Newspapers / The Chowan Herald (Edenton, … / Sept. 10, 2014, edition 1 / Page 1
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P8/C8* * * * * *CAR-RT LOT**C 002 A0109 11 ■ ■ • ■ |1 ■ 11 ■ ■ i11 ■ ■ ■ ■1 ’111111111 ’ 111"111 i 11111111 * i'111 * SHEPHERD PRUDEN LIBRARY 106 W WATER ST EDENTON NC 27932-1854 482-4418 Wednesday, September 10, 2014 Methodists set up disaster response center, 6B Grad rate slips, but goal remains 100 percent BY REGGIE PONDER Editor Edenton-Chowan Schools Superintendent Rob Jackson said this week that his main concern about a decrease in the local high school’s four-year gradua tion rate is the effect on the lives of individual students who didn't graduate within four years of beginning high school. But a better percentage did graduate within five years, Jackson said, and the school system’s goal is for all students to graduate within four years. “The school system has prioritized every student,” Jackson said. The four-year graduation rate in the Edenton-Chowan Schools this year was 78.9 percent this year, down from 81.5 percent the previ ous year. The statewide graduation rates are an 83.8 percent four-year rate and an 84.9 percent five-year rate. While the four-year rate in Edenton-Chowan is low er than last year and lower than the statewide rate, Edenton-Chowan’s five-year rate is better than last year and only slightly behind the statewide rate. Edenton-Chowan posted an 84.3 percent five-year graduation rate this year. The numbers are certain ly a cause for concern but they aren’t the most impor tant thing, Jackson said. “What matters is that there were children who didn’t graduate in June of 2014 who could have gradu ated if they had made differ ent choices,” Jackson said. A goal of 100 percent graduation was the focus at this year’s beginning of school staff convocation See GRAD RATE, 3A Library back open on Saturday BY REGGIE PONDER Editor fT^he Shepard | I Pruden Memorial I JL Library opened for Saturday hours this | past weekend for the first time in some three years. Jennifer Finlay, library director, said she appre ciated the support the library received from Smart Start and Chowan County - support that enabled the library once again to be open on Sat urdays. “I am thrilled that the county has been able to understand that this is an important asset to the community,” Finlay said. Library patrons were excited to find the facil ity open on Saturday morning. “I love it,” said Barba ra Bryant “I read so fast that if 1 run out of books during the week I like to come up here on the weekend and pick me up l a couple more.” <; Katie Walters, who had two children with her at the library Satur day morning, said she came before when the library was open on Sab urdays. Walters usually comes on Monday or Tuesday, but if she doesn’t make it one of those days her schedule usually doesn’t allow her to visit the library on other week days. “So Saturday opening is very exciting,” Walters said. Susan Nixon, director of the Chowan-Perqui mans Smart Start Part nership, explained that it was a fairly long process that led to the partner r ship between Smart Start and the librafy in opening on Saturdays. - When Smart Start did an early literacy needs assessment for Chowan County that involved surveying parents in the Local Relay for Life moves to shorter event BY REGGIE PONDER Editor Chowan-Perquimans Relay for Life voted in a commu nity meeting Monday night to shorten the 2015 Relay event to 12 hours because of dwin dling participation in the 24 hour walkathon. April Smith, who attended the meeting as an American Cancer Society representa ©2009 The Chowan Herald All Rights Reserved STAFF PHOTOS BY REGGIE PONDER Library patron Mary Harris speaks with library staff Jennifer Finlay and Josh Ainsley Saturday morning. community, the survey results indicated that the library was a preferred place for parents to go to receive early literacy services. In addition, the survey found that Saturday was ^parents’ preferred day lor attending early lit -eracy classes. So Smart Start began talking to the county commissioners about how the groups could collaborate to make it work. The Smart Start Part nership included in its early literacy plan with the state the need to have the library open on Saturdays. Through its grant funding, Smart Start is collaborating with the county com missioners to enable the library to be open on Sat urday. Nixon said the Smart Start Partnership is pro viding $2,800 a year from its grant funds to support the library’s Saturday hours. Mary Harris had been eager to see the Saturday library hours because her job as an office assistant See LIBRARY, 4A *ffitflltra7(fcn i&snmmfi i NatisHal [daughter] ifinish] live from the Greenville of fice, assured the crowd of 20 or so Relay participants who gathered in the cafeteria at Vidant Chowan Hospital for the community meeting that changing the length of the event would not change what Relay for Life is all about This is the first year that Relay for Life - a flagship fundraiser for the American Cancer Society - has allowed deviation from its original 24 hour modeL But as Relay for Life, which is recognized as the larg est fundraising event in the See RELAY, 4A Chowan GOP opens election HQ STAFF PHOTO BY $ REGGIE PONDER | Jim Robison, | chairman of I the Chowan | County I Republican 1 Party,' | welcomes the p party faithful to Friday’s | opening of the | county’s GOP 1 headquarters I In the Robin Sams Gallery £ at 315 S. Broad St. Budget adjustments keep TAs in classroom BY REGGIE PONDER Editor The Edenton-Chowan Schools have been able to shift items within the local budget to maintain four of the five in structional assistant positions that were lost through the state budget process, Superintendent Rob Jackson said this week. At the start of school this year, the Edenton-Chowan Schools had 22 fewer positions than in August 2013, Jackson said. Those positions were lost because of budget cuts from state and local sourc es, he said. With fewer resources, the school sys tem has had to look closely at how it al locates staff, Jackson said. One of the positions lost was an assis tant principal position. As a result, White Oak and D.E Walker are now sharing an assistant principal. That was a decision that we made because we wanted to put the resources that we had available in the classroom,” Jackson said. Jackson said that so far the shared as sistant principal arrangement seems to be working out well for both schools. In addition to the instructional assis tant and assistant principal positions, the school system lost two teachers in the exceptional children’s program, eight teachers in the regular education pro gram, one crossing guard and four child care employees. Although the school system lost five teacher assistant or instructional assis tant positions through the state budget, only one instructional assistant position was actually eliminated, according to Jackson. The position eliminated had been held by someone who left the coun ty to work somewhere else. The four remaining instructional as sistant positions have been continued by shifting items within the local budget, Jackson explained. For instance, the school system had one teaching position that it maintained as a contingency in case the state held it back because of enrollment, Jackson said. The school system now does not anticipate the state holding that posi tion back, so it is using it to help fund the See CLASSROOMS, 4A BY REGGIE PONDER Editor The Ghowan County Republican Party has opened an election campaign head- -> quarters in the Robin Sams Gallery at 315 S. Broad St Chowan Republicans held a grand opening of the headquarters Friday morning. Jim Robison, chairman of the Chowan County Republican Party, welcomed a gathering of the party faithful to the bpen ing. Robison said he appreciated Sams making the space available for the head quarters. He and several others remarked that it was hard to imagine a more attrac tive setting for an election headquarters. Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, said during the opening that the headquarters See ELECTION HQ, 4A ON DAYS, S PT781 -OCT13T ' 5:30/ .E OCT. 17 AT 6 1
The Chowan Herald (Edenton, N.C.)
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Sept. 10, 2014, edition 1
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