In executive session last Thursday, Yellow Springs Board of Education members “received and accepted” a letter of resignation from Mills Lawn principal Christine Hatton. The letter cited “personal reasons” and was effective immediately. Board members said the resignation was not expected.

Can a home be built to absorb enough of the sun’s heat so that it requires no heat source — other than the presence of people and the heat they produce by inhabiting space and cooking? Can an old home be retrofitted or remodeled with the hopes of realizing the cost of investment through monthly energy savings? Does making more sustainable decisions about energy use have to mean being less comfortable?

One day last week a group of Mills Lawn sixth graders could be found in a classroom hanging around with scarecrows. Specifically, they were creating scarecrows from found objects, an activity they found to be not only crafty and fun, but an act of service and leadership.

Forgive this reporter for stating the obvious: Yellow Springs has been yarn bombed.

Yarn Bombing, a new glossy craft book, has a definite Yellow Springs flavor: the book features full-page spreads of the fiber art of locals Nancy Mellon and Corrine Bayraktaroglu — aka the JafaGirls — presented as a radical art practice called knit graffiti.

This year Mills Lawn School has dropped a tier in the state ranking system, from “excellent” to “effective,” because of lower demonstrated proficiencies on the Ohio Achievement Test. According to school report card information published online by the Ohio Department of Education, or ODE, at http://reportcard.ohio.gov, McKinney Middle School and Yellow Springs High School are […]

At the Sept. 10 Yellow Springs Board of Education meeting, the board heard a presentation on data regarding why local female youth participate less in sports than their male peers. Overall, the report stated that upper-grade girls, most of whom had played sports in lower grades, now found less satisfaction in sports, rated themselves as […]

At the Aug. 13 Yellow Springs Board of Education meeting, District Treasurer Joy Kitzmiller announced a steep decline in this year’s second quarter income tax revenues.

On Aug. 5 school board members voted for the first major change to the school lunch program since 1994. The board unanimously chose Sodexo, one of the largest multinational food service providers, over Child Nutrition Services, which had been providing the service. Parents in attendance urged the board to try the new vendor, but also […]

It is unclear at present exactly how many students the Yellow Springs schools’ new transportation policy affects, but it appears that most of the students who reside within the school district are currently ineligible to ride the bus. Yellow Springs school board addressed the changes to the district’s transportation schedule at its most recent Committee […]

First, consider a national recession with deep effects on state and local revenue streams. Add a host of educational reform standards proposed by the governor in the state’s hotly contested biennium budget. Then, pass an education plan (and supporting budget) that is based on these state and local revenue streams that are not only decreasing, but shifting in other unpredictable ways.