PORTSMOUTH At a special School Board meeting Thursday, Superintendent David Stuckwisch proposed an average teacher raise of about 4 percent for next school year, down from a recommended average raise of about 6.5 percent. That's because the City Council this week passed a budget that did not give the school system any new money, Stuckwisch told board members.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will be in Hampton Roads Friday and again Sunday, his office announced Thursday. Kaine will participate in ground breaking ceremonies today for the new Portsmouth campus of Tidewater Community College. That event begins at 10 a.m. at the corner of Victory Boulevard and Greenwood Drive.

 Virginia Beach public schools are not the only ones confused by state regulations on school bus inspections. Each school division in South Hampton Roads does the morning bus checks a different way. Until this week, only Suffolk required its drivers to open the hood to check fluid levels every day.

VIRGINIA BEACH On Saturday morning, 347 young black men have been invited to celebrate their academic prowess over sausage and eggs. All are graduating with at least a 3.0 grade-point average from a high school in Hampton Roads or the Eastern Shore. The organizers of the breakfast wish there were hundreds more.

CHESAPEAKE Dyon Morris will stand before his peers in June to present his cardboard and papier-mâ ché version of the Enterprise. The aircraft carrier is his choice for the next “wonder of the world.” The project is one of many hands-on activities that Dyon, 9, participates in at the city’s Laboratory School for the Academically Gifted .

CHESAPEAKE Each week, hundreds of gifted fourth- and fifth-graders from across the city travel to a special school in Indian River. There, they solve problems, think critically and participate in lessons that are more challenging than those taught in their regular classrooms.

A Virginia Beach student in the visual arts program at Old Donation Center is a regional winner in the Doodle 4 Google competition, according to a news release from the school system.

Hyland Slade has one of the best Google designs in the country, the release says. She won for the grades 4 to 6 category.

NORFOLK "Think," Leonard Pitts Jr. urged Old Dominion University graduates Saturday morning. "Ask," said Chris Matthews to a second set of ODU graduates Saturday afternoon.

NORFOLK After Norfolk State University students were awarded their degrees Saturday, they moved outside to greet loved ones and pose for photos. But for graduate Lamont Hansboro Jr., the ceremony's end signaled it was time to say goodbye to his "brothers."