Schools excess levy included on May ballot Thursday, April 3, 2014
The Cabell County Schools Excess Levy will be considered by voters as part of the May 13 primary election ballot. The excess levy supplies Cabell County students, staff, and schools with additional resources not provided by the regular levy or state or federal funding. The excess levy has been continuously renewed by voters every five years since its inception in 1954. Voting for the excess levy does not raise taxes. If approved, the levy will only continue a collection that has been in place for the past 60 years. The excess levy currently provides 19.49 percent of the school system’s unrestricted operating budget, which is $23,373,201 dollars annually (approximately $23.4 million). In addition to providing resources for schools, excess levy funds also help support community services such as public parks and public libraries. The levy annually generates $1,425, 817 for the Cabell County Public Library and $440,984 for the Greater Huntington Parks & Recreation District. Some school system items funded by the excess levy include textbooks, library books, computer technology, support for food service programs, additional classroom teachers, athletic coaches, activities sponsors, extracurricular bus trips, facility maintenance, equipment, supplies, staff development, department chairs, extra duty assignments, county employee pay supplements, dental/optical insurance, uniforms for service personnel, and extra pay for cooks and custodians, and shift SEE BALLOT ON PAGE 4
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Gould of CMHS honored, Page 12 50 Cents
l Volume 116 l Issue 13
Midland students win at media event Cabell Midland High School journalism students took home best overall newspaper, best overall yearbook and first runner-up broadcast program at Marshall University’s annual United High School Media Conference. "I'm so proud of the work my students did last year, and the contest proves that their hard work has paid off," said Holly Litteral, Cabell Midland journalism teacher. "Student journalists not only have a regular course load and other extracurricular activities, but they spend additional time covering events for the different mediums and do a great job." Journalism students from around the region gathered at the school's annual event sponsored by the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Midland High School’s journalism department submitted multiple entries for contest judging and won several significant prizes and categories. The students were judged on work from 2013. Cabell Midland yearbook stu-
Cabell Midland High School journalism students won best overall newspaper, best overall yearbook and first runnerup broadcast program at the United High School Media Conference. dents include Koriana Blevins, Ryan Burgess, Heather Barker, Spencer Nicholas, Kelsea Laverty, Abby Sammons and Maddie Taylor.
Newspaper students include Jenna Adkins, Heather Barker, Morgan Cummings, Shelly French, Bryce Hardiman, Caitlin Henson, Kanyon Nelson, Alyssa
Russell, Alannah Stone and Olivia Zarilla. Television students include SEE STUDENTS ON PAGE 2
Marshall student helps build supercomputer At 22 years old, a Marshall University student has helped change the face of scientific research for colleges and universities across the U.S. During the summer, Brandon Posey worked with a team at Clemson University to build a supercomputer, all in an effort to help researchers sequence DNA faster. Before the local student streamlined the process, it took Clemson researchers 16 hours to compute DNA data. Now, it only takes 16 seconds. Posey described the process of networking a group of computers into one super system. "The computers were all owned by Amazon, and we paid
to use each one, then we took these computers and combined them into one big, supercomputer," he said. "People had never done this before, so there was a lot of stumbling through to try and figure out how it was going to work. "We took between 12 and 35 computers and combined their power to one, so each computer could do a smaller subset of problems.” After completion, Posey presented his work in Las Vegas at a conference, hosted by Amazon. Posey is grateful for the opportunity. "I enjoyed working on it, and it SEE MARSHALL ON PAGE 2
Brandon Posey, a Marshall University student, worked with a team at Clemson University to build a supercomputer, all in an effort to help researchers sequence DNA faster.
Inside This Week: BELLAIRE AT DEVONSHIRE - PAGE 3 BIRD RECEIVES AWARD - PAGE 4 CABELL MIDLAND TRACK - PAGE 6
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