News

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – Three retiring district employees received a sendoff from district leaders when the Board of Education met May 9 at the Support Services Center. Deputy Superintendent Jaret Tomlinson presented a gift bag to each person: Randy Barnes, a Career Center teacher; Vicky Goetz, director of the Rockin’ Tiger Club; and Donna Petree, a paraprofessional at the high school.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – School district personnel will receive raises for 2022-23. On May 9 at the Support Services Center, the Board of Education approved 4% pay hikes to base salaries and a salary schedule step for administrators; certified staff members; PAT/tech workers; Rockin’ Tiger Club personnel; and nurses, licensed practical nurses, maintenance workers and administrative assistants, or “classified” employees.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Excelsior Springs Hospital Senior Life Solutions is spreading awareness of the challenges of receiving mental health access in rural areas.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – Lainey Creason avoided sentimentality as she bid farewell to Excelsior Springs High School. The final speaker of the commencement ceremony May 13 in the high school gym, she acknowledged the class would miss high school.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – Video from a city festival in the 1930s – including images of Native Americans, cowboys and a stagecoach – is available on a new, widescreen monitor at the Excelsior Springs Museum and Archives, 101 E. Broadway.

RICHMOND – Law enforcers continue to look for a person with whom they wish to speak after a deadly arson fire, and Missouri Fire Safety completed work and withdrew from the investigation. Caldwell County Sheriff Mitchell Allen said the “vehicle of interest” is a black Ford Escape SUV with tinted windows and possibly a black, male driver.

LAKE ARROWHEAD – The Tri-County SWAT team arrested James Larson Jr., Lathrop, after a standoff in a Lake Arrowhead residence. Although “severely assaulted and tortured for two days,” the alleged victim later escaped to a neighboring house, called the police and had to undergo hospitalization, based on Clinton County Sheriff’s Office information and published reports.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – Benjamin Chase, 21, Excelsior Springs, died while in custody in the city jail. Excelsior Springs Police Chief Gregory Dull said he asked the Clay County Investigative Squad to investigate “for transparency and accountability” to the public. Many departments ask for outside reviews of unusual circumstances for the same reasons, he said.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – “Full funding” for public school transportation might translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Excelsior Springs and Richmond school districts. Richmond School District Transportation Director Jeff Southwick said, when the school year concludes in a few days, then the district will focus on possible savings.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – The Clay County Sheriff’s Office is investigating four reports that an Excelsior Springs School District staff member assaulted several Cornerstone Elementary School students. The sheriff’s investigation is separate from district and Missouri Childrens Division investigations.