School Community

GRAND BLANC, Michigan Michigan Attorney General Bill Schutte visited embattled Rep. Paul Scott’s campaign headquarters this morning to make phone calls and drum up volunteer support.

The trip comes a week after Gov. Rick Snyder came to the 51st District to support the Grand Blanc Republican.

Both sides of the recall campaign are entering the final days of getting their message to voters, who will head to the polls Tuesday.

If Scott is recalled, he would be the first member of the legislature ousted in a recall campaign since 1983, when two Democrats were recalled.

The Big East is apparently ready to make one final push to keep its embattled football league together. With the defections of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the Atlantic Coast Conference, with TCU, who had been scheduled to join the league next season as a full member moving to the Big 12,and with Louisville apparently ready to join the Horned Frogs in moving to the Big 12, the Big East options seemed limited.
But that may change. According to sources in the Big East, the conference is looking at a plan which will invite Navy, Air Force and Boise State into the league as members in football only as well as Temple and Central Florida as members in all sports. The possibility of adding Villanova as the 12th team in football is also being discussed.
If Louisville chooses to stay in the Big East, the league would have 12 football members and could begin a conference championship game which would increase the value of any television contract the conference would receive.
Boise State, which has become a perennial Top 5 team in the past several years is the key element. If the Broncos, who would explore the possibility of joining another conference such as the Missouri Valley Conference or the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports, came to the Big East, they would also bring much needed BCS points which are necessary for the Big East to maintain its status as a BCS bowl.
The key to this for the Big East is Boise, which could bring significant television dollars in a new contract as well as BCS points and the prestige of a team which could compete for the national championship.
The key for Boise and for Air Force would be to find a place for the other sports besides football. One place could very well be the Western Athletic Conference. “We’ve had discussions with Air Force about joining in all sports but football,” said WAC commissioner Karl Benson this afternoon. “And we would certainly be willing to talk to Boise State about the same arrangement.
A source in the Big East told the Newark-Star Ledger that the inclusion of Boise “had been discussed.”
If the Big East could secure Boise State, Air Force and Navy in football only and add Temple and UCF it would be set in football and probably have a better league than now exists with more of a national footprint.
In basketball, the inclusion of Temple and UCF would put the Big East back to 16 teams. Temple would also elevate the Big East basketball profile which was damaged by the departure of Syracuse and Pittsburgh.

More marks could be made available for good spelling and grammar during GCSEs, the Stormont education minister has said.

Pupils may also be assessed at the end of the two-year course, as opposed to the current system of examination on a rolling basis.

The changes would help reduce bureaucracy caused by re-sitting, free up teaching time and ensure those taking the tests are more mature and ready for them.

John O’Dowd announced the consultation on the proposed changes yesterday. Similar methods were adopted in England.

He said: “I, and my department, remain committed to delivering an education system that meets the needs of all pupils in the north of Ireland. An important element of this is ensuring that public examinations are sufficiently robust and in the most suitable format.

“GCSEs, in particular, are a vital passport to further employment, educational and training opportunities in later life.

“I am keen, therefore, to gather as much information as possible on any proposed changes to how they are delivered before deciding on the best way forward.”

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FLINT, Michigan The Flint School District students and staff are collecting cash to provide winter coats for kids in need.

The KICK program for Kids Involved in Coats for Kids is in its fourth year with the district and goes through Nov. 2.

Salvation Army red kettles are in each schools office to collect cash raised at school events and projects. The school collecting the most donations will be presented with the KICK traveling trophy.

About 8,000 children have gotten coats from the program over the last four years.

To learn more on supporting KICK, contact the Salvation Army at 810-232-2196.

Almost half of Northern Ireland’s integrated schools are failing to meet Department of Education criteria on the percentage of pupils they must have from both traditions.

The Belfast Telegraph has obtained new figures showing that 45% of integrated schools do not have a 30% or more intake of pupils from a minority community.

That means, of the 62 integrated schools here, 28 do not meet the department’s viability criteria on religious balance.

Some integrated schools here have less than 5% of their intake from the minority community — fewer than some state-controlled schools.

That is in stark contrast to a recent Mori poll which indicated 88% of parents in Northern Ireland would send their child to an integrated school.

The statistics for the 2010/11 school year were revealed by Education Minister John O’Dowd in response to an Assembly question from the DUP’s Mervyn Storey, chairman of the education committee.

Mr Storey said: “Clearly the integrated model is not working in terms of its objectives. That’s why the DUP and Peter Robinson repeatedly talk about the real need for shared education.

“We now need to move into a new dispensation which clearly recognises the formal problems of transformation, which has not taken place in any school in the Catholic-maintained sector.

“Many of these schools that transformed within the controlled (attended mostly by Protestant children) sector were all about numbers and not the ethos of integrated education.”

Although no maintained school has ever switched to integrated status, the figures do show that more than half — 35 of the 62 integrated schools — are predominantly attended by children from a Catholic background.

They also reveal that 14 of the schools have practically an even balance of pupils from both the Protestant and Catholic communities.

Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) has welcomed the analysis of the background of pupils attending integrated schools and an open debate on the issue of balance.

Its chief executive Noreen Campbell said: “The aim of integrated education is to educate our young people from Protestant and Catholic backgrounds together and we are committed to achieving the best possible balance to ensure this happens effectively.”

She added: “That all schools which are integrated do not reach this target illustrates the deep divisions which exist at all levels in our society, including housing.”

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