A big slice of Christmas cheer, and 12 lords a leaping, go to the pupils of Center Township Elementary School, who went without their classroom gift exchange and instead gathered presents and other items for needy area children.

The Center students opted out of a classroom gift exchange about five years ago and instead began collecting money for children with county Children and Youth Services who can't afford toys, or sometimes, even basic winter clothes. They've done it every year since.

The school collected more than $2,300 from parents sending in donations during the past month. The donations will provide 12 children each with roughly $190 in gifts.

Fourth-grade teacher Lauren Lutz, who coordinated the effort, says pupils have embraced the lesson that some aren't as fortunate as they are, and that there's joy and satisfaction in helping others.

There are several churches, organizations and individuals in Butler County that sponsor a total of about 350 CYS children. But there are few children's groups like the class from Center Township Elementary giving to other children.

There are many other gestures of kindness to be seen throughout the community this time of year. All exemplify what's best about the Christmas season. The Center Elementary children's gift is among the best of the best.

A lump of coal for Slippery Rock borough government, which continues its arrogant denial of the public's will — the public they took an oath to serve.The latest infraction was the omission of a public comment period from the agenda for the borough council's 2014 budget meeting on Nov. 19.During that meeting, residents tried at least twice to speak, but they were gaveled down by council Vice President Christy Tichy, a 16-year veteran of council who should know better. Her stated reasoning: since the public had not yet seen the budget, they had no right to criticize it.Plus it wasn't on the agenda — an oversight, borough administrator Lucinda Lipko said later — and since it wasn't on the agenda, Tichy reasoned, the public had no right to speak.A legal notice published three weeks after that meeting, inviting public comment on the budget at council's Dec. 10 meeting, amounts to an admission of guilt, given only to avoid reprisals under the state Sunshine Act.Need anyone be reminded, this is indeed a tempest in a teacup: the underlying issue is over when the borough's trash hauler should conduct the spring bulk trash pickup.In the face of public outcry, council intends to keep the pickup in mid-March rather than the traditional mid-May, to coincide with the end of Slippery Rock University's academic year.Council even appointed a citizens committee, which recommended the May pickup date. That was several months ago and council has taken no action on the recommendation.Delay is the deadliest form of denial.Arrogant, to put it mildly.

Five gold rings and extra figgy pudding to the residents of Mars School District, whose 204 teachers have ratified a three-year contract that will carry them through 2016-17.The early bird contract is in place a full six months before the existing contract with Mars Area Education Association expires.The contract includes a 1.5 percent pay increase in the first year and the second year, and a 1.75 percent increase in the third year. Beginning in the second year, the contract requires teachers to pay a higher medical co-pay and have higher deductible levels.The existing one-year contract included, for the first time, an employee contribution to monthly health insurance premiums — $20 for an individual, $30 for a couple, $40 for a family. And beginning Jan. 1, they will pay higher deductibles: from $250 and $500 to $600 and $1,200 annually.The achievement of an early contract sets a tone for Superintendent Jim Budzilek, who assumed his post in November. Contract negotiations actually started in October, a month before Budzilek's term.Budzilek said he appreciates settling the contract early and was glad to agree to a three-year term. The previous contracts were for one year each.Budzilek and the head of Mars Area Education Association, Karen Yost, both credited the district and teachers for working diligently toward an agreement. Yost, a high school English teacher, said it's the only early contract anyone in the district can remember. It's also the first negotiations in at least a decade that have been without any major disagreements.“I think that speaks volumes about where this district is headed,” Yost said.Indeed, it does.