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Rhyl Journal
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
More than £2,500 is raised for family of ‘beloved' Rhyl man
Christopher Pollitt, known as Poll, was found dead aged 41 at his home in Rhyl on May 28. In his memory, and to support his family, The Glanglasfor pub hosted a special event at its premises last Saturday (June 7). There was live music and karaoke, and a raffle with prizes including a three-hour tattoo session and a £50 bar tab, the latter of which was donated by pub barmaid Emma Roberts. A total of £362 was raised from the event for Mr Pollitt's family. A book of condolences was set up for Chris Pollitt at The Glanglasfor (Image: Submitted) Ms Roberts, who got to know and became friends with Mr Pollitt in the last six months, said: 'We were busy from the minute the doors opened to close. 'It was an amazing day, and the family came down to see us, too, which was lovely. 'He was just a character; we all loved him.' The Glanglasfor said: 'Poll was a regular customer in the pub, and on many days, just came in to stand and make us all laugh with his one liner jokes. 'Poll is going to be sadly missed by many people, including us at the The Glan. "We as a pub are sending all our love to the family at this sad time.' Some of Mr Pollitt's friends came in fancy dress to Saturday's event (Image: Submitted) A GoFundMe page, set up by Mr Pollitt's sister, Donna Hayes, has also raised more than £2,500 - His funeral will be held at 12pm on Friday (June 13) at St. Margaret's Church (Marble Church) in Bodelwyddan. Ms Hayes wrote: 'Chris sadly passed away last week. It has come as a huge, huge shock to us as a family and the whole of Rhyl. 'We have received so much love and comfort from everybody in Rhyl and the surrounding areas, and people have offered extremely kind gestures. 'If you would like to make any donations, it will go towards the day.'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Amid National Voucher Push, Missouri Once Again Turns to Open Enrollment
Lawmakers in Missouri are debating a move that could significantly expand families' educational options. Within the K–12 politics of 2025, however, the proposal has an almost retro feel. In March, the state House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow students to transfer to public school districts outside their community of residence, a policy known as 'open enrollment.' If it became law, districts would have the option to decline student transfers from other areas, but could not prevent their own students from leaving. Per-pupil funding from the state, totalling roughly $6,700, would follow each child to his or her new destination. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter It's a somewhat familiar idea. According to the nonprofit Education Commission of the States, over 40 states explicitly permit some form of interdistrict transfer, whether through voluntary agreements between communities or via statewide mandate. In Missouri itself, the House has passed statewide legislation for the last five consecutive years, only to have it stall in the state Senate. Related In troubled districts like St. Louis, too, it has become common for families to select among schools in nearby suburbs, mostly through a long-running desegregation effort. Advocacy groups like the No More Lines Coalition have also attempted to draw attention to parents prosecuted for falsifying their addresses to send their kids to better-performing districts. Yet open enrollment — and the occasionally fierce debates it triggers — has also been somewhat overshadowed in recent years as calls have grown for private offerings like education savings accounts and tax-credit scholarships. With Republicans at the state and national level supporting the channeling of public funds to non-public institutions, 'school choice' has increasingly come to imply 'private school choice.' Republican Rep. Brad Pollitt, the bill's sponsor, said his aim was to allow parents to exercise more autonomy without having to leave the traditional school system. With birth rates falling and a substantial post-COVID migration of students to homeschooling, he continued, public schools needed 'a seat at the table' during discussions of choice. 'Whatever the percentage of people that want to see a different option — maybe a better fit for their family, depending on work or other factors — I just want them to have another choice in the public school system instead of going to ESAs, a charter school, or even a virtual school,' Pollitt told The 74. But critics of the proposal say it will introduce still more instability into school finance and governance, ultimately leading to districts battling among themselves for families who operate as free agents. Todd Fuller, the communications director of the Missouri State Teachers Association, said he worried that a 'downward spiral' of competition would benefit a few districts and gradually strip the rest of badly needed resources. 'It's not going to happen all at once,' he said. 'Over the course of time, there will be less services,' he said. 