36 ?*????? This Week its (>K,- Anniversary! 'H'erc ir O'curs oid'Thi.- Month: Thursday, September 21, 1989
. archives binder ** cr soco
$$$$
l'2/28/89
15Q8 HUY 431 -S
ALBERTVILLE AL. 35950
ton-Salem Chronicle
50 cents "The Twin City's Award- Winning Weekly " : 1 VOL. XVI, No. 4
Coble suspends
principal with pay
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
An Afro-American parent who
9 has known and worked with William
E. Honeycutt, the man accused of
slapping, kicking and/or shoving at
least four Afro-American children,
said he is not racist. However, par
ents of the allegedly abused stu
dents said something is wrong with a
man who hits children and said he
should be dismissed from the school
system.
On Sept. 11 Mr. Honeycutt,
principal at the school for ten
loaded with Afro-American stu
dents from the northeast section of
the city looking for a student. He
reportedly began yelling at them
and pushing and striking some of
the students. Parents said their
children came home crying, don
ning bruises allegedly inflicted on
them by Mr. Honeycutt.
After a week-long investigation,
, , Superimendenr Larry D. Coble
announced Monday that Mr. Honey
cutt would be suspended with pay.
"I will make a further recom
mendation to the Board of Education
regarding Mr. Honeycutt based on
the outcome of the police investiga
tion and further internal investiga
tion," said Dr. Coble.
Walter Marshall, local branch
president of the NAACP, has said he
was not surprised when he heard of
the latest accusations made against
-^Mr^ Honeycutt because "he has the ?
reputation of being some kind of
racist."
However, an Afro-American
parent, who is now the vice presi
dent -of M i nera \ Spr Pa
rent/Teacher Association after serv
ing two years as president of the ?
organization, said she has worked
closely with the principal for the
-past six years and he is not racist.
"I've worked with Mr. Honey
cutt and a lot of the things being
said about him aren't so," said
Joyce T. Davidson, who has two
children attending Mineral Springs
Elementary School. "I've never seen
him with a racist attitude. He has
had problems with people, blacks
and whites, but they were just per
Please see page A 1 1
Miss America!
Associated Press Laser Photo
Miss America 1990 Debbye Turner, left, of Missouri is crowned by former
Miss America Gretchen Carlson in Atlantic City. See page A3 for more.
t ' ?" I
rn ? fyWfPI i i i I ? ii I i ? i i
- 1>JT VY . ? ? ^Ilg- * -
Low SAT marks
worry officials,
changes urged
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
Recovering from the shock of listing the lowest aver
age scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test in the country,
educators are busy analyzing, studying and assessing stu
dent curriculums to determine what went wrong and what
can be done to reiriedy the situation.
Superintendent Larry D. Coble has appointed a com
mittee to study college board and advanced placement test
requirements and how the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
Schools' curriculum prepares students for the tests. He
has recommended the expansion of extracurricular
_ SAr preparation courses- liTLhe system's eight high schools
and hopes Geneva Brown, the newly appointed director of
minority/average child achievement, can study ways to
help Afro-American students get higher scores.
Overall average scores for students in the city-county
schools are down 15 points from those posted in 1988,
which were up 16 points from 1987, according to figures
released Monday by Dr. Coble. Average scores are up
eight points since the 1985-86 academic year, which
marked the first time all eight high schools had seniors, he
said.
The 394 Afro-Americans taking the test during the
last academic year had an average score of 689, down
eight points from the previous year. Whites averaged 906
Please see page A11
? ??.- -?! r w;^-TZiAf*r:~rf~V'* *V ? I
' Candidates step up campaign as primary approaches
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
^ The campaign trail will have fewer travelers when Democrat and
Republican voters make their choice for mayor and alderman in the Sept.
26 primary elections.
Mayoral candidates G. Dee Smith and Martha S. Wood will face-off
and some political onlookers say Afro-Americans may cast the deciding
votes for the victor of the race.
Apparently aware of that possibility, Mrs. Wood, Mr. Smith and the
other 24 candidates have been making appearances at NAACP political
forums, churches, residents' association meetings and elsewhere in the
Afro- American community.
Mr. Smith even set up his podium and "Dee Smith for Mayor" poster
in the East Winston Shopping Center for a press conference Monday.
"Mr. Smith, I'm gonna' vote for you, but I hope you do what you say
you're gonna do," said one Afro-American lady as she drove by.
"I will! Thank You!" Mr. Smith yelled after the lady as he waved to
her.
City government should do more to encourage employment and busi
ness investments in eastern Winston-Salem, Mr. Smith said.
"Jobs and business development cross all neighborhood lines," he said.
"Like other areas in Winston-Salem, the eastern part of the city must
improve its economy before lasting improvements in the quality of life will
occur."
His plan of action outlined the following steps he would take as mayor
to attract more jobs and businesses to East Winston:
?Increase efforts to get state funding for the projv>scd Eastern Beltway,
which would attract new businesses by creating new opportunities for
development. The beltway should be built with minimal disruption to exist
ing neighborhoods, he said.
?Aggressively recruit minority entrepreneurs.
