The Peru Gazette

The Press Republican reports

The Press Republican reports

The Town of Peru will hold a Special Board Meeting on February 23, 2011 at 6:30 PM at the Peru Town Hall for the purpose of holding an Executive Session to discuss the employment history of a particular individual and pending litigation.

The Free Press reports

The Post Star reports

The Watertown Daily Times reports

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports

The Post Star reports

The New York Times reports

The Democrat and Chronicle reports

The Times Union reports

The adirondack almanac reports

The Observer-Dispatch reports

The Press Republican reports

From the Office of Congressman Owens

WASHINGTON – Congressman Bill Owens today released the following statement in response to the early morning House passage of H.R. 1, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011.

“It is unfortunate that the resources and time of the House of Representatives were focused on H.R. 1 for an entire legislative week.  We have a short time before our current funding bill expires, and to send a partisan funding bill to the Senate is an exercise in futility. This week would have been better spent negotiating with the Senate to find a workable compromise, like we did during last year’s lame duck session of Congress to extend tax cuts for the middle class.

“With my proposal, critical government services could adjust to minor cuts without going under, and we would have adequate time to come together and do an economic analysis of which government programs are creating or sustaining jobs, review each program, and apply a cost-benefit analysis in determining which programs should continue to be funded.”

The Watertown Daily Times reports

The Center for Disease Control reports

Seven Days reports

The Post Standard reports

The Times Union reports

Brian Mann of NCPR expounds on why our region is losing population. Please view the remarks.

The North Countryman reports

NYS Education Department News Release

The State Education Department announced today the release of 2009-10 School Report Cards for all schools and districts throughout New York. In addition to school and district information, there is also a School Report Card for the entire State. The Report Cards are available on the web at http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/reportcard/.

Much of the data contained in the School Report Cards has already been publicly released throughout the past year, but the Report Cards represent a single place for finding all of that information. Previously released information includes:

• Grades 3-8 Mathematics and English Language Arts test results for 2009-10;
• School and district graduation rates for the 2005 cohort (i.e., the group of students who entered ninth grade in September 2005); and
• Schools that have failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress and that have been placed on the Schools in Need of Improvement (SINI) list.

The previously released data and press releases can be accessed at the following web address:http://www.oms.nysed.gov/press/.

Data contained in the 2009-10 School Report Cards, but not previously released, includes:

• The percentage of core classes taught by Highly Qualified Teachers;
• School and district performance on Regents Exams including, for the first time, performance on the Regents Examination in Algebra 2/Trigonometry;
• Annual testing results Regents Competency Tests (RCTs), Second Language Proficiency exams, and NYS English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT);
• Grades 4 and 8 Science test results for 2009-10;
• Grades 5 and 8 Social Studies test results for 2009-10;
• Accountability data for the 2009-10 school year “disaggregated” by subgroups; and
• Annual high school completers and non-completers, post secondary plans, and CTE results.

Please note that, for the 2009-2010 school year results, the Education Department raised the English Language Arts and Math “cut scores” for the “Basic” and “Proficient” performance levels. Raising the cut scores in this manner caused a statewide drop in the percent of students scoring at proficiency levels 3 and 4. Additional information about the change in cut scores can be found at the following addresses:
http://www.oms.nysed.gov/press/Grade3-8_Results07282010.html
http://www.oms.nysed.gov/press/Regents_Approve_Scoring_Changes.html