Page 2A-THE KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Thursday, January 17, 1991
| Opinions
| Your Right To Say It | | KM Schools' Report Card | | Our View
o
Defer reassignment
To the editor:
We believe that the proposed redistricting in the
Kings Mountain City School System will have a detri-
mental effect on all the elementary school students K-
5. The psycho-social adjustment of students as well as
the teachers in the entire school system, if the pro-
posed changes take place, will consume an enormous
amount of irreplaceable time. This adjustment to new
environments, surroundings, peers, and teachers will
further impede the education of our elementary stu-
dents during this delicate time of growth and develop-
ment.
As active PTO parents of elementary children for
the previous 5 years, we have seen the positive influ-
ence of our community involvement result in parents
and teachers working together to provide a quality aca-
demic and psycho-social environment for all our ele-
mentary students. We further believe that this founda-
tion will enable these elementary school children to
continue to grow and develop into well rounded self-
reliant individuals with the capacity to become produc-
tive citizens.
Considering the recent and probable growth of the
western area of Kings Mountain, it is our belief that
maintaining balance will require constant reorganiza-
tion. This reorganization will thus inhibit the establish-
ment of community involvement and continuity of
quality education for the elementary school students in
the Kings Mountain School District.
The Kings Mountain City Schools received a grade
of "par" in the 1990 overall achievement report card
summarizing student performance for 1989-1990. As
we understand this evaluation our system is average in
all areas, nevertheless, each area can be improved up-
on. As the Kings Mountain Board of Education begins
to determine how our system can work to improve the
areas of weakness they will need time, input, and sup-
port from teachers, students, and parents of the school
system. a
We believe that the primary task at hand should be
on improving our overall educational system. This
may be partially accomplished by assessing the avail-
able statistics as well as retrieving pertinent input from
those systems scoring above average. We believe that
this priority will be neglected with the emphasis on re-
assigning for the purpose of balancing numbers in our
elementary schools.
In conclusion it is our request that the reassignment
proposal affecting 311 elementary student families,
teachers, teacher assistants, principals and staff in 5 el-
ementary schools, as well as administrators, be de-
ferred at this time.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Bartley George
It's time for decisions
Dear Editor:
I am vitally interested in giving our children the best
education we can give them. Enough time has been
spent
;lking; now we need to make the decisions
continue our primary goal of educoting sue
d the present Board of Education for not
" win the elementary schools in our system.
The easy thing to do would be to ignore the problem
and to continue as we are; however, the School has the
courage needed to make decisions which provide the
best educational environment for all of our school chil-
dren.
I, also, appreciate the change in our school board
meetings. Any person with the desire may address the
board. After all, the decisions on redistricting could be
made by the board members without having public
hearings, but this board is very interested in gathering
public input before they make their final decisions. I
appreciate their consideration of our ideas and feelings
by allowing our input.
The decision to redistrict and the redrawing of atten-
dance lines will not please everyone but it is some-
thing that must be done. I believe that the school
board we elected will make fair decisions. I do not
support a student transfer policy unless there is a se-
vere hardship to the student; the transfer policy needs
to be defined in advance by the school board.
The school board chose an unbiased consulting
firm to aid them in a fair evaluation of redistricting
and redrawing attendance lines. They chose this firm
not only for its objectivity but because it came highly
recommended by other school boards who had the
same enrollment and racial makeup.
We need to make the decision now and get on with
the process of educating our children. To do this affir-
matively for our children, the parents need to support
the school board's decision; after all, we are not talking
about great mileage distances. By working together, ~
we can assure that all of our children have an equal
education.
ESTHER J. MUENCH
Thank you for coverage
Dear Editor:
On behalf of the Kings Mountain Ministerial
Association, thank you for the generous and caring
~ coverage which your newspaper provided for the ecu-
menical prayer service,"A Call To Prayer For Peace,"
which was held Jan. 13, 1991,
This prayer service was held at a time of urgent na-
tional and world need, as well as at a time of deep per-
sonal need. The prominent placing of the articles gave
the reading public a great opportunity to respond.
Respond they did! Nearly 800 people from across the
Kings Mountain Community came together in prayer.
Thanks in large part to your newspaper, this gathering
was so meaningful.
The KM Ministerial Association also thanks the par-
ticipating ministers, the combined choirs and soloist
Jeff Grigg, and the supporting congregations for their
great part in making the prayer service at Central
United Methodist Church a most profound moment in
the journey of our lives. The Central minister, Rev.
Bob Little, choir director Mrs. Linda Dixon, organist
Mrs. Peggy Ramey, ushers and Handbell Choir all
served as most gracious and helpful hosts. Thank you.
Thanks be to God! For the peace which God gives,
which passes our human understanding, yet which
keeps our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Thanks
be to God, who is our Refuge and Strength, our very
present help in time of trouble.
DR. ERIC M. FAUST
Average 1:
1988 | 1989 | 1990 |
Reading/Language
Average 1!
