VOL. 105 NO. 42
Thursday, October 21, 1993
Kings Mountain, N.C. 28086 «50¢
Central project gets green light
The Kings Mountain Ministerial
Association will sponsor a forum
for Kings Mountain School Board
candidates Thursday at 7 p.m. at
B.N. Barnes Auditorium.
Former Cleveland County
Commissioner Hugh Dover will be
the moderator. Questions will come
from the Ministerial Association
and will be accepted from the gen-
eral public at the door.
The public is invited to attend.
There is no charge.
The School Board election, a
non-partisan election, is scheduled
for Tuesday, Nov. 2. Four people
are running for two outside city
seats and three are running for one
at-large seat.
All registered voters in the
Kings Mountain School District
are eligible to vote for both outside
city and at-large representatives.
Seeking the two outside city
seats are incumbents Ronnie
Hawkins and C.A. Allison and po-
litical newcomers Melony Bolin
and Keith Miller. Seeking the at-
School Board candidate forum tonight
large seat are former board mem-
ber Billy Houze, Larry Hamrick Jr.
and Myron George. :
Hawkins has served one four-
year term on the board and he is
completing his second year as
board chairman. Allison was ap-
pointed to the board in May to
serve the remaining term of Billy
Houze, who moved inside the city
limits and had to resign his posi-
tion.
See Forum, 2-A
KM Schools to celebrate
new technology programs
Dr. Sam Houston Jr., who heads
the governor's state task force on
school standards and accountability
and a former Kings Mountain resi-
dent, will make the keynote ad-
dress at Kings Mountain District
Board of Education's "Technology
In Schools” celebration Tuesday.
Houston will join a large number
of dignitaries and representatives
of the State Department of Public
Instruction and local and county
officials in previewing the over $1
million in computers installed in all
grades 3-5 and at the Middle
School and watch students use the
new technology.
Houston and Nancy Sites, vice-
president and general manager of
the Eastern Division of Jostens
Learning Systems of Atlanta, will
© speak at the 12:30 luncheon after
the tour of the schools and the
learning s 5 fr 0:30 until
be served at the Holiday Inn at
12:30.
"We are excited," said Dr. Jane
King, assistant superintendent for
public instruction, who will be
master of ceremonies. Supt. Dr.
Bob McRae and School Board
Chairman Ronnie Hawkins will in-
troduce local and county digni-
taries, including Kings Mountain
Mayor Scott Neisler, Dr. Marvin
Armstrong, Dr. Bill Yongue, Mrs.
Norma Miller and Jeannie
Freshcorn, all of the State
Department of Public Instruction,
N.C. Representatives Edith Lutz
and John Weatherly, Dr. Doris
Banner of Gardner-Webb
University, County Manager Lane
Alexander, Supt. Dr. Steve Curtis
of Shelby City Schools, and Supt.
Dr. Earl Watson of Cleveland
County Schools. Local PTO presi-
bers of the Kings
Cleveland County Commissioners voted unani-
mously Tuesday night to submit a request to the
Department of Public Instructions State Literary Fund
for a $300,000 loan which would allow Kings
Mountain District Schools to go ahead with plans to
renovate the old Central School facility into a District
Office.
The item will be on the State Board of Education's
December meeting agenda, and Kings Mountain Supt.
Bob McRae said he hopes the system can award bids
shortly thereafter and begin work by the first of the
year.
"I think it will be a six to eight month project,” he
said. "It would be nice to get it tied up in the summer
so we could be moved in by the start of the next school
year."
The total project will cost $901,817. Kings
tal funds. The $300,000 loan would be payable over a
10-year period at six percent interest and would cost
the system $40,760 a year from its sales tax redistribu-
tion plan or capital outlay fund.
Although the Central building is much larger than
the current District Office, the system has nlans to uti-
lize most of the building. Less than half of the ground
ed for storage.
floor will be utilized as office space :
says that over the years the excess space wi'l be need-
first; but McRae
All of the second and third fioors will be utilized as
offices, meeting rooms, work rooms, storage. tc. The
auditorium will continue to be used by the Kings
Mountain Little Theatre and for other community ac-
tivities, and the Kings Mountain Boys Club will con-
tinue to use the gymnasium and the od bali room
Mountain has about $600,000 on hand from local capi-
or ght, Ww
rk on new computer reading pro-
i Verbatim is leaving Grover
Verbatim Optical Corporation
announced this week that is plans
to cease operations at its Grover
write-once, read-many (WORM)
optical disk facility December 31.
