5 Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday, March 6

1. Endless wait: I know, it's all I heard them talking about on 1010 WINS as I drove around all day Monday: Thursday's temperatures will climb close to 70 degrees. In the meantime, I was downright freezing yesterday and it doesn't look to get much warmer today, according to the National Weather Service. Look for sunny skies and about 42 on the thermometer. Thursday should feel like a heat wave compared to this.
2. September is coming: I remember like it was just yesterday entering for the first time to sign my oldest child up for kindergarten. The next three visits to sign the younger kids up are a little hazy, but nobody needs to know about that. Now it's your turn to register your little one as a student in the . Registration for the 2012-2013 school year will be held at Point Road School on Wednesday, March 7. This registration day will be for the 3 and 4 year old pre-school lottery, new kindergarten and ANY students entering other grades at Point Road School. Last names beginning with A-K, should register between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and those with last names beginning with L-Z should register between 1 p.m.  and 2:30 p.m.
3. My Hero Zero: After a bit of a public outcry over the move by the to eliminate the annual budget vote, the board met last night and approved a tentative budget with zero increase in the tax levy.
4. Avoid being scammed: reported that they received a few reports from residents about phone and Internet scams last month. According to an e-mail from Capt. Dan Barcus, "One caller accused our resident of identity theft and tried to get personal information out of them. Another involved a person claiming to work for a utility company trying to get the person to make a payment.  The Internet scam involved an online purchase where the victim received a check for a far greater amount and was told to deposit it in their account and mail the excess money back." Bottom line: Do not give out personal information to ANYONE.
5. HSPA alert: For those of you with high school-age children -- and believe me, I feel your pain -- prepare for them to be spending that much more time in bed over the next few days with the start of HSPA testing today. Freshman and sophomores take the practice tests but juniors have got the real thing now through Thursday. Look for half days all-around at both and andseniors who are done with the HSPA don't have to arrive at school until 9:15 a.m. and students at both schools are out by around 11:30 each morning. Joy.

About this column: "5 Things you Need to Know Today" is a Patch column where we round up events, facts and information at a glance. Stay tuned every day for our five informative tidbits.