Continuous Learning environment, building relationships and teambuilding can be a challenge, and having students work as a team when they are not physically next to each other can be difficult.
Educators may also need to reconsider what problem-solving lessons look like because most of us have a shorter attention span for a virtual classroom. We are simply not used to being engaged on a screen for such long periods.
You may not be able to take your students outside or to our ropes course, but we can bring virtual teambuilding opportunities to your students. Whether students are working in-person or virtually, non-academic skills including effective communication, teamwork, strong work-ethic, perseverance, self-discipline, and critical thinking are essential. What do you have in place to give students the opportunity to get hands-on experience developing, struggling with, and reflecting upon these skills?
These virtual experiences will be active, with participants working together in small groups as well a large group. This is an excellent opportunity for you and your group to experience something engaging, encouraging, constructive, and extremely educational.
On-Site Adventure Program
If you are unable to travel with your group, but still want an in-person teambuilding experience, then portable equipment, games, and initiatives can be brought to your building for an On-Site Adventure Program. On-site experiences can range in time from one hour to a full-day and can serve as a standalone event or as a preparation experience for groups coming to the Ropes Course. Virtual Adventure Programs can also serve as a preparation experience.
The Smoky Hill Adventure Program can be designed to fit your individual needs, budget, and goals. Specific programs are available for students; staff; individuals with physical, emotional, or mental disabilities (in any combination); at-risk youth; student organizations or teams; corporate groups; and youth groups.
Program goals can include:
Taking opportunities for healthy risk-taking and success
Strengthening communication and conflict-resolution skills
Improving problem solving and critical-thinking skills
Enhancing self-esteem and self-awareness
Developing trust in oneself and others
Promoting responsibility and leadership
Building cooperation and teamwork
If you have questions, please contact Noalee McDonald-Augustine at 785-621-4414 or McDonald@smokyhill.org.
Rosetta Stone
Smoky Hill Education Service Center is making available Rosetta Stone “tickets” to be used by language learners. These tickets will be distributed to schools. Schools may distribute these tickets to students, families, employees, community members, etc. in order to teach or learn a foreign language.
The tickets are good for all levels in the language of choice of the ticket holder. This covers five levels for Chinese (Mandarin), English (American), English (British), French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish (Latin America) and Spanish (Spain); or three levels in all other available languages. The ticket is good for one year of access from the time of enrollment into Rosetta Stone Classroom, which has 25 languages available.
Languages offered in Rosetta Stone are: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, English (American), English (British), Filipino (Tagalog), French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
Smoky Hill ESC will continue to offer these tickets for $115 per ticket for the language of choice. The same option is $499 per single subscription on the Rosetta Stone website - representing a savings of more than 78% off the retail price!
Contact Carrie Sloderbeck at 785.825.9185 or rosettastone@smokyhill.org for more information.
STOPit is an anonymous reporting solution used in thousands of schools worldwide to help keep students safe and make administrators’ jobs easier.
Through a mobile app, web, and phone reporting, STOPit helps administrators identify and even prevent school bullying, student self-harm, and acts of violence.
Benefits to administrators include:
24-hour incident monitoring with early warning sign triage
Tools to help get in front of issues and manage risk
Resources about issues and resolutions
Training and promotion services
STOPit is available at a discounted rate to any school in Kansas. Visit stopitsolutions.com/shesc to arrange for a free demo of this product with Nick Zema.
Contact Zema at nzema@stopitsolutions.com or 908-748-4552
Technology Services
Technology is constantly evolving, resulting in ever-changing needs for schools.
Fortunately, Smoky Hill Education Service Center offers a variety of services for technology troubleshooting, networking, planning, and cost savings. Services include:
A Tech Cadre group that meets seven times during the academic year to discuss current education technology trend and assist each other with technology issues.
Technology consulting services. Inquire to Sean McDonald or Chris Moddelmog at 785-825-9185 for details.
E-Rate Services to save schools up to 90% on technology-related products and services. Participants in the program are also eligible for assistance writing their technology plans.
Bandwidth assessment to align with minimum FCC bandwidth recommendations. Call 785-825-9185 for more information and see the image at right for a sample analysis.
Virtual Instructional Coaching
The virtual coaching model supports classroom teachers with just in time, on-demand support to address student needs. Key to the coaching is modeling of effective instructional practices and use of data.
Some of the areas included in the coaching: ELA/Reading, Math, SEL, ELL, Leadership, and Culturally Responsive Teaching.
For questions or additional information, contact Darla Smith at dsmith@smokyhill.org.
VECTOR Virtual Coaching
Smoky Hill Education Service Center is excited to announce a new partnership with VECTOR Virtual Coaching! The partnership is focused on bringing high-quality, accessible, personalized professional development in the form of virtual coaching to all Kansas educators.
VECTOR stands for Verify perspective, Examine influence, Commit to change, Take action, Operationalize performance, and Reflect and recommit. The goal of the coaching model is simple: Ensure every teacher has access to an excellent support system and high-quality learning opportunities. Coaches can work with classroom teachers from preschool through 12th grade and from all content areas and specialties.
To learn more about the VECTOR team and the development of the VECTOR model, click here.
To hear from program participants, see the short video.
Volume Purchasing
Saving Organizations Money Through Negotiated Pricing
SHESC's Volume Purchasing Program offers access to discounted products and supplies for any non-profit organization (including educational and governmental organizations) located in Kansas.
For Smoky Hill Education Service Center charter and associate members, this is a free benefit included with membership.
For non-members, there is NO regular maintenance fee or sign-up fee to register for volume purchasing; only a small 2% administrative fee, based only on the price of any items purchased, will be assessed quarterly. (This excludes any shipping fees or other supplier fees for the purposes of determining the fee.)
Current category areas include technology products (from CDW-G), the full online catalogs of School Specialty and Frey Scientific, athletic supply, cafeteria supply, cafeteria food, card stock and copy paper, COVID-19 prevention supplies, custodial supply, furnace filters, lighting, and lumber.
For more information, visit go.smokyhill.org/vp or contact Lois Hanchett, Volume Purchasing Assistant, at vp@smokyhill.org or 785-825-9185. You can also fill out the form below to inquire for more information.
The Smoky Hill Volume Purchasing program saves school districts and other organizations money!
For more information, contact Diane Mann at 785-825-9185.
For current catalogs in PDF format, please use the buttons below.
ARE YOU A SUPPLIER?
SHESC Volume Purchasing is a great opportunity to expand your customer base, to bring attention to your brand, and to help to give back to Kansas communities by helping to connect them with your products at a competitive discount.
Visit go.smokyhill.org/requests-for-bid to see requests currently open for bids, as well as past bid requests on our institutional posting board.
For more information or to receive an invitation to bid on an upcoming request, contact Chris Moddelmog at 785-825-9185.
PLEASE NOTE: When checking out with CDW-G, if you see an option to check out as a "Guest" DO NOT use this option. You will need to create a full account. Failure to do so will result in incorrect billing!
Several popular product categories are also listed on the start page, including Interactive Flat Panels, Projectors, Color Printers, Black and White Printers, Microsoft Software & Adobe Software Licensing (Contact the account team at the link directly for a quote)
To register for the first time in ESM Purchasing, enter your email address and click "Forgot Your Password." Follow the directions and set your password.
If you are not entered into the system yet, you will not be able to register. Email vp@smokyhill.org with your Email Address, District Name, USD Number, Ship to and Bill to Addresses and Phone Number. You will receive notification when you can register.