I believe my child may be identified as gifted. Where will he go? Does my school offer programs for this? The short answer is yes. Chesterfield County schools have gifted programs on each campus to provide a challenge for gifted students. Each year beginning in second grade, a child has the option to be tested and provided with a Gifted Education Eligibility Report (GEER) score. This uses teacher scores, grades, test scores and parental scores to identify children’s gifted abilities in each eligible subject. This information will help the county place a child in the best environment to suit and…
Browsing: Commentary
Do you know what is protecting you when you go to bed tonight? Whether you have an alarm system that includes smoke alarms or you have just smoke alarms, if maintained and regularly tested, they are protecting your family in the event of a fire. I think more fires occur during daylight hours, however, most fatal fires occur in the middle of the night when people are sleeping. You would like to think that a fire would wake you up, but the chances are greater that a fire with smoke will render you unconscious. My alarm clock sits right next…
Hello and welcome back to the amazing world of the Dogpound. Did I tell you that I have a mastodon and a Sasquatch for a neighbor? Honest, and this is no April Fool’s joke either. As a side bar, how many of you got pranked on Monday or you pranked someone? I am writing this ahead of the ”jokester” day, and even though I have no big plans, I will be on the look out for any tom-foolery. As another side bar, I have used that word before but never knew were it came from. The Internet gives two stories:…
When I grew up candy was something I got on special occasions; holidays, a reward for good behavior, a treat from our once a week grocery store shopping, but never anything that I had access to on a daily basis. Today there are candy bars at the grocery and many stores and public places have candy and soda machines right at the front door, all very tempting. It seems that food manufacturers are well aware of the studies that show there is a psychological relationship between sugar cravings and a reward response similar to addictive drugs like cocaine. I’ve been…
Jaleel Thacker stands next to his patrol car. (Caleb M. Soptelean photo) Chester resident Jaleel Clayton Thacker is on patrol in Chesterfield County as a newly sworn Virginia State Trooper. On Feb. 15, Thacker graduated with 79 other new state troopers after completing 1,300 hours of classroom and field instruction in more than 100 subjects, including defensive tactics, crime scene investigation, ethics and leadership, survival Spanish, police professionalism, firearms, judicial procedures, officer survival, cultural diversity and crisis management. “The police academy wasn’t quite what I expected,” Thacker said. “It was far more challenging than I anticipated it to be, which…
A hotel is a commercial establishment that provides short-term, paid lodging with meals and other services for travelers and tourists. Or so we thought. Last Sunday night, a fire ripped through a hotel in Chesterfield. The fire sent four people to the hospital and displaced 34 occupants. Three of the four who went to the hospital were police officers who arrived before firefighters and attempted to notify occupants. Firefighters said smoke was banked down to the doorknob in the outside corridors. Under normal circumstances, hotel occupants would be travelers with minimal possessions. However, today’s hotels have become another form of…
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. I had some overnight business to attend to, and on my way back I stopped at a McDonald’s to pick up some breakfast for the long drive home. I went in and got in line behind a young man who was gazing at the menu options while he waited for an employee to come to the cash register. Suddenly, he turned around and left. My immediate thought was that he was going to ask his wife what she wanted, so I waited a few seconds for his return. I…
As I read a gut-wrenching Facebook post from the wife of Lt. Brad Clark, the firefighter who lost his life on I-295, I can only say that little has changed. The #MoveOver campaign – created to get the word out about moving over when you see police vehicles – ambulances or fire apparatus on the shoulder of a road, must not be a flash in the pan. We cannot allow Clark’s death and the deaths of others to have been for naught. If you drive a motor vehicle, then you are responsible for your actions behind the wheel. I understand…
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Have you adjusted to Daylight Saving Time yet? I have, but I do not like it. Just before the change, I was actually able to see the start of the sunrise. Now it is just pitch black again. Many times I will get an email from a friend telling me about how pretty the sunrise was that morning, and all I can do is go “Ppffftttt!” Anyway, speaking of mornings, I go through my weekly routine like clock-work. Get up, stumble to the bathroom, shower, shave, dress, eat my…
In regard to your story in last week’s issue, “Tannerite explosions rattle community,” characterizing Tannerite as a fuel is only correct if you are talking about it to fire off a rocket. Note that the chemistry given for the components is backward: The ammonium nitrate and ammonium perchlorate are powerful oxidizing agents, while aluminum powder is a powerful reducing agent. The idea that it is “100 percent legal” does not make it right to use without considering neighbors. It should probably be used in a sound-muffling bunker, which is generally done with piles of sand bags. I’ve used that method…