Districts

With monsoon becoming weak and drought looming large over the State, the Government has extended the weather-based crop insurance scheme to five more districts, covering 12 crops this kharif season.the scheme aims at providing insurance to the cultivator against adverse weather such as deficit and excessive rainfall, frost, heat (temperature) and relative humidity, which affect the crops.The schem

ABQjournal West_News: Corrales to Split Into Districts: "To district or not to district?That has been a topic of discussion for the Corrales Village Council for the past several months.Tuesday, the council voted 3-1 in favor of splitting the village into districts. Councilor Bonnie Gonzales cast the no vote.Gonzales suggested putting the option to district on the ballot for the special election on

ABQjournal West_News: Corrales to Split Into Districts: "To district or not to district?That has been a topic of discussion for the Corrales Village Council for the past several months.Tuesday, the council voted 3-1 in favor of splitting the village into districts. Councilor Bonnie Gonzales cast the no vote.Gonzales suggested putting the option to district on the ballot for the special election on

Champaign County: Adding a bunch of website links...Then taking a breather. ← Previous revision Revision as of 02:51, 7 May 2008 Line 58: Line 58: ==[[Champaign County, Illinois|Champaign County]]== ==[[Champaign County, Illinois|Champaign County]]== *[[Champaign Community Unit School District 4]] - [ District web site] *[[Champaign Community Unit School District 4]] - [ District web site] - + *[[Fisher Community Unit School District 1]] - [ District web site] - *[[Fisher Community Unit School District 1]] + *[[Gifford Community Consolidated School District 188]] - [ District web site?] - *[[Gifford Community Consolidated School District 188]] + *[[Heritage C

This from Pat Crowley at the Enquirer:Measure to aid school fundingBURLINGTON - Legislation that a lawmaker says repairs a "glitch" in Kentucky's public education funding formula will mean more money for Northern Kentucky school districts.Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Burlington, said components of the legislation she filed - House Bill 752 - are included in the budget lawmakers passed on April 15, the final day of the 2008 General Assembly session."I began working on this issue when I was first elected," said Wuchner, elected to Boone County's 66th House District in 2004. "It has been a long process, bringing the various groups together to work on this matter but, finally, we have a solution to the problem of inequity."Current funding is based on the previous year's information, including the num

Mohali : The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) was launched in Punjab yesterday. Five districts, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Patiala and Sangrur, will implement the scheme in the first phase. As many as 2,15,868 BPL (below poverty line) families from these districts will benefit from the scheme. Punjab is the fourth state in the country to launch [...]

Shimla: Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister today launched the National Rural Employment Guarantee Assurance Scheme (NREGA) in remaining eight districts of the State from gram panchayat Chamiana in Mashobra developmental block of district Shimla today. Prof. Dhumal said that the State Government had decided to appoint 1,181 Gram Rojgar Prerak under the NREGA to create [...]

This from the New York Times:The Department of Agriculture on Thursday released a list of all school districts nationwide that received beef included in last month’s recall of 143 million pounds of meat from a California slaughterhouse. The 226-page document, which the agency released under pressure from lawmakers, includes a list of so-called “school food authorities” — the rough equivalent of school districts — that received the recalled beef.The Department of Agriculture issued the largest beef recall in United States history last month after the Humane Society of the United States released undercover video showing workers at Hallmark/Westland Meat Company in Chino, Calif., forcing sick cows onto a slaughterhouse kill floor by using forklifts, electric prods and high-pressure

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Texas school districts are abandoning the GOP-pushed program of “merit-based pay” for teachers like rats abandoning a sinking ship: More than 100 school districts have changed their minds and dropped out of Texas’ new merit pay plan for teachers – leaving just a third of the districts in the state to help launch the $148 million program next year. While the Dallas Morning news says that “financial concerns” are the reason many ISDs are dropping out, I think we all know the real reason: Texas school districts realize that merit-based pay is a bad idea for educators. The second reason, financially-based, is that most schools are smart enough to realize that any Republican-backed scheme like this will soon become

Williamson County Schools Rank Highly Forbes magazine studied school districts by county in every single county in America.  Not only did Williamson county stand outin Texas, it was among the Top 10 Best in the Nation!  Williamson county comprises of Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock and Georgetown, all suburbs just north of the Austin metropolitan area [...]

