West Plano People (Newspaper) - March 3, 2006, Dallas, Texas REAL ESTATE Discover your home is worth m SPORTS Lady Wolves fifth at state m WEEKEND Its time for Oscar IB I FRIDAY MARCH 3 PAPERS COM VOL3 ONE QUARTER Students Pay Big Money To Post Big SAT Scores School districts offer less broad costly options for By Sarah P Henry Getting students into college is big business Nearly every college and university in the United States requires applicants to submit scores from either the SAT or the ACT entrance exam Along with enrolling in hon ors courses advanced place ment courses and college credit courses students and their parents often spend thousands of dollars to pre pare for the SAT to increase the chances of acceptance into schools Companies like The Prince ton Review and Kaplan offer extensive courses to teach stu dents how to take the SAT but not without a price Many districts including Piano ISD offer courses to help prepare students for the SAT although they are less extensive than the classes that cost thousands of dollars Piano ISD recently announced a new online prep course that became available in January for all juniors and seniors in the district The course will be avail able to the students free of charge all day every day According to Paul Weaver director of counseling for Piano there are six dif ferent practice tests with more than 600 questions in the course that the district is now offering We are very excited about this new course Weaver See SAT Page Kaplan The Princeton Review Piano West Highland Park Woodrow Wilson Lake Highlands From a instruction to online prep courses From 18 hours of private tutoring to online prep courses Online prep course course taught by HP teachers course offered by either Kaplan or The Princeton Review Online prep course course taught by teachers or an online course is available at Anywhere from to 32899 Anywhere from to Free Free Free course is free Satisfaction witti heft score and students can retake increase from previous score None None None None None STAIT Il DeLynn Brennan a Barksdale Elementary School counselor during the week becomes the Clown during carnivals Finding some candy to his liking is Andrew Adams Contact Crisis Line to Honor Chi Omega Dallas nonprofit recognizes others for service to community By Tiffany Ludwig Shelba Brown believes that giving back to the commu helps create a better place for everyone to live and builds friendships as people work together Brown a Bent Tree resi dent and president of the Chi Omega alumnae organization said she is honored to accept the Spirit of Contact award The award presented by the Contact Crisis Line a old nonprofit crisis phone line is given to individuals and organizations who sup port the field of health and human services in the Dallas area Its a very prestigious award and were thrilled we were chosen said Brown who added that Chi Omegas annual Christmas market has given about million to Dallas nonprofit agencies Chi Omega and individual recipients Cheri and Pat Sec HONOR Page Early Education Prepares for Kindergarten Piano ISD preschool programs give students leg up in academics social skills Students spell the Beaty Early Childhood tag line Were serious about having fun for the 2005 holiday card By Tiffany Ludwig When Suzanne Mitchell found out her son had a speech delay that put him on the autism spectrum she considered moving from Piano to Wiscon sin for a noted early childhood program But a little research showed her Piano offered exactly what her son needed For anywhere in Texas were in the best school dis to receive the help and support we need said Mitchell whose son John attends the Piano ISD preschool program for chil dren with disabilities at Beaty Early Childhood School Beaty as well as the districts other Early Childhood Schools offers three programs for children While Mitchells son is in the program funded by the state and federal government his twin sister Mary attends the commu prekindergarten pro gram A third program state mandated prekindergarten classes is for children who are of age or older and are limited in the English language or are from families that qualify for a free or reduced lunch Principal Susie Vaughan said there are more than 400 children at Beaty about 80 of whom are in the ported program which many parents choose over other preschools for a variety of reasons All teachers are certified See EDUCATION Page Primary Elections Tuesday Voters to choose Governor other party hopefuls By Peter Simek Its an odd platform a candi date for governor urging vot ers to stay home on election day But thats exactly what coun try star turned guberna hopeful Kinky Friedman is advocating For the independent Fried man it makes sense because a vote in Tuesdays primary elec tion makes voters ineligible to sign independent candidates petitions Friedman and Car ole Keeton Strayhorn each signatures to make it onto Novembers Despite his plea Friedman wont have to worry about keeping people away from the polls according to South ern Methodist University political science professor Calvin Jillson Jillson said turnout in mid term primary elections is usu ally around 10 percent of regis tered voters But low voter turnout can have a significant effect on the way some important local races swing Longtime Collin County Commissioner Jack Hatchell is being challenged by Jeran Akers for the Republican spot on the November ticket Akers has criticized Hatch County Com missioners Court for ing a good old boy attitude in the countys highest body Evidence of this the former Piano Mayor said is the com missioners passage of a pay program for longterm county employees that Akers believes is motivated by mul commissioners who want to fatten their own bank accounts That attitude has dis the court from being aggressive in encouraging business and job growth as well as adequate transporta tion improvements in Collin County Akers said Hatchell disagrees citing figures that indicate that 100000 jobs have been added to the county during his 20 years on the court In addition Hatchell lists mobility improvements such as a program to pave all county roads by 2008 and the building of a new jail among his credentials for keeping his seat Hatchell believes these improvements along with the fact that the tax rate has not increased in more than 10 years will resound with voters WEEKEND Im not going to pretend to be some great wise person Im just a kid from Perth whos acting Ill probably thank my Actor Heath Ledger on how hell behave if he wins the Oscar for portraying Ennis Del Mar in Mountain WEATHER Thunderstorms re c Party Cloudy
