2age 2A-THE KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Thursday, January 10, 1991
Opinions
The Kings Mountain Board -of Education. will con-
tinue its discussion on possible school reassignment
and transfers at tonight's 7:30 meeting at the KMHS li-
brary.
5s us say up front that we realize the board has a
difficult decision on its hands. No decision it makes
will satisfy many people because, to put it simply, par-
ents do not want their children taken out of one school
and moved to another.
Several thoughts came to mind at last week's work
session, at which time citizens were given an opportu-
nity to speak their mind. Some of those thoughts:
* After opening the meeting, Board chairman Billy
King said the board was ready to hear from parents.
When the first parent asked the question "what federal
or state regulation mandated a reassignment plan?" Mr.
King told him the board wasn't there to answer ques-
tions but to gather information. That really went over
well with the crowd of about 100 who packed the
small board room, thinking they might get an answer
as to why their children were being re-assigned. But
chalk this one up to inexperience. Mr. King was just
elected board chairman in December and simply forgot
to state up-front that the purpose of the meeting was to
gather information and not answer questions. Most
governing boards don't answer questions during a
work session or public hearing. If they did, most meet-
ings would turn into shouting matches and nothing
would be accomplished. The purpose of those meet-
ings is to gather input from the public. However, the
school board should schedule an informal session, or
at least set aside a special time prior to a regular board
meeting, just to explain to the public some of the op-
tions they are considering, and not expect citizens to
call the Central Office or read the newspapers for their
answers. We'd like to think that everyone reads news-
papers but, the fact is, they don't. One of our reporters
spent over an hour going door-to-door at Pine Manor
Apartments asking opinions on the proposed reassign-
ment plan. She found six parents of East School chil-
dren and they said they knew the school system was
considering some kind of reassignment of students, but
they did not know about a school board work session
last Thursday night. Despite numerous news stories,
public hearings and meetings in the individual elemen-
tary schools to explain the reassignment process, the
word just didn't reach everyone.
*We understand the concerns of young working par-
ents who have put every cent they have into building a
home in a certain area of town and who are working
their fingers to the bone to make the payments. They
expect their children to be able to attend school in their
own community. They cannot afford to sell their home
and rebuild in another area of town. Neither can some
parents afford to run to one end of town to pick up a
child at school, then back to the other end of town to
pick up another child at a day care center. As one
woman said, if she has to do that much running around
hs 4
don't pgree that the matter of reassignment should
jput toa vote of the citizens. The citizens have elect-
ed five people to make that decision. They've studied
and discussed and battled the problem for years and it's
time they make a decision and live with it. The main
thing to consider is what's best for the children. How
many times have we heard that over the years, even in
the prayers that open board meetings? So, board mem-
School Questions
From Page 1-A
Q - If the first draft of reassignment is approved,
how many students would change schools?
A - 311, including 189 majority students and 122
minority students.
Q - How many board members have kids that have
been transferred by their parents out of their assigned
district?
A - Two. Billy King lives in the North district and
his children attended East; however, they are no longer
in elementary school. Doyle Campbell also lives in the
North district and his children attended West; however,
they are no longer in elementary school. (Billy Houze
lives in the Grover district and his children attend
Grover. Ronnie Hawkins has no children. Priscilla
Mauney lives in the North district and her children at-
tend North; however, in the first reassignment draft her
children are assigned to East).
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tla 2, a I got ¢
ol Piate Ae citiz oy os a out at publ¥
tings, even if we don’t share the same view. Buf
be
bers, do what you are convinced is best for the chil-
dren.
*The matter of transfers should be dealt with. We'd
suggest no transfers unless in extreme hardship cases.
Don't ask us to define the word "hardship" though. We
feel like that's something the board has to decide on a
case-by-case basis. Transfers have been a problem for
years and the problem is not going to go away until the
board cuts them out altogether. In 1983, former school
board member Bill McDaniel suggested that the school
system stop transfers effective at the beginning of the
next school year. No other members of the board
would go along with him. Today, there are well over
100 transfers in elementary schools. Had those trans-
fers not been allowed, they would not have resulted in
a racially-balanced school system but would have
helped a little bit. Many parents, and even school offi-
cials, have requested that rising fifth graders and their
younger brothers and sisters who live in areas that are
being reassigned be allowed to remain at their present
school. We can go along with that idea only partly. We
understand leaving rising fifth graders where they are,
because they would be changing schools twice in two
years. But the younger students should not be includ-
ed. The board could put the plan into effect for grades
K-4 at the beginning of the 1991-92 school year, thus
allowing rising fifth graders to stay where they are, or
announce now that the entire plan would go into effect
atthe beginning of the 1992-93 school year. The latter
still wouldn't prevent rising fifth graders from chang-
ing schools twice in two years but would give parents
plenty of time to line up day care and make other ad-
justments. By allowing others to remain at their pre-
sent school the board would be showing favoritism
and perhaps even opening itself to a future law suit
from parents who request transfers for their students,
and are denied.
