Today: Layoffs, Mild Weather and Culinary Arts

On most weeks, you'd consider Wednesday the mid-point of the day, say around noon time to be chronologically accurate. With the short week, you have to move that mid-point to midnight. So, set your watches to see the week halfway over, and get ready for today's five things to know:

1) Layoffs - Tonight at 5:45 the Woonsocket School Committee will consider laying off about 700 members of the education department. The move, officials say, will keep their options open while they wrestle with this year's budget. According to a post on the Woonsocket Teacher's Guild's facebook page, they plan to challenge the layoff plan at tonight's meeting.

2) Culinary arts - Today, 10 a.m., show up at 88 East St. for a free meeting to learn about a culinary arts program. The 14-week program will allow you to:

1. Learn about different jobs in the Food Services Industry
2. Gain experience through an internship
3. Receive job placement assistance
4. Get ServSafe Certification

3) Blog your heart out -  We’re always looking for bloggers – You can write about any topic you’d like (as long as you’re a Woonsocket resident), from politics to movie reviews to education and cooking. If you're interested, send an e-mail to Rob Borkowski at robert@patch.com, and we'll get you rolling!

4) Winter? Today, during a week typically associated with the coldest and most bleak periods of winter, highs will reach 53 teeth-chattering degrees. The low will be 37 degrees, with partly cloudy skies.

5) Pup-up On this day in history, the Soviet Union launched Kosmos 10, crewed by Veterok and Ugolek, the first two-dog crew of a spacecraft, according to brainyhistory.com. (Surely, it was an event that gave the space community paws.)