'I've seen districts already that tell their students, 'Sorry, we don't have foreign languages,' or, 'Sorry, we don't have a science class that you should take.'' Inter-district transfers are one of the oldest and most common forms of school choice across the United States. Indeed, Missouri already provides several forms of it, allowing parents to take the necessary step of switching districts if their own does not include a high school. More controversially, students attending schools that have lost accreditation — usually for persistently low academic performance — have the option of leaving for a higher-achieving school elsewhere. That scenario was most vividly illustrated in the case of the Normandy school district, which was stripped of its accreditation by the state in 2013. The resulting exodus was far greater than anticipated, with about 1,000 students (roughly 25 percent of all enrolled) heading for the exits that fall. Neighboring districts spent years fighting to reject their transfers, arguing that they could not provide space or meet the learning needs of so many new pupils, before ultimately yielding to court orders and a swell of negative press. Peter Franzen is the associate director of the Children's Education Alliance of Missouri, an organization that supports parent empowerment and school choice. Having worked for decades in and around communities severely impacted by poverty and poor services, he said he believed the Normandy experience illustrated the existing appetite for open enrollment among families who are otherwise told to wait for solutions that may never come. 'If a quarter of your school drains out because nobody wants to be there, who the hell wants to put their taxes into that? I don't care how proud you are of your school — if families are leaving in droves, what could you possibly say to that?' Related Education leaders in the state have long had to work with troubled or under-resourced districts, most famously St. Louis and Kansas City, where only small proportions of the overwhelmingly disadvantaged student population can read or do math at grade level. Both cities feature a wide array of choice options, including charter and magnet schools, and both have seen huge drops in student enrollment over the past few decades. Students were also able to enroll in nearby suburbs under the terms of long-lasting desegregation orders. But St. Louis's desegregation program has recently stopped accepting new students, leading some to worry that they will miss a chance to receive a better education outside the city. But with the passage of statewide open enrollment, smaller districts could suddenly be placed in the same position as some of the largest communities in the state. Missouri is home to a large number of rural districts, including many that struggle to attract high-quality teachers. According to recent data, nearly half of all those districts are operating on a four-day school week, which has been generally shown to negatively impact student achievement. The bill passed in the state House partly addresses the concerns of districts that fear instability in headcounts by capping the number of student departures at 3 percent of total enrollment annually. But John Benyon, superintendent of Cape Girardeau Public Schools in southeast Missouri, said that restriction could nevertheless compound into unsustainable losses over time. 'Even a gradual loss of 3 percent each year can have a compounding effect, particularly for smaller districts,' Benyon wrote in an email. 'Over time, this could lead to school closures and consolidations, which would not only disrupt students but also deeply impact the identity of small, rural Missouri communities.' The legislation is now scheduled for a hearing in the state Senate, which has persistently declined to pass earlier versions over the last half-decade. Pollitt said his bill, which has been supported almost exclusively by Republicans each time he has offered it, aimed for a middle ground in the ongoing school choice debate. 'In the Senate, it's never been drastic enough,' he reflected. 'Those who are for total school choice think it doesn't go far enough, and those who are against any school choice think it goes too far. That's why I think it's a good bill.' Just last year, the state GOP struck a bargain to sizably increase the size of Missouri's tax credit scholarship system, which facilitates student enrollment in private schools. They have yet to advance legislation that would allow for universal access to ESAs or other voucher-like programs, which have been rapidly adopted in a rash of Republican-led states since the pandemic. Related Pollitt, who is currently campaigning for a seat in the state Senate, observed that resistance in the upper chamber is largely concentrated among rural Republicans concerned about the fate of their local public schools if students begin to leave in large numbers. That same dynamic has colored intra-partisan clashes in states like Texas, where resistant legislators have been met with primary challenges for opposing the spread of ESAs. In Missouri, he acknowledged, changes to enrollments would likely create 'winners and losers.' Still, his proposal found new momentum after being endorsed by newly elected Republican Gov. Michael Kehoe in his State of the State address. Benyon, meanwhile, has recently traveled to Jefferson City with members of his school board to lobby against the measure. Though he said students in his district enjoyed access to a range of coveted offerings, including extracurricular opportunities and advanced coursework, he added that already-struggling communities would likely lose students if open enrollment becomes a reality. Instead of opening new avenues for flight, he concluded, the state should work with those schools to make them more attractive places to learn. 'In cases where other districts are underperforming, shouldn't we be asking why and working to fix those root issues?'
