Hurley

Above: Cycling on some Catskills roads. Photo via the Catskill Mountain Cycling Club Facebook page.

Cyclists who ride the Catskills know this is a perfect place to get on the bike for a quick 20-miler. And what better time to do it than this Memorial Day weekend, when two of our local cycling clubs are offering planned rides for cycling enthusiasts?

'Tour de Pepacton'

Billy Allison, of the Catskill Mountain Cycling Club, is the organizing brains behind this year’s Tour de Pepacton, a ride to benefit Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, on Sunday, May 27.  Read more

As voters head to the polls for school elections today, parents in the Onteora Central School District are still upset over the district's abrupt about-face on a plan to move the elementary music program from the school day to the early morning hours before school begins.

After months of sustained protests, and with an already controversial school board election looming, district administrators recently decided to back away from the plan. Many parents say the changes would have significantly undermined the school's music program.

The proposal to move music to the early mornings was based on a concern over the loss of instructional time during the school day, superintendent Phyllis McGill said. She said parents expressed a desire for both meaningful instruction with challenging content, and music. The plan was “certainly a hot issue for the parents in the shared decision-making meeting, but they understood what we were trying to do and how hard it is to do,” McGill said.  Read more