January 25th, 2012 by Lachlan Dease | Tags: Address, City Address
During Monday’s fifth State of the City address, Mayor Norm Archibald and Abilene ISD Superintendent Heath Burns highlighted projects and successes from the previous 12 months, including:
Pine Street corridor: the recently completed landscaped median “is going to be a big improvement to a corridor that is always changing,” Archibald said.
New tower at Abilene Regional Airport: Construction on the $9.24 million new tower, paid for by the Federal Aviation Administration, is the equivalent of a 10-story building and should be commissioned this spring.
Animal adoptions: The adoption rate at the Abilene Animal Shelter has nearly doubled the past two years thanks to increased focus on finding animals new homes.
Sales tax receipts up: Three weeks before the state releases sales tax receipts for December, which should show the typical Christmas boom, sales tax receipts are up 26.8 percent year to date.
Sign ordinance: The city’s proposed ordinance to regulate signs has encountered flak from business owners who say it will increase their cost of doing business.
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January 19th, 2012 by Imogen Radcliffe | Tags: National Opera, National Opera Association, Opera, Opera Association
VCU Opera’s spring 2011 production of “Hansel and Gretel” was awarded second prize in the National Opera Association’s (NOA) Opera Production competition. Entries in the competition were “blindly” judged in a videotaped performance and were divided into five categories based on production budget, size of overall music program and the level of vocal training of the cast members.
“Hansel and Gretel” was directed by music faculty members Melanie Kohn Day and Kenneth Wood and featured undergraduate students from the Department of Music’s Voice program.
Each spring, VCU Opera presents a full-length opera production, with costumes, sets and lights. According to Day,
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January 18th, 2012 by Luca Kibble |
Figures show almost 800,000 additional children aged 11 or under will be in state education by 2020 because of rising birth rates and the effects of immigration.
According to the Department for Education, the primary population is set to soar by a fifth – reaching its highest level since the early 70s.
The disclosure underlines the crisis facing local authorities in some areas that are being forced to cope with the biggest surge in school applications.
It also prompted fresh claims that Labour ignored repeated warnings over the looming population boom by cutting primary school places.
Local authorities in parts of London, the West Midlands and South West have already been forced to install mobile classrooms and educate children in church halls in recent years because of a shortage of space.
January 18th, 2012 by Luca Kibble | Tags: Attendance Boundaries, Boundaries
Expanding the debate on the future of Los Angeles Unified, a divided school board on Tuesday ordered a study on the pros and cons of erasing the district’s attendance boundaries.
Superintendent John Deasy will return in 90 days with a study that dovetails with another report he’s compiling on ways to increase the district’s sagging enrollment and expand its successful magnet program.
On a parallel track, administrators at underperforming schools are preparing their own plans to improve student achievement, beginning with the fall semester.
This convergence of events sparked vigorous debate among board members, who split 4-3 on whether to explore the attendance boundary issue.
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