Smash Success
A Nashville principal struck a blow for better facilities at the end of the summer when she personally smashed 49 windows at her school to force the district to replace them. After breaking the cracked, pockmarked, and taped-over windows at the Caldwell Early Childhood Center, Dianne Gilbert immediately contacted the school maintenance department and offered to pay for the repairs, the Associated Press reports. District officials have sent the administrator a bill for more than $800 but have no plans to punish her.
Weight Watchers
Do Arkansas educators ignore warning signs of obesity? Fat chance. Schools in the state, home to the nation’s second-highest number of overweight children, plan to send letters home this year that reveal students’ body mass indexes, the Agence France-Presse reports. A BMI rating greater than 25 indicates that a child is overweight; officials hope such information will encourage parents to clean up their kids’ diets.
Bonus Onus
Georgia officials apparently didn’t do the math in the early 1990s when they decided to award annual 10 percent bonuses to teachers who earn certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Only a handful of certified teachers taught in the state back then; the number now tops 800. With another 800 educators working toward certification, the cost of the bonuses will quadruple to $15.6 million by the 2005 fiscal year. Georgia’s cash-strapped education department is looking into whether the program is sustainable, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Sport Sorts
Everyone’s into the pool—or the gym, or the courts—the Associated Press reports. According to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations, some 6.9 million students participated in high school athletics during 2002-03, an all-time record. Basketball is the most popular sport for girls, and football is Number 1 for boys.
