LILA wins second consecutive National Promising Practices Award

A new National Promising Practice award banner recently arrived from character.org in Washington, D.C., at Lakes International Language Academy. The school’s “Make A Difference” I-Term course received the honor at the National Forum on Character Education this fall. The competition recognizes successful practices that educators nationwide can replicate to help students build empathy, improve conflict resolution skills, and demonstrate good citizenship. It’s the second consecutive year that LILA has won the national award.
LILA offers I-Terms twice each year in grades 6 to 12 at the Upper School, allowing students to apply what they’ve learned in an intensive, instructive, innovative, in-depth, and interesting course held over multiple days, such as the Make A Difference option. Students in the Make A Difference course studied picture-book biographies with a local published author to learn how to write about people who have made a difference in the world. They wrote and illustrated their own

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Budget, solar garden among Scandia council topics

Terry Traver
Scandia Reporter
Several items were discussed during Scandia City Council’s work session Dec. 7, including the 2017 budget, approval of an agreement to operate a solar garden and the annual cost of the Scandia Fire Department Dive Team.broadstreet.zone(48036);
Levy and budget
The work session sufficed as the truth-in-taxation public hearing on the 2017 city budget and tax levy. The City Council will approve the final budget and levy number at its Dec. 20 meeting.
The council was advised that the tax levy will be the same in 2017 as it was in 2016 at approximately $2.26 million. Generally speaking, this means that most residents will likely not see a property tax increase in 2017. The vast majority of the general fund will go to public works, with finance, administration and fire all getting significant levels of funding as well.
At the November work session, during discussion of the Fire Department budget, the topic of

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Deck the porch

For nearly a half century, Nancy and John Lautigar have transformed their Columbus home into a Christmas winter wonderland. Christmas decorations with connections to three generations of family members are on display each year. What started with a Christmas tree and manger scene in the family’s living room has now expanded to the screened porch that is filled from top to bottom with Christmas decorations. Nancy Lautigar is pictured here with a sample of the display. The Lautigars have lived in Columbus since 1969. The three Lautigar daughters — Allyson, Lisa and Nicole — and their families will join mom and dad to celebrate Christmas 2016 in Columbus.

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