Terri Bryant, Mary Hoskins, and Price Cherry are Rocky Monnt
Senior High’s National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists. Photo by
Jones
The
New dietary changes cause
removal of salt from tables
By TOMMY O’CONNELL
Salt shakers are absent
from the student’s tables in
the cafeteria.
Not only salt has been
reduced, but also amounts of
sugar and fat have been
lessened in preparing the
meals. Those substances con
tribute to major dietary
diseases such as diabetes and
high blood pressure.
A government report
outlines dietary procedure and
points out problem foods such
as barbecue sauce, milkshakes
and mayonnaise. Those foods
are considered high in salt,
sugar or fat.
Gryphon
Vol. 7, No. 1 Rocky Mount Senior High School September 26,1980
President names cabinet goals
By LEIGH RIVENBARK
Overcoming “student
apathy toward school govern
ment” stands as Student
Organization President Dale
Gray’s goal for the upcoming
■ •■hyl year, a year marked in
Student Organization affairs
by a new Presidential Ad
visory Board.
Gray established the
Presidential Advisory Board,
which, he says, has a main
function of bringing him the
“ideas and problems of their
particular classes.” Mrs. Sue
Hayworth, Student Represen
tative Assembly adviser, add
ed that the board would aid
Gray in distributing informa
tion to the three classes. Serv
ing on the board are senior
representative Terri Bryant,
junior representative Leigh
Rivenbark and sophomore
representative Jeanette
Everette.
'Gryphons Do It'
“I am pleased with the input
of the students,” says Gray of
the first Student Represen
tative Assembly meeting held
Sept. 17. “It went exceptional-'
ly well.” Upcoming activities,
which include a brochure on
school clubs asd the annual'
magazine sales campaign,
were discussed.
Gray calls the Cabinet, com
prised of committee co-
chairpersons, “an outstanding
group of young people.” The
cabinet consists of assembly
committee chairpersons
Michele Davis and Tony
Knight; elections committee,
Donna Howell and Sandra
Mills; finance committee,
Denry Lawrence and Jeffery
Locus; fire drill committee,
Grace Wilson and Ted Reese;
human relations committee'
Joseph Langley and Kerri
Kolehma; lost and found com
mittee, Chuck Davis and Dee
Davis; and publications com-
Dale Gray
mittee, Kim Tillman and Stacy
Barbour. ,
Heading the publicity com
mittee are Janet Stovall and
Susasn West; school spirit
committee, Andrea Robbins
and Antoinette Rogers; social
committee, Annese Pittman
and Susan Ballenger; student
store committee, Margaret
Phillips and Tommy O’Connell;
traffic committee, Craig
Speight and Joey Petway; and
constitution committee. Mark
Ezzell.
Hi-Noc-Ar reveals theme
By MKE BARNHILL
"We were just sitting in
class thinking of what we could
use for a theme, and we just
came up with the idea,
‘GRYPHONS DO IT,’ so that’s
what we’re using,” said Roger
Winstead, Hl-Noc-Ar staff
member, concerning the
theme for the 1980-81 Hi-Noc-
Ar, “GRYPHONS DO IT.”
“It covers a wide variety of
subjects and that’s what a
theme needs to do.”
The yearbook staff plans to
have posters, contests, and
other projects to get the stu
dent body involved in the year
book and its theme. “We’re go
ing to 'get the students
familiarized with the theme
because in years past the
theme was not known publicly
until the yearbook came out,”
said Roger.
“There will be some changes
made in the yearbook, but
there won’t be anything
drastic,” said Becky Bullock,
senior member of the staff.
“We'll have our problems but
basically we get along
together very well.”
“We’re trying to capture
people ‘doing things,’ so U you
see a photographer, act
natural and continue what
you’re doing, ‘cause that’s how
we want the pictures to look..
. natural,” said Price Cherry.
Editor of the Hi-Noc-Ar. Price
also added. “Things are runn
ing pretty smoothly, but we
have fewer people than last
year and that makes it harder.
We have a manpower shor
tage, which adds to the dif
ficulty, but we haven’t had any
major problems yet, although
we haven’t had our first
deadline, either. One nice ad
vantage, though, is that we
have four photographers in
stead of two.”
The selling dates for the Hl-
Noc-Ar will be October 6-10,
and the cost of the yearbook is
$12.00.
Mrs. Jane Bass, who is in
charge of the school system’s
dietary procedures said, “We
were asked on a state level to
take the salt shakers off the
tables, and also to check the
food we were serving.” The
report called for substitutions
in recipes to limit natural salts
and fats.
Also a new type of milk is
being served in the cafeteria.
Low fat mUk has been added
to the meals to replace whole
milk. “The low fat milk has
less than two percent butter
fat compared to three and one
quarter percent of the whole
milk,” said Mrs. Bass. The new,
milk also contains the sweet
acidophilus bacteria which
helps in digestion.
While the students cannot
have salt, there are salt
shakers on the faculty’s table.
Mrs. Bass said, “The ad
ministration wiU try to correct,
that problem.”
“It doesn’t make any dif
ference to me. The food tastes
the same anyway,” said junior
Greg Robbins.
Junior Mike Baines said, “It
was only a habit to use the salt
if it was on the table.”
School merger voted down
By KATHRYN VAUGHAN
After a 17 month review of
the pros and cons of a merged
school system, the Committee
to Consider Merger voted on
Tuesday, September 9, against
the proposal to merge the
Rocky Mount and Nash Coun
ty school systems.
A vote of 5-3 marked the
decision. Those in favor of
merger were city school board
members Dr. Gaylord Lehman
and Mr. J. Brian Scott, and Mr.
Roy Barnes, a Nash County
Board appointee from Bat-
tleboro. The victorious op
ponents of the plan were Mrs.
Faye Gardner and Mr. Ed
Brady of the Nash County
school board, Nash appointees
Mrs. Geraldine McGlohon and
Mr. Frank Wright, and also
Mrs. Ruth Brewer, a Rocky
Mount appointee. Mr. William
Morgan Jr. of Nash County
abstained.
Mr. R. D. Armstrong, Rocky
Mount school board member,
was not present to vote at the
meeting because of illness. Mr.
Scott remarked at the Rocky
Mount school board meeting,
Monday, September 15, that
he believed Mr. Armstrong’s
presence could have made the
difference.
The merger question active
ly arose in April of 1979. The
main factor was boundary
disputes on the Nash County-
Rocky Mount school line which
has caused overcrowded and
underfunded Nash County
schools and a decrease in the
Rocky Mount school district
population. Other pertinent:
factors were the problems of
Rocky Mount’s being unable to
add students or tax base from
the new sections stemming
from the city plus the growing
racial imbalance. North
Carolina law states that
students out of the district can
change schools if both boards;
(Nash and Edgecombe) agree;;
however, this policy has not
been enacted since 1974.
School board officials say,
that voting down the merger
proposal does not solve the
problems of the school
systems. Mr. Scott believes
merger is still the answer;
however, he has said that it is
now up to Nash County. Mrs.
Gardner has proposed a fur
ther study of “other options”
using the already obtained in
formation from the 17-month
study. She believes merger
cannot solve the problems and
that it would increase the
possibility of boundary
disputes at the Edgecombe
line.
The Rocky Mount school
board made no immediate
plans at their last meeting as
to any further action to be
taken. Mr. Scott said that he
felt the Nash and Rocky
Mount school boards were
closer than ever and that this
would be an asset in further
actions.
Hi-Noc-Ar staffers work on the 19^1981 yearbook. Photo by
Jones