It's
that time of year again. Reading and writing and 'arithmetic. This time
of year used to make me sick. When I heard those commercials like
"before you go back to school, go to Zayres," my stomach cringed. It
also seemed that we always discovered something really cool right at
the end of the summer that was now cut short by school. One year it was
extending the forks on our bikes, another year it was hanging out with
a new group of girls on the next street. Sometimes it was playing
football or Frisbee, but school always goofed it up. I spoke to a few
of my friends who, like me, still get a nervous ache in their stomach
whenever the beginning of the school year starts.

Both my kids
are actually anxious to get back to school. Man have times changed. I
tried every trick in the book to get out of school, and I mean
everything. We were playing hooky at my friend Teddy's house when I was
a sophomore at Somerville High. My pal Danny called in to the office
disguising his voice, and saying he was Mr. Del Ponte. Whoever answered
the phone at the High school said, "My, Mr. DelPonte, you certainly
have a young voice!" I called back a second later and said, "James Del
Ponte will be right in." When I was still at St. Clements, I faked a
stomach ache to get out of school. There was actually nothing wrong
with my stomach at all. I lied about the pain. My parents took me up
Somerville High School where they removed my appendix. That will teach
me to fake an illness, right? Wrong. I invented a mysterious pain in my
leg to try to ditch a few classes. My hypochondriac mother dragged me
back to the same Doctor who found a mysterious "baker's cyst" in the
back of my leg and, voila, another operation. There was no leg pain
whatsoever, but "Dr. Invento," sold my parents two unnecessary
surgeries. Sure there is a chance that there really WAS something wrong
with my leg and appendix, but because of the reputation of this
nameless Doctor, I seriously doubt it. There is a still a small stitch
visible on the back of my leg that was "operated" on. The scar left by
Dr. Create-an-ailment was so bad, that I actually called Jim Sokolove.
They told me that too many years had gone by. It's a good thing I
didn't fake a headache. I would have ended up with a lobotomy. I
finally learned my lesson about creating imaginary illnesses in order
to stay out of school. Bottom line was, I really hated going to school.
I wanted to stay home and watch re-runs of Gomer Pyle and Yogi Bear
cartoons. Anything but school. But it was different then – there were
only a handful of nice teachers. I didn't say 'good' teachers mind you,
I said nice. Maybe it was difficult to be nice to a kid wearing bell
bottoms dungarees and sporting a David Cassidy haircut. Perhaps some
teachers didn't approve of our being in an organization called the
Committee of Concerned Students and publishing a newspaper called The
Inside Agitator. Teachers back then used threatening tactics to try to
get us to conform. It was like prison. It made us appreciate the really
good teachers all the more. Dick Gordinier, Julio Perno, Tony Fedele,
Mrs. Carafotes, Mr. De Angelis and Mr. Da Prato, to name a few. I could
rattle off a few of the meanies too, but you know who they were. One
former building master was partly responsible for my resigning as the
high school drama teacher. After making my four years of high school
miserable, this person was now going to be my "superior." No thanks. I
probably would have been close to retiring at this point in time.
Anyway, I didn't apply for the job, they came and asked me. It's now
all water under the Ball Square Bridge.

I still have
nightmares that I am in school, facing an exam, with no pencil, and in
my pajamas. I am glad my kids like school. For me it was a bad memory
except for the talent shows and drama performances. They tried to make
me repeat one class with the same blow-hard macho, head tripping idiot
that flunked me the first time. That's when I dropped the college
course. HA HA!! I still went to college anyway! And I still carry a
grudge against that jerk teacher. I never needed his jive class at all.
I have been counting on my fingers for years and it has worked out just
fine! I would like to give my thanks and gratitude for all the great
teachers I had over the years. I would also like to express my
thankfulness for all the awesome teachers my kids have. A lot of my
friends and former classmates are now teachers!

After working
very closely with the Somerville School Department over the past year,
I am happy to report that we are very lucky to have the best schools
possible. Times have changed for the best and any student in the
Somerville Public Schools can look forward to the best education they
can possibly get.

The
hearing began with the pledge of allegiance and a general welcome to
the Committee and public in attendance. Somerville's Superintendent
Tony Pierantozzi spoke first, explaining the Inter-District program and
its intentions.

The premise of the program is to allow children
from some school districts to opt into going to school in other
districts. Pierantozzi then explained why he supported suspending the
program within Somerville. He cited many arguments for stopping the
program including a concern for increased rates of student mobility
within the school system, its financial unpredictability, and the
necessary raise in costs for special education student's
transportation.

