KM hosts RS Central Friday VOL. 104 NO. 8 they interrupt the entire class. and will go into effect January 27. Kings Mountain High Principal Jackie Lavender says it's not uncommon to see 25 to 30 students in the halls of the school after each class bell rings. And, when the students finally do report to class So, a special committee appointed by Mrs. Lavender has developed a tardy policy which will require tardy students without a valid excuse to spend time in deten- tion. The policy was approved by the School Board at Monday night's meeting at the Administration Office Joel Rountree, a History teacher who complained to Mrs, Lavender about tardies several times, chaired the committee which also included Mrs. Lavender, Bruce Clark, Tony Leigh, Julia Wood, Cindi Hovis, Betsy Wells and Gene Bumgardner. They visited similar pro- Your elec Martin Luther King tricity EES celebration set...3A EE SEC ny ' Thursday, January 16, 1992 called tardies "an administrative nightmare." He said the purpose of the policy is not to punish students but to "get them in class so we can teach them." ra] Rountree said the word about the new policy is al- ready getting around the school and many students look forward to seeing it implemented. He said stu- dents will have five minutes between classes, and af- ter four minutes a special tardy bell will warn students that they have just one minute to get to class. Students who are late to class without a valid excuse will be sent to a "chill out" room where they will See Chill Out, 5-A The Kings Mountain Board of Education will get the first draft of a possible substance abuse testing policy at next month's board meet- ing. The board Monday night in- structed Asst. Supt. for Personnel Ronnie Wilson to draft a possible policy for review next month. The board did not indicate when a poli- "cy might be adopted. The board has discussed a possi- ble policy several times in the past and Melanie Ballard, a counselor at KM Middle School, worked all summer researching policies in other systems. Wilson was instructed to con- centrate on persons who drive school vehicles, including bus ONE LAST SHOT BEFORE WINTER Richard Crawford took advantage of the warm weather last week peratures and high winds. The weather forecast for the remainder of to get in a round of golf at Kings Mountain Country Club. Old Man the week is much the same, with-highs in the lower 40s. Winter came in with a vengeance Tuesday, though, with colder tem- Photo by Renee Walser RTH KM schools may test KMHS tardy dudes to chill out grams at Lincolnton and Central Cabarrus high schools prior to writing their own policy, which KMHS teach- ers approved by a vote of 68-11. Rountree, addressing the School Board Monday, Lake rules will be tighter Moss Lake Commission Monday night approved a final draft of the John Henry Moss Lake Study, an engineering report soon to become part of city ordinances regulating city-owned Moss Lake. City commissioners will receive the report at the January 28 meet- ing for final approval. The study has been in the works for some time and was prepared by W.K. Dickson Company, the city's consulting engineers, The plan calls for stringent per- mits for docks, ramps and mooring facilities at the lake, allows no fences on city property and gives the city authority to condemn piers, docks and structures built on the lake or within the city's control strip. The plan, the basis for draft- ing the ordinance, also details the materials to be used for construc- tion. Fees and rule violations will be incorporated in the ordinance. In other discussions, the board will study the fee structure at the February meeting and will proba- bly ask council to raise the annual camping fee, unchanged from 1974. The board indicated that a new rule will prohibit the dumping KMCC hopes to expand A request for a zoning change to allow a third 60-bed expansion of Kings Mountain Convalescent Center on Sipe Street is on the agenda for the Thursday, January 23, meeting of the Planning & Zoning Board. Kent Cecil of Spartanburg, S.C., doing business as White Oak Manor, has requested the hearing before the board. He is requesting that his property be rezoned from R-10 to R-O. The property, back of Kings Mountain Hospital, borders east on Williams Street and west by property owners off Edgemont Drive. ‘Cecil says the property has ade- quate parking for the addition. A 60-bed nursing home was built in 1972 and the 60-bed addition was added in 1974. The Planning Board will present its recommendations to the city board of commissioners which has set public hearing on the rezoning request for February 25 at 7:30 p.m. in city hall. Karen Radford, KMCC adminis- trator, says the new addition is much needed because more patient beds are needed. She said Kings Mountain Convalescent Center filed a certificate of need applica- tion with the state. If approval for the expansion is given, she said plans are to begin the new con- struction by fall of 1992. The new addition will bring the number of skilled and intermediate care beds to 184. Dianna J. Miller, administrator, and Evelyn Rodden, director of See KMCC, 9-A of Christmas trees or brush in the waters. The board also indicated it will tag the piers. Monika and Vick Pruitt, Moss Lake residents, asked the board for permission to install a chain link fence across city property but the board unanimously denied the re- quest, saying it would set a prece- dent and after City Attorney Mickey Corry said that anything on the city property is city liability. Pruitt said several property owners at the lake have fences on city property and Lake Officer Phil Witherspoon was directed to inves- tigate and give notice to property owners to remove them. The Pruitts wanted a fence installed to the water edge to house their pet Daschunds. "In