Last Updated Sunday, Jun 13 2010 12:00 PM
School districts throughout Kern County are hoping to save thousands of dollars a year on energy costs by contracting with companies offering solar power.
The latest plan is coming out of Greenfield Union School District in south Bakersfield. The district hopes to have companies install solar panels on top of roofs of nearly all 11 campuses (Ollivier Middle School is excluded because of efficiency concerns).
Instead of paying PG&E for power, as it does now, the district would pay the solar power provider installing the panels directly under the plan. The move could save the district more than $50,000 a year, and $4.6 million after 20 years, Superintendent Chris Crawford said.
"We are really excited about this," Crawford said. "There are the savings, and it allows us to budget our power costs."
Greenfield trustees earlier in the week heard a presentation from Enfinity, a solar energy company of investors, and Garland Energy Systems, a solar panel provider and consulting resource.
Trustees have given Crawford the OK to draw up an action item school board members could vote on later this month. If approved, the panels would be installed at no cost to the district under the contract.
At the meeting, trustees asked how the panels would look, whether they would affect roof warranties and most importantly, how much the district could save. The district paid PG&E about $800,000 for
DETROIT, MI (Michigan Radio) - Lawyers for the school board say Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb overstepped his authority when he waded into decisions about things like which textbooks to purchase, and which tests to administer.
School board attorney George Washington says Bobb cooperated with private foundations and charter school backers to draft a plan that calls for a mayoral takeover, and for replacing traditional schools with charter schools.
"Somebody who comes in as an emergency financial manager should not be scheming behind the back of the people to overturn a referendum that the people spoke on only two years ago," said Washington.
That referendum put an elected school board back in charge of Detroit Public Schools following a
Over the last few weeks, in our conversations with parents, we've noticed something that went" In our expanded conception of giftedness, we raise questions about the 'gifted child' label . . .
Much modern research has been concerned with how gifted kids look, sound, think, and act, largely in an effort to help educators better meet their needs in school and in supplemental programs. The conclusion: There is no one absolute profile.
. . . .research findings lend credence to our theories about the distinction
between schoolhouse learners and creative-productive learners."
---- "Light Up Your Child's Mind"
Chapter 2: Dreamers, Challengers & One Track Minds
MEMPHIS - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, spoke to PTA members and parents at the annual Convention of the Chicago-based National Parent Teacher Association.
Duncan emphasized the importance of parent involvement in student academic achievement. He said his department is asking Congress to double the amount of funding for parent engagement programs. He urged men to step up and "engage (children) every step of the way." Parents can use their skills and talents to become involved. (Read some summer learning tips for ways to get involved over the summer.)
"Nothing is more important than parent engagement," he said. "Parents need to be full and equal partners with teachers."
Engagement is a two-way street, he added. Schools must be welcoming to parents.
Many changes need to occur for schools to improve. He put the Department of education at the top of the list. He said he wants the department to focus more on achievement rather than compliance and on innovation more than bureaucracy.
Duncan supported a $23 billion education jobs legislation designed to save up to 300,000 jobs for
Arizona's Next Immigration Target: Children of Illegals
By Adam Klawonn / Phoenix"Anchor babies" isn't a very endearing term, but in Arizona those are the words being used to tag children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. While not new, the term is increasingly part of the local vernacular because the primary authors of the nation's toughest and most controversial immigration law are targeting these tots — the legal weights that anchor many undocumented aliens in the U.S. — for their next move.
Buoyed by recent public opinion polls suggesting they're on the right track with illegal immigration, Arizona Republicans will likely introduce legislation this fall that would deny birth certificates to children born in Arizona — and thus American citizens according to the U.S. Constitution — to parents who are not legal U.S. citizens. The law largely is the brainchild of
For three years, Shelby Hines was the face of Academy at the Farm's Make-A-Difference Walk, an event that raises money to help offset the cost of therapy for the charter school's special-needs children.
As the walk's honorary chairwoman, Shelby, a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy, was featured in newspaper articles and mentioned in Dade City Commission proclamations.
Her connection to the school is ending, though, under less-than-ideal circumstances.
Shelby's mother, Susan Hines, said she was told last week that Shelby can't return to Academy at the Farm in the fall. Hines suspects that's because she complained to the state and the Pasco County School District over the way Academy at the Farm hired its new director.
"They've always said she can stay as long as we want to leave her," Hines said. "Then I started causing problems."
Mike Rom, the school's outgoing director, said Hines' complaints about the selection of his