When put to the School Committee's vote there
was near unanimous support for opting out of the Inter-District program
for the 2009-2010 school year. Eight members of the committee voted in
the affirmative to opt out and one member was noted as absent.

Following
the hearing, the School Committee held a regular meeting where business
from the summer and the new school year were discussed at length.

Superintendent
Pierantozzi seemed especially happy with the status of the hiring
process within the school system this past summer. "We have a total of
40 new employees," he said, "and 22% of them report having a diverse,
minority status."

Pierantozzi went on to explain that hiring a
diverse staff is very important in meeting the needs of Somerville's
ethnically diverse population. But he was quick to note that regardless
of minority status, "We continue to hire the best individual for the
job."

Also on the agenda was an update on the renovation of the
Somerville Public School website. According to Pierantozzi, Phase One
of the website renovations is wrapping up and Phases Two and Three are
still to come.

By the completion of Phase Three every
classroom in Somerville will have its own website where students will
be able to look up assignments, print homework, and read class
announcements.

"We're very excited for this new website," Said
Pierantozzi. "We did this for a mere $15,000 which is a fraction of
what something like this can cost."

Many members of the
committee expressed an even-tempered concern about the H1N1 flu, which
is predicted to return in full strength this fall. Pierantozzi was
quick to note that while children between 12 and 17 are most affected
by the swine flu, there have been no reported deaths from that age
group within the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

He assured everyone present that the Somerville School System is taking the possibility of an H1N1 outbreak seriously.

"Parents
always ask me 'have you scoured the buildings; have you cloroxed every
door and every desk," Pierantozzi said. "But we know that has no effect
on the virus. It can only live outside the human body for 20 minutes.
As soon as kids reenter the building all that work would be done for
nothing."

Pierantozzi explained that the Somerville School
system's main defense against the flu will be anti-bacterial hand wash
and encouraging students to sneeze into their elbows.

"We're ready. We're hoping its all for naught, but we're ready if it comes." Said Pierantozzi.

Towards
the end of the meeting there was brief talk of hiring more full time
nurses for all the schools and it was assured that more nurses are in
the process of being trained.

The meeting came to a close with a
moment of silence for the recently deceased former employees of the
School System, their families and for the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

The sandwich drive was organized by a
Tufts group called FOCUS (Freshmen Orientation CommUnity Service),
which sends small groups of students into the Boston area to volunteer
at soup kitchens, zoos, special needs programs, elderly homes, parks
and homeless shelters during the week before freshmen orientation.
FOCUS is one of five optional pre-orientation programs that allow
students to meet other incoming freshmen with similar interests. Other
pre-orientation programs include an interfaith program, a fitness and
development program, an international student program, and a wilderness
program.

The parent organization of FOCUS is the Leonard
Carmichael Society, the largest student-run organization at Tufts,
which consists of over 900 volunteers who participate in community
service at Tufts and in the surrounding Boston area. Now in its
thirteenth year as part of the Tufts pre-orientation, FOCUS attracted
an exciting 165 incoming freshmen, up 70 students from last year. These
students were led by 70 upper class leaders, many of whom participated
in the program their freshmen years and loved it enough to come back.

Barbara
Rubel, the director of Community Relations at Tufts, serves as the
faculty advisor to FOCUS and was very excited with the turnout and
enthusiasm with this year's group. She hopes that the program will
effectively "introduce incoming freshmen to Tufts while also getting
them involved in the surrounding community." The students involved have
worked all around the Greater Boston area, and many have even stayed in
local community centers and churches.

Julia Carlson, one of
three upper class coordinators of the program and a secretary with the
Leonard Carmichael Society, said she "fell in love with the program" as
a leader during her sophomore year and while she admits it has been
hard work as a coordinator she has "had a ball" during her time with
FOCUS. Thursday's sandwich marathon provided a good opportunity to
bring all students involved in the program together for one activity
after students had been working around the Boston area in groups of
eight to ten students.

The entire production was quite a sight
for cars passing by the Tufts campus on College Avenue as 235 students
scrambled around the Gantcher Center lawn trying to reach their
sandwich quota. Split into groups of ten or eleven per table, students
were given a few minutes to formulate a plan of attack before making
100 sandwiches per table in one hour. The teamwork-oriented task was
consistent with the program's theme of bringing students together over
a common goal or interest. All the sandwiches were shipped out at 7
o'clock the next morning to be served as lunch at the Greater Boston
Food Bank. As hoped for, the program proved to be a successful way to
familiarize incoming freshmen with one another while performing an
important public service for the surrounding community.

