Latest news with #Catalyst
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Opinion: What the school enrollment shift tells us about education in America
Yes, Utah is having fewer babies, down 26% over the past decade. As a former public school principal, though, I can assure you declining birth rates don't fully explain shrinking classrooms. Families aren't just having fewer kids — they're actively choosing different ways to educate them. COVID didn't start this shift. It accelerated it. Parents finally saw classrooms up close, and many didn't like the view. Yet, school districts often respond by doing nothing, watching enrollment decline until closures become inevitable. Granite School District recently announced plans to close more schools due to falling numbers. Last year, the Salt Lake School District shut down four elementary schools. And the year before that, Alpine School District faced similar closures. Where are these students going? To alternatives. Charter schools, private schools, microschools and homeschool pods are drawing families in with flexibility, personalization and often smaller environments. Homeschooling doubled in the US between 2020 and 2023. Charter schools have grown by more than 1.6 million students since 2000. Microschools are surging as well. A 2024 survey found that 37% of parents are more interested in microschools or hybrid options than they were before the pandemic. When I was a principal, one of my first graders excelled in math but lagged in reading. His father, Alex, grew frustrated with a rigid system unable to nurture his son's unique abilities. After I left public education, Alex did too. He founded Wilderland Academy, a nature-based microschool in Eden, Utah. His story isn't unusual. Across the country, parents and teachers are launching new schools rather than waiting for traditional ones to change. Stories like Alex's are multiplying. Parents and teachers aren't waiting for permission. They're creating what kids need. And it's not just about new schools. Lawmakers invested in Davis School District's Catalyst Center. The Catalyst program brings in local business and industry leaders to work with the students. It provides real-world experience in industries ranging from aviation and computer science to business, construction and digital media (YouTube). These are the kinds of public school innovations that deserve to grow. Just as a healthy forest has a variety of trees, a healthy education system has a variety of options. Policymakers should take note and find ways to continue their support of all options. To achieve this, Utah should expand the Utah Fits All scholarship so that every student who applies receives support — no lottery, no waitlist. At the same time, lawmakers should continue cutting red tape. They've made progress by allowing microschools in all zones and easing building rules. But they can continue to find these restrictions and remove them for education entrepreneurs. At the same time, they should make it easier to launch charter schools and expand innovative programs like Catalyst. The changing nature of education isn't a crisis; it's a wake-up call. As a former principal now working alongside microschool founders, I can tell you exactly what parents want: education that's more human, more personal and responsive to their kids' needs. If traditional schools refuse to adapt, Utah families will find education elsewhere.
Belfast Telegraph
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Belfast Telegraph
Could this self-driving Belfast bus soon be taking you to work or the airport?
The Harlander is planned to operate 12 hours a day, carrying up to nine passengers at a time on a route around Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Belfast Harbour hopes to expand these routes in coming years, connecting to the airport and potentially connecting other areas of Northern Ireland to more mainstream public transport. The driverless shuttle is currently completing safety testing, but can already be seen doing practice runs around roads in the area. Belfast Harbour plans the Harlander to run a 15-20 route, on a timetable aligned to the arrival of trains at Titanic Halt station. The timetable currently has approximate running hours from 6:30am to 6:30/7:00pm. The shuttle will initially run with safety attendants sitting at the driver's seat, however Belfast Harbour aims to eventually run it with no direct human input at all. Mike Dawson, 53, the people and digital transformation director at Belfast Harbour, says 'the purpose of the bus is to create last mile connectivity between the Titanic halt and initially, the Catalyst building. 'Then we have a loop of about four stops on the estate that it will stop on initially, to get a model and a blueprint that's viable for other services.' Mr Dawson says there are several goals for the current testing phase: 'What we'd like to do is have this run, learn from it, particularly the passenger experience and customer experience. 'What does that look like? What does that feel like? What needs to be tweaked, improved? How do you make sure there are no barriers to entry for people to be able to get on and access it?' Self-driving vehicles can be an unnerving technology for some, but Mr Dawson wants the shuttle to become 'reassuringly boring, that you're just getting transported from point A to point B.' He says the advantage is 'cost, more than anything else.' 'Translink run a great service, the Glider, up and down. But when we looked at it, we wanted more people to potentially use the train. 