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Show A6 Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Vernal Express imon OPINION NO CLEAR SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS AT WEST MIDDLE SCHOOL Op Express Associate Editor This week we ran on our front page a story about the future of West Middle School near Fort Duchesne. The school has failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind since the federal act came into effect and hasn't fared better in the state U-PASS assessment. School board officials are now up against a wall. They have a responsibility to students and their education. But before officials proceed in making their decisions on the future of the middle school, they will take public input On the table are eight options. But none is a clear answer. Several may help solve some of the problems, but others may create new issues of their own. ' The first of the options available to the district is to replace all or most of the staff. This has been an ongoing process at the school as it has had a hard time attracting and retaining faculty and administrators. A revolving door of staff may create discontinuity for students, but at the same time bring in new teaching methods. : Another option is to bring in a third party to manage the school. This goes hand-in-hand with hiring a turnaround specialist to help manage the school. The district already contracts with a third party to offer supplemental services and a consultant is working to develop the best curriculum for students. These methods have been tried, with limited success and spending more tax dollars to add to these efforts sounds like a poor decision. Another option is to reopen the school as a theme school. This would be a school with an emphasis on a particular subject and drawing on students from all over the county. Though this option would keep a school in the Fort Duchesne area, many students would come from elsewhere in the district. Likewise many students now attending West would attend traditional classes in Vernal. While it may help diversify population all over the district, this option fails to address the real issue - that students at West are performing at lower levels than elsewhere else-where in the district. Spreading students out could do nothing more than dilute an existing problem. Conversely, students may perform better if surrounded by peers who are performing at higher levels. ' The option least likely to sit well with West parents is closing the school. Any time a school board looks at this option, there is a fight, as parents work to keep their neighborhood schools. But by closing the school, the district may be able to consolidate resources. Those programs that are working could follow students and staff elsewhere in the district and be implemented at other schools. And proven systems at Vernal Middle School and Vernal Junior High could help students who are performing below required levels. School board members could choose to reconfigure the school, possibly by merging it with Todd Elementary. While the issue at hand is what to do with West, Todd Elementary students are also performing below the expected levels. One of the needs at West is more faculty, and merging with Todd won't free up any teachers nor offer a more complete set of courses to middle school-aged students. stu-dents. And the final option is to open the school as a charter school. Changing the name doesn't solve the issues. All it does is transfer responsibility to charter school administration. If the charter school fails to perform, it will lose its charter and the school will close anyway. Further, the creation of a charter school will only take district oversight out of the picture. New administrators may end up reinventing the wheel as they duplicate many of the efforts already considered by the district. 9 vou ,yf moupeopleY tP fT W. I HAVE ANl DUMB Of? . I VjtJ - Public Forum - Letters to the Editor What is your opinion? The Vernal Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions on contents, if in good taste and not libelous or vindictive. Letters may be edited for length. All letters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the full name, signature, phone number and address of the writer or writers. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in this forum. Submissions may be mailed to 54 N. Vernal Ave., Vernal, UT 84078; faxed to 435-789-8690 or sent by e-mail to editorvemal.com The name or names of the persons submitting letters must appear on all published letters. Letters express the opinion of the writer or writers and are not necessarily the opinion of the Vernal Express. Bertha Butterbean How to eat Halloween candy By Dm Cotowai Guest Writer I have dressed up kids and sent them out to beg for candy on Hallow een night for Unfortunately, noneof the answers are a win-win. Any effort to close the school, f.?15"1 or transfer students across the district will be stonewalled by parents, i ' .;,-But .;,-But leaving the school as it is without addressing the need to better educate students isn't an option either. District officials should consider first and foremost the outcome for students. The decisions made by the school board in coming weeks and months will extend years into these kids' lifetimes. If district officials can improve the quality of education edu-cation for students now attending West and instill educational values the student body will be all the better off in decades to come. But if the level of education and student performance continues on its current path, so will the students, and the district will again be considering similar options in years to come. Even it I wasn't planning on covering the meeting, I'd be at the 6 p.m. meeting at West Middle School on Nov. 5 for the meeting to see what parents and school board members have to say. INCONVENIENT BUT NOBLE 1m Kiuwgg Jouwm farm like 22 years. , ? " " That is probably close to a Guiness record. And so now I dress up the grandkids. (One of them wants to buy some candy ahead of time and practice trick-or-treating. He says he doesn't want to do it wrong.) But whether I hold a record or not, I have done it long enough to be something of an expert. Similarly, the National Safety Council offers all kinds of seasonal advice from what color costumes are safest to what do so the kids won't get lost. But nobody tells them what to do with all of that candy. The secret to surviving Halloween candy is to let the kids eat up all of it right when they get home from collecting it. In fact, encourage encour-age them to eat it right when they get it if they can get it open. (If they are busy eating, eat-ing, they will have less time ; for amassing.) Hopefully they will have eaten a good share of it by the time they get home. Don'tlet them sort or count what is left; just keep them eating. It's easy. Whatever you do, don't put it on top of the fridge or try to hide it. You will just have to fight them for everypiece, and do you really want kids snooping around in cupboards this close to Christmas? There are several pitfalls that you can avoid by getting rid of that candy immediately. immedi-ately. The first is a three-week three-week sugar high. Granted, the one-night high will be monumental, but