Latest news with #RCW
CBC
25-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
Lack of French-speaking staff leading to burnout at P.E.I. long-term care home, MLA says
Social Sharing Issues were raised in the P.E.I. Legislature around staffing shortages and patient safety at a provincially operated long-term care home in Charlottetown. Some nurses from Beach Grove Home were looking on Friday as Opposition health critic Gord McNeilly brought up their concerns about vacant bilingual nursing positions. The Liberal MLA said staff told him up to 84 resident-care worker (RCW) shifts go unfilled every month at the home due to a lack of French-speaking workers. "A nurse reached out to me and she said that… she's stressed. She goes home, can't relax. She used to do things like run and cycle and she had to put those on hold," said McNeilly, who represents Charlottetown-West Royalty where the home is located. "This is the dedication of our health-care staff, but we're burning them out… and it was heartbreaking to get that message." P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane confirmed that one of two bilingual licensed practical nurse positions at Beach Grove Home is vacant, while five of eight French-speaking RCW positions are unfilled. While he admitted it can be challenging to hire bilingual health workers, McLane said Collège de l'Île has restarted its training program for French-speaking RCWs, and the province is trying to recruit internationally. "At this time, there's actually only one bilingual resident at [Beach Grove Home], so the demands aren't too great," he said. "With New Brunswick being our neighbour, it's tough to compete for bilingual positions." In the legislature, the health minister pointed to efforts Health P.E.I. is making to recruit more nurses to its system, including grant programs and an expansion of UPEI's nursing program. McLane also said 500 nursing positions across the Island are being made permanent, which he said will help stabilize the workforce. But McNeilly said those efforts do little to help the burned-out staff at Beach Grove Home in the short-term. "We want the French services, but… you're leaving vacant shifts because of this technicality," he said. "It's not a language issue; it's a service issue." McNeilly asked whether McLane would commit to directing Health P.E.I. to hire English-only term roles for one year to complement the home's staff until those permanent positions can be filled. The health minister said he would take that suggestion back to his department. Unsafe shower facilities, says staff Beach Grove staff also wrote to McNeilly with concerns about subpar shower facilities for patients on the facility's Harbour wing. They said the stall's flooring is not designed for a shower, so water leaks out into the common area — conditions that caused injury to one worker, who slipped on the wet floor. The workers wrote that the shower also doesn't have a temperature gauge, which is against provincial policy. McLane said he would visit the home to speak to staff about the issues, adding that there is money in the provincial budget for upgrades.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MLSD reads three policies, no votes occurred
Apr. 21—MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School District School Board did first reads on three proposed policies at the April 18 board meeting. No decisions were made on any policy updates. Policy 3141: Out-of-district students Policy 3141 of the Moses Lake School District governs the admission of nonresident students in accordance with Washington State law, Chapter 28A.225 RCW. These are students who live in homes outside the district's boundaries. Nonresident students may apply for enrollment between June 1 and Aug. 15 annually, with provisions for home-based instruction also included. Applications are evaluated based on established criteria, including the district's financial capacity, available educational programs, and the student's disciplinary history. The district does not impose transfer fees or tuition for eligible nonresidents. Additionally, children of full-time employees are granted enrollment rights, with specific guidelines clarifying potential rejection based on behavioral history or compliance issues. If an application is denied, the superintendent provides written notification, including grounds for denial and the right to appeal the decision to the school board and subsequently to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as specified in RCW 28A.225.230. Policy 4218: Language access The Board of Directors said they are committed to enhancing meaningful communication and access for students and families, particularly for those with limited English proficiency. Recognizing the linguistic diversity within the community, the Board aims to eliminate language barriers through a legally compliant, free-of-charge Language Access Program. This program will promote accessibility and equity, ensuring two-way communication is integral to all services and activities. Key components of the program include systematic identification of families needing language support, provision of competent oral interpretation and translation of vital documents for LEP families, where applicable. The District will designate a Language Access Liaison to oversee compliance with language access laws and facilitate staff training on effective communication with LEP families. Policy 6220: Procurements This policy delineates the requirements and procedures for procuring goods and services, emphasizing the importance of maximizing district resources, adhering to sound business practices and complying with state and federal regulations. The procurement of furniture, supplies, and