Author Spotlight
Tom
SCHOOL
Art department prepares for annual Art Fair
Forget about First Fridays at the Crossroads. Come and see artwork created by your peers at the annual SME Art Fair.
The show will officially commence at 7 p.m. on Monday Dec. 5, but art teachers will be setting up displays throughout the week prior to the fair, allowing students to view the works, even if they are unable to attend the fair.
The Art Fair will feature artwork from students of all grade levels and art classes. Displays will be scattered throughout the school, but will be primarily occupying the second and fourth floors.
The pieces will be judged by outside judges and awards in the categories of photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, jewelry and digital art will be given out at an awards ceremony on Dec. 8.
Student Council gets ready for Culver’s Night
Student Coucil will be hosting a Culver’s Night this Wednesday Nov. 30 at the Culver’s on 7953 State Line Rd.
Members of the Student Council will assist the Culver’s staff by serving food to attendees. Students will be working from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. with 15 percent of the proceeds from all sales going to the Can Drive benefitting the Johnson County Christmas Bureau (JCCB).
This Culver’s Night is the penultimate event benefitting the Can Drive and represents the end of StuCo’s largest fundraiser of the year.
So far East has reaised 6,053 cans, while the money will not be totalled until after the Panda Express Night on Dec. 6 where 15 percent of the proceeds for the entire day will be donated to the JCCB.
COMMUNITY
PV City Council places zoning moratorium
The Prairie Village city council voted 11-1 on Nov. 10 to put in place a nine-month moratorium on all rezoning requests for the site of former district middle school Mission Valley and its surrounding properties.
The vote comes along with a formal Request for Proposal from the city seeking firm to coordinate public input of the planning process for the site.
Prior to the vote, commercial real-estate development company RED backed out of an agreement with the city to fund the planning process.
Some members of the council as well as the surrounding community hope that the land may be still used as a school. RED and Kansas City Christian have supposedly met, but no agreements have been made public.
New Wal-Mart coming to City of Mission
A new 150,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store is planning to come to the city of Mission. Wal-Mart plans to build the store at the $200 million Mission Gateway development that will take the place of the former Mission Mall (Johnson Drive and Shawnee Mission Pkwy).
The plan comes six years after a 2004 plan by Wal-Mart to buy and tear down the mall and to build a 203,000-square-foot Super Wal-Mart. A petition against the purchase garnered 1,970 signatures by Mission residents, and the Cameron Group of Syracuse, N.Y, instead bought the mall.
Gateway will also have a 70,000-square-foot, 2.5 million gallon aquarium as well as 150,000 additional square-feet of retail, 150,000 square-feet of office space, 300 apartments, a 35,000-square-foot movie complex and a 45,000-square-foot fitness center.
STATE
Brownback readies for new budget proposals
Gov. Sam Brownback wants to change the way Kansas distributes around $3 billion of state aid to its school districts.
The changes to the funding formula being discussed include calls for a new baseline for state funding per pupil to school districts without the complicated weighting factors that are in place. Most importantly, the bill proposes lifting the cap on how much districts can raise for their schools is being discussed.
Other legislation for the upcoming session includes moving away from Kansas’ reliance on income taxes as well as the drawing of new district lines after the 2010 Census.
WORLD
Euro zone in crisis
The focus of Europe’s debt crisis shifted last week, from Greece and Italy westward to Spain and France.
New coalition governments were formed in Greece and Italy who are now enjoying a brief truce in their battles with the markets. Now all eyes are on Spain, who is experiencing a struggling economy emerging from elections, and also to France where a new austerity program is being implemented and watched closely.
The Euro Zone debt crisis is very troubling for the United States and to markets around the world as the International Monetary Fund asks the U.S., who is it’s largest contributor, for more money to help fund euro bailouts.
Meanwhile the U.S.’ national debt reached the $15 trillion mark on Nov. 16 according to USdebtclock.org.
Leave a Reply