By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission has created scholarship opportunities for family members of county employees, an effort they say will be an incentive for employees and entice young people to remain in the community.
During the 2024 budgeting process, the commission elected to set aside $10,000 to offer scholarships to graduating seniors of children or grandchildren of Ellis County employees.
After two weeks of discussion, on Tuesday, the commission elected to create 15 scholarships to be spread between Thomas More Prep-Marian, Hays, Ellis and Victoria high schools.
Ellis County Administrator Darin Myers said the creation of the scholarships is an aid to the county's economic well-being.
“It's a recruitment and retention tool for local employees that we have with Ellis County, to be able to retain our help, but, it's also be able to keep all those kids here in Ellis County,” Myers said.
“The more kids we keep, the once they go to school, they get married, they have kids, that increases our population, which eventually will increase our tax base, which spreads out the tax burden amongst more people and helps be able to do more within the county as well.”
Commissioner Michael Berges also supported the idea of keeping the application process to just the children or grandchildren of Ellis County employees.
“They’re taxpayers too. They're here in the community. They’re raising kids too, (and) I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong, that maybe their son or daughter gets a scholarship now, after the work and service that our employees have put into the county,” Berges said.
Of the 15 scholarships that will be awarded, five will be $1,000 scholarships. One each of those will be awarded to a student at each Ellis, Victoria and TMP-Marian. Two Hays High School students will receive a $1,000 scholarship.
There will also be 10 $500 scholarships awarded with two each going to students at Ellis, Victoria and TMP. Four students at Hays High will be awarded $500 scholarships.
The scholarships will be limited to seniors at each of the four high schools who are Ellis County residents attending Hays Academy of Hair Design, North Central Kansas Technical College of Fort Hays State University as a first-time freshman.
In deciding to limit those who are eligible to apply for the scholarship to just the children or grandchildren of Ellis County employees, Berges said that limits the number of applicants the county will have to screen.
He said that and the budget situation are why he supports the limit and a one-year renewal option for the scholarship.
“I think if it's a small benefit to help our community, I'm OK with it. If we find out through this process that we just don't get enough applications and we need to expand, we certainly can,” Berges said.
Beyond the requirements of having a parent or grandparent work for the county and attending an Ellis County postgraduate institution, applicants also have to submit information on their knowledge of Ellis County government, demonstrate financial need, state their future goals, including staying in Ellis County and provide school activities and community involvement.
The county will create a link on the Ellis County website and then an administrative assistant for fire and administration will collect the scholarship and redact the information before it goes in front of a committee. Those committee members will not have children who are eligible to apply for the scholarship. They will review the applications and the results of the grading rubric. If needed, grade point average and ACT scores will be used as a tiebreaker.
Preference will be given to students who are going into a career path that is relevant to one within Ellis County government and Ellis County. That could include criminal justice, EMS services, IT or heavy equipment operators.