Schools
The lessons at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school last Friday were centered on 1960s diner sit-ins and dormitory riots. And the teacher was civil rights pioneer, author and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
At a schoolwide multicultural assembly hosted by the Martha’s Vineyard Youth Leadership Initiative, Ms. Hunter-Gault told stories from her youth and read from her recent book, To the Mountaintop, written for high school-aged students.
The Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School 2012 Scarecrow Festival has arrived and more than 75 scarecrows are now living on the Island. The festival is a fundraiser for the school as each Island business that participates makes a donation to the school in return for a homemade scarecrow. The scarecrows stay up until Nov. 1. Visit mvpcs.org to take the grand scarecrow tour.
Increasing demand for special education services in Island public schools has led to a large jump the school superintendent’s budget for the coming fiscal year.
Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss presented a $4.4 million operating budget to the all-Island school committee last week, an increase of 8.8 per cent.
“I’m going to be candid with you,” Mr. Weiss told the committee. “The budget increase is significantly higher than I would have liked.”
Two early goals in Tuesday's home game against the Barnstable Red Raiders proved all the Vineyarders would need to secure their spot in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association postseason tournament. The final score was 2-1. The team is the third Vineyard squad to advance to tournament play: field hockey and golf clinched their berths two weeks ago.
Junior Kane Araujo scored unassisted less than 10 minutes into the first half. Senior captain Jack Roberts followed up Araujo's goal not long after with an arcing shot from 25 yards out that blew past Barnstable's keeper.
Jacqueline Woodson, 49, stood in front of the seated crowd of Oak Bluffs School eighth graders last Friday morning, holding a copy of her 2005 young adult novel, Behind You. The book was a mere prop, though. Ms. Woodson never glanced at its pages as she pulled the book’s first vignette from memory.
Paul Brissette stood in front of the Grange Hall Thursday evening to receive the Permanent Endowment Fund’s 2012 Creative Living Award and pulled from his pocket a small white carton. On it were written the words The Box.
“The Box contains all the knowledge and experience human beings have accumulated thus far,” Mr. Brissette told the gathering of friends, family members, colleagues and community members.