SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2011 Big Apple Bound again (TN R eport) Gov. Bill Haslam will do double duty in New York early this week, working on job creati on while also appearing at the NBC event called the Education Nation Summ it . Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty and a small team from ECD will be along for the trip in an effort much like the jobs trekthe governor made to California in early September. “We’ve asked our ECD folks — Commissioner Hagerty and others — to put together three or four different groups of both site selection people and some existing businesses, so again we can c ontinue to sell Tennessee,” Haslam said. http:/ /www.tnreport .com/2011/09/big-apple-bound-again/ Schools expand focus on science and math (Leaf-Chronicle) The line between some science and math classes in Montgomery County is beginning to blur, and that' s just the way school officials want it. If all goes as planned, students will be learning about percentages and ratios at the same time they're studying genetics, or practicing temperature conversions while learning the properties of dif ferent liqui ds. Not every aspect of science and math can be taught together and they will stil l be separate classes, said Clarksville-Montgomery County School System Chief Academic Offi cer B.J. Worthington, but science and math teachers alike are being encouraged to com bine content whenever possible. http:/ /www.theleafchronicle. com/articl e/20110925/NEWS01/109250318/1002/rss Displace GM workers eager to come home (Williams/Tennessean) There are hundreds of displaced Tennessee autoworkers eager to return to their homes and families from assembly line jobs in Michigan and other distant locales as prospects of the General Motors plant reopening here grow brighter. Count full-ti me autoworker and part-time musician John Huntley among them. Huntley, whose family bluegrass band plays on without him near the Alabama border in tiny Loretto, Tenn., said he “never thought about moving my family to Michigan — ever.” http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110925/BUSINESS/309250059/2275 /RSS05 Memphis and Shelby County Prepare for School Unity (Memphis Flyer) For students of history in Memphis and Shelby County, there are few precedents to guide them through the extraordinary synthesis that is about to get underway as Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools begin their two-year path toward merger. On October 1, an enlarged interim school board will become official, comprising the MCS board’s current 9 members, the SCS board’s 7, and 7 new members just selected from as many freshly designed districts by the Shelby County Commission. The new board won't have its first real meeting until October 3, but the members of that board, as well as those of the equally new 21-member transitional or planning committee created by this year’s Norris-Todd bill to assist the merger, have already had a joint, get-acquainted session. http:/ /www.mem phisfl yer.com/JacksonBaker/archi ves/2011/09/ 24/e-pluri bus-what-memphis-and-shel by-county- prepare-for-school-un ity Wou ld you vote to increase the sales tax? (Johnson City Press) Revenue generated from a successful campaign by the Johnson C ity and Washington County school systems to increase the tax would be used to pay for needs that very few would deny are genuine. Ultimately, local voters would make the call if this request manages to find its way onto the March ballot. But a serious hurdle is loom ing, and it does not require voting booths. http://johnsoncitypress.com/News/article.php?id=9 4562