1988 | 1989 | 1990
Social Studies
Average - :
Average 1:
1988 | 1989 = 1990
Mathematics
The above graphs show Kings Mountain Schools’ achievement in four subject areas in the past three
years in the State Report Card released last week. Shaded area shows the range of possible scores for all
school systems in the state. White area in the middle is the state average. The black box represents the
state's expectations of Kings Mountain District Schools, and the black dot shows the actual achievement.
If the dot is below the box it means KM did not achieve up to expectations. If it is within the box, KM
achieved what was expected by the state. Overall, KM received a "par" grade. Only 10 of the state's 134
systems achieved "above par."
problem of unequal educational experi-
KM people do it again
The announcement last week that Kings Mountain
United Fund topped its goal for 1990-91 was good
news indeed following on the heels of the announce-
~ment that Glen Raven Mills may be the third industry
closed by the recession crippling the textile industry,
bread-and-butter of many who live in this area of the
state. Hundreds of people in the Greater KM area are
signing up for unemployment due to plant closings and
layoffs.
The overwhelming support of Kings Mountain
United Fund by individuals and industries is just an-
other example of the caring people who live in Kings
Mountain, Grover and the Greater Kings Mountain
area. Even in bad times, Kings Mountain has always
cared for the less fortunate and this years' record of
giving to the United Fund was tremendous again. Not
only did you top the goal of $127,500.00 but the fi-
nal count revealed a record $130,434.00 in cash and
pledges.
Volunteers who knocked on doors deserve much
praise for their willingness to work even harder after
some mills had to cut back on pledges due to layoffs.
KM United Fund depends heavily on employees of in-
dustry to make the goal and considerable hours were
spent by drive leaders and volunteers to attain the goal
again this year without cutting back on agency re-
quests.
Twelve of the 16 agencies asking for help turned out
at the Volunteer Appreciation Banquet and their sto-
ries of how one gift to the United Fund brings help to
so many was heartwarming. :
Congratulations to Drive Chairman Glenn
Anderson, UF President Ruby Alexander, division
leaders of the campaign, the donors who gave and all
those who share in the victory. Hats off for a job well
done, a cooperative effort that we will see the results
of for years to come. :
Letter Policy
The Kings Mountain Herald welcomes your letters
to the editor for publication in each week's paper. We
ask that you follow these guidelines when submitting
letters:
Keep the letters brief and to the point. Type and
double space them, if possible, and sign them in ink
stating your name, address and telephone number for
verification purposes. Unsigned letters will not be ac-
cepted.
The Herald reserves the right to edit any letter for
spelling, good taste, libel, slander or any other reason,
and reserves the right to reject any letter for any rea-
son.
Mail your letters to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box
769, Kings Mountain, N.C. 28086. Hand-delivered let-
ters will not be accepted.
Report card good, but there's still room for improvement
I don't suppose that any issue affecting public edu-
vation in North Carolina in recent years has attracted
more attention across the state than the recently re- ';
leased Report Card for the 134 school systems. A re-
cent article in this paper did a good job of capsuling
this effort for you. Today, I would like to attempt to fill
in some of the details about the Report Card and about
our results in Kings Mountain.
The format of the Report Card was an effort to fairly
compare the achievement of all school systems in the
state while recognizing that there are significant differ-
ences from system to system which affect that achieve-
ment. Therefore, the state used six characteristics are
(1( local per pupil expenditure; (2) percent of minority
students; (3) percent of students in compensatory edu-
cation programs (for us this relates to our Chapter I
reading program); (4) percent of students on free and
reduced price lunch; (5) percent of parents of school
children with less than a high school diploma; and (6)
percent of students absent form school more than 14
days in a year. When these characteristics were com-
puted for our system, our index of advantagment was
figured at zero (0). This is the midpoint of the scale
which ranges from -40 to +40. In North Carolina this
year the actual range on the scale was from -31 to +21.
Essentially, this tells us that, in terms of advantages
‘and disadvantages our children have that affect their
achievement in school, they are average as compared
to the rest of the state-that is, about half of the systems
have a greater level of disadvantagement than we do
and about half of the systems have a greater level of
advantagement than we do.
You should realize that many systems cluster around
average and that there is not a great deal of difference
between a system at, for instance, -3 on the index of
_advantagement and one which is.a 0. In Kings
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BOB McRAE
Superintendent
Kings Mountain Schools
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Mountain, according to the Report Card, our children
are just about in the mid-point of the state in terms of
their potential to learn when they. arrive at school.
~ Once the index of advantagement was figured, the
state used that to determine a prediction of how well
our students should do in four major subject areas,
reading/language arts, mathematics, science, and so-
cial studies. Actual results from three consecutive
years of testing were computed to see how we did in
relation to the state's prediction. Tests results used
were from the 3rd, 6th, and 8th grade California
Achievement Tests and North Carolina Writing Tests,
and all high school end-of-course tests for which three
years of data existed.
