Kitten Rescued at Dining Hall Porch

An unbearably cute four week old white kitten with blue eyes was recently discovered outside the Dining Hall.  The cat, stuck in a crawl space, must have been dropped by its mother, who was then unable to retrieve to kitten.  A staff member heard the pathetic little mews, almost mistaking them for bird chirps.  She quickly sent word to the Buildings and Grounds Department that there was an emergency.  Alan and James came to the rescue, having to actually chip away some concrete to reach the terrified and malnourished kitten.

A dining hall staff member has adopted the kitten and is considering naming him ‘JC” or “Campbell.”  He promises to make regular visits to the office so we can keep track of this lucky kitten!

School News: Insurance Office of America gives The King’s Academy $10,000

THE KING’S ACADEMY

David Lodwick, Insurance Office of America’s senior vice president, presented the school with a $10,000 check to support The Mane Event, the annual dinner and auction. The event will have an Italian theme and is set for March 5. For sponsorship or ticket information contact the Development Office, (561) 686-4244, Ext 319.

SEMINOLE RIDGE HIGH

A mandatory athletics orientation is scheduled 6-8 p.m. today for all students interested in trying out for any sport during the school year. A parent or guardian must attend.

THE GODDARD SCHOOL

The school will celebrate its opening 1-3 p.m. Saturday with refreshments, games and music for pre-schoolers and their families. Families who enroll during the event will receive 50 percent off the first full month’s tuition. The school is located at 2665 State Road 7, Wellington. Call (561) 333-2020 for more information.

BRIEFLY

Members of the class of 2010 who received Blum Family Scholarships at Bethesda Memorial Hospital include: Joshua Ackerman and Jasmine Simplice, Santaluces High; Daniel Bermann and De-Vaughn Williams, Park Vista High; Lynne Dore, South Tech Academy; Craig Petersen, Boca Raton High; Mary Plummer, Pope John Paul II High. Each of the students, all children of Bethesda Healthcare System employees, will receive $5,000 toward a four-year college degree.

Fifth Third Bank, in partnership with the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County, is sponsoring its second annual back-to-school supply drive through Sept. 3. Bank offices will accept donations of school supplies and will provide individual backpacks. Supplies and backpacks will be distributed in conjunction with the education foundation to students in need of assistance. Suggested items include pencils, spiral notebooks, crayons, washable glue or glue sticks, full-size boxes of tissue, anti-bacterial wipes or hand sanitizer and gallon- or sandwich-sized plastic bags. Gift cards for the purchase of supplies also will be accepted.

Compiled by staff writer Sy O’Neill. School news should be e-mailed to neighborhood@pbpost.com.

WNC Magazine Wine and Food Festival

This past weekend, the Folk School traveled to Asheville to represent our cooking program in a Wine and Food Festival.  The annual festival, sponsored by WNC Magazine, celebrates and promotes local food sources, from wineries to restaurants and specialty food producers.  Tasting glasses and plates in hand, participants strolled through the Agricultural Center, enjoying what vendors had to offer.  The Folk School stood out, and not just because we had the most attractive booth (which we certainly did), but also because we are a school.  Few of the other vendors offered cooking classes.  As the samples of chocolate chili zucchini bread, southern cheese pennies, and smoked trout dip lured people to our booth, we familiarized them with the variety of classes the Folk School has to offer.  Participants were delighted by our fresh, colorful display of flowers and produce, all harvested by our Folk School gardeners.  Nanette Davidson was first on schedule to present a short talk on the Folk School, after which she hurried back to our booth to demonstrate how easy it is to make white gazpacho and raspberry buttermilk sorbet in a food processor, with fresh, seasonal, healthy ingredients, of course.  (See Nanette for recipes.)

Want to sign up for a cooking class at the Folk School?  Our spacious, state of the art cooking studio hosts a variety of delectable classes such as chocolate, cheese making, artisan breads, canning, hearth cooking, and food of many nationalities.  Click here for a list of our cooking classes.

Parents welcome return of sales tax holiday

, and Laura Hampson

WELLINGTON — Clutching supply lists with specifications rivaling a military defense contract and clamoring for dress code-approved clothing, parents are using the statewide sales tax holiday to stretch their back-to-school dollar.

Today is the second day of tax-free shopping for office supplies that cost $10 or less. Clothes, books and shoes at $50 or less are also tax-free until midnight Sunday. The tax break was put on hold for two years because of budget constraints, but some retailers pushed hard to have it return this year.

Parents shopping for their children Friday said that while the break on the 6.5 percent tax is helpful, discounts offered by retailers are often better deals.

First offered in 1998, the holiday has lasted as many as 10 days. It was widely popular among consumers and retailers, who said it helped spur sales and save shoppers money.

“When a tax-free holiday happens, it can be like a weekend near Christmas. It can be that busy,” said Frank Wilison, JCPenney store manager at The Mall at Wellington Green. He said the store beefs up its uniform selection for tax holidays.