It should come as no surprise to anyone that seasoned education officials across the state have rejected out of hand one of the worst education policy debacles forced upon the people of Texas by the Republican-dominated legislature in the last three sessions–merit-based teacher pay: More than half of Texas’ school districts have rejected an offer to participate in the state’s new merit pay plan for teachers, leaving more money on the table for the 442 districts – including Dallas – that want a piece of the $148 million program. Gee, I wonder why. Of course, TEA has a scapegoat at the ready: “Some districts may have opted not to apply because they have another merit pay plan already in place, or they may have decided they are unable to put up the local matching funds required to participate,” said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. Essentially, TEA’s strategy is, “blame the legislature; they wrote the law.

Community Development Districts (CDD) have become common place in Tampa Florida. People moving from out of the area have little understanding of what the benefits of a CDD are. Here is a simple explanation and a few benefits of the CDD. The pressure is on developers to offer a number of amenities to the residents, such as community pools, public parks and playgrounds. The additional cost of building these amenities is passed on to the homeowner in the form of a CDD tax. Payable over a predetermined amount of time and included in the tax bill as non ad valorum taxes.(that’s a whole other blog) The amout of the CDD varies and is generally determined by the size of the property, not the home. Residents choose to live in a well maintained community with easy access to amenities.CDD has the power to make improvements to the community, such as in Covington Park in Southern Hillsborough county. A new community center was opened in 2007 with a fitness center, a community room a

A voting rights lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to strike down single member districts in the north Texas city of Irving on the ground that the present at-large voting system for city council elections denies representation to the city’s Hispanic population. From The Dallas Morning News: The lawsuit requests that a U.S. District Court declare that the at-large method violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It also asks that the city be ordered to disband at-large voting and develop a new system of electing council members. The lawsuit mirrors a successful 1988 suit that challenged Dallas’ at-large elections, claiming they hurt the ability of minorities to get elected. That landmark case eventually led to Dallas’ current and sometimes controversial 14 single-member districts and at-large mayoral post. It comes as no surprise that the city’s large Hispanic population is seeking better representation on the city council: The suit comes at a time when Irving official

Attention parents and educators: prepare to be confused when trying to make sense of this year's Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) results this year.The results of the test, which measures students' knowledge in core content areas, were made public Oct. 2 and the test underwent several changes before students were tested this past spring.Assistant superintendents for both Williamstown and Grant County's school districts said that parents can take away positives from their respective school and districts' results."I think parents can take the results as another gauge as to how their school or district is doing. It is the relationship that the parent has with their school or district that makes a difference," said Grant County assistant superintendent Carol Horn.Williamstown assistant superintendent Sally Skinner said the Williamstown School District placed 12th out of 176 districts in terms of test scores."Our parents should feel confident sending their children to a

Residents and owners of summer houses on the Trøndelag coast in Norway will be the first to benefit from Telenor’s investment in WiMAX radio-based broadband technology. Telenor is adopting this technology to provide a service to areas that cannot be covered by traditional ADSL. Who said that the penetration of WiMax will only be in developing countries? I guess the improvised versions of Mobile WiMax solutions will enable seamless mobility and hand-offs while traveling between cities and states. We’ll be hooked on to the Internet ‘Anywhere-anytime’ !!! e-TechHerald-Wireless - Home Share This

Is your school district considering a collection service for bounced checks? This is a growing trend and one agency that is just right for any school corporation is NorthStar Technologies. NorthStar is a premier provider of bad check collection for any size school District for the following reasons:1. It is completely free! There is no cost to a school district or corporation because bad check collection is paid for by bad check writers.2. There are no minimum requirements for schools.3. All types of checks may be submitted for collection (NSF, stop payment, and closed account).4. When checks are collected school corporations receive back 100% of the face value plus 25% of the state bad check fee.My name is Brad Price; I am a national check recovery specialist for NorthStar Technologies. If you would like to discuss your school corporation returned check collection needs, please contact me at (574) 875-9994 or e-mail me at bumchecks@bumchecks.com. You may also visit my personal we

