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VOL. 101 NO. 33
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East Schoo
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BOARD MAKES DECISION-Four members of the Kings
- iB pre
Mountain Board of Education, above, are pictured at Monday's
meeting when they voted unanimously to leave East School open.
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Thursday, August 17, 1989
KINGS MOUNTA
Remain Open
Strong Citizen Support
Convinced School Board
From left, Doyle Campbell, Paul Hord Jr., Billy King and Priscilla
Mauney. Chairman Bill McDaniel, not pictured, called for the vote
on the issue.
Schools To Open Monday
School bells ring Monday
morning for 3,900 students and
500 employees in the Kings
Mountain District School System.
"We're ready,” says Dr. Larry
Allen, Assistant Superintendent,
who was inspecting the school sites
this week where construction is un-
derway on new improvements and
repairs, including the completion
of a major asbestos removal project
at North School and major con-
struction at the Junior High School,
the home of the proposed Middle
School in 1990-91.
In addition to repairs and new
school construction, the student
population can expect new pro-
grams in drug education, water
safety, and for at-risk students in
addition to an Open Court reading
program expanded to include all
Kindergarten classes system-wide
plus additional foreign language
programs and two new positions
funded in the Basic Education Plan
by the General Assembly, a drop-
out counselor and home-school co-
ordinator.
Florrie Hamrick has been hired
KM Schools To Make
Effort To Curb Dropouts
Kings Mountain Schools will
make a special effort to address the
growing problem of drop-outs this
year, Supt. Bob McRae told the
board of education at its monthly
meeting Monday night at the su-
perintendent's office.
Beulah Carroll, former In School
Suspension teacher at Central
School, has been appointed
dropout prevention counselor at
Kings Mountain Junior High in an
effort to curb the dropout rate at
that school. McRae said youngsters
in the eighth and ninth grades are
nearing the age of 16 and that's
when they can legally quit school.
Ms. Carroll will have almost
daily contact with students who
have been identified as potential
dropouts and will work with teach-
ers and parents to try to keep them
in school, McRae said.
The system has also hired
Florrie Hamrick as the K-12
Home-School Coordinator and she
will work with children in all
grades who are having difficulties
and may be potential dropouts.
McRae said the system is also
implementing a FOCUS program
in the seventh grade. That program
identifies students with difficulties
and places them in a "school within
a school" atmosphere. Teachers
will rotate through the program and
an assistant will be with the stu-
dents throughout the day.
"With the increasing dropout
rate, this could be the most difficult
problem we have to face," McRae
told the board.
McRae also noted some other
goals the school's leadership team
prioritized during a recent retreat,
and added some personal goals
he'd like to accomplish during the
1989-90 school year.
In addition to curbing the
dropout rate, the leadership team
wants to increase the achievement
of students, and McRae said that
means improving test scores.
"More and more in North
Carolina we're going to be judged
in test scores," he said. "In fact,
there is a Senate bill that gives
schools more flexibility in admin-
istering their own programs and
funds, but also calls for more ac-
countability and that relates to test
scores."
McRae said the administration
wants to continue its efforts to re-
organize into a 6-8 middle school
and 9-12 high school system dur-
ing the year and to continue to inte-
grate the current curriculum with
new curriculum made possible
through the Basic Education Plan.
He said elementary Spanish pro-
grams will be expanded, as well as
Spanish in the middle schools and
physical education in elementary
schools. He said the swimming
program will be implemented in
the fourth grade and high school.
As for his personal goals,
McRae said he will continue to
work with the individual schools to
provide leadership to help improve
student achievements, review the
See Drugs, 9-A
as the home-school coordinator for
grades K-12 to work primarily with
students with attendance problems
and serve as a contact with their
parents.
Beulah Carroll has been hired as
the drop-out prevention counselor
for grades 6-12. The counselor's
main focus would be students in
grades six through nine and moni-
toring the progress of those who
may be potential dropouts. She
would concentrate her program at
the middle school level and will
work out of the Junior High build-
ing.
This year, all fifth graders will
receive instruction in DARE (Drug
Abuse Resistance Education) pro-
gram, a joint effort by the schools
and the Kings Mountain Police
Department. The drug education
classes will be taught by Ptl. Alan
Hardin who will be visiting each of
the elementary schools to teach the
class.
With the opening of the new
See Schools, 10-A
CLEANING FLOORS-Sherry Wilson and Jeff Patrick complete
clean-up duties in the cafeteria at East School in preparation for the
opening of school Monday morning.
payments.
city under fire.
ranted, prosecution will proceed.
A veteran city employee resigned Monday in the
middle of an investigation into alleged missing utility
City Manager George Wood confirmed that a sec-
ond member of the utility department staff has left the
Wood said findings of auditors and the SBI will be
turned over to the District Attorney soon, and if war-
"Rumors are going around town that the city may
not prosecute further in this case but those rumors are
not true. Public funds are involved and the city is mak-
ing every effort to complete the-investigation and re-
Investigation Continuing
City Employee Resigns
port results of the investigation to the DA's office,"
said Wood.
Diane L. Dellinger, 41, of 606 Bridges Drive, a 10-
year employee of the city utility department, waived
preliminary hearing Aug. 3 in Cleveland County
District Court and was bound over to Superior Court
on two counts of embezzling utility payments totaling
$6100. Dellinger had been suspended without pay
pending results of the investigation which began last
month. Dellinger's job was terminated by Wood this
week.
The city has confirmed irregularities in collection
records in the utility department dating prior to August
1988 when the city computerized billings.
