The proposal would merge the attendance zones of the two schools and allow each school to focus on a smaller range of grade levels, which research has shown can be beneficial for students. 

"The primary education offered at Homeland Park will fulfill the special needs of students during the first few years of their schooling life," said Principal Judy Lagerstrom. "It will provide them the solid foundational building blocks of knowledge, academic excellence, and character that they will need when they attend Varennes in grades 3-5."

Varennes Principal Leonard Galloway said, "Combining K-2 at Homeland Park and 3-5 at Varennes will provide an opportunity to create a diverse environment that enhances the educational opportunity at students' specific grade levels. Third, fourth, and fifth graders at Varennes will be the focus of our program and allow us to accommodate children's individual learning needs." 

Anderson County already has two primary schools that have proven successful, and a number of successful primary and intermediate schools also exist in other parts of the state. "Many parents and teachers prefer these types of schools to the more traditional elementary schools," said Superintendent Betty Bagley. 

In the upcoming meetings, principals and other District Five educators will share with parents the advantages of this proposal and receive questions and comments about the plan. Each meeting will have the same format and presentation. Morning, afternoon and evening meetings are set at both schools to accommodate the various schedules of our parents. Parents may come to one or more meetings at either school, regardless of which school their child currently attends.

The meetings are scheduled as follows:

Friday, Jan. 27 at noon at Homeland Park

Friday, Jan. 27 at 1 p.m. at Varennes

Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. at Homeland Park

Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. at Varennes

Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 8:30 a.m. at Varennes

Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. at Varennes

Thursday, Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. at Homeland Park

Monday, Feb. 13 at 8:30 a.m. at Homeland Park 

Construction will be finished in August 2012 on North Pointe Elementary School, located on Highway 81 North.  The new school is a part of District Five’s $140 million bond issuance, which was approved by more than 60 percent of our voters in an April 2007 referendum. 

The school will join the other 10 existing elementary schools.  The first meeting will be held Thursday, February 23 in the T. L. Hanna High School Mall Area.  The second meeting will occur Monday, February 27, at Westside High School in the Commons Area, and the third meeting will occur Thursday, March 1, in the Anderson V Career Campus Culinary Arts Area. 

The February 23 and March 1 meetings will begin at 6:30 p.m.  The February 27 meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. to accommodate the District Magnet Fair. Three community meetings in November gave District residents an opportunity to discuss, rank and suggest changes to a preliminary list of parameters, or goals, which guided the drawing of the proposed school attendance zones. 

In December 2011, the District’s Board of Trustees approved the parameters slightly changing the order as prioritized by residents.  The parameters, as listed in priority order, state that the district will accomplish the following goals where possible: 

 Use main roads and natural barriers. 

 Minimize the time students will spend on buses. 

 Minimize split communities. 

 Have students attend schools nearest to their homes. 

 Ensure that all schools are operating within their designed capacity, with allowance for future growth. 

In March, after the Board receives comments and suggestions from residents at the local meetings, the board will consider the map for final approval. 

Heart failure is a common condition that develops over time after an injury to the heart, such as a heart attack, long-term high blood pressure or an abnormality of one of the heart valves. As the heart weakens, it has to work harder to keep blood flowing through the body. 

When the heart doesn’t circulate blood normally, the kidneys receive less blood and filter less fluid out into the urine. As a result, extra fluid builds up in the lungs, the liver, around the eyes and sometimes in the legs. This fluid congestion is the reason doctors call this advanced stage of heart failure “congestive heart failure.”

Daily weigh-ins are a critical part of managing congestive heart failure.  When the body retains extra fluid, your weight goes up. Sometimes this happens quickly (up to two or three pounds in a day). In other cases, slow and progressive weight gain may be a sign that the patient’s congestive heart failure is getting out of control. 

Sadly, many patients cannot afford a scale and are re-hospitalized with complications from their congestive heart failure. The CHF Scale Drive allows AnMed Health to provide scales to patients who can’t afford one.  

There are two ways to help. New, unused scales can be dropped off at AnMed Health LifeChoice, AnMed Health Carolina Cardiology, AnMed Health Women’s and Children’s Hospital or the AnMed Health Medical Center lobby. Each of these drop sites will also accept donations to purchase scales. The cost of a new scale is approximately $25, but all donations are appreciated.

The Regional Science Fair at Southern Wesleyan is in its fifth year. According to Staci Johnson, adjunct professor of biology and organizer of the fair, there has been a 100 percent increase in the number of participants over last year, but she adds that registration is still open for students enrolled in public, private and home schools. A registration form, which is available atwww.swu.edu/academics/science/Science_Fair, should be completed for entry by March 2.