More and more educational institutions and organizations are looking for ways to collect bad checks (nsf, stop payment and closed account). One popular collection service for educational institutions as been FARS (Federal Automated Recovery Systems). A similar service that offers all the same benefits, plus a few more, is NorthStar Technologies. NorthStar is also completely free and you may read about it on www.bumchecks.com.Whether your school district uses FARS check recovery service, NorthStar’s free check recovery, or another check collection system, outsourcing bad check collection makes a lot of sense. By using either of these services there is NEVER a cost to school districts. Too, outsourcing bad check collection is sound and efficient fiscal policy. You may protect your school system community against the time consuming and costly recovery efforts of all types of returned checks, and there is zero cost to taxpayers.If you have any questions about School Districts and b

More spending doesn’t necessarily buy you better schools. With property taxes rising across the country, we took a look at per-pupil spending in public schools and weighed it against student performance--college entrance exam scores (SAT or ACT, depending on which is more common in the state), exam participation rates and graduation rates.Winners in this rating system are counties whose schools deliver high performance at low cost. The losers spend a lot of money and have little to show for it.Marin County, Calif., provides the best bang for the buck. In 2004 Marin spent an average of $9,356 ($6,579 adjusted for the cost of living relative to other metro areas in the U.S.) per pupil, among the lowest education expenditures in the country. But in return Marin delivered results above the national average: 96.8% of its seniors graduated, and 60.4% of them took the SAT college entrance exam and scored a mean 1133 (out of 1600). The others in the top five are Collin, Texas; Hamilton, Ind.

The Buckhead real estate market is the quintessential area in Atlanta that represents high end luxury real estate. Buckhead real estate has long been favored because of the location, shopping, dining and several of the top Metro Atlanta Schools; Morris Brandon, Sarah Smith and Jackson. Due to the superior education offered by these three schools, parents can elect to save money that would otherwise be spent on private school education and use it for other lifestyle choices, among those choices are upgrading the quality of life by living in Buckhead. Here are the real estate market statistics with homes located in the three most sought after school districts in Buckhead. The market statistics are obtained from the First Multiple Listing Service, or, FMLS: (more…)

We all like travel stories, and shopping while on vacation helps you build a wardrobe with a story: the leather sandals that you (or your travel partner) bargained for at that souk in Fez, the vintage Pucci from that boutique in London, the made-to-order jeans from that stall in Bangkok. More: continued here

Roosevelt Historic District Revitalizes Phoenix: A few years ago, Maria Capogreco’s friends told her she was taking a big chance opening a deli in the Roosevelt Historic District. But she had faith in the future of what once was – and soon would be again – a thriving urban neighborhood. She was right. The former working class community had been a streetcar neighborhood during its heyday between 1895 and 1930. The area saw both California and Craftsman bungalow styles built on the narrow, deep lots along its streets. During years of decline, the neighborhood seemed destined to be a blight on Phoenix, but caring residents had another plan. Many other neighborhoods have become historic districts, but Roosevelt led the way in 1986 as the first to earn that designation. Phoenix officials now point to Roosevelt, which is bounded by McDowell Road, Fillmore Street, Central Avenue and Seventh Avenue, as a model for turning around sagging urban areas by enlisting residents to work with

Lexington, Ky. (June 1, 2007) - Students in eleven Kentucky school districts will now take part in a statewide effort designed to motivate greater success in college and work thanks to their participation in the Kentucky Scholars Initiative. Kentucky Scholars focuses on encouraging middle and high school students to take the kinds of courses that will help them compete more effectively for tomorrow’s best jobs.Through collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Education, the Partnership for Successful Schools, host of the Kentucky Scholars Initiative, is able to support the addition of eleven new school districts during the 2007/2008 school year: Campbellsville Independent, Boone, Carroll, Clark, Covington Independent, Erlanger-Elsmere, Madison, Nelson, Newport, Somerset Independent and Warren counties. These new districts join others already implementing the Kentucky Scholars Initiative: Kenton, Pike, Jessamine (pilot districts), Montgomery, Bath, Menifee and Powell counties.The

