THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 05, 2018 - September 11, 2018
Back to School: $5,000 in Scholarships Now Available to Help Local In-Need Students Get Into the College of Their Dreams Students From Low-Income Families Score Lower on SAT/ACT Tests, One Person Focused on Giving Access to These Students by Awarding Scholarships to Local SAT/ACT Prep Training Course
Hartford/Fairfield, CT— For teenage students who have to take the all-important SAT/ACT tests this year, back to school time can be more stressful. A large percentage of those students face a bigger challenge as they simply can’t afford to receive the training needed to score well on the essential college entrance testing. One woman wants to change that. More than 25 local (greater Harford/ Fairfield area) students can now get free help with SAT/ACT Prep. The scholarships are available to students from lowincome families who might not otherwise be able to afford the crucial preparation for the most important test needed to get into college. Studies show that students from low-income families usually score significantly lower in the SAT/ACT, limiting their chances to get into a quality college. The College Board now agrees that taking an SAT prep course can increase a test takers score, in some cases by as much as 200
points. Andrea Catsicas of MindWorks Prep (www.mindworksprep.com) is offering the $5,000 in scholarships to her SAT Bootcamp to be held at Fairfield University on September 15th. Catsicas says she can relate to these children in need because she came from a single parent home and never would have gotten to the college of her dreams without extra help, “I believe in education, SAT/ACT Prep and that the promise of a bright future should be available to all” she says. Catsicas is available for interviews.
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Babz@penfieldcomm.com
Advertising/Sales Team Trenda Lucky Keith Jackson Delores Alleyne John Thomas, III
Editorial Team Staff Writers
EVENT DETAILS: ONE-DAY SAT BOOTCAMP University of Fairfield September 15, 2018 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Website: http://www.mindworksprep. com/sat-scholarships.html
Christian Lewis/Current Affairs Anthony Scott/Sports Arlene Davis-Rudd/Politics
Contributing Writers
by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Top Harp administration employees will get to keep their raises, but it will cost some city departments thousands in operating dollars.
MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Alder Evette Hamilton reads the measure aloud before Tuesday night’s vote. vices, and a combined $52,260 from Economic Development. The Harp administration has maintained that the mayor was within her right to give out the raises, which took effect on June 11, 2018, with retroactive pay effective July 1, 2017, through June 8, 2018. The money for the raises came from the $1.8 million contract reserve line item included in the Fiscal 2018-19 (FY19) budget that the alders approved at the end of May. Alders accused City Hall of sneaking through controversial raises without public debate at a time of a controversial tax hike. Esther Armmand, who serves as the mayor’s liaison to the alders, said Tuesday night there is still concern that alders took this step after the process of setting a budget for the year had already ended. She also raised concerns that this step might be outside the standards of good budgeting prac-
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Alders Claw Back Mayor’s Raises A vote Tuesday night of the Board of Alders made that official. The alders voted to approve a plan that will pull back nearly half a million dollars from city departments in an effort to minimize the burden of a new 11 percent property tax increase. Alders voted unanimously in a roll call vote Tuesday during their regular bimonthly meeting at City Hall to reduce the funding it had previously approved for 16 city departments in the current budget, which went into effect July 1, by a total of $483,172. That figure equals the amount of money that the mayor gave to 36 non-unionized department heads and aides who had not received raises in as many as seven years. The raises were revealed only after the alders had approved the new fiscal year’s budget. The money is to be transferred to a new line item in the budget dedicated to reducing the city’s property mill rate, which was raised in the new budget from 36.68 to 42.98. (One mill corresponds to $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed taxable real estate. Since the average New Haven home is assessed at just under $140,000, according to the 2016 grand list reassessment, the 11 percent tax increase raised property taxes for the average city homeowner by around $600.) The amount cut from the various departments includes $133,124 from the finance department’s Office of Technology Maintenance Agreements, $78,786 from Human Resources other contractual, $22,500 from Corporation Counsel other contractual ser-
John P. Thomas
tices and might have trouble withstanding the scrutiny of an audit. “There is a question of how to implement this after the fact,” she said after the meeting. “But we will work with the Board of Alders leadership to work this out.” Board President Tyisha Walker-Myers said that the expectation is that Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany will begin adjusting budgets to reflect the alders’ decision and that those adjustments should show up in his reports starting next month. “They did what they did and we’re doing what we’re doing, and we’ll see what happens,” Walker-Myers said. “I think we were clear on our intent and what we were doing.” The ordinance amendment would lower the average homeowner’s tax bill by an average of $10.
4
High School Artists Honor Heroes Of New Haven
In one portrait, a man with glasses gazes from the frame, friendly but appraising. In another, Ruth Bader Ginsburg peers out from a background swirling with color, bringing all her intelligence and experience to bear to size up the viewer. In a third, a woman, nobody’s fool, gazes out from a scintillating wall of hues, a clock tower to her left. It turns out that the woman is Marilyn Walton, a construction worker, hairdresser, and business owner who happened to be the grandmother of artist Jaida Stancil. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is, of course, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, rendered by Aliya Anna Hafiz. And the man with the glasses is artist Salvador Bacón, father of Patricio Salvador Bacón Guaray, who painted his father’s portrait. He is an artist and I really love how he combines his colors and presents his work to the public,” Guaray writes of his father. “I learned my family’s history since I was very young, and it made me value, improve and change the way I live my life.” Walton, Ginsburg, and Bacón are part of a mosaic of portraits, of judges, activists, friends, artists, relatives, and athletes — each image three tiles across and four down — made by the 20 high-school students in Artspace’s Summer Apprenticeship Program, which began in July and concludes on Saturday with a day-long environmental justice summit involving the students, artists, and community leaders. The idea behind the project was “to pay homage to an unsung hero who is local to New Haven,” said Artspace curator Sarah Fritchey. “Personal heroes who are family members or friends.” But the students in the program ran with that idea. Soon Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Freddie Mercury joined the ranks of people on the walls. The portraits are just part of the gallery show. Pasted to the walls are portraits of the artists themselves, done by artist and project fa-
David Asbery Tanisha Asbery Jerry Craft/Cartoons Barbara Fair
Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur Michelle Turner Smita Shrestha William Spivey Kam Williams Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee
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Contributors At-Large
Christine Stuart www.CTNewsJunkie.com Paul Bass New Haven Independent www.newhavenindependent.org
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