All pre-registered participants will receive a t-shirt, certificate and coupons from various local businesses. The first, second and third-prize winner in each division will receive a cash award and a plaque.

The science fairs offer students in grades 3-12 the opportunity to explore scientific inquiry and to display their research as a presentation in a public, competitive forum, according to Staci Johnson, a biology professor at SWU and fair organizer.

For details on registration, or to become a volunteer, contact Staci Johnson at (864) 644-5218, or email sjohnson@swu.edu.

The Regional Science Fair at SWU is made possible, in part, by Duke Energy, which provides financial support and volunteers for the event. 

CLEMSON, SC (FOX Carolina) - The coroner's office confirms Mayor Larry Abernathy died Saturday of natural causes.

Anderson County Sheriff’s Office is currently trying to locate an elderly woman who was last seen on Thursday, February 9, 2012. Anderson County Sheriff’s Office responded to 595 Seminole Pt. Fair Play, SC in reference to Rita V. Haig, 83, reported missing by her family.  Family members stated that Ms. Haig may have attempted to drive in her vehicle to Connecticut where friends and other family members reside.  Ms. Haig was last seen Thursday morning around 11 a.m.  According to the family, Ms. Haig suffers from dementia.

Ms. Haig is described as being 4 feet 11 inches tall, gray hair and brown eyes.  She was driving a white in color 2010 Buick Lucerne four door sedan, displaying S.C. license plate ESY611.

The Sheriff’s Office is asking that anyone with information that could help locate Ms. Haig to please contact the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office at 864-260-4400.

Anderson moved to 3-4 with the split, while Coker had its two-game win streak snapped in the opener and slipped to 3-5 overall.

Anderson and Coker will wrap up the three-game series Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. 

The plan, touted as a concession to freedom of religion and conscience, was immediately denounced by pro-life Rep. Chris Smith. “The so-called new policy is the discredited old policy, dressed up to look like something else,” said Smith. “It remains a serious violation of religious freedom. Only the most naïve or gullible would accept this as a change in policy.”

“The White House Fact Sheet is riddled with doublespeak and contradiction,” Smith continued. “It states, for example, that religious employers ‘will not’ have to pay for abortion pills, sterilization and contraception, but their ‘insurance companies’ will. Who pays for the insurance policy? The religious employer.”

In a statement released today, the White House said, “Under the new policy announced today, women will have free preventive care that includes contraceptive services no matter where she works.”

“If a woman works for religious employers with objections to providing contraceptive services as part of its health plan, the religious employer will not be required to provide contraception coverage but her insurance company will be required to offer contraceptive care free of charge.”

Complete story at LifeSiteNews.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act would forbid the federal government from requiring any religiously affiliated non-profit organization to include contraceptive or sterilization methods if the purchaser opposed it for religious or moral reasons, Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said.

"Under our Constitution, religious organizations have the freedom to follow their beliefs, and government should honor that," Manchin, who is up for re-election, said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/02/10/Bill-would-override-birth-control-rule/UPI-33981328862600/#ixzz1lzvlbkP6

Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told LifeSiteNews.com “we will not comply” with the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring religious institutions to cover abortifacient products such as Plan B, Ella, and the IUD.

“We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just like Dr. King wrote his from the Birmingham jail,” Dr. Land said.

Dr. Land wrote an op-ed on Tuesday with Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research at ERLC, calling his fellow Southern Baptists and evangelical Christians throughout America to oppose any infringement on the First Amendment.

“The Obama administration has declared war on religion and freedom of conscience,” they wrote. “We consider this callous requirement by the Obama administration to be a clear violation of our nation’s commitment to liberty of conscience and a flagrant violation of our constitutional protection to freedom of religion.”

Dr. Land told LifeSiteNews he hopes Baptist ministers will “preach from the pulpit just how serious and dangerous this initiative by the Obama administration is,” and “encourage their parishioners to contact their congressmen and their senators and the president and let them know how deeply unhappy they are with this decision, and they want…legislation guaranteeing that it won’t happen again.”

“It is now in the providence of God,” Dr. Land said. “Our responsibility is to stand and say, ‘We will not comply with this. We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just like Dr. King wrote his from the Birmingham jail.’ We will not comply.”

Dr. Land, who earned a Doctorate of Philosophy from Oxford University, has been named by Time magazine as one of “The Twenty-five Most Influential Evangelicals in America.”

See Full Story Here at (LifeSiteNews.com)