*This is not a good time to be a School Board mem-
ber. As we see it, the board can go ahead with reas-
signment or leave things as they are. Leaving things as
they are would probably make a lot of people happy;
however, it would not racially balance schools. Some
people would say racially-balanced schools are not the
question, because Kings Mountain Schools voluntarily
de-segregated and there is no federal law requiring
About squirrels, art, junk tires | Your Right To Say It
Remember that thieving squirrel I told you about a
few weeks ago?
Just to refresh your memory, this scoundrel is un-
canny about getting to my bird feeders. He has de-
stroyed two of them. To combat the larcenous rogue,
whom I have named Capone, I bought small feeders,
much too small for him to perch upon.
You will recall that, when last seen, Capone was
dancing around on his hind legs trying to figure out
how to attack these smal feeding stations that
eT situatis
‘ficou vith a tight fit
in my back yard and one hanging from the
house. :
I saw him launch his attack this morning! He goes
up into the oak tree, just about one of the feeders, and
jumps down on top. Of course, it's too small for him to
land on, but he jars enough seeds out for a meal.
Capone actually leaps about 15 feet, just for a handful
i of sunflower seeds. This morning he not only spilled a
bounty of seeds but he scared a cardinal, a tufted tit-
mouse and two doves half to death. Not only that, but
he invited a couple of his furry little buddies to lunch.
I will stop him, if it's war he wants it's war he'll get.
I may have to resort to squirrel baffles, but I will even-
tually win...I think.
IN THE NEWS
Architect Maya Lin has finally finished the
$340,000 piece of art for the Charlotte Coliseum. The
art,” known as "The Playing Field," consists of 8 or
10 shrubs clipped into rounded form, resting on a slop-
ing piece of contoured land. According to the artsy
crowd in Charlotte, it's supposed to look like balls
rolling down a hill into a spiral cup. What it really
looks like is 8 or 10 clipped bushes on a contoured
lawn.
Considering one of the basic laws of nature, that is,
shrubs tend to grow, I wonder whose job it will be to
keep the bushes clipped?
Newly elected Senator, Paul Wellstone, of
Minnesota, used the Viet Nam Memorial in
Washington to stage a crying demonstration against
Sidewalk Survey
racially-balanced schools. But racial balance is the
question.. No one can truthfully say that students at
East School, which is 64 percent minority, have the
same advantages as students at Bethware, which is 86
percent white. Going ahead with reassignment won't
be popular and it could cost some people their seats on
the Board of Education. But, if they are going to do
what the people elected them to do, and that is to make
the decisions that are best for the children of Kings
Mountain District Schools, they have to forget about
pleasing everyone and get on with reassigning stu-
dents.
The big waste
It seems you can't turn on a radio or TV, or open a
newspaper, anymore without seeing someone calling
for higher taxes. If that galls you, read on:
Alan Keyes, president of Citizens Against
Government Waste, recently wrote a story for PM
Editorial Services, which supplies some editorial mate-
rial for this newspaper, entitled "The Big-Waste, High-
Tax, Budget Bill Rip-off." In it Keyes claims that im-
plementation of the 1983 President's Private Sector
Survey on Cost Control, popularly known as the Grace
Commission, came up with 2,478 cost-cutting, effi-
ciency-enhancing recommendations which could have
saved taxpayers $424.4 billion over three years and
prevent accumulation of trillions of dollars in addition-
al deficits by the year 2000. But the Washington estab-
lishment rejected most critical Grace Commission rec-
ommendations and the national debt tripled during the
past decade.
He cites the refusal of Washington to cut waste, a
budget compromise which contains $164.6 billion in
new taxes and a minimum of $245 million in pork bar-
rel spending as the main reasons the deficit continues
to soar.
He backs his wasteful spending claim with some
very interesting facts, including these expenditures ap-
proved in this year's budget:
*$67,000 for Belgian endive research in
Massachusetts.
*$995,000 for a performing arts and cultural center
in North Miami Beach, Fla.
JIM
HEFFNER
Columnist
, ; fe pom e war’ in Iraq last Week. wD Nam eis, are
unhappy about that, and well they should be.
Wellstone, who has publicly avowed his hate for
Jesse Helms, went so far as to make a pencil rubbing
of the name of a Marine Captain from his hometown
in Northfield, Minnesota who was killed in action in
1968.
The Marine Captain, Bill W. Deetz, never met
Wellstone, nor does the weeping Senator know the de-
ceased Captain's family.
