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Germantown Weekly EDITOR’S NOTE
Weekly marks 1 year in G’town By David Boyd boyd@commercialappeal.com 901-529-2507
PHOTOS BY YALONDA M. JAMES/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
Director Daniel Page stands in the Germantown Community Library Wednesday. The library received the State of Tennessee’s Highest Community Participation in Summer Reading for Level IV Libraries for 2013. The award is given to the library with the highest youth participation rate based on its population.
GERMANTOWN
Library is honored Youth taking part in summer reading program propels it to the top
By Marlon W. Morgan morgan@commercialappeal.com 901-529-2792
One of the things that made becoming director of the Germantown Community Library enticing for Daniel Page six months ago was the library’s strong track record and the support it receives from the community. Earlier this month, Page got conirmation of that when he and Emily Shade, also new to the library, were on hand to receive the inaugural State of Tennessee’s Summer Reading Program Award for 2013. The award was passed out at the Tennessee Summer Reading Conference, which was held at Montgomery Bell State Park Feb. 10. The award was given to the library with the highest youth participation rate based on its population. Germantown, which had 6.14 percent participation, was able to overcome the fact that it has the highest median age in the state. “To be the irst people to get the award, it was really nice,” Page said. But that was just the cake. Page got the icing when he also learned the Germantown Community Library
not only had the highest percentage among Level 4 libraries, but it had the highest percentage of participants among all libraries in the state. “That was really nice,” he said. “It was a wonderful thing the state is doing to encourage libraries to market their summer reading program and get as many See LIBRARY, 2
Has it been a year? Wow! It is hard to believe that a little over a year ago we were making our inal plans to launch the Germantown Weekly. Now we are finalizing plans to celebrate our birthday with you. We will have more birthday party details in next week’s edition and we will have the information posted on our newly created Facebook page, facebook. com/caweekly. As many of you know, the Germantown Weekly is a free publication of The Commercial Appeal delivered every Thursday to nonsubscribers in the Germantown ZIP codes, and placed in rack locations at area businesses. That doesn’t mean we only recently began covering Germantown. The Commercial Appeal’s reporters and photographers have been writing stories and taking photographs about the people, schools, organizations, places to visit and much more in your towns since 1841. We choose the best community-based stories — like the stories on the municipal schools — that have recently been published in The Commercial Appeal, as well as content that is exclusive to the Weeklies. Much of that exclusive content comes from our readers who are involved with local businesses, churches, nonproits, civic organizations, sports groups, chambers, and more. Here’s how you can help. Did you have an event you want to share? Tell us about it! Send us your photos and stories about that event. We also welcome your feedback and ideas.
Inside the Edition
GERMANTOWN MUNICIPAL SCHOOL BOARD
TRUE HEALERS
Board approves charging $200 tuition for nonresidents to attend city schools
Therapy dog teams spread joy, emotional healing to patients in Mid-South hospitals.
By Lela Garlington garlington@commercialappeal.com 901-529-2349
GOOD HEALTH, 10
CHAMPION MUSTANGS Houston’s girls basketball team defeats Ridgeway for region title and Dyer County in sectionals to qualify for state. SPORTS, 9
OSCAR WINNER Briarcrest alumnus’ work on animated movie ‘Frozen’ wins Academy Award. NEWS, 3 The Commercial Appeal © Copyright 2014
In a 3-2 vote Monday night, the Germantown Municipal School Board decided to charge tuition for nonresidents to attend its ive schools. The vote came after a half-dozen or more Germantown and Collierville parents spoke against the fee, as well as some Germantown schools faculty and coaches. About one out of four students in the Germantown school district live somewhere other than Germantown. The new fee will afect about 1,000 Collierville
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families and 225 Cordova parents whose children attend Germantown’s Houston High, Houston Middle and Dogwood Elementary. The resolution proposed by board member Mark Dely allows the district to charge parents $200 per child per year with a family cap of $500 per year. The resolution allows for waivers for parents whose children are on the free and reduced-price lunch program or have other unforeseen circumstances that would prevent them from paying the fee. Those circumstances would need approval of the superintendent or his staf. Dely, Ken Hoover and Natalie Williams voted in
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favor of the tuition. Board president Lisa Parker and member Linda Fisher opposed it. The vote was also against the wishes of Supt. Jason Manuel. “I am more scared about the revenue walking out the doors,” Manuel said. But some board members say there will be others willing to pay the fee. “It is our job to look out after the interest of the Germantown taxpayers,” Hoover said. He described
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the fee as tiny and expects few, if any, will object to paying it based on the emails he’s received. In other action, the board adopted a school calendar identical to Shelby County, Bartlett and Collierville and set new elementary and middle school attendance zones. Germantown students who live south of Poplar and west of Hacks Cross will attend Riverdale elementary and middle schools. Germantown students who live south of Poplar and east of Hacks Cross or on both sides of Hacks Cross north of Poplar Pike would attend Dogwood Elementary and Houston Middle.
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