Block Student Boycott Called Off In Wake Of Discussions
BY SUSAN iisuito ?
BY SUSAN USHER
A threatened boycott intended to keep black students
out of the Brunswick County Schools and deprive
county schools of state financial support has been
called off, at least for now.
A handful of school system officials and black com
munity leaders held "serious discussions" last week
that prompted school board member Thurman Cause
Sunday to ask the boycott be called off, at least for the
moment.
"Thurman felt confident enough out of that that
when we talked Sunday morning we decided that."said
Willie Fullwood, vice president of the Brunswick
County Citizens Association, the group that first pro
posed the boycott. Cause is its president.
A mass meeting of black county residents that had
been scheduled Sunday evening at the Brunswick
County Government Center was canceled, along with
the boycott.
"We in the black community don't expect to get
everything we want," said Fullwood. "But you take the
first step and try meeting halfway. It remains to be seen
what comes out of it. But if Thurman feels comfortable
with it, we do too."
"It looks like both parties are beginning to have a
better understanding of things," he added.
Brunswick County Board of hducation Chairman
Donna Baxter, who initiated the talks, said she did it
out of concern about the boycott and its potential im
pact on the schools. If students were kept out of class
for up to 10 days at the start of school, it would have
affected the schools' average daily membership and
meant a loss in state-paid teachers' positions as well as
other funds.
"That would have hurt everybody." she said. "If the
boycott had been held, what would have been accom
plished? That's one of the points we tried to get
across."
The citizens' association had sought the support and
cooperation of black churches across the county in both
getting word out about the boycott and in providing fa
cilities for retired teachers and others to provide tutor
ing and other services to students while they were be
(Sec THREATENED, Page 2-A)
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Shallotte, North Carolina, Thursday, August 26, 1 993 50? Per Copy 36 Pages, 3 Sections. 2 Inserts
Some Schools
Offer Flexible
Schedules For
Staff Training
BY SUSAN USHER
Their teachers are back on the job
already, but Monday is back-to-class
day for nearly 9,00() public school
students in Brunswick County.
Many of the county's 12 schools
will be following flexible schedules
this year to provide more staff de
velopment for teachers and, in some
cases, more instructional time for
students.
West Brunswick High and its twft
"feeder" schools, Shallotte Middle
and Waccamaw Elementary, will re
lease students at 12:30 p.m. the sec
ond and fourth Wednesday after
noons of each month to provide time
for teachers to up-grade their skills
and knowledge.
"We think it's going to work pret
ty well," said Waccamaw Ele
mentary Principal Bill Shoemaker.
"The older kids will be home at the
same time as the younger children
will."
Traditional students at West
Brunswick will attend classes from
8:15 a.m. to 3:05 p.m. Monday
through Friday, except the two staff
development days. Under the
schools expanded opportunities pro
gram, however, some students will
be taking early classes that begin at
7:15 a.m. and others will be in
volved in the extended day program,
which offers classes that extend into
the evening.
Shallotte Middle School students
will attend classes from 8 a.m. to 3
p.m. Monday through Friday, except
for staff development days. Ori
entation sessions for students will be
held by grade level next week for
students in grades six through eight,
and by classroom for fifth graders,
said Principal Sandra Robinson.
Students will receive handbooks and
(See FLEX, Page 2-A)
S8I
Graduation At Auditorium
STAFF FHOTO BY SUSAN USHEH
Graduate Beth Zettlemoyer and her family are among those exiting the Odell Williamson Auditorium
at Brunswick Community College night. From the left are her stepfather, Charley Robinson, son
Aaron, mother Gail Robinson, daughter Nikki and husband Eric. Approximately 170 of 297 eligible
students participated in commencement, which served as a "trial run" for the nearly-completed facility.
This and related stories are on Page 3-4B.
SAID SAFE FOR SWIMMING
New Tests Find Low Bacteria In Sunset Canals
BY ERIC CARLSON
A second round of water quality
testing indicates that Sunset Beach
canals are safe for swimming and
are practically free of coliform bac
teria during periods of high tide, the
head of Brunswick County's envi
ronmental health department said
TUesday.
"I'm quite sure there is no possi
bility of infection or disease from
swimming in those canals," said
Supervisor Andrew Robinson. "At
high tide, I doubt we'd detect any
thing."