fairness to all I make the mo- tion to deny the request,” said M. C. Pruette whose motion was sec- onded by Jackie Barrett. Water Supt. Walt Ollis agreed that by setting a precedent the ac- tion might come back to haunt the board. Pruette noted that some property owners might have in- fringed on the rules in the early See Lake, 9-A drivers, teachers and coaches who drive activity buses, and adminis- trators who drive school cars. Other employees may be included later. The policy may call for pre- employment testing and random drug testing. Wilson said all applicants could be required to take pre-employ- ment drug tests as a condition for final employment. Answering a question from chairman Ronnie Hawkins, Wilson said it's also pos- sible to ask on application forms whether or not the applicant is tak- ing drugs and stipulate that if he/she falsifies the application it would be a means for dismissal. Wilson said drug testing is a "very controversial” issue and one Kings Mountain,} RST Ea es, dn = rE ZC Sw G mw nn = Bs = 52 Z OB No n oo © Ne ¢ =. 333¢ ®o < tH ma =rE = cm that is be __ourts, but testing of bus drivers és very much on the minds of the public. "This is very precious cargo they're carrying,” he said. Recently, bus drivers from Bethware School volunteered for drug tests and all of the drivers passed. Wilson told the board state law would not allow the school system to fire anyone who volun- teers for a drug test and fails it. It was suggested that a part of the policy might call for re-assign- ment of employees who voluntarily check into a rehabilitation pro- gram. Supt. Bob McRae said they could be assigned to another area of employment and moved back in- See Test, 9-A Tough discipline policy in works The Kings Mountain Board of Education will see the first draft of a revised discipline policy at next month's board meeting and the pol- icy will likely continue to include corporal punishment. A special Discipline Committee which has been meeting since the beginning of the school year gave ils report to the board at Monday 4 A night's mesting arith School Administration Office. Supt. Bob McRae said the first reading of the proposed new policy would be available at the February meeting and the policy possibly could be adopted in March. Many school systems across the state have banned corporal punish- ment since given that option by the General Assembly. However, the local committee pointed out that parents and educators surveyed in Kings Mountain favored keeping corporal punishment as a last re- sort, and Dr. McRae agreed. David Greene, a teacher at Kings Mountain Middle School, and Ethel Bumgardner, an assistant principal at Kings Mountain High, co-chaired the committee. Other members were parents Tinky Scarborough and Jerome Stephens, students Beth Kreiger and Clay Corry, and educators Paula Goforth, Jackie Shell, Nellie Smith, Sherrill Toney and Ronnie Wilson. Greene said the committee met five times and discussed the entire discipline policy, including corpo- ral punishment, possession and use of firearms, drugs, alcohol, and to- bacco products, theft, assault, and many other areas. "We have seen that discipline has deteriorated," he told the board. "There's a lack of respect for others and autharity. Our schools need to strengthen our policies and look for new methods of maintaining disci- pline." Mrs. Bumgardner said 1,582 NEW BOOKS FOR LIBRARY - First Union National Bank officials Mike Huffman and Elaine Grigg present $2,000 to Mauney Memorial Library for new books to Mrs. J. O. Plonk and Charles F. Mauney, chairman of the library board, right. The city-owned library accepts ones for books, audio visuals, or endowments. ¢ gifts in memory or honor of loved parents returned surveys on corpo- ral punishment. She said 35 per- cent favored keeping it, 21 percent favored banning it, and 44 percent favored keeping it with the parents’ permission. Of 242 faculty and ad- ministration surveys returned, 60 percent favored keeping it, 15 per- cent favored banning, and 25 per- cent favered keeping it: with parental permissiont’ Ua ) After much study, five of the 11 committee members voted to keep corporal punishment. Two favored banning it and four favored allow- ing it with parental permission. The committee recommended keeping corporal punishment as it is now, as a last resort, but also asked that the policy require an ad- ministrator to either administer or witness corporal punishment. Supt. McRae said the committee spent a "tremendous amount of time" studying the discipline poli- cy, and thanked them for their ser- vice. "We need to have a month to consider this further," McRae told the board. "Anytime you get into a policy with strong statements about students who act unappropriately you need to do a good job of in- forming the community. “It's time to make some strong statements about discipline,” he added. "More and more we're find- ing that some students reject au- thority and have no respect for the people who run our schools." In other matters Monday, the board: ® Appointed Shearra Miller, Lynn Eskridge, Mary Perkins, Rev. William Thompson, Mary Accor and Clay Corry to the School Calendar Committee. BW Hired Holland and Hamrick Co. as the architect for the library expansion project at North School. HM Approved several student transfers. § Bloodmobile to visit KM Thursday The Red Cross bloodmobile will return to Kings Mountain for a onc-day visit Thursday fiom 1-6 p.m. at First Baptist Church. Kings Mountain Hospital is sponsoring the annual "soup" visit. The famous Red Cross soup will be served in the canteen to all blood donors. Because of the increased flu in the arca and wrecks during the hol- iday, increased donors are needed, say Red Cross officials. No appointment is necessary 10 give a pint of blood. Fas
