Volume 76 No. 5
Grimsley High School
801 Westover Terrace
Greensboro, NC 27408
Monday, January 31,2000
Snow brings Guilford County Schools to standstill
By Jessica Gurvis
Reporter
Last Tuesday after the first snow
flakes fell, Guilford County students
stayed home from school, making
what was originally a three-day
weekend into a four day break.
However, as the snow continued to
fall and temperatures plummeted be
low freezing, students were given a
second unexpected winter break.
Soon that excitement changed to
boredom as students were out for
12 full days and several shortened
days.
To make up for the time that stu
dents have spent playing in the
snow, they will instead have to at
tend school 30 extra minutes each
day starting February 14. Classes
will begin 15 minutes earlier and end
15 minutes later than normal. Five
minutes will be added to each class
period.
By law, students in North Caro
lina must attend school for 180 days
or 1,000 hours. With some school
districts already losing excessive un
planned days because of snowy
road conditions, officials are look
ing for ways to meet state require
ments. With the extension of the
school day, Guilford County School
students will only go to school 174
days this year. After Hurricane
Floyd devastated eastern North
Carolina, the state legislature gave
affected counties the option fo re
quiring students to go to school ei
ther 180 days or for a total of 1,000
hours. The legislature offered this
option to Guilford County after it
was declared a federal disaster area.
The school board thought about
sending students to school on six
of the teacher workdays scheduled
for this semester and five days of
spring break. Because of the exten
sion, students now have all of their
spring break back and will not have
to come to school on the teacher
work days.
It began Tuesday morning, Janu
ary 22, 2000, when the people of
Greensboro and surrounding cities
thought they would wake up to a
light cover of snow on the ground,
but instead they found a winter
blanket of more than twelve inches.
Forecasters say this was the biggest
snow fall in the last thirteen years to
hit the Triad.
Governor Jim Hunt, a resident of
Raleigh, declared a state of emer
gency Tuesday, and said that he
would use the National Guardsmen
to clear snow if necessary.
By first light, Greensboro had
thirty-five plows on the street, with
crews working twelve-hour shifts
clearing and salting the roads. They
plowed the primary streets, which
include Wendover, Market Street,
Friendly Avenue, Holden Road,
Freeman Mill Road, Bryan Boulevard
and Florida Street. But the residen
tial streets remained unplowed, leav
ing perilous travel conditions with
ruts of snow and ice. The road con
ditions caused the 586 Guilford
County buses to remain parked in-
Continued on page 3
After the first snow, an enormous snowman stood in front of the fire station on Westover Bassphom
Terrace. Due to the snow, Guilford County students missed 12 full days of school. Students
enjoyed their unexpected break, but cabin fever was soon to follow.
State sets high goals for EOC tests
By Ashley Kelly
Reporter
The State Board of Education is
putting more weight on the End of
Course test in order for students to
take them more seriously. Some
EOCs will now count 25 percent of
a student's final grade in a course.
The Board of Education pro
posed this new idea because they
are trying to find ways to make stu
dents take EOC tests more seri
ously. They have targeted English
9, US History, ELPSA, Biology, and
Algebra I, all courses required for
graduation. The Board of Education
will vote in Febmary, and if they ap
prove the new policy, it will go in
effect as early as the 2000-01 school
year.
The Board of Education
considered two other options. One
is that the EOC’s would count for
33% of the second semester grade
instead of 10%. This change would
greatly affect a student’s overall grade
in a particular course, but not as
dramatically as the second option,
which stated that a student would have
to make a certain score on the EOC in
order to earn credit for the course. This
option was solely based on the
student’s performance on the test. Dr.
Marty Ward, Director of Guilford
County Testing and Measurement,
says, “What worries me is the
possibUityofstudents not passing the
course based on one test, rather dian
the student’s overall performance, I
was less worried about the 33%.’’
Similar methods of this proposal,
such as the Exit Exam have already
been put into effect. The Exit Exam
is an exam that determines whether
a student may graduate to the next
grade level, which is ultimately what
the EOC proposal is trying to
accomplish. The Exit Exam will not
replace the EOC, but will motivate
students to take state test more
seriously.
Grimsley has received $67,000 in
equity funding that will go towards
preparing students for the EOC test.
Continued on page 2
Greensboro welcomes
unique high school
By Regina Sechter
Staff Writer
The American Hebrew
Academy will be the only school
like it in the United States. In
September of 2001, the school
will open in Greensboro.
The Academy will be a Jewish
boarding school located on 100
acres of the former Jefferson
Pilot land between Hobbs Road
and Jefferson Road. Other
Jewish boarding schools in the
country are orthodox, the most
traditional and strict branch of
Judaism, whereas the school
coming to Greensboro is not.
The school will be open to all
branches of Judaism and practice
of the religion will be left to the
individual student’s willingness.
According to Dr. Alvin Mars, the
school's Headmaster, the aspect
which makes the school so
special is that it is not committed
to just one movement of Judaism.
“For some the school is
religious. For some the school is
strictly higher learning. The
great part is that it’s open to all
different types of people,” says
Continued on page 3
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