Each year, two graduates of the Olathe high schools receive $1,000 scholarships from the Olathe Public Schools Retired Employees Association. OPS-REA conducts fundraisers to provide these scholarships for Olathe graduates intending to pursue education degrees in the state of Kansas.

• View the Retired Employees Association scholarship application

The association also offers a $1,000 scholarship for a current classified employee of the district who is going to school to become a teacher.

Former Student Funds Four Scholarships

The Olathe Public Schools Retired Employees Association received a large donation to its scholarship program from a former Olathe School District student.

Hsaio (pronounced Sha) Su was a student at Oregon Trail Middle School from 1983-85. He spoke some English when he came to Olathe from Taiwan, and was placed in the gifted program in eighth grade because he excelled at math and science. One of his independent projects in Vivian Sill's gifted program was to design a chess board that would allow three people to play against each other at the same time.

After ninth grade, Hsaio's family moved from Olathe. When he graduated in 1988, he chose Cal Poly Tech in California from a number of full scholarships.

He and Sill reconnected via Facebook and she mentioned her involvement with the retired employees' scholarship program. Hsaio donated $2,000, which will fund a year's worth of scholarships. The organization gives two $1,000 scholarships to Olathe seniors who are pursuing a career in education.

"I've always felt that teachers in America are under-appreciated," he wrote in a letter with his donation. "So this is just my small way of saying thanks to all of you, for being my teachers."