More Highlights from the School Board Meeting

More Highlights from the School Board Meeting

• Elementary School Teacher Sylvia Perkins was nominated for Teacher of the Year by Portsmouth resident Melissa Jones, of 10 Market St.
• The rental committee reported that rental of school rooms and buildings have dropped 25% from last year. They suggested the use of the newspaper’s classified ads to advertise the rental spaces.
• The maintenance committee reported that graffiti artists have attacked the back wall of Portsmouth Middle School.
• The athletic committee proposed guidelines for fundraising by Booster Clubs.
• New business discussed by the School Board:
• A retreat for administrators in June.
• Four requests from teachers for leaves of absence during the coming school year.
• A financial report detailing the impact of federal budget cuts on the school lunch program.
• Approval of several school department and food service bills amounting to $13,568.

(class assignment)

Portsmouth School Board Discusses Disciplinary Measures

Portsmouth High School students who get in trouble during the school week may soon find themselves back at school on Saturday mornings if the Portsmouth School Board gets their way.

The new rule, suggested by Board member Tim Steele at last night’s School Board meeting, would require any student with disciplinary problems during the week to attend Saturday morning sessions from 8 a.m. until noon. The Saturday sessions would run several weekends during the year.

Steele’s proposal was met with mixed reactions from the crowd.

Peggy Bacon, a parent, was irritated with Steele’s motion. “I work six days a week – including Saturday morning – and it’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday,” Bacon said. “Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well?”

Lisa Gallagher, a senior at Portsmouth High, spoke out against the proposal as well. “I think it’s just being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week. Anyway, what if someone skips the session? What are they going to do, make them stay all weekend?”

Steele explained that any student who skips the Saturday sessions would not be allowed to return to school until they served their detention.

The new disciplinary measure was proposed in the hopes of reducing the number of in-house suspensions, Steele said. Under the current rule, any student caught smoking inside of outside of the school is automatically given an in-house suspension. During the 1995 school year, 154 students received in-house suspensions.

According to Steele, students are not allowed to make up class work they miss during in-house suspensions. With the new program, students would miss no class time.

“I know this isn’t good news for parents, but I hope the threat of Saturday classes will make the students think twice before breaking the school rules,” Steele said.

Steele’s proposal had at least one supporter in Bob Farley of 64 Elm St. “Parents can whine all they want about this, but maybe it’s time parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids,” Farley said. “That’s the whole problem – parents aren’t teaching their kids any discipline, so the kids have no respect for rules. Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start wising up.”

After discussing the issue for about half an hour, the board voted 5-3 (with one member abstaining) to table the issue until their next meeting on March 7th. At that time, Steele is required to return with figures on in-school detentions for the current school year.

Also of interest to students and parents was Superintendent of Schools Nathan Greenberg's administrative report regarding the School Department’s efforts to pass a $21 million budget for the next school year. The proposed budget is 5.5% larger than the current budget, Greenberg said. The board did not spend much time discussing this matter.

(class assignment)

The New York Times: Fair in Political Coverage?

The mark of a good newspaper is that it provides fair and equal coverage of both sides of every story. Recently, The New York Times has been charged with favoring the Republican Party in its coverage of the 2008 presidential election.

A review of the Times from Thursday, Oct. 23 and Friday, Oct. 24 shows that 12 articles about the upcoming election were printed, with two clearly pro-Republican, two clearly pro-Democrat, and the rest in a gray area in between.

The pro-Republican articles include "How McCain Hopes to Defy the Polls and Win," and "From Little-Noticed College Student to Star Politician." The first article, as the title suggests, explores what Sen. McCain is doing to overcome his poll deficit and defeat Sen. Obama. The second focuses on Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, describing her childhood in Alaska.

The pro-Democrat articles are "Polls Show Obama Gaining Among Bush Voters," and "In a Father's Tough Life, Principles and Examples to Live By for Biden." "Polls" gives statistics from various demographic groups about their voting preferences, with Obama ahead in many categories. "Father's Tough Life" highlights Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden and the role his father played in his formative years and beyond.

It is worth noting that the pro-Republican articles do seem to have more prominence in the paper. The article about McCain was printed on the front page of Friday's paper, while Obama's article is on page A18.

Only two articles can truly be considered neutral. "Rivals Split on U.S. Power, But Ideas Defy Easy Labels," and "McCain and Obama Hurl Broadsides at Each Other Over Taxes and Jobs" present both candidates' stances on various issues. "Rivals," a front page article, explores each man's take on foreign policy, while "Broadsides" discusses how both McCain and Obama have been verbally attacking each other.

