Archive: Around Town

On April 14, the Ithaca YMCA is celebrating Healthy Kids Day® with a free community event for kids and families in and around Ithaca.  More than 1,900 Ys across the country are taking part in the celebration, meant to kick start physical activity and learning throughout the summer – a critical out-of-school time for kids.

Healthy Kids Day, a national initiative of the Y to improve the health and well-being of kids, is filled with fun, active play, and educational activities that will help parents improve their kids’ lifestyles for the long term.  Research shows that without access to activities that stimulate the mind and body, kids are more prone to gain weight and fall behind academically over the summer months.

I eat out a lot because one of my great enjoyments is sharing my life with various friends over lunch as we try new restaurants. For example, I’m a member of a group called ROMEO.  We meet every other Tuesday and lunch always includes sophomoric rapid-fire banter and quips, with the same half-dozen men.  Have you heard of ROMEO?  It’s a rather casual and loose-knit organization that has branches in various locations across the country.  The initials stand for Retired Old Men Eating Out.

The SPCA of Tompkins County, working with the Tompkins County Health Department Environmental Health Division, has discovered canine distemper in a sick skunk picked up in Cayuga Heights last week. The skunk, tested by the Health Department, died of the disease

Canine distemper has been found in wildlife in nearby counties over the past few weeks and it is possible that these outbreaks may lead to an epidemic in wildlife. Canine Distemper is very contagious, often fatal, and poses a risk to dogs in Tompkins County who are very young, very old and/or not fully vaccinated.

	In Part 1 and Part 2 we explored what a mandate costs the Lansing School District and mandate outcomes.  This week we look at the value of mandates vs. local programs.

Lansing School Business Administrator Mary June King estimates that 80% of the district's $25 million budget pays for state and federal mandates.  She says the level of mandates in New York is an affront to well-performing school districts that flies in the face of the idea of local control.

"Theoretically the Board of Education has local control over the curriculum," she says.  "That's supposed to be the idea of why the local community has to pay for so much of it.  But really, there may be some funding for any curriculum that's mandated by the State, but it's not matched dollar for dollar."

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Viola Miller was presented a certificate of recognition last friday for more than 44 years on the Lansing Town Planning Board.  Miller is credited with bringing planning to the town and was instrumental in the formation of the Planning Board in 1967.  Miller was honored in her home by Town Supervisor Kathy Miller and Planning Board Chairman Lin Davidson.  She spent some time reminiscing about her experiences bringing planning to the town.

"It was a matter of bringing some organization to what was going on, Miller says.  "That's all I've ever wanted, something where you had some idea of what you were buying when you bought it.  I fought pretty hard for these things."

Tomorrow, March 31, Lansing United Methodist Church Organist Sharon Powell plans to play one verse of every hymn in the Methodist hymnal.  Powell will play one verse of all 676 hymns to raise money to pay tuition for a Haitian university student.

The church has a thirty-five year old mission program to Haiti and currently has six students attending university programs.  Paying tuition and related expenses for one or two students is possible, but it has been a challenge to fund six students. The six men whose majors include civil engineering, computer technology, and medicine, all plan to give back and help others in Haiti.

On Tuesday March 27, the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Board of Education will accept the annual funding transfer of $60,000 from the Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) for the Kids Discover the Trail! (KDT!) program. While ICSD supports the program’s transportation costs and staff development activities, IPEI raises funds from the community that flow through the district and the Discovery Trail to fund program delivery.

“Through the Discovery Trail educational programs coordinated with elementary school curriculum and standards, our students learn about their own community and see a world of possibilities for their futures,” said IPEI President Terry Byrnes. “We are very grateful to the Ithaca City School District and the Discovery Trail organizations for partnering with us.”

Hey, my name is Clarence. I'm a four year old domestic short haired/ mix. I'm a pleasant fellow who is looking for a loving home so please come and visit me at the SPCA to see if i'm the right cat for you!

Visit the SPCA Web Page

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	This series explores the impact of state and federal mandates on the Lansing Central School District.  In Part 1 we looked at what the new teacher evaluation mandate will cost Lansing in dollars and man-hours.  This week we look at the differences between the existing evaluation system and the new state-mandated version.  Next week we will explore the value of mandates vs. local programs.

In many people's minds the point of an evaluation system is to encourage or reward high performers, and identify low performers so they can be given a chance to improve their performance or be fired.  Tenure, state education law, and union contracts make termination almost, but not quite, impossible, which some say makes evaluating teachers pointless.

But that is not the only way teacher evaluation can be viewed.  Lansing School Superintendent Stephen Grimm says the current evaluation system is a process that encourages growth for great teachers.  The system that is in place only uses classroom eveluation for about a third of the process for tenured teachers.

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At the conclusion of my last column, about red grapes and red wine, I mentioned that this week I would discuss white grapes and white wine. 

It’s worth repeating that different countries have different methods of naming wines.  When we refer to Vouvray and Chablis, for example, we’re referring to specific regions in France, not types of grapes.   Vouvray is a village on the Loire River.  Wines made in that village are named Vouvray, are always white, and are made exclusively from Chenin Blanc grapes.  Chablis is a region in the northern area of Burgundy and wines from Chablis are also always white and are made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes. In the United States, wines are named for the grapes themselves, like Riesling and Chardonnay, which are the two most prevalent white grapes grown in the Finger Lakes region.

Code Red Robotics, the Ithaca High School FIRST robotics team, attended the Finger Lakes Regional at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) on March 8th - 10th where they ranked sixth of 41 teams and received accolades.

During the initial 12 seeding matches, Code Red rose from last place to a peak of fifth-ranked, qualifying them to compete in the elimination-bracket finals. Code Red balanced with two allied robots during quarterfinals on a slippery-surfaced teeter totter, or ‘bridge’. The bridge is barely large enough to accommodate the robots; this feat was accomplished only two times nationally during previous competitions prior to Code Red doing it. Code Red proceeded to the semifinals where they were eliminated.

Hey there, my name is Elsie. I'm a one-year-old Terrier/ american pit bull/ mix. I'm a friendly girl who is looking for a loving home, so please come and visit me at the SPCA to see if I'm the right dog for you!

Visit the SPCA Web Page

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