Thursday April 9, 2015 Vol. 3, No. 7
The Weekly Post
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New members elected to local school boards By BILL KNIGHT and MICHELLE SHERMAN
School board races were the only questions heading into Tuesday’s election and a few new members will join reelected incumbents when new boards are sworn in in Elmwood, Farmington and Princeville. In Elmwood, unofficial results show challenger Claude Keefer was the top vote-getter, with 293 votes, followed by incumbent Dean Cantu (235), For The Weekly Post
Board president uppermost in Lambert among newly elected Tom Conklin (219), Keefer’s mind, he • Ryan Lambert, right, ran and newcomer Val said. unopposed for the Farmington Ramirez (215). “Finances is the Falling short were City Council and said he big one,” he said. Board vice president hopes to bring some new “And the building ideas to that group following Terri Osmulski (177 issue I’m very interhis win in Tuesday’s spring votes) and another ested in. We need election, Page 2. challenger, Chrissy better facilities and Jacobsen (166). we’re going to have school district through some Board member Veronica to get creative to get that Haskell did not run for another difficult times ahead,” Keefer done.” said Tuesday night. “I’m ready term. Ramirez echoed Keefer, to be part of the team.” “I’m looking forward to saying “I’m looking forward As with most school dishelping out with the rest of the to serving with this board and board and helping move the tricts, money and facilities are this administration. I want to
LEARNING CAN BE FUN
Grant will bring Gardeners: robots to school Start your engines! Any day now the soil will be right for working and you can fire up the tiller to turn the soil for this year’s garden. It is easy to tell when soil is dry enough to be worked. Grab a handful and work it with your fingers. The soil is too wet if it wads up into a ball rather than crumbling away. Till wet soil and you’ll regret it for the rest of the season. Instead of making a fine textured seed bed, you will have large clods as hard as rock. You’ll never get them broken down. It takes a winter of freezing and thawing to do that. Be patient and wait until the soil moisture is right. If you’re working up an existing garden plot, give it a For The Weekly Post
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Farmington to gain assisted living center FARMINGTON – Farmington soon will have a new assisted-living facility for seniors, the city council learned on Monday (April 6). Doug Currier, vice president of operations for assisted living with Petersen Health Care, told the council his company plans to break ground on the 32unit facility this spring, with a projected opening set for January 2016. Townships “We’ve been Local townships anxiously awaithave their annual ing this evening meetings Tuesday for a number of (April 14) and we years,” he said. break down their Once comannual budgets. pleted, Courtyard Page 15. Estates of Farmington also will be one of only two Petersen properties to house an 11-person “memory care” program called Betty’s Garden. The facility also will have seven 1bedroom and 14 studio apartments. “The memory care is going to be a very, very sought-after area,” Currier said. With services ranging from housekeeping to medical transporting, Courtyard Estates of Farmington will be open For The Weekly Post
For The Weekly Post
By RON DIETER
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By MICHELLE SHERMAN
By CHERYL HARLOW
ELMWOOD – School budgets are tighter than ever these days. But thanks to financial help from national grants, Elmwood Junior High School teachers have been able to bring some new and innovative ideas to the classroom over the past few years. Earlier this year, Elmwood science teacher Cindy Alcaraz was awarded a $975 grant through the PNC Foundation. The grant was used to purchase student model kits to build robots with Tetrix Prime Robots sets and a bionic/robotic hand kit for seventh and eighth grade science classes. As part of the grant, students will also read the science fiction novel, “I
thank my supporters. We have a great district and a great community and I’m honored the voters chose me to serve both. “Each candidate [running] would’ve been great, too,” he added. “That’s a positive reflection of the community.” In Farmington, Todd Guidi in a 63-vote upset was not reelected for a third term on the Board of Education. Guidi, who has served on the board
Rebecca Kempf of Elmwood works with a solar car last spring. Kits to build the cars were purchased with a grant awarded by the PNC Foundation. Photo by Cindy Alcaraz.
Robot” in Chris Herridge’s literature class. Grant money was used to purchase the 30 novels that literature classes will read at the same time they are discovering in science class how to work with
advanced robotics. “Students will discover all the possibilities for using robotics, including space exploration, industry and in the field of medicine,” Alcaraz said. Continued on Page 12
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