equipment varies based on estimated costs: purchases below $40,000 require no competitive bidding, while those between $40,000 and $75,000 follow an informal competitive process, and amounts exceeding $75,000 necessitate a formal bidding process. For improvements or repairs under $75,000, the district may proceed without bidding; for projects over $100,000, formal bidding is required. Additionally, the policy encourages participation from minority and women-owned businesses in the bidding process and provides exemptions in cases of emergencies or single-source supplies. Finally, the district may engage in cooperative purchasing agreements and must maintain thorough documentation to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations, which will be reviewed by applicable authorities. Comprehensive procedures will be instituted by the superintendent or designee to support these policies.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MLSD board determines no civil rights infringement
Feb. 26—MOSES LAKE — In the Feb. 20 meeting of the Moses Lake School Board, the issue of equity in physical education resurfaced, spurred by a civil rights complaint submitted by Larry Dagnon, a teacher at North Elementary which he presented at the previous Feb. 6 meeting. The complaint claims the district has disproportionately impacted minority students with reduced physical education resources. "I cannot stress to you enough the impact that the discrimination has on the kids," Dagnon said. "They are sad; they want things to go back to normal. When I was listening to the student representatives hearing kids want school to go back to normal ... What gets kids to school? PE is one of the big ones." School board member Ryan Coulston made a motion saying no civil right violations have taken place. School board vice-chair Carla Urias seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously by the board. During the Feb. 6 board meeting, Dagnon presented his concerns regarding the allocation of physical education teachers across the district's 11 elementary schools. According to previous meetings from the Moses Lake School District, Garden Heights Elementary, Lakeview Elementary, Larson Heights Elementary and North Elementary all receive one 30-minute period once a week for physical education. Other schools are on a weekly ABC rotation, meaning they have gym every third day, resulting in some weeks where students get PE once a week and some weeks they get it twice a week. Groff Elementary has PE once or twice a week for either 30 or 35 minutes. Longview Elementary gets one or two 40-minute gym sessions. Park Orchard Elementary and Peninsula Elementary get one or two 30-minute sessions a week. Sage Point Elementary gets one to two 40-to-45-minute sessions a week. Knolls Vista Elementary gets two physical education periods weekly for 30 minutes. Then, Midway Elementary gets two or three sessions of 35 minutes each, depending on the semester. According to RCW 28A.230.040, students in elementary schools must receive at least 100 minutes of physical education every week. However, right now, the only school within MLSD that is fulfilling that requirement is Midway Elementary for one of its two semesters. With budget cuts caused by the district's recent financial crisis, there are only seven full-time elementary school physical education teachers. Four of the elementary schools share two PE teachers. Garden Heights and Lakeview share a teacher. North Elementary and Larson Height Elementary share another teacher. "What that looks like right now is in our school, you could have as many as 35 minutes a week, but a lot of the time it's zero minutes," Dagnon said during the Feb. 6 meeting. "My own classroom has only had it once a month where they've had PE. You're supposed to have 100 minutes per week." He said students in schools with mostly-minority populations are the ones most affected by the situation, causing unfair treatment of those students. Those campuses include North and Larson Heights which have a high percentage of minority students. Dagnon accused the school district of using misleading data to downplay the issue, saying the district's response failed to accurately reflect the racial composition and needs of the affected schools. He said the district presented percentages of minority populations at various schools without giving a complete picture of how these populations are impacted by reduced programming. "When I got a response from the district, you had pulled up the percentage of minority population for the entire schools of the elementaries," Dagnon said. "That doesn't show in an honest way really what's happening." In response to the complaint, Michelle Musso, the district's HR director and civil rights coordinator, expressed appreciation for Dagnon's concerns but defended the district's actions. "I also want to state that as a district we have repeatedly said we understand that reduced PE programming is not equitable across schools. We are clear and we know that," Musso said. However, she maintained that the data analysis concluded no formal discrimination occurred. "White students are receiving 81,812 minutes of PE programming per year, and minority students are receiving 79,799 minutes... The difference of 13 minutes annually is not significant and does not indicate discrimination," she said. A critical point of contention was the methodology used to measure the impact of the cuts. Dagnon said that the analysis overlooked the realities faced by students in schools with significant minority populations. He said a redistribution model could more equitably allocate PE resources based on need, arguing that "this is discrimination, and there's no other way to look