it will be over with by morning. You will only have to live with juiced-up kids for one night. They may have a hangover when morning comes, but-at but-at least they won't be able to eat more candy and start all over again. You will also not have to deal with candy wrappers all over the house for more than one day. Since all of that candy has to be wrapped according to NSC standards which means it has to be tightly wrapped, it has to be shredded in order to be removed from the candy. I'm warning you - you will find bits of tinfoil, paper, cellophane, and sucker sticks under the beds, beneath the sofa cushions, in front of the TV, in the dryer, and you will never be through with the wrappers until Christmas when you will have to start all over again. Just finish it off, clean up the mess the next morning and be done with it. My dentist will back me up -on this. It is better for their teeth to get twenty pounds' of sugar all at once and then get ruthlessly brushed than it is to keep them bathed in sugar at the rate of an ounce per hour for the next three weeks. Don't worry about the kids getting sick. I never had one do it on Halloween candy. But if they do, maybe they will feel like going to bed early, in spite of the sugar coursing through their veins. Copley News Service Call him the Paul Revere of global warming - or maybe the Cassandra. Former Vice President Al Gore has done more than most to sound the alarm on a very real crisis, and he deserves credit for that. Last week, he and a United Nations panel of scientists received that credit in the form of the Nobel Peace Prize. The scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are, of course, the ones who have done the work. They've conducted the studies, developed the computer models and issued the reports detailing the phenomenon of global warming, its largely human causes and its possible effects on the planet and its inhabitants. But Gore's mission has been just as important: making sure that average citizens know what scientists are doing and that they are aroused enough to demand action from leaders, whether in Washington, London or Beijing. In delivering that message, Gore has done a service to humanity; hence the prize. He has on occasion exaggerated the threat and used hyperbole to make his point, as he does in the film "An Inconvenient Truth." But the point remains valid. Climate change is a serious threat and requires a serious response from governments and populations across the globe. Now, if only the Bush administration would take that threat as seriously as the Nobel committee does. Reprinted from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Literacy poster contest winners announced I THINK JUNIORS ABOUT READY FOR SOLID FOODS BUCK. if to tstttsttt Nearly 100 students in Uintah County from kindergarten kin-dergarten through eighth grade participated in aposter contest depicting the theme of Reading Radio. Symone Massey from the Uintah Literacy Commission announced an-nounced the winners Thursday, Thurs-day, Oct. 25. Six years ago the Uintah Literacy Commission and AM 920 KVEL developed Reading Radio as a fun way to encourage youth to make reading a part of their daily lives. Each week members of the Uintah High School Student Stu-dent Council coordinate with adult representing various organizations in the community commu-nity to read children's books "live" on the radio. Reading Radio is hosted and produced by Uintah High senior and youth council member Danielle Dani-elle Alonzo. A secret word is revealed during the program and students listening are encouraged to report the secret word to the school to win prizes from the Literacy Commission and local businesses busi-nesses supporting literacy in the county. The program is aired each Thursday evening at 7 p.m. on AM 920 KVEL. Winners of the poster contest con-test are from three categories; kindergarten to second grade, third to fourth grade and sixth through eighth grade. First place winners received re-ceived a new super sport radio from AM 920 KVEL are: kindergarten to second grade, Jaron Coomis from Ashley Elementary; third to fourth grade, Andrea Brady from Ashley Elementary; and Kiersten Gross from Vernal Junior High School in the sixth to eighth grade category. Second place winners received $20 in crazy cash from the Uintah Literacy Commission. Winners were kindergarten to second grade, Syndey Scheets from Ashley Youth City Council officials Adrienne Francisco, Cecilly Francisco, and Kristie Francisco in blue shirts (Danielle Alonso and Abbie Gray, missing) stand among the winners of the Reading Radio literacy poster contest. Elementary; third to fourth grade, Taylor Jones fromAsh-ley fromAsh-ley Elementary; and Rachel Kitchen from Vernal Junior High School in the sixth to eighth grade category. Third place winners received re-ceived $15 in bonus bucks from the Uintah Literacy Commission. Winners were kindergarten to second grade, Elizabeth Hacking from Ashley Elementary; third to fourth grade, Jocelyn Lamb from Ashley Elementary; and Kiley Gross from Vernal Junior Ju-nior High School in the sixth to eighth grade category. Fourth place winners received $10 in cool cash from the Uintah Literacy Commission. Winners were kindergarten to second grade, Taylor Merrell from Naples Elementary; third to fourth grade, Janesa Dickson from Lapoint Elementary; and Nichole Merrel from Vernal Middle School in the sixth to eighth grade category. Before giving the awards out Symone Massey said, "Everyone who reads is a winner. There were terrific posters submitted and on behalf of the Uintah Literacy Commission and our community commu-nity we would like to thank everyone who participated. Wendy's is giving a certificate for a free Frostie for every students who participated in the poster contest." The posters will remain on display in the lobby of Grand Valley National Bank, 121 W, Main, in Vernal through Nov. 16. After that, students can pick up their posters and Wendy's Frostie certificate at the bank. "Make reading time as pleasurable and comfortable comfort-able as possible and children will develop a warm feeling for books and reading," a message from the Uintah Literacy Commission. "Read to your children." YCC prepares for Fall Carnival By H!am Jacgai Express Writer The Vernal Youth City Council will host its third annual Fall Carnival tonight at the Old Dinosaur Gardens from 4 to 7 p.m. This is an opportunity for area children to collect candy and have fun on Halloween night in a safe atmosphere. At the annual carnival, members of the Vernal Youth City Council (YCC) run games for children to participate in. Candy and prizes are also given out. "We've added more than seven new games," said YCC Mayor and chair of the carnival carni-val Adrienne Francisco. "It's free, it's a lot of fun." YCC relies on the generous gener-ous contributions of area businesses to put on the carnival every year. This year businesses have been very generous in donating both money and prizes. Last year there were more than 1,000 kids at the carnival carni-val and YCC members hope this year can be as great a success. According to Francisco, the purpose of the event is "To unite the community and have a fun, safe Halloween. It is also a service opportunity for the Youth City Council." |