At the zoning board meeting June 24, board members declined to hear an appeal by the Stanton Heights Community Organization on the grounds it was out of their jurisdiction. SHCO has been trying to block the construction of the Neighborhood Academy, a private school, from being built in their neighborhood since January 2009.

Kevin McKeegan, an attorney representing the Neighborhood Academy, said the school has agreed to comply with the only zoning complaint, regarding signs. The rest of SHCO’s complaint is not related to zoning and will have to be addressed in Common Pleas Court.

Arnetha F. Ball, Ph.D., the Visiting Barbara A. Sizemore Distinguished Professor of Urban Education at Duquesne University, was recently presented with the Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award by the American Educational Research Association.

ARNETHA F. BALL

The Johnson award recognizes the highest quality of academic scholarship published in one four AERA journals during the 2008 volume year. Ball’s article, “Towards a Theory of Generative Change in Linguistically Complex Classrooms,” was published in the American Educational Research Journal.

President Barack Obama once stated, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” The University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work and the Center on Race and Social Problems takes that challenge to heart, determined to make a positive transition in the world of diversity that will impact the world as we know it.

The university played host to a “Race in America—Restructuring Inequality National Conference” from June 3-6. The presentations were designed to be the most solution-focused conference on race ever held.

The worst oil spill in this country’s history has occurred in the Gulf. We asked Pittsburghers who is responsible for paying for it and who should clean it up? Here’s what you said:

“It’s the biggest environmental and economic castatrophe that we have had in 40 years. The person/people responsible should pay for the damage and the cleanup costs. BP took shortcuts that caused the explosion and the equipment manufacturers produced faulty equipment. All responsible parties should pay.”
Alice Pittrell
East Liberty
Legacy Arts Project program manager