Across the board increase goes into effect next Monday.
ORE CITY, TX., Jan. 26, 2009 -- According to a notice posted on the ISD website, Ore City students, faculty and visistors will be paying more to eat at school cafeterias next week.
In their Jan. 19th Regular Meeting, ISD Board members voted to rise student, faculty and visitor lunch prices by 50 cents.
The notice states that beginning Monday, Feb. 2nd, the increased prices will go into effect. The new prices will be as follows:
BREAKFAST
* All students: $1.25
* All Adults: $1.50
LUNCH
* Elementary Students: $2.00
* Middle and High School Students: $2.25
* Faculty: $3.00
* Visitors: $3.50
You can read the notice at http://www.ocisd.net/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=2740&PHPSESSID=b60c9ffd5bdbd6c6d4017ba4f835742e.
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ISD's will receive grants to install equipment that will reduce emissions from school bus diesel engines.
Students riding New Diana or Ore City buses will soon get a bit of fresh(er) air. Both ISD's have asked for, and will receive money to retrofit school buses from the Texas Clean School Bus Program.
The program, offered by the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, is aimed at improving student and bus driver health by reducing the amount of pollutants they breath in while boarding and riding the bus.
According to information provided by the TCEQ, diesel exhaust contains small particles, known as fine particulate matter (PM). PM can easily pass through the nose and throat, penetrate deep into the lungs and pose serious health risks, including aggravated asthma and allergies. Some studies suggest that long-term exposure can increase the risk of lung cancer.
The information also says that children may be more susceptible to this pollution because they breathe more air per pound of body weight when compared to adults. In addition, as children’s respiratory systems are still developing, they are more susceptible than adults to environmental pollution.
To counter the risks, the grant money is to be used for the installation of any combination of the following devices:
* Diesel Particulate Filters - devices that collect particulate matter in the exhaust stream. Used with the correct fuel, these filters can reduce organic compounds, and carbon monoxide in the exhaust gases by 60 to 90 percent.
* Closed Crankcase Filtration Systems - devices that allow a diesel engine’s crankcase to be closed and use an air filter to trap oil droplets, carbon, traces of wear debris, and particles that are smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter. Blow-by gas emissions can be as much as 25 percent of the total emissions from a diesel engine. These systems may be more effective at reducing children’s in-cabin exposures to pollutants than control systems fitted into the exhaust systems alone.
* Diesel Oxidation Catalysts - devices that use a chemical process to break down pollutants in the exhaust stream into less harmful components. Diesel oxidation catalysts can reduce emissions of particulates by 20 to 40 percent, hydrocarbons by 50 percent and carbon monoxide by 40 percent.
* Partial Flow-Through Filters - tailpipe filters that can lower diesel particulate matter emissions by 70 to 75 percent. These can also reduce total vehicle emissions by up to 80 percent when paired with a closed crankcase filtration system.
The program does place limits on funding, based on the devices the ISD elects to install, and how many buses will be retrofitted. Closed crankcase filtration systems may receive up to $800, diesel oxidation catalysts up to $1,500, partial flow-through filters up to $6,000, and diesel particulate filters up to $8,250. These caps are per device and include installation costs.
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Texas Comptroller Susan Combs takes the measure of online financial reporting by counties, and finds Upshur to be one among many counties not posting all of it's records on the web.
Texas counties are not legally required to post financial records online. Under the "Open Records" law, county financial information is available to the public, in paper form, upon request. Some counties go a step further though, and post the information online, making the information far easier for the public to access.
That open approach is known as transparency, and it makes it easy for citizens to examine documents, question decisions, root out inefficiencies and hold officials accountable for the way tax dollars are spent.
Texas Transparency Check-up is a website launched by the Comptroller earlier this year to gauge just how open and user friendly each county in Texas is.
The site looks online for a county's budget, financial report and check register.
According to the site, 109 counties currently post no records online, and only 3, (Collin, Grayson and Tarrant) post all three record sets. Upshur posts it's budgets and financial reports, joining the majority of counties that post some records, but not check registries.
Another website, Texas Budget Source, tracks the financial postings of the state's Independent School Districts. Like counties, online posting is not a legal requirement for school districts.
While fairly comprehensive, the site is in error in several regards:
- It reports in error that Harmony does not post it's check registries.
- It reports in error that Union Grove does not post check registries. The ISD posts budgets, financial reports and check registries in it's "Board Book" Agenda Packets.
A search of that site for Upshur County ISD's reveals that our local school districts can, for the most part, be judged fairly transparent.
Union Grove ISD leads the pack, posting all three record sets. Ore City and Harmony follow by posting their budget and monthly check registers.
Union Hill post only it's budget. New Diana has a budget site, but the posting is outdated.
No financial records could be found on either Gilmer or Big Sandy's website.
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