Michelle Machazek of West Palm Beach said she waited until this weekend to buy uniforms at JC­Penney for her son, 10-year-old Joseph Rex. She said that while the tax break helps, she also waited for the deep sales stores offer just before school starts.

Looking for dress code-approved shorts at the store, Christine Kelly of Lake Worth and her daughter, Hannah, 12, braved the crowd Friday. She said she waited until the tax break to buy clothes and shoes. “It’s a great deal to wait. Unfortunately you’re stuck in line, but patience is a virtue,” Kelly said.

Melisa Dowling of Lake Worth said her friends didn’t want to shop during the tax holiday because of crowds. She said she went to the mall anyway for the tax break and the sales. However, the holiday doesn’t entice her to buy more than usual for her son Logan, 4, and daughter Madison, 8, she said.

Prices are a little cheaper during the tax-free weekend, said Rhonda DeCastro of Boca Raton, who waited until Friday to buy clothes for her stepdaughter, Alexandra, 12. De­Castro said the savings don’t add up to much for supplies, but it does make a big difference on clothes.

Roxanna Rossi of Royal Palm Beach said she would spend a couple of hundred dollars on gear for her three children. While shopping at Office Depot in Royal Palm Beach on Friday, she said her biggest purchase would be graphing calculators for higher-level math. They cost about $100 but are not tax-free, since the holiday is for office supplies that are $10 or less.

Angela Christian of The Acreage said the tax holiday would be better if it were longer because often middle and high school students do not know what they need until classes start. She bought supplies she knew her three children would need at Target in Royal Palm Beach on Friday, but said she’d have to come back.

This Week at the Folk School August 1-7

Jewelry students of all skill levels learned to create wire-wrapped adornments: pendants, earrings, rings and bracelets. Many students chose to enfold precious stones in gold or sterling silver.

When drawing in only black and white, shades play a huge role in the definition of objects. So for the drawing class, this was definitely an area of focus. On a clear sunny morning, students had the opportunity to head outdoors and experience how light influences areas of brightness and shade in nature. The sun exuded its rays over trees and flowers, and also the surroundings behind them, to show how things can be made apparent even by the lightness of the background.

Raw focus and constant steadiness are vital for the beginning Glass Bead student.  Using a searing flame to shape and mold the beads, they make designs and patterns on the tiny, morphous canvases.

The woodworking studio was put into use this week for a class in Shaker Boxes, which are small lidded boxes. Though the work is tedious (here a student inserts several minuscule screws into the bent wood) the results are exponentially satisfying.

In the Mosaics class, students placed colorful pieces of tile onto panels, and arranged them into vibrant designs and images. The finished products were to be used for purposes varying from home display to tabletop usage to gifts.

In the Broom Making class, it’s all about technique. Students learn to weave a myriad of styles of brooms, such as the cobweb and turkey wing, in many different ways. To make the fruit of their effort even more worth it, those partaking in the class also go out and collect the gnarled wooden branches that they sand and finish for the broom handles.

The Surface Design class had a blast experimenting with their creative chi this week. The students took a bland piece of fabric and used different coloring techniques to generate patterns and designs. Some turned out looking expressive and earthy in tone, while others resembled closely a kaleidoscope. Many of the students are quilters and fiber artists and will incorporate these creative fabrics into their own works.

In the new and recently opened Clay Spencer Blacksmith Shop, 3 father and son pairs worked together and individually to acquire new smithing skills.

Bluegrass Banjo is as essential to Appalachian culture as hot dogs are to baseball games, so this class was filled to the brim. Even those who like to take songs slow and steady found themselves jamming out with others.

Written By: Taylor, Summer Intern from Murphy High School

400 teaching recruits get pep talks

Marc Freeman

Stephen Cochran says he did his homework before deciding to teach in Palm Beach County this year: The 20-year veteran math teacher from the San Francisco Bay area scoured websites to read articles about the curriculum controversy that disrupted the school system.

“I feel like I’m coming in right after the hurricane has been cleared up,” said Cochran, who relocated to South Florida and was recently hired to teach at Spanish River High in Boca Raton. “I imagine if I started last year I would have been questioning myself the whole way. Now the storm has passed.”

For about 400 new county teachers, upbeat orientation activities on Monday included suggestions from recent award-winning teachers, and talk of “new beginnings” both for these educators and the district. Classes start on Aug. 17.

Yet the recruits arrive at a time when the county Classroom Teachers Association is at war with the school district over money for salaries – there have been no raises for two years. In additions, educators and parents remain bitter over last year’s botched academic initiatives that forced teachers to follow scripted lessons and testing schedules.

But in a cheery address in the auditorium of Santaluces High School, union President Robert Dow – appearing robust from his recent cancer recovery – declared, “teaching is the best job in the world.”

Schools Superintendent Art Johnson used a video graphic to show the new teachers that the district has received an A rating from the state for the past six years.

“You are joining a very successful team,” he said . He praised the system’s more than 12,000 teachers for the ranking that is the best for urban districts in Florida.