To let West Chester and Liberty Township residents catch up with the news that they need to know, WestChesterBuzz.com will list and link to all of last week’s top local stories every Monday. (Stories are listed in order of date)
Lakota schools’ budget ax falls – The Lakota school board approved just more than $10.5 million in budget cuts for next school year at its meeting last Monday. Overall the school district will cut 141 teaching, classroom specialist, school nurse and school staff positions, in addition to nine school and central office administrators, according to The Enquirer.
Kay Rogers pleads to keep her savings – Former Butler County Auditor Kay Rogers’s attorney asked a federal judge to intervene last Monday to stop federal prosecutors from following through with the garnishment of about $250,000 in retirement savings, according to The Enquirer. According to her attorney, without her savings she will be “unable to support her family” upon her release.
Parents worry about Lakota’s future – The Enquirer’s education reporter Michael D. Clark wrote a story about the parents and their concerns after the Lakota school board made roughly $10.5 in cuts last Monday.
Lakota freshman visits spring training as MLB.com writer – An exceptionally gifted writer from Lakota West Freshman School in West Chester visited spring training sites last week and interviewed dozens of baseball players for MLB.com.
Lakota East students make video to stop cyber bullying – Lakota East and Butler Tech digital media arts students are participating in The Great American NO BULL Challenge in order to fight and bring awareness to cyber bullying. The NO BULL Challenge is a video contest where teens create a two-to-five minute video on how to combat cyber bullying. The local students’ solution is simple – “Post Positive.”
Lakota West grad Matt Klinker retires from pro baseball – After bouncing between the Cincinnati Reds’ AAA and AA minor league teams for the past three seasons, West Chester native Matt Klinker has decided to retire from the game of baseball and is currently training to become a salesman for Pipe Products.
NoLakota spokesman booted after controversial blog post – A blog posted by Rich Hoffman, who up until last week was the spokesman for the anti-school tax levy group NoLakota, went viral and offended many community members. In the post, Hoffman was very descriptive on his opinion of Lakota mothers, who he referred to as “prostitutes.” After The Enquirer featured the post’s content in a separate article, Hoffman was banned from further association with NoLakota. Hoffman has since responded to The Enquirer article on his blog Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom.
Local businesswoman Liz Rogers in the news again – Liberty Township resident Liz Rogers was in and out of the news this past week after she surrendered to authorities on a warrant related to a debt. Later in the week, she would pay off the debt and criticized the media. Rogers’ financial situation has become newsworthy after the city of Cincinnati decided to give her and her husband nearly $1 million in funds to open a soul food restaurant at The Banks.
Lakota West community mourns the loss of a student -A Lakota West junior died and four other students were injured in an automobile crash Friday night. Ezekiel “Zeke” Stepaniak of Liberty Township was the junior who died. Lakota West sophomore Ashley Stacy, 16, was treated for serious injuries at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. According to the school district, her condition has improved. The school district is making counselors available this week at both Lakota West High School and Lakota West Freshman School.