Among the changes Yellow Springs students can expect when they head back to school today are new teachers, brighter classrooms and flexible credit opportunities.

Not only will the Yellow Springs high, middle and elementary schools benefit from an energy-efficient makeover this coming school year, their students will learn how to analyze and reduce the school’s energy use from the classroom.

New for the 2010 school year is an energy-efficiency makeover at all three school buildings and an energy curriculum to match.

Clinical psychologist Kate LeVesconte knows that support groups encourage positive behavior. So when she became concerned about the dangers of carbon fuel use, LeVesconte co-created an energy conservation support group, where people help each other live more sustainably.

Village commissions, staffed by appointed citizens and elected officials, are fundamental to the functioning of Village government. While the Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, Community Access Panel, and Economic Sustainability Commission are not currently seeking volunteers, they offer opportunity for direct citizen involvement in governmental affairs.

As an Antioch student in the mid-1980s, Mark Greenfield staged theater productions on the college golf course, inside the mail room, and during board of trustees’ meetings. Now Greenfield returns to Yellow Springs to teach a workshop on producing theater in non-traditional and outdoor settings and put on Oedipus Rex in the Antioch amphitheater.

Antioch alum Mark Greenfield returns to Yellow Springs to host a workshop on putting on theater productions in outdoor and non-traditional venues and to stage his rendition of “Oedipus Rex” in the Antioch amphitheater.

The Rolling Pen Book Cafe, now open in the former home of Dolbeer’s Cleaners, is a place to relax, read a book and enjoy a cup of coffee with some homemade cobbler.

Crowds came for the free ice cream, face painting, balloons and carriage rides at Friends Care Community Center’s annual summer ice cream social last Sunday. Revived last year, the tradition dates back decades as a community event organized by the 33-year old senior institution.

Growing food in a backyard garden can be a lot of work. But by designing a “forest garden” of trees and shrubs, aligned with ecological principles, gardeners can achieve a food yield sustainably, with less maintenance. This is the essence of a seven-day forest gardening workshop from Aug. 9 to Aug. 15 on a farm homestead north of Yellow Springs on Hustead Road…