The
ews
Journal
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N0.52V0L101
Raeford & Hoke County n.c,
75t
Wednesday, March 14,2007
Most scores down in midterm report
Educators dispute value of report, say tmer picture will come at end m school
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
Hoke County High stu
dents slipped significantly
below the benchmark in
proficiency for English 1 and
Algebra I in midyear End
of Course testing results for
2006. Yet results in Biology
reflected soaring academic
growth.
Only 47.37 percent of stu
dents scored at levels III and
rv in Engl ish I during the first
semester of 2006-07. That
represented a drop compared
to 2005 midyear, when stu
dents achieved 89.23 percent
proficiency on English 1.
In Algebra 1, only 23.18
percent of students attained
proficiency in 2006 EOC re
sults midyear. This compared
to 68.29 percent in the first
semester of 2005-06.
Yet results of proficiency
in Biology increased from a
percentage of 16.81 in 2005
midyear to 45.50 percent in
the first semester of 2006.
Figures showed a 1.66
percent decrease in over
all percentage of students
performing at or above
(See SCORES, page 4A)
I
.ti
Clockwise from left:Three-year-old pupil Katy Schiller arrives at Children’s Developmental Center chauffeured by dad Andy Schiller; Jody Willis (left to right), Linda Foxworth, Garland Pierce
and pupils; Leach Clem, an occupational therapist, bonds with pupil Darius Daniels.
This Week
Track team
wins first meet
p^e7A
Soldier charged
with rape
piige3A
Bank appoints
branch manager
page3A
East Hoke students
win tech awards
|x»gc6A
Index
Calendar 2B
Classifieds 5B
Deaths 3A
Engagements IB
Editorials 2A
Legals 4B
Schools 6A
Socials IB
Sports 7A
We’re on the web at
www.thenews-jourrud.com
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Children’s Center threatened by funding cuts
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
State Representative Garland Pierce
is trying to defuse a funding crisis for
Children’s Developmental Center and
similar facilities for kids with special
needs. Even by maximizing the use
of dollars, low wealth districts such as
Hoke need state funding to survive,
according to Pierce.
State and local stakeholders met
recently at the Raeford facility for a
tour, seeking solutions. They hope to
persuade state leaders that services
need to be allocated in the state’s
budget to compensate for gaps.
Children’s Developmental Center’s
programs nurture children that are
blind, deaf, impacted by autism and
Cerebral Palsy along with other dis
abilities. Lead teachers are required
to hold four-year degrees, offering a
high degree of service for children.
Instructors for infants to kindergarten
age are also required to have college
degrees.
Chaired by Pierce and Jodi Willis,
Children’s Developmental Center’s
executive director, the meeting ad
dressed their concerns that the state
might bypass the needs of develop
mental daycare.
“Military come here because of
Womack Hospital, but then they
move to poor Hoke County, and they
cannot get the services they need,”
Willis said. “There is a waiting list
on base,” she said.
“I know that whatever we are do
ing, it is woiking here. We are helping
our children, and 1 would hate to see
it all go away.”
Willis said CDC is already strug
gling to make ends meet.
“I would like to hear that our
children from infancy would get the
(See THREATENED, page 3A)
Bullock is top prison superintendent
John “Terry” Bullock
By Victoriana Simmers
Staff writer
Raeford resident John “Terry”
Bullock has walked for miles
down the halls of dormitories
during the past 29 years, where
he personally checks on the well
being of 526 men.
But these are not students at
tending college where Bullock
might be a chancellor. Rather
they’re inmates - some serving
life sentences - at the Hoke Cor
rectional Institution in McCain
where Bullock serves as super
intendent.
“My philosophy with our
inmates is to be fair, but firm,”
Bullock said. “We have very few
problems.
“I do not like to do something
for one inmate unless I do it for
all of them,” he said.
“I have seen some great, minds
go to waste in prison, but some
inmates get out and do great.”
Bullock was selected from
among 77 fellow wardens across
the state as Superintendent of the
Year.
Bullock thinks training is the
key to building a team of staff,
empowering them to make deci
sions.
“I like to know the names of
our 240 employees and supervi
sors,” Bullock said. “How could 1
fail with the support I have from
my staff, our regional director,
Pat Chavis, and state director of
prisons Boyd Bennett?” he said.
“Everyone wants to feel impor
tant, and 1 work very hard to make
every employee feel important.”
Bullock was hired in 1978
when the facility was known as
McCain Correctional Center. He
has since risen through the ranks
at HCl from correctional officer, to
sergeant in 1981, to assistant unit
manager in 1988 to superintendent
in 2003. During his career, Bull
ock also served a one-year stint
in 2002 as the assistant superin
tendent at the minimum-security
(See BULLOCK, page 4A)
rie news
News
By Ken MacDonm o
Publisher
T Journal ?
other stuff
c- !::n
McNeill ‘thrilled’ at getting
state’s highest civilian award
Did you know there are some 2,500 variet
ies of apples grown in the U.S.? And another
6,000 varieties lost forever si nee 1900'.' There
arc, accmuii% to whai Fve been aok to Ue-
termine from the Internet, and yet only 10
varieties account for more than 90 percent of
supermarket apple sales in this country.
An article 1 first read several years ago
pointed out those 10 varieties aren’t picked for
taste, but for appearance and storage proper-
t ies. Americans want their apples red or green
and without blemishes.
After reading that I began to notice how
our society looks at more than ^ples that
way. People, for example.
And so when it tell my lot to talk to a
group of young people, 1 wanted them to
see they couldn’t trust their friends and our
society to give them an accurate accounting
of their worth. By the statistics, I reasoned,
(See OTHER STUFF, page 5A)
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
It was probably one of the
best kept secrets in Raeford.
Local videographer Luke
McNeill was conferred the
Order of the Long Leaf Pine
Award last week in front of
friends at the Raeford City
Council meeting to a standing
ovation.
“We cannot replay the cer
emony again,” McNeill said.
“But, a lot of our out-of-town
friends had no idea so they
said they wished they could
have been there
“My phone has real ly been
ringing this past week.”
A retired co-owner of
Home Food Super Market
after 37 years, the 80-year-
(See MCNEILL, page 5/1)