More and more educational institutions and organizations are looking for ways to collect bad checks (nsf, stop payment and closed account). One popular collection service for educational institutions as been FARS (Federal Automated Recovery Systems). A similar service that offers all the same benefits, plus a few more, is NorthStar Technologies. NorthStar is also completely free and you may read about it on www.bumchecks.com.Whether your school district uses FARS check recovery service, NorthStar's free check recovery, or another check collection system, outsourcing bad check collection makes a lot of sense. By using either of these services there is NEVER a cost to school districts. Too, outsourcing bad check collection is sound and efficient fiscal policy. You may protect your school system community against the time consuming and costly recovery efforts of all types of returned checks, and there is zero cost to taxpayers.If you have any questions about School Districts and b

Nearly 5,000 teachers did not report to work in West Virginia and some picketed outside the state Capitol in Charleston March 14 to protest a lower-than-expected raise.But the protest failed to provoke Gov. Joe Manchin III into calling a special session to revisit the issue.The one-day walkout closed some or all of the schools in 14 of the state’s 55 districts. It was called by leaders of the 17,000-member West Virginia Education Association, who say the state is losing teachers to neighboring states that pay more.According to the WVEA, an affiliate of the National Education Association, West Virginia ranks 47th in the nation for teacher salaries. The NEA’s annual salary survey says West Virginia teachers made $38,360 on average in 2005, compared with $52,331 for teachers in neighboring Maryland and $42,768 in Virginia.

Education Week reports:The Bush administration wants district officials to have the freedom to override collective bargaining contracts while staffing their most troubled schools, but the controversial proposal could face an uphill battle against a Democratic-led Congress and the teachers’ unions.

The combination of incumbency and gerrymandered districts is almost impossible to beat in an election.  The New York Times sums up the reasons nicely in an article in today’s paper. In the age of gerrymander, the open seat — one where incumbents step aside because of age, ambition, scandal or other considerations — is a rare but sometimes golden opportunity for one party to wrest control from the other. This year, Democrats like Mr. Perlmutter are taking full advantage, giving their party a potentially vital edge in the battle for control of the House. "I hate open seats," Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in an interview last month as he discussed his party's difficulties in defending its openings. Deprived of the name recognition, fund-raising and other powers of incumbency — not least the ability to steer federal dollars into local projects — candidates trying to defend open sea

More and more new residential developments are making "architectural controls" a part of their sales pitches. An architecturally-controlled area requires peer review of house designs and must approve each new home, addition, or other exterior change.The motivation for such review is admirable - a desire to create and maintain high aesthetic standards and high property values. No doubt about it, architecturally-controlled districts attract a higher-end buyer. After all, your home is a big investment and you want it to appreciate, right?But too often, architectural controls are set up and operated by otherwise well-meaning people with limited visions of what's considered "good" design. They create "architectural guidelines" that lay out the homeowner's choices of style and materials - a prescriptive code. But prescriptive architectural codes, by definition, discourage architectural creativity and invention and encourage conformity.I was recently involved in a review of a small city's

Metropolitan Phoenix has a wealth of historic districts, each with its own unique features, and residents who care about preserving and sharing their historic homes. Since this is also an interest of mine, I've decided to start a series of articles so others can learn about and enjoy these ...

With some 35 historic districts in Phoenix, you are never far from interesting homes and neighborhoods. For this visit, the destination is the Garfield Historic District, just a little bit south of the Coronado Historic District, which dates back to the late 19th Century. An Ohio pioneer, John Dennis, settled here ...

With some 35 historic districts in Phoenix, you are never far from interesting homes and neighborhoods. For this visit, the destination is the Garfield Historic District, just a little bit south of the Coronado Historic District, which dates back to the late 19th Century. An Ohio pioneer, John Dennis, settled here ...

Metropolitan Phoenix has a wealth of historic districts, each with its own unique features, and residents who care about preserving and sharing their historic homes. Since this is also an interest of mine, I've decided to start a series of articles so others can learn about and enjoy these ...