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.

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Increasing demand for special education services in Island public schools has led to a large jump the school superintendent’s budget for the coming fiscal year. Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss presented a $4.4 million operating budget to the all-Island school committee last week, an increase of 8.8 per cent. “I’m going to be candid with you,” Mr. Weiss told the committee. “The budget increase is significantly higher than I would have liked.”
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Pending the ability to hire an accredited teacher, high school leaders announced this week that driver education will return to the regional high school next fall.

Former head of the state police, Neal Maciel, is set to begin teaching in the fall once he receives the proper teaching credentials from the department of motor vehicles.

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Tisbury School principal Richie Smith can describe exactly the moment he learned how his students performed in the annual Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test: it was August 6, early morning, in his kitchen, on the telephone and he did cartwheels.

“Well, it was more jumps,” he revised. “But I react that way every year when I find out we made AYP.”

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