The Menemsha School still has a great old-fashioned school bell, sounded daily by a rope that dangles down from the roof.

Children of different grades still sit in class side by side and play together in a playground bordered by a foresty area they call "twiggyland." Many townspeople were educated here, in the same place as their parents and grandparents.

Today, the challenge to Chilmark is maintaining the special qualities of this rural school while making room for growth.

The Island's new charter school has received 91 admission applications for its first semester this fall, officials said this week.

Applications came from every Island town, plus Chappaquiddick, and represent all eligible age groups.

"I think it's exciting," said school board member Charlotte Costa. "We gave out 140-some applications. To get these back is pretty good, given that it's a new school and it's something different. I was happy with that."

The Vineyard Gazette has established a Worldwide Web page on the Internet. This service for customers and friends of the Vineyard gives readers from here and abroad an opportunity to connect to the newspaper in a new way.

Nearly a year has passed since the state approved a charter school here, establishing an alternative educational plan for Island families. This week, organizers of the school are inviting parents to consider and maybe choose this new option for their children.

Charter school board members will distribute applications and answer questions Tuesday afternoon at the Wintertide Coffeehouse. This session will run from 4 to 7:30 p.m. in an open house-style format, and parents who are interested in the school are urged to attend.

In a landmark decision which marks a sweeping victory for the Vineyard and deals a crippling defeat to the Herring Creek Farm Trust, the chief justice of the Massachusetts Land Court upheld three-acre zoning in the town of Edgartown yesterday. The decision is believed to be the most important legal opinion for the Vineyard since the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the Martha's Vineyard Commission on the Island Properties case nearly two decades ago.

The Gay Head selectmen voted yesterday to take the property of Andrew and Brenda Warshaw through eminent domain, seizing the couple's retirement property but shielding the rare geology and wildlife of the Moshup Trail.

The taking of the Warshaw land was authorized by voters at a special town meeting Dec. 7. But since then, a selectmen's vote has repeatedly been postponed, as the community has struggled with questions about fairness. The Warshaws were not notified of the town meeting.

Explosive population growth and all its attendant social issues. A rebounding economy fueled by a robust real estate market. A painful crush of early summer traffic and along with it the sobering realization that the Island has nearly reached its threshold for seasonal population. A mild winter and a nearly cloudless summer capped by a peaceful concert in a West Tisbury field with an unprecedented gathering of more than 10,000 people. These are the benchmarks of the year 1995 on Martha's Vineyard.