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YOL. 104 NO. 33 Thursday, August 13, 1992 Benge Mountain, N. C =
School Bells rin
Drug testing oolicy approved
driver education was approved by
Education Monday night.
A" employees stipulates that an
employee full or part time, or tem-
porary, who operates a motor vehi-
cle on behalf of the school system
must undergo drug testing and be
subject to random testing as a final
condition of employment.
The plan is effective with the
new school term beginning next
week.
Mandatory drug testing of
school bus drivers and teachers of
the Kings Mountain Board of
The new policy for "Category:
In other actions at the August
meeting, the board:
Approved a four percent across-
the-boards raise for School Food
Service employees which Supt. Dr.
Bob McRae called "long overdue."
Accepted the low bids for Flav-
O-Rich for milk products totaling
$44,693.08 and $12,796.80 for
full-strength juice and the low bids
for breads from Bost Bakery, in-
cluding 45 cents for 22 slice loaf;
90 cents for 24-count dinner rolls;
and 58 cents each for 12 count
weiner rolls.
Set meeting time for regular
second Monday night meetings of
the board at 7 p.m. The board has
been meeting at 7:30 p.m.
Accepted transfer requests from
residents of the Woodbridge area
for their children to attend Kings
Mountain schools. Reassigned
from Cleveland County Schools
were John Matthew Bullington, 6th
grade; Bradley Steven Moffitt,
kindergarten; Joseph Boyd Speight,
9th grade, Christopher Speight, 7th
grade, and Robert Stowe, kinder-
garten, North School. Assigned
from Gaston County Schools were
Joshiwa Odums, kindergarten,
East; Jamil A. Roberts, 8th grade;
Camal Roberts, fifth grade, East;
See Drugs, 5-A
School Board resolution
opposes school prayer ban
The five-member Kings
Mountain Board of Education
Monday night unanimously signed
a resolution decrying the recent
Supreme Court ruling which bans
prayer at high school graduation
exercises.
The action on the resolution
came after three residents -- Harold
Farris, representing Bethlehem Fire
Department; Rev. Ralph Sparrow,
representing Oak View Baptist
Church; and Elaine Guin, grand-
‘mother of five students in the
school system, voiced concerns
i, and praised the administration for
taking a stand on the issue.
"We need to vote lawmakers out
of office who want to put prayer
out of ihe schools and vote those
out who want to legalize abortion,"
said the pastor, referring, he said,
to a recent vote by the North
Carolina Bar Association which fa-
vored legalized abortion.
Farris said Bethlehem Fire
Department had worked closely
with area children in fire preven-
tion and safety classes to save
lives. "We also have a spiritual
system. As firemen we know what
it's like to be in a fire. You are in a
public and political firing line and
we appreciate your stance on this
issue," he said.
Guin works for a Baptist
Children’s Home in Dallas.
Rev. Billy Houze, a member of
the board, read the resolution,
which urged members of the
United States Congress to enact
legislation which restores the right
to pray at public school events. It
was also signed by members
Ronald Hawkins, chairman;
Priscilla Mauney, vice chairman;
Shearra B. Miller and Burlie Peeler
Jr.
The resolution stated that the
Kings Mountain Board of
Education is "highly supportive of
prayer at public school events and
has made that feeling known. The
Board of Education believes that
the framers of the United States
Constitution had no intention of re-
stricting the rights of citizens to
pray at such events."
Copies of the resolution will also
be sent to President Bush, Vice
500 school employees.
The week before school opening was busy for 250
faculty members at the system's Bethware, East,
Grover, North, and West Elementary Schools and at
the two secondary plants -- Kings Mountain Middle
School and Kings Mountain High School.
Putting up bulletin boards and readying the class-
rooms was the normal procedures but some teachers
were also involved this week in county-wide
Effective Teaching and curriculum alignment work-
shops, according to Dr. Larry Allen, Associate
Superintendent of Schools.
Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. Superintendent of
Schools Dr. Bob McRae welcomed the full staff to a
breakfast at the KMHS Cafeteria.
‘The promotion of three principals takes new faces
to three campuses. Jerry Hoyle has moved to East
School, Glenda O'Shields has moved to Grover
-
g Monda
School bells ring Monday morning for the opening
Mountain Middle School. Bethware .” Hugh
of the 1992-93 fall term for 3,850 students and over
Holland is back on the job after back surgery. Joey
Hopper returns to North School, Jackie Lavender 0
West School.
a.m. bell.
Kings Mountain High School, and Sherrill Toney to
West School students will attend school in a new
building, moving from old Central School where
they were housed for a year while construction was
underway. One of the first assignments of staff will
be to make plans for the schoel dedication.
Buses will start rolling Monday in time to deliver
elementary children to schools for the 8:15 a.m. bell
and KMHS and KMMS students to schools for the 8
Computer routing of the 38 school buses which
transport 65 percent of the student population has
been done by Transportation Information
School, and John Goforth has moved to Kings 2
~ School bells ring Monday for the opening of the fall term of
Local young Republicans think
it's preposterous that some journal-
ists are calling for President Bush
to step down from the Presidential
race.
Both Chuck Dixon, chairman of
East Kings Mountain GOP, and
Tim Moore, law school student and
a "die hard Bush man," blame the
media for being negative toward
the President and giving Governor
Bill Clinton "incredible attention"
pers.
at Oklahoma City University this
week, said Bush is being blamed
for signing a tax bill that he didn't
have a choice in a Democrat-con-
trolled Congress.
He said he read with interest
syndicated columns and editorials
in Orange County Register,
California, and in other newspapers
calling for Bush to step down but
he feels the reason is that Bush is
giving the appearance of being idle
and these "writers are trying to
on television and in the newspa-
Dixon, who enters Law School
Management System. The computer scheduled the
routes based on where the children live by feeding
the address information specifying how many buses a
See School Bells, 3-A
Local Republicans want
Bush to remain on ticket
"Those kind of statements about
the President stepping down will
fall on deaf ears because he's going
to win in November," said Moore.
Rick Moore, father of Tim,
agrees with his son.
"Bush made a mistake in going
back on his word about taxes but
he had no choice," said Dixon, a
political science major at Gaston
College and a volunteer in the Jim
Gardner Campaign for Governor.
"Senator Al Gore, Clinfon's pun-
ning mate, voted for the tax’ in:
crease and flip-flopped on the War
in the Middle East and wouldn't
take a stand," said Moore. "When
the big scandal about bounced
checks in Congress came out Gore
didn't want the names released to
the public.”
Both young men are following
the local, state and national cam-
paigns closely.
Dixon plans to be in the crowd
for the tribute to the GOP's Cass
school. Art teacher Sherry Bingham decorates the art room at push Bush and get him to come out Ballenger at Cleveland Community
concern for all the children in our
See Prayer, 5-A KMHS. fighting." College Wednesday night.
Two percent pay increase
IS extended
MV CRaes cont ract is of School Administrators. : fo I teac h ers inn ew b u ad J et |
Superintendent of Kings Mountain
District Schools since 1986, was
unanimously nominated for 1992
Superintendent of the Year by the
board of education following an
executive session Monday night in
which they extended his contract
the maximum time allowed under
law -- four years -- to June 30,
1996.
Board Chairman Ronnie
Hawkins said the honor was "much
deserved." He will make the nomi-
nation to the North Carolina
School Board Association for con-
sideration. The award recipient is
announced in November.
McRae was KMHS Principal
from 1979-83. He served as
Randolph County Schools in
Asheboro from 1983-86. He was
educated at Anson High School,
earned his B A. degree from Wake
Forest University and his MA de-
gree in School Administration at
Appalachian State University, com-
pleted his 6th year program in
school administrations at UNC at
Chapel Hill, and received his
Doctorate from UNC at
Greensboro.
