T IMES
MID
City of
Newburgh
to take
legal action
against PFOS
polluters
HUDSON
Vol. 29, No 43
3
OCTOBER 25 - 31, 2017
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Page 18 Page 48
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ONE DOLLAR
SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
Learning ‘The Basics’
Newburgh program prepares kids for Pre-K
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
The Newburgh City Council passed a
resolution this week to authorize litigation
against “all potentially responsible
parties” in the PFOS contamination of
the City of Newburgh drinking water
supply.
The resolution was passed unanimously
by the city council, nearly a year and
a half following the start of the water
crisis. “I feel that it’s long overdue,” said
Councilwoman Cindy Holmes at City Hall
on Monday.
Last year, the New York State
Department
of
Environmental
Conservation conducted comprehensive
testing of the city’s drinking watershed
and determined the source of the
contamination to be the Stewart Air
National Guard Base.
The council provided no specifics on the
litigation on Monday. No documentation
on PFOS-related legal actions by the city
were immediately available this week.
However, residents and lawmakers alike
3
Shantal Riley
Ronald Ferguson greets students at Head Start of Eastern Orange County.
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
Harvard
University’s
Ronald
Ferguson spoke at the SUNY Orange
Newburgh campus on Thursday to
introduce “The Newburgh Basics,” a
program focused on preparing children
for pre-kindergarten. The initiative
aims to improve brain development in
WWW.MIDHUDSONTIMES.COM
babies from birth to age three. The
program also seeks to minimize student-
achievement gaps.
“Learning begins the moment your
child is born,” he said.
“Eighty percent of brain growth
happens in the first three years of life,”
said Ferguson, creator of “The Basics”
program and director of Harvard’s
Achievement Gap Initiative. “Parents
literally have the ability to determine
how smart their kids are going to be.”
The program was launched by the
Newburgh Enlarged City School District
last week along with The Newburgh
Basics website, which shares tools and
information for parents and families on
how to encourage brain development
and language comprehension in babies
and toddlers.
The program teaches parents and
caregivers five basic rules: 1. Maximize
love and manage stress; 2. Talk, sing
and point to “narrate life” to your baby;
3. Count, group and compare; 4. Explore
through movement and play; 5. Read
and discuss stories.
“These are fun and simple things
every parent can do from birth,”
Ferguson said. “The ultimate outcome
is to change the trendline in school
readiness.”
The district is developing a plan to
support the program over the next three
years, partnering with organizations
such as Head Start, the Childcare
Council of Orange County and Barnes
& Noble. The program is in place
already in six school districts around
the Hudson Valley, including Ossining
and Peekskill.
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