?Encourage loan and real estate incentives to locate businesses in east
ern Winston-Salem.
Mr. Smith said he would also attack the perception that drugs and
crime are the main concerns in East Winston. Such publicity, he said, not
only scares ^xrtential employers and hampers .development, it also ignores
the fact that drugs and crime arc major concerns throughout Winston
Salem.
When asked what was the most significant contribution he could make
to the city's Afro-American community, Mr. Smith said, "To make sure
they are included in any of the benefits that are to go to the whole commu
nity. To make sure they share in the growth of this city."
Mrs. Wood, who leads the pack of candidates in political experience
with eight years as Northwest Ward alderman, unveiled Tuesday an eco
nomic development plan that calls for the creation of a Mcdical and Scien
tific Technology (MAST) enterprise zone. The MAST zone would be con
centrated downtown, she said, with sateflite zones in the northern U.S. 52
corridor and in the western, Interstate 40/Silas Creek Parkway area.
Her plan would also include developing an engineering program or
school at Winston-Salem State University, comprehensive efforts to reha
bilitate older downtown buildings and an emphasis on residential develop
ment in and near downtown.
Recalling the days when Patterson Avenue was the hub of economic
activity for Afro-Americans, Mrs. Wood suggested the restoration and
rehabilitation of the area adjacent to Goler Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church.
. "Those store fronts on Patterson Avenue are some of the same stores I
patronized as a client," Mrs. Wood said. "I would like to see the restoration
of those buildings. I see all kinds of things, businesses locating there,
offices and retail opportunities."
When Mrs. Wood's campaign team was formulating her slogan they
deemed her -the "people s choice." WhyT^Because of her love for all people,
a characteristic Mrs. Wood said would be her greatest contribution to the
city's Afro-American population.
"I love people. I have a care and concern for people that has nothing to
do with the color of their skin, their height, weight, sex or economic sta
tus," Mrs. Wood said, choking down tears on a topic she said emotionally
moves her. "I believe very much in Dr. (M.L.) King's dream, and I believe
it can come true if enough of us want to make it come true: judging people
by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. I support
his dream and what Martha Wood has is a record of eight years to show I
support (it)."
A former director of the county's social services department, Gerald
?c
Please see page A10
Back on solid ground
WSSU nursing program gets major overhaul
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
In 1968, when Sylvia Ann
Flack was pinned during a gradua
tion ceremony, Winston-Salem State
University had one of the best nurs
ing programs in the state.
Twenty-one years later, Dr.
Flack returned to her alma mater as
nursing school coordinator to find
that the program's once sparkling
reputation had tarnished.
Low passing rates for graduates
taking the state licensing exam for
the first time have kept WSSU and
the other traditionally Afro-Ameri
can universities, which offer bache
lor's of science degrees, in the spot
light.
lit 1975 the University of North
Carolina Board of Governors issued
a report on "Nursing Education in
North Carolina, 1975-1980," which
citQd WSSU, North Carolina A&T
and North Carolina Central univer
sities as having only a small propor
tion of its graduates passing the
licensing exam. Subsequent reports
indicated that the universities were
making progress some years and
taking steps backwards during other
years.
" A lot of women tifro
once went into nursing
are going into other
fields like law and what
they don't realize is that
nursing is just as profes
sional as that area"
-?Dr. Sylvia A. Flack
It seemed that when WSSU
graduates excelled on the test, those
at NCCU or A&T had bad years.
For instance, in 1988 all eight stu
dents taking the exam at A&T
passed, a 100 percent passing rate.
Also in that year, NCCU had 88 per
cent of its nursing students pass the
state boards. However, only 50 per
cent of WSSU's students passed the
test.
This year the percentage of
passing students rose to 64 percent
It will be Dr. Flack's job to boost
that percentage even higher.
"I am the coordinator of the
nursing program," she said. "What
that means in lay terms is that 1
coordinate all activities related to
the nursing program. That includes
recruitment of students, curriculum
development, faculty development,
public relations as it relates to the
program and everything involving
the day-to^ay operation and evalu
ation of the program."
Dr. Flack has built a reputation
on her ability to put nursing pro
grams on firm, productive footing,
said Sadie B. Webster, director of
WSSU's Division of Nursing and
Allied Health.
"We needed someone to assist
I --"w^ .
Photo by Mike Cunningham
Sadie Webster, left, director of the Division of Nursing and Allied Health, and Sylvia A. Flack, new
nursing program coordinator, review plans to increase students' scores on state board exams.
in the day-to-day operations of our
nursing program and also to assist in
upgrading our program and I feel
that we arc very fortunate to have
Dr, Flack s expertise in that area,"
Mrs. Webster said.
Dr. Flack coordinated a nursing
program at Roanoke Chowan Com
munity College that turned out to be
one of the best in the state, she said.
Her primary objective at WSSU is
to bring the nursing progtem back to
the strength it had when she was a
student there. A dedicated faculty
and committed, hard working stu
dents are the key to reaching that
goal, she said. . *
"A good nursing program needs
dedicated faculty," said Dr. Flack,
* f
Please see page A10