The Wellington Christian Academy is excited to announce it has received the fourth annual Governor's Achievement Award for 2011. 

The requirements for the award are the school must have achieved the Standard of Excellence in both reading and mathematics for 2011, the school must have adequate yearly progress (AYP) in reading, mathematics and attendance in 2011, and the school must have been among schools in the top 5% in both reading and mathematics on the 2011 state assesments at its respective level. 

Public and private schools accredited with the Kansas State Board of Education are considered for this award.

The Kansas Star Casino held a ribbon cutting event on January 5th.  They also presented the scholarship funds that will benefit the 2012 Sumner County graduating seniors.  Here are some pictures of the event. 

Kansas Star Ribbon Cutting Kansas Star Scholarship Fund Presentation

The new Kansas Star Casino is set to open sooner than expected.  The opening dates are as follows:

Wednesday, December 21: 10am - 2am
Thursday, December 22: 10am - 2am
Friday, December 23: 10am - 2am
Saturday, December 24: 10am - 4pm
Sunday, December 25: CLOSED
Monday, December 26: 8am

Originally set to open late next month, the first phase of the new casino will have 1,310 slot machins, 32 table games, a 50-seat snack bar and other food and beverage amentities. 

Construction of the entire casino will be done in three phases.  The next phase will have 2,000 slots, 50 tables games, a five-table poker room, and 150-room hotel; this phase is scheduled to be complete in November 2012. 

Sumner County hosted a oil and gas summit at the Memorial Auditorium in Wellington to inform the public of the "oil and gas boom" that has swept across Sumner County.  Approximately 350 to 400 people were in attendence.  Representatives from Chesapeake Energy, Sand Ridge, and Shell Oil attended the summit to present information on their companies and their processes on drilling and hydraulic fracturing. 

Chesapeake currently has the only horizontal well in Sumner County, near Caldwell.  Sand Ridge has drilled 10 horizontal wells in Harper and Comanche counties and Shell Oil's first well is in Harper County.

If these companies hit oil in Kansas it will mean thousands of jobs and millions more dollars in at least eight counties.