Chester County Press 01-20-2016 Edition

Page 1

Chester CountyPRESS

www.chestercounty.com

Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas

Volume 150, No. 3

60 Cents

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

INSIDE A decision on full-

day kindergarten coming soon in Avon Grove By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

Spirit of Giving A decision as to whethLuncheon marks 25 er the Avon Grove School years in Oxford.........7A District will move forward

The Grateful Alive brings the joy of music to seniors.....1B

with a plan to implement a full-day program in time for the 2016-2017 school year could come as early as the next school board meeting on Thursday, Jan. 28. At the Jan. 14 committee-of-the-whole meeting, Superintendent Dr. Christopher Marchese said that the administration needs direction from the school board about whether they should proceed with efforts to transition from a half-day to full-day kindergarten program. District officials have spent the last several months working on various elements necessary to expand the kindergarten program, ranging from curriculum to professional development to scheduling, and they’ve also offered reports about how a full-day kindergarten pro-

gram would impact both the 2016-2017 budget and the programming at the Penn London Elementary School. Marchese explained that if there isn’t a decision by the end of January, it becomes more difficult to effectively accomplish all the work necessary to successfully implement the program at the start of the next school year. “It’s getting to the point where decisions need to be made...to ensure that the program is successful,” Marchese said. “We want to make sure that we are doing this the right way.” The full-day kindergarten proposal has generated considerable interest in the community and has been the major topic of discussion at school board meetings for months. School Board President Bonnie Wolff said that a motion on the issue would be added to the Jan. 28 Continued on Page 4A

Photo by John Chambless

Students sort food at Unionville High School to be donated to the Kennett Food Cupboard.

A day of giving back in Unionville-Chadds Ford schools By John Chambless Staff Writer The spirit of service to others was everywhere in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District on the morning of Jan. 18 as families took part in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service.

Monitoring is part of a five-year program

Exploring the creative process at the Oxford Arts Alliance.............3B

Oxford loses to Octorara in hoops action, 64-56............6B

INDEX Calendar of Events......2B Classified....................7B Obituaries...................6A

To Subscribe call 610.869.5553

Opinion........................7A

© 2007 The Chester County Press

Committee conducting own testing of potential Artesian water source By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer On any given Sunday, Marion Waggoner and Dave Yake, two retired DuPont scientists, could be pursuing a number of activities common to men like them, like golf or tennis, or choose to sit on their back decks and reflectively admire the change of seasons. Instead, using a device known as a Marsh McBirney Portable Water Flow Meter, Waggoner and Yake have spent a portion of their weekends since last September knee deep in the big muddy, monitoring the water capacity, flow rates and conductivity of the Broad Run Creek in Landenberg. They’re making five stops along the creek: at the bridges over the creek on Newark Road and Broad Run Road

Photo by Richard L. Gaw

Dave Yake, left, and Marion Waggoner of the Save Our Water Committee have been conducting weekly monitoring tests of the Broad Run Creek, which include measuring stream flow, capacity and conductivity.

and Watson Mill Road; at the Somerset Lake Spillway; and where the Colonial Pipeline crosses the New Garden Township spray field area. At every stop, water samples are taken and

placed in plastic containers, which will later be measured for levels of nitrate, sediment, oxygen and bacteria levels. It’s all part of a fiveContinued on Page 9A

The school holiday was a chance for children, parents and staff members to pitch in and help dozens of nonprofits and community groups in Chester County with almost 40 service projects, large and small. The day began just after 8 a.m. at Unionville High School, where students

On Jan. 3, 2006, Geoff Henry took the oath of office to become the eighth person to serve as the mayor of Oxford since the position was established in 1961. His first duty as mayor was to swear in the council members who were taking office that night, and then he presided over the reorganization meeting. Since then, it has been a decade filled with proclamations and parades, ribbon-cutting ceremonies, ride-alongs with the police, and meetings— lots of meetings. The Chester County Press

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Over the last several years, the New Garden Flying Field has become much more than a series of hangars and landing strips in southern Chester County. The two Future Aviators Camps it hosts every summer have risen dramatically in attendance every year since they were first introduced ten years ago, and have earned the right to be called among the best camps of their kind in the United States. For the first time last year, the air field hosted The Chester County Balloon Festival, which drew 13,000 visitors, and will host the event again this year. About four or five weekends a year, the grounds of New Garden Flying Field are mobbed by sightseers and flight enthusiasts who attend various air shows.

thought that the ten-year anniversary would be an appropriate time to talk to Henry about his work while in office. When his current term reaches its conclusion at the end of 2017, Henry will have served as mayor for as long as anyone ever has in Oxford, and he will have put his own stamp on the office. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mayor Henry,” said Oxford Borough Council member John Thompson. “During the last four years that I’ve served on council, he has done a wonderful Courtesy Photo job. He keeps us [borough Geoff Henry is the eighth person to serve as the mayor Continued on Page 2A

Continued on Page 6B

New Garden Flying Field opens aviation center

Henry reflects on ten years as mayor of Oxford By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

and staff members checked expiration dates on donated food items before sorting the food into categories and loading the cartons into a waiting tractor trailer. The loaded truck was to be driven to the Kennett Food Cupboard in the evening. Collection boxes

of Oxford since the position was established in 1961.

And yet, during those years, there hasn’t been a centralized location for all of this activity to converge. Until now. The New Garden Flying Field recently opened the doors to its new Aviation Center, a 2,500-square-foot facility that will serve as a base of operations, and create a professional-looking and comfortable meeting spot for pilots, tenants, students, customers and the community. Connected to an existing hangar, the center stands at the site of one of the original hangars at the air field, which was used as a maintenance shop for many years. Pointing in various directions from the new center, New Garden Flying Field Aviation Director Jon Martin said, “The flight school was over there, and my office was up those steps. For many years, a Continued on Page 4A

Supreme Court to the rescue By Uncle Irvin Twenty states, including Pennsylvania, permit school districts to check off and deduct school teachers’ union dues and remit the aggregate dues directly to the union, even over the objections of the teachers who do not want to join the union. This practice allows teachers’ unions to use revenues from taxes paid by taxpayers to fund political action Continued on Page 3A


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.