The remaining six articles focus overwhelmingly more on the Republican Party than the Democratic Party, with five of the six dealing with either McCain or Gov. Palin. However, these articles are not necessarily positive. Three of these articles discuss the controversy Palin is now receiving from the amount of money she has spent on a new political wardrobe, a controversy unlikely to help the Republican campaign.

The other two Republican articles are also unlikely to promote McCain. "McCain Is Faltering Among Hispanic Voters" and "A Onetime McCain Insider Is Now Offering Advice (Unwanted) From the Outside" are full of criticisms of McCain, making it hard to consider these articles pro-Republican, despite their Republican focus.

In order to be equal and fair, The New York Times needs to include more Democratic articles in their political coverage. Though their focus is not necessarily pro-Republican, they certainly have given the Republican Party more press in recent days.

Romanian Spotted Leopards

Romanian Spotted Leopards
With only four other Romanian spotted leopards in the world, Fluffy is certainly a rare animal. Kitty Smith, the zoo’s chief biologist, told reporters that Fluffy has been a mainstay at the Durham Zoo for the past five years since she was given as a gift to the city of Durham from our sister city in Romania, Durhamvoska.

According to Smith, Romanian spotted leopards have been pushed to the point of extinction because of their appetite for young children.

10-year-old Fluffy eats only meat. Smith said her diet consists of three old chickens a day, which are thrown into her cage at meal times.

Fluffy was going to be flown to China next month to mate with a male spotted leopard owned by the Chinese government, Smith said. Fluffy is the only female spotted leopard in existence.

Newswriting practice assignment -not real!-

Leopard Escapes from Durham Zoo

Durham, N.H. – Fluffy, the Durham Zoo’s rare spotted leopard, escaped from her cage sometime after 9 p.m. Tuesday night, according to the director of the zoo.

The cage showed no signs of tampering, and the surrounding fencing was unbroken, Director Gerry Durrell said at a news conference this morning. “We have no idea what time Fluffy escaped or where she went,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to find her and bring her back.”

Police and zoo workers have been vigorously searching the zoo grounds since Fluffy’s absence was noted at 7:30 this morning. Police Chief William Blair said his team will search the surrounding neighborhood if Fluffy is not found in the zoo.

“We are concerned because this is a residential neighborhood with an elementary school and we don’t want Fluffy wandering around after the kids get out of school.”

Blair told the crowd that the New Hampshire State Police and the state wildlife department have been asked to assist the search. Additionally, the National Guard has supplied five helicopters with infrared sensors.

Fluffy is one of only five Romanian spotted leopards in the world, and the only female of her kind, according to Kitty Smith, the zoo’s chief biologist. Fluffy is black with white spots, weighs 146 pounds, and can run 60 miles an hour.

Despite calling Fluffy “extremely dangerous,” Smith insisted that she is “a wonderful, warm, gentle cat who has never hurt anyone.” Smith did admit, however, that if cornered the animal’s instinct would be to “kill, and to kill quickly.”

Families at the zoo were visibly upset upon hearing the news, but more for Fluffy’s safety than their own. “Fluffy would never hurt anyone,” one man said as he left the zoo. “I want my money back, and then I’m never coming back here again.”

Welcome!

Hey... Welcome to my first blog.

I'm pretty new at this blogging thing, so forgive me if I don't know what I'm doing. Like it says in my "About me," I'm a junior at UNH, and this blog is a part of my Newswriting class. Right now I'm sort of just trying to figure things out.

I've really enjoyed this class so far overall, but there are aspects of it that have been a little stressful for me. By far the most difficult part for me has been coming up with story ideas. There are literally millions of things out in the world to write about...how am I supposed to pick out one thing that is more interesting or important than everything else? Then there's the matter of actually finding people knowledgeable enough about the subject to interview...definitely not one of my favorite things to do. Maybe it makes me a bad journalist, but I won't pretend like I don't get nervous everytime I have to talk to random people. I suppose it's a good thing to stretch myself out of my comfort zone. Conquering my fears, and whatnot.

For me, personally, I just love to write. The idea generating and information gathering is a bit tedious, but once I get to sit down and actually write, it's all okay. If only I could find a job where someone else did all of the legwork and I just had to put it all together and make it sound nice. That would be perfect. Maybe someday that will be possible (doubtful), but for the time being, I guess I'll just have to learn to deal.

-Kristin