at it." During the meeting, board members sought clarity on the factors influencing the district's decision to limit PE resources at certain schools. MLSD Superintendent Carol Lewis said the decisions were made based on a combination of school size, available resources and staff availability. "We had to allocate the resources as best we could... The decision was made to keep full-time counselors at all of those schools," Lewis said, indicating that resource distribution was complicated by budgetary constraints. She also noted that if counselors had been let go to keep PE teachers, the conversation would be about a lack of counsellors instead. During the Feb. 20 board meeting, community members expressed concerns about access to PE or lack thereof. Andrea Carrillo, a parent health advocate, said, "Denying equitable access to PE is yet another example of how our most vulnerable students are left behind." Guadalupe Collazo, another community member, echoed similar sentiments, highlighting that existing disparities reflect a broader inequity in the district's treatment of minority students. When asked whether changing the current scheduling to address these inequities would be feasible mid-year, principals expressed concern over the potential impacts on other programs and services, especially for students with disabilities. "Changing the schedule in March changes life skills schedules... It would change literally every teacher's schedule," explained one principal during the meeting, stressing the logistical challenges that such a move could entail. As of now, according to MLSD Director of Public Relations Ryan Shannon, the district has passed the resolution saying no civil rights violations have taken place with no planned action in the future. However, Shannon said that if those who filed the specific civil rights complaint wish to continue, they could bring the cause directly to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for further investigation. Shannon said he is unaware of that action taking place. "In some schools, they have more, in some schools, they have less, and we have presented that extensively to the board," Lewis said. "We've talked about it quite a lot, and that's one of the very first things that we want to fix if we have levy money and even if we don't have levy money, we need to even it out across our district. ... We know we will do that going forward into the next school year, one way or another." PE time by campus: Amount of physical education time each school receives weekly according to MLSD: Washington State Requirement: 100 to 150 minutes Garden Heights Elementary: 30 minutes Groff Elementary: 30 to 70 minutes Knolls Vista Elementary: 60 minutes Lakeview Elementary: 30 minutes Larson Heights Elementary: 30 minutes Longview Elementary: 40 to 80 minutes Midway Elementary: 70 to 105 minutes North Elementary: 30 minutes Park Orchard Elementary: 35 to 70 minutes Peninsula Elementary: 30 to 60 minutes Sage Point Elementary: 40 to 90 minutes
Russia Today
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Russia Today
How Rachmaninoff's manuscript became a reason for cooperation between Russia and US
Russian Music Publishing is preparing to release a unique scholarly edition: The autograph manuscript of the Second Symphony by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. The digital copy of the manuscript, long considered lost, was entrusted to the publishing house by American art collector and philanthropist Robert Owen Lehman Jr. The return of this rare document to Russia took 20 years. Experts believe that the Second Symphony occupies a central place in Rachmaninoff's oeuvre. It was composed in 1907-1908, when the composer lived with his family in Dresden after two successful seasons as conductor at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. The premiere of the symphony took place in January 1908 at the Mariinsky Theater under Rachmaninoff's direction and was a tremendous success. The author held his work to exceptionally high standards. His First Symphony failed in 1897 and resulted in a serious moral trial for the composer. Rachmaninoff wrote: 'After this Symphony, I did not compose anything for about three years. I was like a man who had a stroke and whose head and arms were taken away for a long time... I will not show the Symphony, and I will impose a ban on its performance in my will.' The autograph manuscript of the Second Symphony was considered lost for many decades until it unexpectedly resurfaced in 2004 at a Sotheby's auction. The appearance of the manuscript, which had been kept by an anonymous European collector, surprised not only music researchers but also the heir of the great composer – his grandson Alexandre Rachmaninoff, who lived in Switzerland. He intended to sue the owners in order to prove that they had no rights to possess the score. However, Rachmaninoff was stopped by Dmitry Dmitriev, the head of Russian Music Publishing. At the time, work was in full swing at Russian Music Publishing on the 'Sergei Rachmaninoff. Critical Edition of the Complete Works (RCW)'. 'The value lies in the fact that the autograph manuscripts of Rachmaninoff conceal an unknown and unpublished Rachmaninoff, which the global music community has yet to hear. In other words, this is effectively a kind of rediscovery,' Dmitriev says. He explained the importance of the RCW to the grandson of the great Rachmaninoff, too. Alexandre Rachmaninoff dedicated many years to promoting the works of his genius grandfather, organizing festivals and competitions in his name, and supporting young, talented musicians. When he – an attorney by profession – learned that the original manuscript of one of Rachmaninoff's most famous works was being sold at auction for an exorbitant price, he found himself, to put it mildly, in a predicament. According to Dmitriev, it took considerable effort to dissuade the composer's descendant from withdrawing the lot from the auction and filing a lawsuit: the owners could simply have chosen to 'go underground' with the precious document. Dmitriev describes the appearance of the autograph manuscript at the auction as a fantastic stroke of luck. 