BBC News
28-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Doncaster: Women's running group set up after harassment
Two women who set up a female-only running group because they did not feel safe exercising after dark said membership has doubled since the start of the Pollitt and Sian Swift welcomed 22 people to the first monthly session of the Night Run in Doncaster, and expect around 50 at the next group meets at the Keepmoat Stadium at 18:00 GMT tonight (28 February) for a non-competitive 5km Swift said members had told them they "just wanted to feel safe" and they were "creating a community of women in the same position". The club is sponsored by local sportswear brand Pollitt said that she had faced harassment whilst running, including an incident when a man stopped his car to ask where she was going and for her phone number."Stuff like that really puts you off from going outside and running on your own. We spoke to the other women that have joined the group to ask why, and it's always in a similar vein," she Swift said she also felt anxious during runs, took her dog with her and avoided darker Pollitt added that some men would be "surprised" by how many women felt unsafe."Speak to your mum, your sister, cousins, women you work with - you'd be shocked by the response you'd get."She explained she understood "not all men" were a threat, but the majority of the group had said a man had harassed them at some pair hoped the group, which is free and open to all abilities, would continue to grow and give more women confidence whilst Swift said they were planning to host a group 5km on the last Friday of every month, but members were using a WhatsApp group to organise extra informal sessions."We want the momentum of that to keep building," she to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Open enrollment bill gets public hearing after winning praise from Missouri governor
State Rep. Brad Pollitt, R-Sedalia, presents a bill to the House Education Committee earlier this month (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). A Republican lawmaker from Sedalia has once again begun his push to allow some students to enroll in schools outside the district where they live. For the fifth year in a row on Wednesday, the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee debated an open enrollment bill sponsored by state Rep. Brad Pollitt. As he introduced the legislation, Pollitt called it the 'only school-choice bill that allows students to make a choice and stay in the public school system.' In the previous four years that Pollitt filed the bill, state lawmakers have prioritized programs allowing families to use state funds for homeschooling and to attend private schools. The state's K-12 tax credit program, dubbed MOScholars, passed in 2021, and it was expanded last year in a sweeping education package. Pollitt's bill has cleared committee and made it out of the House four times. But it has never been debated by the Senate. He addressed his bill's four-year purgatory in Wednesday's committee hearing, saying good legislation doesn't completely please anyone. 'All four years I've passed this bill, neither side was happy. It didn't go far enough or it went too far,' he said. 'Sometimes Missouri does a disservice by looking for perfection and bypassing what is better.' Pollitt's legislation has evolved through the years of deliberation. The current version has a cap of 3% on the portion of students allowed to leave a district annually. He also added language suggested by the Missouri High School Activities Association, which oversees competitive athletics in Missouri schools, that would restrict students who transfer into a new district from competing in sports for one year. The bill does not require school districts to accept students living outside the area but, instead, has an opt-in structure. Receiving districts would get state funding for the students coming in, but local funds would remain with the district of residence. Some testified Wednesday that they are concerned the legislation would become mandatory for school districts in the future. 'Our worry is in the future. A lot of (laws) tend to start as voluntary and become mandatory,' said Tammy Henderson, who represents the North Kansas City School District. 'We are concerned about losing some of the local control.' Steve Carroll, a former lawmaker who now lobbies for school districts, cited his experience in the Missouri House in critiquing the bill. 'If this bill passes, within two or three legislative sessions, there is going to be a bill that is going to mandate this,' he said. 'Mark my word.' A majority of public comments were against the bill, and 220 school districts sent in a letter opposed to the legislation. However, Pollitt's proposal is not without its supporters — including Gov. Mike Kehoe, who included the bill in his State of the State speech Tuesday. 