Don't we have enough phonies in Washington?
Foul-mouthed comedian, Andrew Dice Clay, is
irked at 20th Century Fox for refusing to release his
concert film.
Clay, who describes his filthy act as "A guided tour
through mental illness," said, "Hollywood puts out
movies with people being dismembered, and heads be-
ing ripped off, but they don't want to make people
laugh."
Though his logic is somewhat distorted, Clay has a
point.
I am on the edge of angry at whoever dumped over
100 old tires in the Kings Mountain National Military
Park. How could anyone be some mean-spirited?
The park belongs to all of us, and I will not stand
still for such destructive behavior. I guess there isn't
much one person can do about it, but I will make a
gesture, at least.
I will offer a $100 reward for information leading to
the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators.
If there is anyone out there who knows anything
about it, call the authorities. If anyone would like to
stand with me, let me know.
School Board Needs To Move On With Reassignment
*$500,000 to restore the home of Lawrence Welk in
North Dakota.
*$5 million to design and construct a parliament
building on the Solomon Islands.
*$4 million for a Japanese-American museum in
Ontario, Ore.
*$1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center in
Oregon.
*$120 million for 56 highway demnonsization pro-
jects not requested by the president.
If that's not enough, consider these outrageous ex-
amples of waste in the Department of Defense:
*$120 for a cup dispenser that retails for $25 in
commercial outlets.
*$67.50 each for 4-inch-wide rubber gaskets, while
similar plug-type seals for toilets sell for about $1 in
commercial hardware stores.
*$1,868 for a steel-reinforced toilet cover assembly
for the C-5 cargo plane, while similar covers for com-
mercial aircraft go for about one-tenth the pries, about
$182.
Why mention these bathroom supplies, Keyes asks.
Because they are obvious signs that our tax dollars are
being flushed down the drain in Washington.
There could be some good news to all of this,
though. On October 27, thousands of people rallied all
over the country to protest higher taxes and govern-
ment waste. This event, known as Taxpayer Action
Day, was the first time in American history taxpayers
gathered in this fashion during a non-presidential elec-
tion year.
Their message was simple: It's time for a clean
sweep of Washington, time to eliminate the hundreds
of billions of dollars in government waste; time to stop
being squeezed between higher property taxes and
state and federal income taxes; and time to adopt re-
forms with real teeth in them.
"As our overtaxed economy declines, as state and
federal deficits soar, and as billions of new tax dollars
vanish down the sinkhole of government waste, we
can expect more and more Americans to join the tax-
payer's action movement," Keyes said. "The tax-and-
waste politicians in Washington may be riding high
this year, but their days are numbered."
To that, we say it's high time!
Thanks from
Crisis Ministry
To the editor:
The holiday season is over and, probably, most of us
are relieved. Although the real celebration of
Christmas is the birth of Jesus, along with that come
the hectic days of cooking and shopping. For so =
there were no shopping days becauss there was no J
and, therefore, no money.
On. their behalf, I thank all of, you So i bu AW ie
RY) generously of your food, money and time this year.
There were many but I would specifically like to men-
tion a few because it came from our teenagers. So of-
ten we only hear the bad things
that teenagers do and never the good.
Sometime before Christmas, I got a call from a rep- ll
resentative of the Student Council at KMHS saying
that the students would like to do something for the
less fortunate families this year. From them we re-
ceived boxes of food, clothes, and toys. In addition to
ie from KMHS, KM Middle School donated lots of
ood.
During this holiday season (November and
December) the collective effort of the community al-
lowed the Crisis Ministry to help 401 people with
food, four families with rent totalling $256.25, six
families with medical care totalling $189.38, 19 fami-
lies with utility assistance totalling $794.15, and four
families with gas, for job hunting or medical reasons,
totalling $25.89.
This is what "having the Christmas spirit" means.
Sherry Hamrick, Director,
Kings Mountain Crisis Ministry
Today's Bible Verse
"But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, everyone to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
Isaiah 53:4-6
What do you think of the Board of Education's plan to bus your children to Bethware School?
AVIS HOUSER BARBARA DAVIS
It's too far. If my three It's ime the school
children missed the bus ~~ Poard got the kids
settled. It's too far to
they'd have no
Bethware and busing
transportation. The bus
doesn'tneedtobe Would pose a hardship
traveling the by-pass ~~ ©n both the parents
with school kids. and kids.
TAMMY ELDER
| don't want my kids to
have to travel that far
away from home.
LAVERNE GLOVER
| Just moved from New
Jersey and my child
likes East fine and |
don't want him to
change.
As long as the kids are
CAROLYN BROWN CALVIN BESS
| think I's a good Idea
to change from East to
Bethware and change
will be beneficial for
the kids.
bused, | think it's fine.