By AMY RICKER
Great Bend Post
In gratitude to USD 428 School Board members, January has been designated as School Board Recognition Month. In honor of the critical role school board members play in serving the district's students and community, Eagle radio has been featuring the school board members over the past few weeks.
Chris Umphres is serving his second term on the USD 428 School Board and starting his 5th year. His kids were attending school in the district and decided to get more involved and "help any way I could." Umphres had been volunteering to assist with different school activities and wanted to take it one step further.
Born in Loveland, CO, Umphres loved going to school as a child but did admit it wasn't necessarily because of the academic side of things.
"I liked the social side of it. I was involved mainly in the sports side of things. I didn't do any of the other extracurricular activities. It was all about social and sports," chuckled Umphres.
He always knew he wanted to work in some sports industry capacity, except for a brief time right before leaving home for college.
"My life was always about sports. Although, right as I was getting close to college, I knew I was good with numbers, and I thought I should go into the engineering field. But with the time that's involved with sports when I was playing and coaching, I ended up changing to the recreation field."
Umphres moved to Great Bend from CO when he was offered a baseball scholarship at Barton Community College. He met his wife at BCC, who was from Hoisington. The next stop in Umphres college career was Central Missouri State University (CMSU) in Warrensburg, MO, to play baseball. He then returned to BCC to coach the sport, only to return to Warrensburg to finish his Master's Degree and coach baseball.
"I picked CMSU because they were so well known on the baseball field. The dollars talked too. I ended up getting as large of a scholarship as they could offer, and we ended up going to the College World Series twice when I played and two more times when I coached," explained Umphres.
When it comes to issues USD 428 is facing, COVID-19 is at the top of the list, although he feels that the district is "handling it as well as anyone could."
The failed bond issue is another topic that Umphres feels will need to be addressed again soon.
"It costs money, and anything that costs money, you are going to have pros and cons with it. Unfortunately, the way Great Bend is, if we want to grow, retain staff and prosper, we are going to have to look at doing some major renovations or improvements," said Umphres.
There have been many successes that the school board has achieved, especially during the last 12 months. But one of the most outstanding accomplishments, in his opinion, is the hiring of their current administration.
"I think we've worked hard as a board in hiring the right people in the positions they are in to then, in turn, use those people for hiring and retaining the staff, teachers and hourly workers and different areas. Our role is to hire the Superintendent, and they, in turn, hire the rest of the people in the district. Even though we oversee that and prove that at board meetings, I think our staff in that area is solid. When you look at other schools, I think our administration is high up there," explained Umphres.
Teacher retention is another topic that Umphres says the board will need to consider at some point. He says salaries are always at the top of the list when it comes to retaining any employee but admits that it will be the case in any school district or even in any industry.
"The thing we can do to make our district stand apart is to have cooperation with the city and REC level to keep the quality of life is at a high level of standard here in Great Bend. We have to have those things to keep teachers and keep the kids coming back to have continued growth from a city standpoint. The public can have an impact on keeping great teachers by voting on sales tax issues and different things to keep the quality of life great."