The tests, requested by the Sunset
Beach Town Council, were in re
sponse to questions raised by a citi
zen who lives along one of the
canals.
The latest results should alleviate
some of the concerns raised after co
liform bacteria were found in all but
Inside...
Birthdays 2B
Business News 8C
Calendar IOA
Church News 11A
Classified 1-8C
Court Docket I (MIC
Crime Report 9C
Fishing 12C
Golf 1 1 B
Obituaries 1 1 A
Opinion 4-5A
People In The News 8A
Plant Doctor 5B
Sports , 8- 1 1 B
. TtWviMoa~?..............6-7B
one of 11 water samples taken June
30 at the head and mouth of four
Sunset Beach canals and at three
waterfront locations along East
Canal Street. Coliform levels rang
ing from 2 to 500 colonies per 100
milliliters were measured.
Coliform bacteria exists in the di
gestive tracts of warm-blooded ani
mals. Its presence in surface waters
often indicates the presence of septic
tank overload or high levels of storm
water runoff.
State health regulators prohibit
the taking of shellfish from waters
with a coliform count higher than 14
colonies per 100 ml. "Organized
swimming" is not recommended in
waters with a count higher than 400.
The first tests at Sunset Beach
measured coliform counts of 500,
110, 110, 80, 30, 9, 8, 4, 4, 2 and
less than 2. The samples were taken
during a 35-minute period, at low
tide.
Still No Word
For Calabash
BY ERIC CARLSON
Engineers for the proposed Cal
abash/Sunset Beach sewer system
returned from meetings in Raleigh
last week with no official approval
of their applications for loan and
grant money, but still hopeful that
the requests will be granted.
Consultants Jim Billups and Joe
Tombro of Powell Associates met
with representatives of the N.C.
Division of Environmental Man
agement, the Farmers Home Ad
ministration and the state treasurer's
Asked to comment on the June
tests, a state environmental engineer
called the preliminary findings
"hazy" and said more testing needed
to be done. He said the data did not
indicate that the canals are unsafe
for swimming.
On Aug. 2, another 1 1 water sam
ples were gathered at the same loca
tions and prepared for laboratory
analysis by health department staff.
This time the testing was done a few
hours after high tide.
In the latest tests, the highest col
iform count recorded was 4 parts per
100 ml., Robinson said. That sample
was taken at the mouth of a canal
between Dolphin Street and Cobia
Street, where the earlier tests had re
vealed a count of 500.
Robinson said several of the new
samples had no trace of coliform
bacteria. Calling the results "good
news," he said the findings indicate
that tidal flow does a good job of
flushing the canals and that water
quality should be "quite safe" during
the times when most people use
them for swimming.
"Most people don't swim there at
low tide, It's all muck and mud," he
said.
Robinson said that during the lat
est sampling he noticed recent re
pairs to a bulkhead where he had
previously observed what appeared
to be sewage seeping into the canal.
The leak was located near the spot
where the highest coliform count
was observed in both tests.
"1 have a feeling they took care of
the problem," he said.
Although the county health de
partment has scheduled no more
testing of local canal waters,
Robinson said the N.C. Division of
Shellfish Sanitation plans to sample
around the entire island of Sunset
Beach in the near future.
On State, Federal Funding
-Sunset Sewer Proposal
office to discuss requests from the
two towns for $9 million in FmHA
grants and loans and up to $ IS mil
lion in loans from DEM.
"The way it stands now, DEM
says everything looks good to them
as long as Farmers Home and the
state treasurer say it's OK," Billups
said Tuesday. "Tile state treasurer's
office had some questions and need
ed some revised figures, which we
are preparing. Fanners Home said
they just don't know."
The two towns are each seeking
the maximum $7.5 million available
through the agency's revolving loan
program, which funnels federal
funds to communities without ser
vice that are ready to build waste
water treatment systems. Calabash
and Sunset Beach currently are the
highest-ranked communities on the
funding list.
Officials at DEM said the towns
remain the prime candidates for fun
ding and advised the consultants to
(See TOWNS, Page 2-A)
On The Rise...
'90-91 '91-92 '92-93
Countywide 803 781 806
West Brunswick 799 794 830
North Brunswick 765 728 720
South Brunswick 830 799 832
County SAT Scores
Increase 25 Points;
Educators Hope
Trend Continues
BY SUSAN USHER
Up 25 points.
