Michigan school district, after budget cuts, plans to cut 200-year-old trees for timber

The superintendent of a cash-strapped Michigan school district is defending a proposal to cut down giant trees on its grounds to help fill an $800,000 budget deficit, a move that is rankling some residents, Good Morning America reports. Some community members have called for the protection of the trees, some of which may be 200 years old, saying the trees in the DeWitt Nature Center should not be cut down for money. But Dewitt, Mich., Superintendent John Deiter said the proposal, which would net a profit of $43,000, is not just about money, saying some of the trees that may be cut are dead or dying, though the money would assist the drowning school district.

“Nobody called me last year when we were cutting positions,” Deiter said of the public’s attention to the trees…

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Arizona 15-year-old will graduate from college, then high school

An Arizona 15-year-old girl will don two different caps and gowns this month, but the first won’t be at her high school graduation, Good Morning America reports. Kimberly Koerth, 15, will graduate this Saturday from Central Arizona College, where she’ll receive her Associate’s degree. The following Monday, the newly minted graduate will head back to her high school classroom — with a college degree. The soon-to-be double graduate with a 4.0 GPA won’t be a high school student for long though. She’s set to graduate in two weeks from the Casa Grande, Ariz. high school. The teen, who skipped a grade in elementary school, started her college studies at age 12 after teachers said she was ready for advanced math courses that the school couldn’t offer. When she entered high school, the credits she had earned at Central Arizona College were also counted towards her high school studies…

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