Centro Presente was established in 1981 to
serve as a guiding light and political resource for the Latino-American
immigrant community of Massachusetts. They are active state wide, and
led primarily by Central American immigrants. According to their
mission statement, Centro Presente's major objectives are to establish
and uphold the self-determination and self-sufficiency of Latin
American immigrants. To do this, the group pushes for immigrant rights,
economic and social justice within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
through community organizing and leadership.

The press
conference was held to address the new campaign Centro Presente has
launched, which is targeted at the education of Latino-American
immigrant youths in regards to politics and social involvement therein.
According to Ms. Montes the campaign has been put into action through a
series of workshops that edified understanding of civic importance,
allocation and movement, as well as door-to-door visits to policy
makers. The goals of the workshops were to not only instruct
Latino-American immigrants and new citizens how to participate in
government, as well as enlightening them to the names of local elected
officials that these immigrants and new citizens can hold accountable
for their actions.

Among Ms. Montes' colleagues was Diego
Huezo-Rosales, a 19 year-old advocate and active political voice of
Centro Presente. When asked why youth involvement is important, Mr.
Huezo-Rosales stated that the campaign helps to develop leadership
skills, and give them the imperative tools to build a voice in the
political realm. This will act as the means to enable the
Latino-American immigrant community to establish communication with
government officials.

Although Centro Presente does not have a
department that works with the schools directly yet, the speakers at
this press conference stated that this campaign is still very much in
its beginning stages. The campaign will go through advancements as it
gets out to the public. For now, the organization will push along in
its highly grass roots fashion to raise public interest. The major goal
is to raise awareness amongst the Latino-American immigrant community
of the importance of having a voice as a population.

Ms.
Montes cited Tony Morales' running for an Alderman position, as well as
various other Latino-American personalities running for government
positions. Representation of the Latino-American community in
government offices is essential to the economic and social growth. As
of now there is a very low amount of Latino voice in office across the
country, in the Commonwealth and in Somerville. With the ever-growing
population of immigrants and new citizens, the traditional face of the
state and city governments will go under changes of their own.

For
any more information on this campaign or the other ventures of Centro
Presente, visit their website at www.cpresente.org. There one can find
a schedule of upcoming events, as well as resources for immigrants and
new citizens to get involved.

Backpack.
Check. Pens and pencils. Check. Organizers and notebooks. Check. You've
made lists and checked them twice for everything your child needs to go
back to school. Despite your child's hemming and hawing, you have
probably already made an appointment for their annual physical as well.
But there may be a very important item missing from your back-to-school
check list: your child's dental check-up.

Dental caries, also
known as tooth decay, is the most common chronic childhood disease,
five times more common than asthma. It's also completely preventable
with proper care. Good oral health is an important part of a child's
overall well being, especially as they and their teeth are developing.

Dental
check-ups are crucial to identify risks and help prevent more serious
problems from occurring such as tooth decay and gum disease. Dentists
can even identify early signs of other diseases like diabetes and
vitamin deficiencies. However, without regular dental screenings and
prevention measures like sealants on molars, dental disease often goes
untreated and can result in cavities, pain and infection. Untreated
dental disease can also interfere with learning, speech, and eating,
leading to poor nutrition and problems in school.

You can also help your child protect their teeth throughout the school year with a few simple tips:

–
Sugar and acid in soda and sports drinks can eat away tooth's enamel:
if your children are drinking these, send them to school with a straw
so the liquid will have less contact with their teeth.

– Most
bottled water doesn't have tooth decay fighting fluoride: you can save
money by skipping the bottled water and having your child drink water
from the tap using a tap filter or a filtered pitcher.

–
Chewing gum doesn't have to be bad for your child's teeth. Always use
sugarless gum and look for chewing gum with xylitol, the natural
sweetener that has been proven to help prevent tooth decay, listed as
one of the top three ingredients.

– If your child participates
in a school sport, make sure he/she wears a mouth guard. According to
the American Dental Association, sports-related injuries knock out two
million teeth per year. Your child will be 60 times less likely to
suffer tooth damage than an athlete without a mouth guard. [Mouth
guards are rarely covered by insurance plans because of the wide
variation in cost between custom, mouth-formed and stock ones — any
mouth guard is better than none.]

Most importantly, schedule an
appointment with your child's dentist. Start a positive tradition that
will hopefully last them their entire lives. Your child should walk
away with a new toothbrush, a sticker and a brighter smile. You will
walk away with peace of mind, knowing you have a full picture of your
child's overall health and that your son or daughter is truly ready to
start the new school year.