- By Billy Kepner
- Around Town
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Cornell Plantations has completed its yearlong process of enhancements to their visitor services in the F. R. Newman Arboretum with the installation of a self-guided audio-visual tour. In addition to this self-guided tour, Cornell Plantations has installed new interpretive and way-finding signs throughout to help visitors better orient themselves and to learn more about these unique collections. These enhancements were made possible by a $20K grant from the Stanley Smith Horticulture Trust received in January 2012.These enhancements help Plantations to better tell our story to the tens of thousands of visitors who enter our gates every year. From learning about the striped maple (Acer pennsylvanicum) a small tree with distinct vertical white stripes on its bark, which is also called moosewood, the namesake of a nearby famous restaurant; to learning that the much loved Sculpture Garden was not intended to survive past the year it was constructed in 1962, visitors will now have a much fuller and richer understanding of the amazing collections that can be found in the rolling hills of the F. R. Newman Arboretum.
After considering 52 applicants the Lansing Board Of Education hired Colleen Ledley to replace the outgoing High School Principal Eric Hartz. Ledley is an accomplished educator and administrator who comes to Lansing from the Ithaca City School District. She will finish there on August 9th before taking the helm at Lansing High School.
United Way of Tompkins County (UWTC) welcomes four new members to its 2013-14 Board of Directors, chaired by Charles Walcott, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University. Kirk Sapa, UWTC Governance Committee Chair, presented the nomination for the new board members being elected to a three-year term. Susan Currie, Tompkins County Public Library, Carla McKain, McKain Law, Chet Osadchey, Cayuga Radio Group, and Stephen Romaine, Tompkins Financial Corporation were unanimously approved.
For five weeks this summer, approximately 45 youth from the SIFE (Students with Interrupted Formal Education, mostly Burmese refugees) and West Village after school programs have joined together for Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Urban Outreach program. Supported by an Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) Community Collaboration Grant, the program focuses on literacy, multiculturalism and special interest activities.
The Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) has added a new affiliate, the Ithaca STEM Advocates, promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math opportunities for K-12 students in the Ithaca City School District (ICSD).
Christine Rebera became the principal of Lansing's R.C. Buckley Elementary School last week by a unanimous vote of the school board. Rebera has been Acting Principal for the past year, filling the position Chris Pettograsso left vacant when she was made Acting Superintendent. When Pettograsso was hired as permanent Superintendent it officially left an opening in the elementary school. Rebera rose to the top of a pool of 61 applicants and was officially hired by the Board Of Education at its July 8th school board meeting.
Innovative programs undertaken by Tompkins County government were discussed today as part of a leadership forum held in Rochester. Tompkins County was invited to participate in the forum, held as part of the PAYGoNY initiative, a program focused on finding and eliminating barriers to more efficient government and developing new, more efficient ways of delivering service.
