Engineer Heads West Gary Clough, who has served as Wellington’s top engineer for a decade, resigned this week to take a similar position in Casper, Wyoming. SEE STORY, PAGE 3A
T H E W E L L I N GTO N
TOWN-CRIER Wellington’s Hometown Newspaper
Volume 28, Number 36
Serving Palms West Since 1980
Visit Us On The World Wide Web At www.goTownCrier.com
September 7 - September 13, 2007
Wellington’ Wellington’s ellington’s Money For Schools On The Chopping Block By Carol Porter Town-Crier Staff Report Wellington’s Education Advisory Committee voiced support Tuesday for cutting student enrichment funds to elementary schools in the village. The village currently provides each public school within its boundaries $5 per student annually, known as enrichment funding, and gives each elementary school $25,000 to fund reading programs. The reading grants were originally intended to be matched by Palm Beach County School District funds, but the district declined. Nevertheless, the Education Committee and Wellington Village Council still refer to the reading grant program as “challenge grants.” The village is lining up a se-
ries of budget cuts in anticipation of falling revenues. Vice Chair Dawn Ramos told the committee that the principals of Wellington’s elementary schools had told the council they would prefer to lose the $5 per student than the reading grants, if they had to choose. Ramos said the council discussed the situation at a recent budget workshop, and expressed a desire to distribute the reading grant money more equitably, perhaps extending it to middle and high schools. Committee Member Theresa Ventriglio said she wanted to create a more equitable system, but noted that schools in the community vary in terms of proficiency and student needs. She suggested that while reading grants should be extended to middle and high schools, pro-
viding such grants should be based on individual need. “It seems to me we should be looking at equalizing it, meaning there are some schools that may need the whole $25,000 of that reading challenge grant, and there are some schools that don’t need as much money,” Ventriglio said. “We have some schools that service 13 students and some that service 40 students with the $25,000. From my perspective, we need to be a bit more fair and equitable across the board.” Committee Member Murray Rosen said he was curious as to why the number of students benefiting from the grants varies from school to school, although the grant amount is the same. “I am not disagreeing with what you are saying,” Rosen said. “It doesn’t seem right
ARRH! PIRATE TALK AT THE LIBRARY
The Wellington Library featured “Talk Like a Pirate Day” on Tuesday, Sept. 4 for ages six and up. Host Annmarie Campbell read interactive books to the kids, showed them how to make pirate hats and presented a pirate-themed DVD. Shown here, Amir and Alley Amwarti display their maps to pirate treasure. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 40A PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
that it takes the same amount of money to service eight versus 40. What is the criteria on that? The criteria is what we need to determine first.” Ramos said some elementary schools have held off on hiring reading teachers pending the final council decision on the budget. She said that taking away or reducing the grants based on the number of students that benefit would appear like punishing the schools for a situation they cannot control. “For us to arbitrarily come in and say we are now taking it away, and say there are not as many kids in need of those services or as many children utilizing those funds, is not right,” she said. Ramos also noted that the annual $25,000 grants pay for school reading programs in
stages, from setting up a reading room to acquiring materials to hiring a reading coach. “The eventual goal was to have a reading resource room and materials and the teacher in place,” she said. “It’s not just for a teacher.” Ramos said middle and high schools would be glad to be able to participate in the $25,000 reading grant process and take advantage of the program even if it meant losing the $5-per-student funding. She said it would be better to get children reading at the lower grades, and then continue the process through middle and high school. Committee Member Matthew Kurit concurred and said reading grants could help raising the grade levels of the schools. “The $25,000 is an investment,” he See ED MONEY, page 42A
RPB Council Seat Will Will Sttay ay Vacant S Vacant Until 2008 By Steve Pike Town-Crier Staff Report The Royal Palm Beach Village Council moved closer to resolving two issues for the price of one Thursday, directing village staff to craft an ordinance moving the municipal election from March 2008 to January 2008. The council also agreed by consensus not to appoint a person to fill an unoccupied seat on the council but wait until the January election to once again become a council of five. “Let the public fill that seat in January,” Mayor David Lodwick said. The village and other Florida municipalities have the option of moving their elections scheduled for March 2008 to Jan. 29 to coincide with the new date for the presidential primary and property tax reform referendum. If the council’s newest member is elected in January, he or she won’t officially take office until March 20. The seat has been vacant since the resignation of Barbara Isenberg in July. At least one person has surfaced as a potential candidate. Community activist Martha Webster expressed interest in the seat in a Sept. 4 letter to the council. Webster unsuccessfully challenged David Swift, currently the village’s vice mayor, in the March 2006 municipal election. Swift, Lodwick and Councilman Matty Mattioli are each up for re-election in the 2008 municipal election cycle. Lodwick is on record as say-
ing he supports moving up the election date for two reasons: because the Jan. 29 date will bring out more voters and because it will save the village the cost of holding a stand-alone election. If the council approves the move, it will share the cost of the election with Palm Beach County. A March 11 election, on the other hand, would be paid for entirely by the village. “It’s a lot more fair to ask voters to come out once and not twice,” Lodwick said. “And it saves us about $12,000. So from my perspective, it makes a whole lot of sense to do this and to move forward with having our municipal election on Jan. 29.” Mattioli called the decision to consider switching the election date “an excellent idea.” “I have no problem with it,” Mattioli said. “We’re only changing the date of the election. Our election rules won’t change.” A first reading of the proposed ordinance is scheduled for the council’s Sept. 18 meeting. In other business, the council approved a first reading of a proposal to amend a village ordinance dealing with offenses and miscellaneous provisions. The amendment would add a village alarm code concerning the permitting and technical requirements of alarm systems, both business and residential, including provisions for false alarms and associated fines. The primary reason for proposal, Village Manager David See ALARMS, page 8A