WOOD RIVER JCT. â Chariho High School Principal Craig MacKenzie is leaving the district to accept a job as principal of a high school in the state of Washington.
MacKenzie announced last week in an email to district families that he will be stepping down from his position effective at the end of this school year. He has worked in the school district for almost nine years, including the past five as principal of Chariho High after serving for four years as the schoolâs assistant principal.Â
âIâm grateful to Chariho families for your support and investment in our vision at CHS during my tenure at Chariho,â MacKenzie said in his letter. âI wish you all the best as we close this [school] year strong and together.â
CHARLESTOWN â At a lengthy virtual meeting last week, members of the Charlestown Town Council approved resolutions asking the General Assembly to pass two bills affecting beverage bottles.Â
House Bill 5113 would require a deposit on miniature alcoholic drink bottles, known as nips, and the second, House Bill 5280, would require a deposit on all beverage containers. Roadside litter, especially discarded nips, is a perennial concern in the town.Â
The first resolution was proposed by Councilor Susan Cooper, who cited the success other states have had reducing litter by introducing deposits.
The council also gave unanimous support to a resolution supporting the second bill, the Beverage Container Deposit Recycling Act.
WOOD RIVER JCT. â The pandemic has impacted almost every Chariho activity, including the districtâs 10th annual Shakespeare Competition. But as everyone in the performing arts knows, the show must go on, so the competition took place virtually last Thursday.
Four students competed this year and a team of judges chose a winner based on each studentâs score.Â
Mya Card, a junior, sophomore Isaiah Planck, junior Christian Sullivan and freshman Regan Clark each presented a monologue from a Shakespeare play as well as a sonnet.
English teacher and Shakespeare Club adviser Sandra Laub hosted the event.
âWe have rehearsed and prepared for this day in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the English-speaking Union, a 100-year-old national organization,â she said. âWhat a strange and genius adaptation this year has been for everybody, and I want to thank those students, all four of you, for joining us in this unusual year in Shakespeare.â
RICHMOND â Richmond Elementary School Principal Sharon Martin does whatever it takes to make learning fun, so if getting studentsâ attention in the Fruit and Veggie Challenge means dressing up as a pickle, sheâs okay with that.
âYou have to be really creative about finding ways to make things fun in a socially-distanced school,â she said.
Richmond became the Chariho districtâs âhealth and wellnessâ school when the four elementary schools began to offer specialized learning experiences as part of an effort to attract and retain students. An important part of the health and wellness mandate is encouraging healthy eating among the students, and Martin was looking for a new way to get the children to sample fruits and vegetables they had never tried before.
WOOD RIVER JCT. — Members of the Chariho School Committee held the first public budget workshop of 2021 Tuesday, a process that, this year, will involve grappling with the many