'You've got that 1.3 miles, how do you get people to do that? If the weather's atrocious, you're putting people off. How can we incentivise people to have a seamless experience: you get on the train, you get on the Harlander, [it] takes you to Catalyst, you're at your place of work.' The shuttle has been designed in partnership with several other companies including eVersum, Oxa, Angoka, BT and Horiba Mira. eVersum is an Austrian company which develops electric buses, and they created a right-hand drive model specifically for the Harlander. The self-driving technology comes from Oxa, who Mr Dawson describes as 'world-class in this space'. Safety testing has been carried out by Coventry-based firm Horiba Mira who have 'tested to death' the vehicles. 'They have a model of the Harbour estate on their land, they've run this model for months and months and months. 'We're going to do the same here, we've been doing it for the last few weeks, we're going to do it for another three to four. We're very confident it does what it needs to do. But, fundamentally, you still have a driver's seat there, you still have a steering wheel, you still have the ability to intervene should it be necessary.' While there will be safety attendants sitting in the driver's seat at first, Mr Dawson says 'the truth is, it will largely run in autonomous mode.' There are plans to get the Hardlander to a 'level four' self-driving vehicle, where 'there is no safety attendant, there is no driver.' Mr Dawson said he 'would like to see' an expansion of self-driving transport across Belfast and Northern Ireland. 'We would like to see more of these, where you can create connectivity on the estate itself. 'We see this as a much bigger play regionally, not just for Northern Ireland, but also for GB, where you can get connectivity to those main routes. Imagine you had estates in the city where you had these types of routes feeding the Glider route. 'It doesn't replace bus drivers, it augments what we have in place today.' Joe O'Neill, chief executive of Belfast Harbour, says the Harlander is a vital cog in its five-year strategy' and wants better connectivity 'with some of our other services, like Cruise, bringing passengers into the city. 'Connectivity to the airport is an important one as well, how we can work with the Belfast City Airport,' he added.
Belfast Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
Could this self-driving bus soon be taking you to work or the airport?
A new self-driving shuttle bus was launched yesterday, ahead of going into service in Belfast Harbour in the coming months. The Harlander is planned to operate 12 hours a day, carrying up to nine passengers at a time on a route around Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Belfast Harbour hopes to expand these routes in coming years, connecting to the airport and potentially connecting other areas of Northern Ireland to more mainstream public transport. The driverless shuttle is currently completing safety testing, but can already be seen doing practice runs around roads in the area. Belfast Harbour plans the Harlander to run a 15-20 route, on a timetable aligned to the arrival of trains at Titanic Halt station. The timetable currently has approximate running hours from 6:30am to 6:30/7:00pm. The shuttle will initially run with safety attendants sitting at the driver's seat, however Belfast Harbour aims to eventually run it with no direct human input at all. Mike Dawson, 53, the people and digital transformation director at Belfast Harbour, says 'the purpose of the bus is to create last mile connectivity between the Titanic halt and initially, the Catalyst building. 'Then we have a loop of about four stops on the estate that it will stop on initially, to get a model and a blueprint that's viable for other services.' Mr Dawson says there are several goals for the current testing phase: 'What we'd like to do is have this run, learn from it, particularly the passenger experience and customer experience. 'What does that look like? What does that feel like? What needs to be tweaked, improved? How do you make sure there are no barriers to entry for people to be able to get on and access it?' Self-driving vehicles can be an unnerving technology for some, but Mr Dawson wants the shuttle to become 'reassuringly boring, that you're just getting transported from point A to point B.' He says the advantage is 'cost, more than anything else.' 'Translink run a great service, the Glider, up and down. But when we looked at it, we wanted more people to potentially use the train. 'You've got that 1.3 miles, how do you get people to do that? If the weather's atrocious, you're putting people off. How can we incentivise people to have a seamless experience: you get on the train, you get on the Harlander, [it] takes you to Catalyst, you're at your place of work.' The shuttle has been designed in partnership with several other companies including eVersum, Oxa, Angoka, BT and Horiba Mira. eVersum is an Austrian company which develops electric buses, and they created a right-hand drive model specifically for the Harlander. The self-driving technology comes from Oxa, who Mr Dawson describes as 'world-class in this space'. Safety testing has been carried out by Coventry-based firm Horiba Mira who have 'tested to death' the vehicles. 'They have a model of the Harbour estate on their land, they've run this model for months and months and months. 'We're going to do the same here, we've been doing it for the last few weeks, we're going to do it for another three to four. We're very confident it does what it needs to do. But, fundamentally, you still have a driver's seat there, you still have a steering wheel, you still have the ability to intervene should it be necessary.' While there will be safety attendants sitting in the driver's seat at first, Mr Dawson says 'the truth is, it will largely run in autonomous mode.' There are plans to get the Hardlander to a 'level four' self-driving vehicle, where 'there is no safety attendant, there is no driver.' Mr Dawson said he 'would like to see' an expansion of self-driving transport across Belfast and Northern Ireland. 'We would like to see more of these, where you can create connectivity on the estate itself. 'We see this as a much bigger play regionally, not just for Northern Ireland, but also for GB, where you can get connectivity to those main routes. Imagine you had estates in the city where you had these types of routes feeding the Glider route. 'It doesn't replace bus drivers, it augments what we have in place today.' Joe O'Neill, chief executive of Belfast Harbour, says the Harlander is a vital cog in its five-year strategy' and wants better connectivity 'with some of our other services, like Cruise, bringing passengers into the city. 'Connectivity to the airport is an important one as well, how we can work with the Belfast City Airport,' he added.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Koppers Names James A. Sullivan President and Chief Transformation Officer; New Role Created to Oversee Company-wide Catalyst Initiative