He is a member of the North
Carolina Association of School
Administrators and serves on the
North Carolina School Board
Association. He is vice chairman
of the Division of Superintendents
of the North Carolina Association
"Bob McRae is doing an out-
standing job. His performance on
the job proves to the school board
that Kings Mountain is better for
the service he renders, not only to
the ‘children but in the community,"
said Hawkins. "The Effective
School Program which he champi-
oned in Kings Mountain is certain-
ly working and basically teaches
that all kids can learn. Our system,
under his leadership, is providing a
type of environment conducive to
better education and the board ap-
plauds his efforts."
During McRae's tenure major
improvements were made at virtu-
ally all school plants from money
See McRae, 5-A
Elaine Guin, grandmother of five students, urges support of prayer in the schools. She spoke at
Monday's meeting at which the Kings Mountain Board of Education approved a resolution opposing the
Supreme Court ruling which bans prayer at high school graduation exercises.
DR. BOB McRAE
For students in grades three
through eight, this year will be the
first year a new test designed to
measure academic achievement
will be used instead of the
California Achievement Test or
CAT.
The CAT, a nationally standard-
ized test of multiple choice ques-
tions, will no longer be the pre-
ferred test in North Carolina. New
end-of-grade tests, developed by
the N.C. Department of Public
Instruction, will begin in the spring
of 1993.
The new tests reflect higher
standards for student performance
and greater expectations of what
students should know and be able
to do. The new testing has grown
out of a revised curriculum, said
Kings Mountain District Schools
spokesperson Jean Thrift.
The change was made because
the CAT tests subjects and arcas
A two percent increase in sup-
plemental pay for teachers and a
paid annual leave day for all non-
certified school personnel is in-
cluded in the local current expense
budget of $3,546,414.00 adopted
by the Kings Mountain Board of
Education Monday night.
"We had asked for a five percent
increase in the teacher supplement
but the system lost students last
year and we had to take from local
monies and from our fund balances
of $108,105.00 to give the raises
this year," said Chairman Ronnie
Hawkins. An across-the-boards
four percent raise for school food
service employees was also ap-
proved by the board but this money
that teachers don't teach, said
Thrift.
The school system has been
field testing the sample tests for the
last two years.
The tests include two parts to
each subject: a multiple choice sec-
tion and an open-ended question
section. Kings Mountain students
will be tested in reading and math
only this year.
Thrift said the math tests con-
tained 15 percent computation. The
rest of the tests require the student
to apply what he knows and a cal-
culator can be used to do the com-
putation.
Grading will be done on the
multiple choice sections locally.
Special teachers will be hired and
trained to score the open-ended
scctions.
Once students have completed
the tests, the level of knowledge
and skills they have will be defined
comes from the child nutrition bud-
get, said Finance Officer Terri
Haas.
Haas said the board will receive
the total budgets, including state
and federal allocations, at the
September meeting.
Salaries, including administra-
tion, is figured in the upcoming
uniform budgets, she said.
The budget includes capital out-
lay allotment from Cleveland
County of $281,551.00. District-
wide requests account for
$227,006.48 and school grants ac-
count for $40,000 of the total.
Grover School will receive
$50,000 for replacement of a roof
See Teachers, 5-A
No more CAT tests
as basic, proficient or advanced
performance.
"Emphasis is placed on the ap-
plication of skills," said Thrift.
She said educators expected stu-
dents to perform better on SAT and
they will be better prepared to
think in college as a result of the
end-of-year testing.
Some sample questions are:
Third grade Social Studies --
Local governments deal with prob-
lems that face the community.
Describe a problem a community
may have. Tell one way that prob-
lem could be solved by the local
government.
Fourth grade Math -- You have
four rectangular tables that. have
space to seat two people on each
long side and one person on each
short side. Using all tables, draw
an arrangement to scat the fewest
. people. Now draw an arrangement
See Test, 5-A