The school boards of two Vermont towns, Hartford and Hartland, are currently exploring possible options for consolidation and cost-sharing between the districts, the Valley News reported. Of the four plans under consideration, three would force families in the Hartland school district to forfeit the option of which school their children attend. While the plans will likely help the towns save money and may boost enrollment in Hartford's shrinking high school, they also stand to affect the one-third of Hartland students who are currently attending schools outside of either district.
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer announced the creation of a $4 billion endowment and the addition of 2,000 new full-time faculty members to the state's public universities in his State of the State address on Wednesday. The governor's commission on higher education called for improvements to the State University of New York and City University of New York systems last month, saying that the state was "losing its competitive edge," the New York Times reported. Absent from Spitzer's address was a response to the commission's recommendation that the system's universities be allowed to adjust their tuitions individually and without state permission. Spitzer proposed to fund his endowment by selling a part of the state lottery to a private buyer, but the education committee "needed more details before making any decisions," according to the New York Times.
A week of conservation-focused events hosted by Sustainable Dartmouth culminated in a Student Group Sustainability Summit Thursday evening. The event, held in Thayer Dining Hall's Tindle Lounge, featured an exhibition of various student groups and programs with an environmental focus, including the Big Green Bus and the Dartmouth Organic Farm. The summit was preceded by an Environmental Conservation Organization meeting Monday night, as well as a push from the Sierra Club to raise awareness about climate change issues in time for the New Hampshire presidential primaries on Tuesday.
