Heritage Middle School incorporates garden's harvest on lunch menu

   Students at Heritage Middle School has a new topping on their pizza thanks to the school's new garden.
Twenty-seven eighth-graders from the Painesville school made it possible through the pilot program of The Lake County YMCA Outdoor Family Center's Arthur Holden Leadership Institute. The three-year program focuses on  — water, soil and energy — as well as leadership and team-building skills.
The students shared their jalapeno peppers to put on the pizza lunch on Wednesday as well as some salsa and brushetta was made from the garden's tomatoes.
See details on the garden harvest at from a story in The News-Herald.

Ohio to Lead Effort to Write New Science Standards

Ohio is among 20 states that will lead an important effort to improve science education for all students.

The development of Next Generation Science Standards, which defines the content and practices students need to learn from kindergarten through high school, hopes to advance students to the next level.

"This will be a collaborative process that will lead to a set of standards that provides American's students a strong foundation in science and supports college and career readiness," said Michael Cohen, president of Acheive, an education reform non-profit organization that manages the NGSS process.

Ohio is one of the lead state partners that will help with the development of the standards in the two-step process. The state agreed to commit staff time to the initiative as well as give serious consideration in adopting the standards upon completion.. 

Ohio will guide the standard writing process, gather and deliver feedback from state-level committees and come together to address common issues and challenges, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

--Angela Gartner
   AGartner@News-Herald.com

Lake County Board of Developmental Disabilities/Deepwood softball team fined tuned their skills at the Lake County Captains Stadium in Eastlake this week.
 However, the practice wasn't just for fun.
 The team competes for the state title in the Special Olympics tournament on Saturday.

The 22 members of the Deepwood softball team won regional divisional matches against Geauga County's Metzenbaum Center and Stark County in August to qualify for the competition
The game will be held at the Coontz Recreation Complex in Oregon, Ohio, near Toledo.

"It means so much to them," Deepwood spokeswoman Beth Falkner-Brown said. "They have all worked so hard. Deepwood is thrilled by the accomplishment of the athletes who have been working throughout the year to improve their athletic and team building skills." 

-Angela Gartner
AGartner@news-herald.com

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