PITTSBURGH, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP), a leading integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds, today announced the appointment of James A. Sullivan as President and Chief Transformation Officer, effective June 1, 2025. In this newly created role, Sullivan will lead the Koppers enterprise-wide transformation process named Catalyst. He will oversee the evaluation, scoping, quantification, planning and execution of hundreds of opportunities through a rigorous process aimed at maximizing performance across every dimension of the company. Sullivan will continue to report to Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Leroy Ball; business unit leadership will now also report to Ball in order to enable Sullivan to devote his full and focused attention to driving change. "While the changes undertaken by Koppers over the past decade have certainly been transformational, I believe we still have a tremendous opportunity to dramatically improve our margin and cash flow profile," said Leroy Ball. "This organizational change will allow Jim to intensely focus on implementing those actions that give us the best opportunity for success. His leadership of Catalyst is expected to build the bridge connecting our current strategy to our 2030 strategy." Sullivan will lead the newly established Transformation Office, a cross-functional team responsible for coordinating and executing the company's Catalyst Initiative, an enterprise-wide transformation process designed to challenge the status quo and change the way the company approaches performance improvements across all facets of the organization. "I'm very excited to step into this role at such a critical time for Koppers," said Jim Sullivan. "I look forward to working with our talented teams around the world to unlock new opportunities and build a stronger, more resilient company." Sullivan has more than 25 years of industry experience and more than a decade of executive leadership experience at Koppers, joining the company in June 2013. He most recently served as President and Chief Operating Officer, where he played a significant role in the development of the company's strategy. About Koppers Koppers (NYSE: KOP) is an integrated global provider of essential treated wood products, wood preservation technologies and carbon compounds. Our team of 2,100 employees create, protect and preserve key elements of our global infrastructure – including railroad crossties, utility poles, outdoor wooden structures, and production feedstocks for steel, aluminum and construction materials, among others – applying decades of industry-leading expertise while constantly innovating to anticipate the needs of tomorrow. Together we are providing safe and sustainable solutions to enable rail transportation, keep power flowing, and create spaces of enjoyment for people everywhere. Protecting What Matters, Preserving The Future. Learn more at Inquiries from the media should be directed to Ms. Jessica Franklin Black at BlackJF@ or 412-227-2025. Inquiries from the investment community should be directed to Ms. Quynh McGuire at McGuireQT@ or 412-227-2049. Safe Harbor Statement Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may include, but are not limited to, statements about sales levels, acquisitions, restructuring, declines in the value of Koppers assets and the effect of any resulting impairment charges, profitability and anticipated expenses and cash outflows. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and words such as "outlook," "guidance," "forecast," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "may," "will," "should," "continue," "plan," "potential," "intend," "likely," or other similar words or phrases are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement contained herein, in other press releases, written statements or other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or in Koppers communications and discussions with investors and analysts in the normal course of business through meetings, phone calls and conference calls, regarding future dividends, expectations with respect to sales, earnings, cash flows, operating efficiencies, restructurings, cost reduction efforts, product introduction or expansion, the benefits of acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures or other matters as well as financings and debt reduction, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and contingencies. Many of these risks, uncertainties and contingencies are beyond our control, and may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance or achievements. Factors that might affect such forward-looking statements include, among other things, availability of and fluctuations in the prices of key raw materials, including coal tar, lumber and scrap copper; the impact of changes in commodity prices, such as oil, copper and chemicals, on product margins; the extent of the dependence of certain of our businesses on certain market sectors and