| Contract extended on superintendent
School district trustees split 4-3 on whether to extend district superintendent Roberto Bobby Fernandezs employment contract Monday. Trustees extended the contract for a year but denied him a pay raise.
The vote to keep Fernandez came after a three-hour closed session meeting of the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District Board of Trustees Monday night, and evaluation of Fernandezs job performance was one of the agenda items.
With the recent discovery that the districts bilingual program is under investigation by the Texas Education Agency for scores that have consistently lagged behind state guidelines on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test, Fernandezs evaluation drew more opposition from the public than in prior years.
The board announced their vote around 10 p.m.
Experts: Offshore wind can bring jobs, industry
Offshore wind-power production is possible in the United States, the Carolinas and Georgia are particularly well-suited for the task, and it's time to get started. "It's (offshore wind) a big resource," said Jeff Freedman of AWS Truewind, which provides the types of wind maps, forecasting, modeling and other services necessary to create an offshore wind park. Europe generates electricity from offshore winds, but no offshore wind projects exist yet in the United States. Two, though, are in the works off the shores of Long Island and Massachusetts. "We're a little behind them in terms of engineering and planning because we haven't been thinking about it that much," Nichols said. The conventional wisdom has been that the Southeast largely lacks the environment necessary for large-scale, wind-power production.
With him, hope shines bright
CHANDIGARH: He's a cop who has learnt to cope with life's challenges. But what makes him stand apart is that he not only inspires others but also helps them to overcome their impediments.
When six years ago, Ram Dayal, a sub-inspector in UT police lost his leg and a foot to an accident during a UN peace keeping mission in Kosovo, he saw his life coming to a grinding halt.
However, after the initial frustration, which let him mentally and physically exhausted, the man gathered himself and decided to put his life to a good use. Today, Dayal is a beacon of hope for thousands of poor and needy children in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab.
The cop provides free books and bags to kids, takes them to education tours and gives computer education to villagers.
Career Education drops, Stamps.com up
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Career Education Corp. (CECO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) dropped 11.5 percent before the bell on Friday after a brokerage cut its rating on the stock, a day after the for-profit education company posted a drop in quarterly profit. Prudential cut the stock to "underweight" from "neutral weight," according to theflyonthewall.com. The stock fell to $26.24 in electronic trade, from a close of $29.64 on the Nasdaq. But shares of Stamps.com Inc. (STMP.O: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 12 percent to $16 before the bell after First Albany raised its rating on the stock to "buy" from "neutral." .
District performance scores online today
Lafayette Parish district scores will be online at theadvertiser.com after they are released from the Louisiana Department of Education. The District Performance Score is a roll up of individual student scores on the LEAP tests, the iLEAP tests and the Graduation Exit Exams as well as attendance and dropout rates. .
For School Plan Support, Mayor Goes to Church
Days after more than a thousand parents, teachers, and civic leaders rallied to protest Mayor Bloomberg's education overhaul, Mayor Bloomberg visited Sunday services at two predominantly African-American churches in Queens to seek their backing for his plan to change the way schools are funded. He also sought support for his appointment of the Department of Education's chief family engagement officer, Martine Guerrier. Joining the mayor in the pews during the speeches were Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Ms. Guerrier. The mayor told congregants that he expected a lot of "yelling and screaming" from critics who oppose the renewal of mayoral control of the schools. After the midday speeches, the mayor participated in St. Patrick's Day parades in Queens and Staten Island.
Lottery idea: $20 a play for $1 million
Plans are in the works for an old-fashioned raffle -- a drawing game that harks back to the origins of lotteries in the United States. But this one will be up-to-date in its scope.Instead of paper ticket stubs, the state would offer 500,000 numbers for sale on play slips through the computer network in place at outlets statewide.The $20 cost of a ticket would establish a high mark for a single play since North Carolina launched its lottery in March.Four grand prizes of $1 million are planned. So if tickets sell out, $20 would buy a 1-in-125,000 shot at the big prize."It's about as good as it's going to get to win $1 million," lottery chief Tom Shaheen said of the odds.He said plans call for five additional winners of $100,000 and 500 winners of $1,000.The other 99.89 percent of the tickets would be losers.The game would generate roughly $3.5 million for education programs but would not make a big dent in what have been sluggish sales overall.Shaheen proposes that tickets go on sale in May and that winning numbers be drawn on the Fourth of July.
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