Bulletin Boards............... 4-C
Classifieds........i iid 9-B
Community News.......14-B
Editorials... 4-A
Engagements................. 3-C
Food ina, 6-C
Obituaries... iis 3-A
Relgion.........isvir vives: 6-B
SEhOOIS. tissu 2-B
SPOTS ciicsicrssvvirsnsosivaers 5-A
Weddings...........ceie00n0nes 2-C
PAGES TODAY
The Kings Mountain Board of
Education Monday night voted
unanimously not to close East
School but left open the future pos-
sibility of re-drawing attendance
lines to achieve racial balance.
Many board members who had
been leaning toward closing the
school because of its declining en-
rollment and racial imbalance said
they were convinced to leave the
school open because of the tremen-
dous support shown by residents of
the community at a public hearing
last Monday night at the school.
Board members called on members
of the community to continue to
show that kind of support for East
and the entire school district.
Paul Hord Jr. made the motion to
keep the school open and said that,
if necessary, the board could ad-
dress the racial imbalance in the
future. Doyle Campbell seconded.
"When we first began looking at
this issue, I was concerned with the
racial imbalance there and the
board was concerned that maybe
all the children at East weren't get-
ting the quality education children
at other schools were," Campbell
said. "I am still not convinced that
leaving East open is in the best in-
terest of the children, however, I do
think another part of an elected of-
ficial's responsibility is to listen to
the voice of the constituents and
the voices have spoken loud and
clear in their desire to see East re-
main open. I hope that with the
new leadership at the school that
we can challenge the parents and
the neighborhood and changes can
occur to make the educational ex-
periences of the children stronger
there."
Board member Billy King said
he felt the board had a responsibili-
ty "to continue to take a close look
at East and if enrollment decreases
significantly, we need to address it
at that time."
Board member Priscilla Mauney
said she favored keeping the school
open because of the concern shown
by the East community, and added
that there may be "other alterna-
tives toward utilizing the structure
in the future."
Chairman Bill McDaniel said his
"gut" feeling still was to close East
School, but that he was willing to
listen to the people and abide by
their wishes. However, he chal-
lenged the public to support the
school and system on an on-going
basis.
"I'm going off the school board
See East, 10-A
City Employee Injured
While Fixing Water
City employee Emmett Moss,
injured early Saturday morning
when a car struck a construction
barricade on West Mountain Street
where city crews were fixing a wa-
ter line break, is improving after
surgery in Cleveland Memorial
Hospital.
Moss is expected to be hospital-
ized about six weeks, according to
his wife, Hilda.
"Emmett is a big man and that
probably saved his life," said Mrs.
Moss, who said her husband suf-
fered a broken leg, a broken arm, a
dislocated arm, a broken thumb
and serious abrasions and bruises.
"Emmett doesn't like to be con-
fined and right now we're having to
feed him but he is resting comfort-
ably Things could be lot worse,"
she said.
Moss, supervisor of grounds and
maintenance for the City of Kings
Mountain for six years, Ricky
Putnam, and Kenny Downey were
called out early Saturday morning
to repair a broken water line.
According to police reports, city
crews had put up one barricade and
eC
Moss was moving a second barri-
cade to allow a city dump truck to
enter the closed street when a car
being driven by Kenny Potter, 19,
of 308 W. Mountain St., hit the
barricade blocking the intersection
of Mountain and Juniper Streets,
then the pedestrian, pushing Moss
against the wheels of the dump
truck, according to Ptl. Harry Kyle
who investigated for Kings
Mountain Police. Kyle said that
Potter and a friend were returning
from a party at the time of the acci-
dent at 4:50 a.m. Kyle charged
Potter with DWI and exceeding
safe speed.
Public Works Supt. Karl Moss
said that city workers went to a res-
idence on West Mountain and sum-
moned ambulance and police. Karl
Moss said Emmett Moss's crew
had no radio in their city equip-
ment now due to the fact that the
city is in process of switching over
to the new 911 emergency number.
Emmett Moss is a patient in
Room 351 at Cleveland Memorial
Hospital in Shelby.
Nationwide Bonding Company
Gives KM The Highest Rating
A nationwide bond rating agen-
cy Tuesday gave the City of Kings
Mountain an "A" rating, the high-
est that is given to a city this size,
indicating the city's financial plan-
ning and procedures are solid.
"We're very, very pleased,” said
City Manager George Wood who
said that the New York-based
Moody's Investment Services rate
the fiscal health of municipalities
nationwide. Wood termed
Moody's telephone call to him late
Tuesday as "good news for the
city."
Moody's rated the city "A" 20
years ago, the last time the city
sold general obligation bonds- for
the construction of Moss Lake.
Kings Mountain will open bids
in Raleigh Tuesday for nearly $7
million in general obligation bonds
approved by voters in February for
improvements to the utility system.
"The city will actually know what
the cost will be Tuesday but we
won't close until Sept. 19," said
Wood.
Moody's looked at the local
economy, financial condition of the
city, growth, and management of
the city in determining the rating,
said Wood.
Standard and Poors, another
New York-based company, also
conducted a first-time bond rating
of the city and gave Kings
Mountain a BBB+ which is one
step below a A-. "The reason for
the lower-but good- rating from
Standard and Poors was the fact
that the city's ten big customers in
utilities represent 60% of the
amount of revenue and the majori-
ty of them come from the textile
industry. The investment firm was
concerned that, although industry
is diversified in Kings Mountain,
the top 10 water and sewage cus-
tomers pay 60% of our usage and
they are largely textile concerns. A
downturn in the textiles would af-
fect the economy," said Wood.
"These ratings tell everyone that
we are credit worthy. They rate the
bonds for potential investments
and our ability to repay them," said
Wood. "Standard's rating is a little
lower then we hoped"
Ang.