customers; economic, political and environmental conditions in international markets, including governmental changes, tariffs, restrictions on trade and restrictions on the ability to transfer capital across countries; general economic and business conditions; potential difficulties in protecting our intellectual property; the ratings on our debt and our ability to repay or refinance our outstanding indebtedness as it matures; our ability to operate within the limitations of our debt covenants; unexpected business disruptions; potential delays in timing or changes to expected benefits from cost reduction efforts; potential impairment of our goodwill and/or long-lived assets; demand for Koppers goods and services; competitive conditions; capital market conditions, including interest rates, borrowing costs and foreign currency rate fluctuations; disruptions and inefficiencies in the supply chain; changes in laws; the impact of environmental laws and regulations; unfavorable resolution of claims against us, as well as those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Koppers, particularly our latest annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings by Koppers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. For Information: Quynh McGuire, Vice President, Investor Relations412 227 2049McGuireQT@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE KOPPERS HOLDINGS INC. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Texas medical examiner expansion bill misses midnight House approval, but interim proposal could revive it
This story is part of KXAN's 'A Hanging on Backbone Creek' Catalyst investigation, launched November 18, 2024. As Texas' population grows, critics point to the need for more medical examiners in death investigations, instead of the state relying so heavily on its current process in most counties, where an elected justice of the peace — already assigned many court-related duties — also has the power to determine cause and manner of death with scant training and often without autopsies or forensic expertise. During our reporting, Texas lawmakers resumed efforts to modernize that antiquated system, as a nearly-forgotten mystery resurfaced with a fresh review of a young girl's strangulation case. AUSTIN (KXAN) – A proposal aimed at establishing more medical examiner offices sooner in Texas died amid a flurry of bills considered on the House floor late Tuesday night, though the lawmaker who carried Senate Bill 1370 in the lower chamber plans to keep the topic alive ahead of the next legislative session in 2027. 'I think we should have an interim charge to look at this issue to bring more medical examiners to the state,' Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, told KXAN earlier this month. Anchia also filed an identical House companion to SB 1370, which did not progress this session. The idea for the interim charge came after Anchia fielded questions during a House subcommittee hearing about the availability of physicians with forensic science training who could fill the state's need for medical examiners. Experts have said there is a shortage of such doctors actively practicing, with the National Association of Medical Examiners recently telling KXAN the number was around 750 nationwide. Explore 'A Hanging on Backbone Creek,' the project that sparked SB 1370 'We just need more people who are specialized in this work, and creating an incentive program makes total sense,' Anchia said. Texas has 254 counties. Medical examiner offices are used in 14 of them to investigate and certify the cause and manner of unexpected deaths, and conduct autopsies. The state has one medical examiner district based around Tarrant County. The remaining counties use elected justices of the peace to investigate and certify deaths, and determine if a body may need to be sent for an autopsy — usually through a contract with another another county or private entity. Justices of the peace are elected, hold numerous other court-related duties and have no required prerequisite medical or death investigation experience. KXAN has reported extensively on challenges with the justice of the peace death investigation system. Medical examiner office advocates have argued these government offices – led by appointed medical doctors – provide a higher level of expertise and public service. Currently, counties are only statutorily required to have medical examiner offices when their population hits 2.5 million. SB 1370 aimed to decrease the benchmark to 1 million. This map shows which Texas counties have medical examiners and which rely on justices of the peace for death investigations. Source: Various Texas Counties/Arezow Doost (KXAN Interactive/David Barer) There are three Texas counties – Hays, Hidalgo and Williamson – that do not currently have medical examiner offices but are projected to have populations over 1 million by 2060, according to the Texas Demographic Center. Williamson County is already making preparations to build a medical examiner office before hitting the 1 million population level. Trio of bills aim to strengthen Texas death investigations The measure also would have clarified that counties can implement a medical examiner office before reaching 1 million people. Additionally, counties that share borders can pool resources to form a medical examiner district. 'By expanding the pool of counties required or able to create an office or a district, S.B. 1370 aims to strengthen investigative capacity statewide, enhance public health and safety, and improve the consistency and reliability of death investigations,' the bill's author, Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, said in its statement of intent. KXAN reached out to Parker's office for comment following the bill stalling in the House but has not received a response. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