'It really took a lot of diplomatic effort for me to persuade Alexandre Rachmaninoff not to withdraw the autograph from the auction, so that this lot would remain. He called me and began to express his outrage very emotionally about how this could happen; he wanted to sue, get it back, immediately impose fines, and so on,' Dmitriev recounts. 'We quickly understood that such a mood could be fatal in terms of potentially losing this unique autograph for another 50 or even 80 years.' The arguments of the head of Russian Music Publishing had an effect. Alexandre agreed to leave the lot at the auction with a number of legal stipulations and reached a settlement with its owners. Sotheby's reclassified the auction as closed, and the score was sold to the Tabor Foundation for £800,000, with the obligation to deposit it at the British Library in London and provide access to researchers. It seemed that the autograph manuscript of the Second Symphony would finally see the light of day. No one could have predicted then that it would again remain hidden from scholars for many years. According to the description from the Sotheby's website, the autograph manuscript of the Second Edition indeed represents a priceless find for scholars. The well-preserved 320-page document (only the first four pages and part of the last one are missing) provides a complete understanding of the original orchestration. Dmitriev explains that the Tabor Foundation needed the document only as an investment asset, acquired for subsequent resale. The risk of potential digital copies being disseminated threatened to diminish the uniqueness of the manuscript – and consequently, its potential value at future auctions. Therefore, the score was displayed to the public during events and exhibitions at the British Library, while at other times it remained in its closed collections. All that researchers were able to study were a few pages of the autograph, digitized for the preparation of the lot's booklet at Sotheby's. 'Alexandre Rachmaninoff approached them with a request, and the British Library reached out to management – but to no avail. They exhibited the autograph manuscript at some showings, but there was absolutely no access for researchers,' Dmitriev explains. 'That was really very difficult, and in the end, we completely despaired.' Original music works are very rarely put up for sale and cost a fortune. For example, in December 2024, Christie's presented a collection of musical manuscripts by Beethoven, Wagner, Stravinsky, Verdi, Puccini, Ravel, Strauss, Mendelssohn, and Debussy. Beethoven's autograph sketch leaf for the string quartet in C, op. 59 no. 3. was the most expensive lot: Its preliminary estimate ranged from £100,000 to £150,000. Ultimately, the document was sold for £113,000. In 2016, an anonymous buyer acquired the original of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at Sotheby's for £4.5 million. Guinness World Records featured this document as the most expensive musical manuscript sold at auction. 'The autograph manuscript is the most authentic source of the text closest to the author,' Dmitriev explains. 'It captures all the details of the author's intent. When handwritten texts are converted into printed form, particularly in music, this leads to what is called 'a moment of interpretation'. A lot of changes are made during the process of translating handwritten text into printed form. Many details of the original text are overlooked, and many nuances are standardized. Thus, two different texts emerge. For this reason, any autograph – regardless if it's Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, or Rachmaninoff – commands such high prices. Because it is essentially the only medium that preserves the original authorial text.' It is not surprising that such auctions attract enormous attention – and sometimes even end in scandals. In 2016, Sotheby's failed to sell a Beethoven manuscript (with a pre-sale estimate of £200,000) after Professor Barry Cooper from the University of Manchester claimed that the document was penned not by the composer himself, but by a copyist. Not until 2014 did the autograph manuscript of the Second Symphony reappear at auction. It happened after the death of Alexandre Rachmaninoff. The document was sold for £1.2 million to American collector Robert Owen Lehman Jr. The art collection assembled by the Lehman family is considered one of the finest private collections in the US. The autograph manuscript of the Second Symphony was placed on deposit at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. However, unlike previous owners, Lehman chose to share the precious document with the world. Despite the rising 'cancel culture' against Russian art over the Ukraine conflict, Lehman decided to provide Russian Music Publishing with a digital copy of the manuscript for study, transcription, and preparation of the first scholarly edition. Dmitriev describes Lehman's action as a unique example of interstate cooperation. 'Such precedents show that in any country there are people – of any citizenship and nationality – who are able to communicate not in the language of ultimatums and who remain human.' Lehman became interested in the project of 'Sergei Rachmaninoff. Critical Edition of the Complete Works'. 