'To expand school choice, I urge the General Assembly to pass voluntary open enrollment in public schools,' he said. Jordan Zachary, representing a national education nonprofit started by Jeb Bush called ExcelinEd, said Missouri's neighbors already have open enrollment. 'We believe open enrollment to be one of those student-centered policies,'' he said. 'We do believe in giving students an opportunity to attend a school that best fits their needs.' The bill would not require school districts to add accommodations for incoming students, and some worry the program would exclude students in special education. Pollitt said he would work with Rep. Matthew Overcast, a Republican from Ava who serves on the education committee, to revise the bill to help students requiring accommodations. Overcast is an attorney with experience assisting students in special education. The updated version would be presented to the committee before a vote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Yahoo
Temp tag violators could have car impounded under proposed Missouri law
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – If you buy a car in Missouri, you'll receive a set of temp tags after signing the paperwork, with the expectation being that you'll go to a Department of Revenue office or the DMV within the next 30 days to pay the sales tax and receive your license plates. However, some drivers may opt to ride with expired temp tags because the sales tax is too expensive to pay at one time. For instance, a car that costs $10,000 in the city could cost around $1,000 in sales tax. When faced with the prospect of a $100 or $200 ticket for driving with expired tags, some drivers may opt to take the risk. Missouri State Rep. Brad Pollitt (R-District 52) wants to turn up the heat on those drivers. For the past two legislative sessions, the congressman from Sedalia has pushed bills that would give law enforcement in the state permission to stop any vehicle with a temp tag to see if it is current. Pollitt's effort in 2024 stalled in the Missouri House. His new legislative proposal, HB 378, seeks to overcome this by imposing harsher penalties. Collinsville woman's death a murder-for-hire: Police The 2025 version, which would be added to Missouri Law 301.140, still allows police to stop and inspect vehicles if they have 'reasonable suspicion' that a driver's temp tag is no longer valid. If the temp tag has been altered or expired by at least 60 days, the driver will be ticketed and fined $250. If the person registers the vehicle within 30 days of receiving the ticket, the local prosecutor will drop the ticket, court costs will be waived, and the matter will not appear on the individual's driving record. However, if the driver/owner still doesn't register the vehicle, the director of revenue will suspend or limit driving privileges for the owner. Full driving privileges will be restored once the vehicle is registered. If that doesn't happen and the driver receives another ticket for a temp tag, the vehicle will be impounded until the car is registered. The full text of HB 378's new provision can be read below. 10. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a person may be stopped, inspected, or detained by law enforcement, based on reasonable suspicion that a temporary permit violation has occurred, in order to determine whether a temporary permit is current or valid. Upon a determination by law enforcement that a temporary permit is expired by at least sixty days, or that a temporary permit has been altered, the law enforcement officer conducting the stop shall issue a citation and such person shall be fined in the amount of two hundred fifty dollars. If the person properly registers the vehicle within thirty days of the issuance of a citation, the prosecutor shall nolle prosequi the citation, court costs shall be waived, and the offense shall not be registered as a violation on the person's driving record. If the person fails to register the vehicle within the thirty-day period, without good cause, the court with jurisdiction shall inform the person by ordinary mail at the person's last known address that the court is ordering the director of revenue to suspend the person's driving privileges. Upon such suspension, the director of revenue shall issue limited driving privileges for purposes identified under subdivision (2) of subsection 3 of section 302.309 unless the director determines that the person is otherwise ineligible for such privileges. Once a person properly registers the vehicle, his or her driving privileges shall be restored. If the person receives a second or additional citation for a temporary permit offense with respect to the same vehicle, the vehicle shall be impounded until such time as the vehicle is properly registered. Proposed addition to 301.140 via HB 378 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
