The All-Island School Committee approved an 8.8 per cent increase in the superintendent’s budget for the 2014 fiscal year.

The committee voted 10-2, with Roxanne Ackerman of Aquinnah and Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter of West Tisbury opposing.

In his presentation to the committee last month, superintendent James H. Weiss admitted that the budget jump was steep.

“The budget increase is significantly higher than I would have liked,” he said at the meeting.

At 5:30 in the morning on a recent Saturday, Yann Meersseman parked his minivan outside of the Steamship Authority building in Vineyard Haven and dropped a few tokens into the yellow Boston Herald display box. He pulled open the box and changed the front copy of the Herald, placing a short stack of newspapers inside the box as he did so.

From an Island-wide relief effort that began as idle conversation during happy hour to a clothing drive and donations from sandwiches, there has been an outpouring of Island-giving for those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

And for Islander Ryan Murtha, who organized an impromptu relief effort, the overwhelming response was as positive as the devastation was striking.

On Sept. 21, the Framingham State University football team shut out fellow Division III opponent Bridgewater State University 16-0. It was the lone loss of the season for Bridgewater, which went 9-1 this year, earning a place in the NCAA tournament.

Success doesn’t materialize out of the thin air, and in the case of this year’s varsity football team, now 6-4 as they head into the Island Cup, the groundwork was laid four years ago, when the current seniors took their first starts for the junior varsity squad.

“We’re building the foundation,” junior varsity head coach Mike Magaraci said in a Gazette interview. “And then junior and senior year, you build the house.”

In 1991, Jason O’Donnell was on Coach Donald Herman’s first state championship football team at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

On Monday, Mr. O’Donnell is out on the field with the four other varsity assistant coaches alongside Coach Herman, helping the team prepare for the Island Cup this weekend.