News
With the start of the new school year a little more than a week away, the Up-Island Regional School District committee on Monday heard a report on the nearly-completed West Tisbury School kitchen and discussed an array of fiscal issues.
West Tisbury School principal Michael Halt said the kitchen project represents the end of a long road.
The polished hardwood floors, outdoor showers, stone countertops and crisp white paneled walls would be unrecognizable to Captains Bradley, Luce, Collins, Morse, Osborne, Rowley and Huxford, the whaling captains for whom the cottages at the Harbor View Hotel are named. Nor would the hotel employees who rented rooms in the cottages in the 1960s recognize them now.
An Atlantic common dolphin washed up on Lucy Vincent Beach Monday. Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium, said the recently-deceased mammal showed no signs of external injuries. He estimated the dolphin measured 7 feet, 4 inches and weighed 250 pounds. The local marine mammal stranding team and New England Aquarium were notified of the incident. Following the advice of an expert, the animal was buried on the beach. The dolphin was not among a group recently stranded off the outer Cape and later released, Mr. LaCasse said.
Grace Episcopal Church has named Penelope Wong of Vineyard Haven as the interim director of Grace Preschool, effective Sept. 1. The staff change was necessitated by the resignation of Deborah Jernegan as the Grace Preschool director.
Ms. Wong is well-known on Martha’s Vineyard for her work with Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and Learning Center, the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard and, most recently, the Tisbury School, where she worked as a kindergarten assistant, teacher, ELL assistant and coordinator.
Next Thursday morning, familiar yellow school buses will roll across Island roads carrying students from kindergarten through 12th grade to their first day of school.
Total school enrollment is expected to be just over 2,000 in five public elementary schools and the regional high school, according to Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss.
Schools will be sprinkled with new teachers as well as new programs, from changes in the kitchen at the West Tisbury School to changes in the classrooms at the Edgartown School.
The bus stop across the road from Alley’s General Store will be slightly relocated for safety reasons, the West Tisbury selectmen agreed this week.
At their meeting Wednesday, the selectmen voted to move the stop about one bus length south on State Road from its present location near the front of Howes House. The move still needs approval from the state highway department.
Selectmen, police chief Dan Rossi, Vineyard Transit Authority representative John Alley and Field Gallery owner Chris Morse met Wednesday afternoon to inspect the new location.