Laurels & lances: Partnership, problems and learning lessons
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Laurel: To new partnerships. With the financial accessibility of a college education being such an issue, combined with the many higher education institutions that are important job creators in Pennsylvania communities, a newly brokered deal could be a problem solver.
Westmoreland County Community College is joining with Carlow University to make obtaining a degree a little easier. It isn’t a competition. It’s a dual enrollment, much like many colleges offer to high school students.
Students can earn associate degrees at WCCC and pay the lower tuition while taking up to four Carlow classes at the same time. Then, they move to Carlow to finish a bachelor’s degree but still are able to take some of the university’s classes in the more convenient Westmoreland campus.
This is a brilliantly obvious move that should be copied by other colleges, including the state universities.
Lance: To costly problems. A federal jury awarded former Allegheny County Jail Capt. Jeffrey Kengerski $1.2 million — including attorney fees — after a five-day trial and four hours of deliberation.
The offense? The jury believed Kengerski’s assertion that he was fired after reporting racist comments by a supervisor.
Allegheny County Solicitor George Janocsko said the county is “disappointed” by the verdict and considering options moving forward. Will any of those options involve reviewing the protection of those making reports, or are they just talking about appeals?
Laurel: To starting young. It is never too early to learn how to be a giver.
Second graders at New Kensington-Arnold’s H.D. Berkey Elementary School learned this with a recent coin drive.
The students collected $450 during the week of Sept. 26. The money went to Animal Protectors for a shelter in the New Kensington neighborhood of Parnassus, which opened in December 2020.
The project might not sound educational. It’s a fundraiser, after all, not a spelling bee.
But what the kids learned from it were the kinds of lessons you can’t take from a book. They learned empathy and the importance of taking care of the vulnerable. They took an object lesson in pet ownership and responsibility — something they had been reading about in class.
And they also could see how little things — like all those nickels, dimes and pennies — add up to a significant donation. It’s a lesson more people could learn.