CRARYVILLE--With just a week left before classes begin, Wednesday, September 1 was “Superintendent's Day” at the Taconic Hills campus, and the district used the occasion to roll out an anti-bulling program that has been in the planning stages over the summer.

The process included a speaker, Dr. “Bird” Birchak, who discussed the challenges of human relations in the educational process. Later, faculty and staff broke up into small groups to conduct workshops on the subject. The swiftness with which the school mounted the new program, which will be in use throughout the school, is one indication of how seriously administrators view the subject.

Arts center, a local economic force, eyes second floor rehab

HUDSON--What Hudson cultural organization attracted 48,000 participants to its many programs last year? The answer is the Hudson Opera House, and its attendance numbers are growing, even in an economic downturn.

They include the 15,000 who showed up on a stormy night for December's Winter Walk, which has become an eagerly anticipated annual event, the supporters who come to the spring and fall fundraisers, and throngs more who attend one or more of the many and varied performances and educational programs, most of which are free or subsidized, that take place weekly both in and out of the building.