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3/4/09: Parent's Guide to SunSentinel.com
Depressed by what you're seeing on television? So are your kids. Well, sort of. That's one of the articles in today's SunSentinel.com parent's digest. In the meantime, Moms & Dads can now be found as SSParents on Facebook and on Twitter. We invite you to join our growing community.
Palm Beach County schools face potential $100 million cut in state funds
Palm Beach County Schools Superintendent Art Johnson has told employees he is "distressed" over the latest financial outlook: A potential $100 million cut in state funding for next year. And he notified them that right now his administration plans to produce a budget that doesn't include an infusion of federal stimulus cash.
"To date, we have maintained a balanced budget ... and avoided layoffs," he wrote in an e-mail Friday, indicating that what happens next is unclear.
School District administrators this week said they are not forming a spending plan for 2009-10 based on a much rosier projection issued last month by Gov. Charlie Crist. That plan, using a portion of federal stimulus funds, features a $40 million increase for local schools, for a total supply of $1.2 billion for county classrooms. Read the rest here.
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Broward County schools to start tweeting on Twitter.com
Broward County Public Schools entered the Twitterverse this week.
The school district plans to use Twitter.com, with its short messages called "tweets" — no more than 140 characters — to stay connected with tech-savvy parents, students and teachers.
District officials will tweet meeting reminders, emergency operations during hurricane season, School Board decisions and other district news. To receive district tweets, or updates, parents can create an account on Twitter.com then follow "browardschools."
Tweets can be viewed online or sent to a cell phone. Read the rest here.
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Take your family to a kid-friendly opera
If your kids think opera is about wailing women and confusing, boring plots, it might be time for a trip to the Kravis Center.
Palm Beach Opera is offering a family-friendly version of La Boheme on April 4 at the Kravis Center. Puccini's classic opera (and the inspiration for the Broadway musical Rent) will be abridged to 90 minutes. It still includes the best musical highlights from the show and a narration and a translation to help you follow the story. The performance still has the full orchestra, large chorus and amazing scenery. It's just shorter.
Set changes are done with an open curtain so the kids can see how it all works. And after the last bow, the children are invited to the lobby to meet the performers. Get the details here.
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Teen depression may have links to TV, study says
TV has become a great scapegoat for these stressful times. But is a teenager who watches hours of daily television more likely to become depressed?
Yes.
In a study conducted at University of Pittsburgh, researchers interviewed 4,142 adolescents — none of whom showed signs of depression at the start — and found that, when they checked in with them seven years later, 7 percent of the adolescents (who were now 21) had developed signs of depression.
The depressed young people watched more television than those who weren't depressed: an average of 2.64 hours of TV a day versus 2.28 hours per day for the adolescents who weren't depressed. Read the rest here.
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work...
Joy Oglesby has an infant daughter and a sister 13 years her junior, whom she babies to the now-adult...
Cindy Kent Fort Lauderdale mother of three. Her kids span in ages from teenager to 20s...
Rafael Olmeda and his wife welcomed their first son in Feb. 2009, and he's helping raise two teenage stepdaughters...
Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters...
Anne Vasquez is the Online Editor in charge of overseeing SunSentinel.com. She is the mother of a 5-year-old boy and a newborn daughter.
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces...
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 13, and Lily, 6, and is married...
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator, and father of two boys and a girl all under the age of seven.
Comments
I know someone who has lied about her address in order to get her 3 children into an elementary school in palm beach county that she considers a good school. To whom shall I report this and what is the "cost" of this transgression
Posted by: charna larkin | May 9, 2009 10:17 AM
I know someone who has lied about her address in order to get her 3 children into an elementary school in palm beach county that she considers a good school. To whom shall I report this and what is the "cost" of this transgression
Posted by: charna larkin | May 9, 2009 10:17 AM