'We had already sent him three volumes, and he had the opportunity to get familiar with the project,' Dmitriev says. 'We should be grateful to our colleagues from the British Library, who accurately told him the whole story.' The RCW has received broad recognition in the global music community as the first and only scholarly edition of the works of the great Russian composer. Its volumes are used in the study of music textual criticism at Cambridge University as a standard for preparing source-based editions for modern scholarly publications. Rachmaninoff's sheet music archive is considered to be well-preserved – the majority of his works have survived to the present day in the form of clean autograph manuscripts and lifetime editions, with corrections made by the author himself. However, Rachmaninoff left Russia in 1917, so his documents ended up scattered across libraries, museums, archives, and private collections in Russia, the US, and Europe. 'He did not intend to emigrate; he planned to return. He left all of his autographs, entire works, in his Moscow apartment. He even left what he was currently working on,' Dmitriev says. 'For him, Russia remained his homeland. During the Great Patriotic War, he helped the Red Army more than anyone else in our émigré community. He did it with all his heart, and he was on our side; he was with the people.' Scientific work is impossible without a deep investigation of the creative process, according to Dmitriev. 'Scholars attempt to reconstruct what was going through the composer's mind, how the composer wrote his works. There are different types of creative processes. For example, Bach and Beethoven followed the principle 'from simple to complex': a simpler version of the piece was written first, some sketches, and then it became more and more complex.' Rachmaninoff, however, worked in a completely different way. Dmitriev says the composer deviated from general principles because his creative process was absolutely unique. Rachmaninoff had a phenomenal creative memory. A large part of his creative work in composing music occurred in his creative memory. He would write it down on paper only when it was necessary to pass it to the publisher. 'The most interesting part began when Rachmaninoff started performing his own works at premieres: the pianist Rachmaninoff would come into play, starting to correct the composer Rachmaninoff – reducing, simplifying the texture, cutting out individual sections. We have very distinctive creativity here, where, unlike other composers for whom we must publish the final versions, we need to publish the initial ones.' Russian Music Publishing received high-quality digital copies, allowing scholars to examine the Second Symphony autograph manuscript in great detail. Currently, the challenging effort is underway to transcribe it. Dmitriev believes that the return of the document to Russia was made possible thanks to unique international cooperation, which is particularly important to maintain during times of political disagreements. 'For those working in the field of culture, collaboration is very important. Even when politicians cannot find common ground, such dialogue can still take place within cultural interactions, and this is very important,' he says.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Is it illegal to warm your car up unattended in WA? Here's what you need to know
The Brief Leaving your car to warm up is technically illegal in the state of Washington. State law cites risks of injury to nearby people, or damage to nearby property as primary reasons for this deterrence measure. Local law enforcement officials also warn of increasing car thefts from doing so. SEATTLE - With unseasonably cold temperatures across the region, many people may want to run out to turn their car on before heading back inside to finish getting ready. This is technically illegal. Washington law prohibits leaving your car running while unattended. According to RCW 46.61.600, "No person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key and effectively setting the brake thereon." The Pierce County Sheriff's Department has issued warnings previously about the risks associated with leaving your car running. What they're saying "When the weather is cold, we all want to warm up our vehicles before we have to drive in to work, but please do not leave your vehicle unattended. We've seen too many cars stolen this way," said Lt. Darren Moss. Dig deeper Aside from the dangers of increasing the prevalence of car thefts, another reason for this law is the risks to those in the immediate area. The law states that "the most recent driver of a motor vehicle which the driver has left standing unattended, who learns that the vehicle has become set in motion and has struck another vehicle or property, or has caused injury to any person," must comply with accompanying requirements and liabilities laid out by RCW 46.52.010 and RCW 46.52.020. The Source Information for this report comes from the Washington State legislature and Pierce County Sheriff's Department. Las Vegas Raiders hire Pete Carroll as head coach, sources say Renton PD: Son threatens mother, talks about 'demons' before her murder Scammer charged for swindling $14K from 71-year-old WA woman Auburn police officer sentenced for 2019 shooting death of homeless man Cluster of tremors felt near Snoqualmie, WA after 3.5 magnitude earthquake Italy's top court upholds Amanda Knox's conviction for falsely accusing man of murder To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily Fox Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX Seattle FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national coverage, plus 24/7 streaming coverage from across the nation.