Brunswick County school system
administrators are ecstatic over the
tremendous overall county gain in
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
scores for the Class of '93, especial
ly after seeing nearly the reverse a
year ago. But their enthusiasm is
tempered by caution because so
many factors contribute to the
scores.
The SAT is one of several nation
al standardized tests whose scores
are used by colleges in varying de
grees to predict how successful high
school students will be as college
freshmen. Some colleges have rigor
ous minimum SAT scores as part of
their admission criteria, while others
do not.
For the Class of '92, scores at all
three high schools fell from the pre
vious year. Brunswick County's av
erage SAT score was 781 in 1992,
compared to 806 this year.
"Obviously I'm excited," said
Superintendent Ralph Johnston, say
ing the credit for any gains achieved
goes to the high school teachers.
"Hopefully this means some of the
efforts we have been making are
making a difference."
He wants to see the scores contin
ue to climb to the state average, past
the state average. "I think 950 is
good; ' would love to be around
950."
This year, both West Brunswick
and South Brunswick High seniors
showed sharp gains over all, a 33
point jump at South and 25-point
jump at West (See related chart.). At
North Brunswick scores fell slightly,
from 728 to 720.
"It's difficult to place a finger on
this whole thing," said West
Brunswick High School Principal
Ed Lemon. He wants to believe that
the school's increased efforts on be
half of students are starting to pay
off, rather than the overall ability of
that particular group of students. He
won't know for sure until several
years of test scores show sustained
improvement.
"If it drops to 795 next year, it
does tell you it was the group," he
said.
West Brunswick is entering its
third year (it started with ninth
graders only in 1991-92 and added a
grade each year) using an outcome
based education model which pro
vides for teaching and reteaching
material until students grasp it.
Students can redo work for a higher
grade and receive after-school help
if they fall behind their classmates.
New end-of-test scores require
teachers to maintain a certain pace
to teach all the material covered by
the test before year's end.
"It's a two-headed monster,"
Lemon suggested. "We've got to
cover the material and make sure
that all the students are learning."
West Brunswick has also taken
specitic steps to better prepare stu
dents to take the SAT. Several years
ago any ninth grader who expressed
even a remote interest in going to
college took a one-semester SAT
preparation class while taking driver
education classroom training the
other semester. That meant students
learned about the test formats even
before taking the Preliminary SAT.
Since then West has offered a
year-long SAT prep class that focus
es on the English section of the test
one semester and the math section
on the other.
"That could have had some effect
on this year's scores," said Lemon.
"We're going to have some other
strides in relation to SATs also," he
continued.
Starting this year, when students
request an SAT booklet at the guid
ance counselor's office, the school
wants to make sure they talk with a
counselor first before signing up for
the test.
"We feel like some students are
taking it too early, before taking cer
tain courses," said Lemon. It's to
students' advantage to have had a
full year of both algebra and geome
try, as well as several English class
es, so that they are more likely to
have studied the bulk of the materi
als covered on the tests.
Also, the school is offering
Advanced Placement (AP) English
at the junior level for advanced stu
dents. This will allow them to study
more of the material covered by the
AP exam before taking the test. In
the past the school system has reim
bursed the cost of the exam to stu
dents who take it and receive college
placement credit.
Sincc 1988 the national average
score on the SAT has generally fall
en, from 906 in 1987 to 899 in
1992. This year, however, the na
tional average showed a gain, up to
902. North Carolina scores have in
creased each of the past four years.
This year's four-point gain brings
(See SAT, Page 2-A)
Holden Narrows Manager Field
Holden Beach officials have started the search for a new town man
ager, narrowing the field of 27 applicants at a special meeting last
Wednesday.
"We narrowed it down and I have written to some of those people
asking for references," Mayor Wally Ausley said.
After checking references, Ausley said the board of commissioners
will probably decide how many applicants it wants to interview. All in
terviews will be conducted in executive session.
The mayor said most of the applicants are from North Carolina. "We
had some real good, qualified applicants all the way from Florida to
Ohio and the New Jersey-New York area."
Officials are looking for a replacement for Gary Parker, who re
signed Aug. 5 under pressure from the town board. Gus Ulrich is serving
as interim town manager. ?