If a system's actual results were within the range of
its predicted results, it was said to be "at par”. This is
where Kings Mountain scored. If a system is "below
par”, it scored lower than the prediction. While we are
pleased to be at par, we want to improve to an even
higher mark.
What specifically can we glean from our results pri-
or to having the time to thoroughly analyze them? I
would offer the following:
-While we do face some obstacles in helping oer %
students score well on what the Report Card measures, A
they are not overly significant when compared to
many other school systems. We need to identify those
obstacles, make plans to confront them, and get on
with it.
-The characteristics which affect achievement in
which we seem to be most disadvantaged when com-
pared to the state are in the number of parents of
school children who do not have a high school diplo-
ma and in the number of students who are absent from
school a high number of days.
-Science and social studies results in our system lag
slightly behind those in reading/language arts and
mathematics. Over the last three years, our r-
eading/language arts achievement is slightly higher
than the other three areas.
-While we are not doing a poor job, we can do bet-
ter. We have the quality of employees and community
support which can make this possible, and I think our
citizen expect us to continue to improve. The Board of
Education has established improved performance as
one of its goal, and they will have them.
I invite you to monitor our progress. Part of the ef-
fort, a major part, rests with us. But part of it also rests
with you. In the coming weeks we will be identifying
specific ways the community, especially the parents,
can assist. This effort will be no better than the intensi-
ty all parties give it. Get ready to help. In the mean-
time, rest assured that the teachers and other employ-
ees in the school system are quite capable and anxious
to do their part in assuring Kings Mountain that its
schools will continue the long history of excellence
which has been recorded.
Here's hoping we all get to enjoy more sunshine
Today is Sunday January 13, 1991. The sun has
been shining brightly for the first time in almost a
month, or so it seems. That golden sphere, however,
has failed to wipe away all the gloom.
Yesterday, Congress gave the President permission
to wage war, if he sees fit, against Iraq. I don't know
whether that was right or wrong. On one hand, it is
wrong for a bully to send an army into a small country
and deprive it of its right of self determination. On the
other, I shudder to think of people, human beings, get-
ting killed in large numbers.
The Vietnamese war has been over for 17 years, but
today it seems as though that bloody conflict ended
only a year or so ago. ;
I hope we don't go to war. I still remember the ac-
tivists of the 60's declaring that old men were sending
young men to their deaths. I remember how indignant
I was that some U.S. citizens could turn on their own
country in such a manner. I wonder if they were right?
If we fight this war just for the sake of cheap oil,
then that has to be immoral. By the same token, if we
fight a war to free a captive nation, how can that be
wrong?
Someone once said "The cause of freedom is identi-
fied with the destinies of humanity, and in whatever
part of the world it gains ground, by the by it will be a
common gain to all who desire it." I firmly believe all
humanity should be allowed to enjoy the privilege of
liberty.
There can be little doubt that Saddam Hussein is a
despot, and I believe a government based in tyranny
JIM
HEFFNER
. @
Columnist
carries with it the seed of its own destruction. The true
strength of any ruler lies in openness, flexibility and
truth. As soon as government departs from those stan-
dards, it becomes nothing more than a gang in posses-
sion, and its days are numbered. Consequently, Iraq
will lose in the end, but many people may die need-
lessly.
Hussein does have an ace in the hole. If, as he says
he will, he attacks Israel, how many Arabs will desert
the coalition? It is inconceivable that those Arab coun-
tries who are part of the "coalition" will fight on the
side of the Jews they've hated all their lives.
Technically, for example, Syria is at war with Israel,
though they haven't fought each other in years. Are we
to believe they will defend that country? Of course
not.
And what of the Japanese? They get 70% of their oil
from Kuwait, yet they say they will not send troops in-
to combat. I can't help but feel they are sitting back
laughing at the United States.
I'am not completely convinced the Arabs deserve to
have American citizens die in their defense. They
claim they are of the highest religious order yet they
kill in a heart beat. I don't mean to say all Arabs are
bloodthirsty, but I would point out that most acts of
terrorism in the past twenty years or so were commit-
ted by Arabs, and those terrorists have always been
welcomed in all Arab countries.
The Saudis obviously don't believe in religious free-
dom. They have constantly raised objections as our
fighting men and women have tried to worship in their
own way. The American troops were forced to cele-
brate Christmas "quietly."
Nor am I convinced this country can continue to po-
lice the world. Perhaps it is now time to start thinking
about staying home and minding our own business.
American can't be all things to all people.
Whatever happens to the Middle East, we are not
going to settle all the problems in that part of the
world. They've been at each other's throats for cen-
turies. Maybe it is time for a Middle East Peace
Conference.
I sincerely hope Saddam Hussein backs off and
crawls back under his rock. It saddens me to think of
all the young people who are likely to sacrifice their
lives if war does break out.
I hope it doesn't happen, but, by this time next week,
there may be many Americans who will never enjoy
the sunshine again.
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