As a result, about 47 of the site's
60 employees will be subject to a
reduction in force. The others will
be offered positions at Verbatim
Corporation's Charlotte facility
where it is consolidating its optical
disk manufacturing operations.
Employees at the Grover site
will receive outplacement assis-
tance and those who work through
December 31 will receive eight
weeks of severance regardless of
length of service. All employees
are being asked to work: through
year-end.
"Verbatim"s total optical disk
business is growing very rapidly,
and even the highly specialized
WORM business is growing, but
not at the rate initially forecast,"
said Nicky Hartery, president of
Verbatim Corporation.
"Accordingly, it is not economical
to continue operations at less than
full capacity.”
The action taken by Verbatim
has no bearing on the PolyGram
Manufacturing and Distribution
Center, which operates a compact
disc manufacturing operation at the
same site.
"The fact that the operation is
being shut down bears no negative
reflection on the quality and capa-
bility of its employees,” said
Hartery. "In fact, their performance
Former Senator White dead
Former State Senator and
District Court Judge Jack H. White
of Kings Mountain died October
16 at 11:50 p.m. at Kings Mountain
Hospital.
The 68-year-old resident of 218
Edgemont Drive had been in de-
clining health for several years.
He was a native of Forsyth
County and son of the late Emmett
and Hannah Hutchins White. He
was a retired attorney and former
Kings Mountain Recorder's Court
and District Court Judge.
KM Tech
Tech Prep is the way of the fu-
ture. Just ask any student enrolled
in the Tech Prep program at Kings
Mountain High School.
Students will also tell you that
when it comes to preparing high
school students through Tech Prep
and vocational education that
Kings Mountain District Schools
leads the way.
The judges of the 1993 R. J.
Reynolds North Carolina Tech
Prep Awards agreed and recently
presented the top award, a plague
and banner and $8000 cash to the
best Tech Prep program in North
Carolina - Kings Mountain, Shelby
and Cleveland County Schools and
Cleveland Community College.
The most outstanding program
award followed three years of im-
plementation at the local level, said
He was elected to the State
Senate in 1965, 1967 and 1969,
representing Cleveland and Gaston
counties. He was a graduate of
Wake Forest College and Law
School.
He was a member and former
Sunday School teacher at Kings
Mountain Baptist Church. He was
a veteran of World War Il.and the
Korean War.
He is survived by his wife,
Dorcas Cline White of Kings
Mountain; a son, Jack H. White Jr.
of Clifton, Va.; two daughters, Mrs.
Nancy Mauney of Cherryville and
Mrs. Alyson Hall of Charlotte; five
brothers, Linnie White of
Hampton, Va., Dr. Emmett White
of Valdese, William White of
Brevard, Edward White of
Rockingham, and Glenn White of
Dobson; and five grandchildren.
The funeral was conducted by
the Revs. Dan Silver, J.C. Goare
and Dick Whitener Tuesday at 3
p.m. at Kings Mountain Baptist
Church. Burial was in Mountain
Rest Cemetery.
"
has been outstanding.
Verbatim Optical Corporation, a
subsidiary of Mitsubishi Kasei
Corporation, began operations at
the Grover site in November 1991
after acquiring the magneto-optical
disk business from Philips and Du
Pont Optical Corporation.
Verbatim produces a full line of
image and data storage products,
including CD-ROM, CD?
Recordable, write-once ang
rewritable optical disks, as well a8
memory cards, floppy disks, data
cartridges and data cassettes.
JACK H. WHITE
Prep program best in state
Betty Gamble, who had the dream
for Tech Prep five years ago and
saw the program come to fruition
when Cleveland Community
College, Shelby Schools and
Cleveland County Schools joined
with Kings Mountain to write the
first grant for funds which was
turned down. After that, the pro-
gram was funded a total of
$300,000 - $150,000 for two years
in a row - but instead of receiving
the grant money in its fourth ycar
of operation this year ‘Tech Prep
was named as the top program in
North Carolina, an enviable award
and an honor that makes Gamble,
veteran Kings Mountain teacher
and Kings Mountain District
School's Vocational Director,
proud
This school year 43 percent ol
the student body at Kings
Mountain High is enrolled in Tech
Prep. Countywide, 1,500 students
were part of Tech Prep last year.
Gamble said the local school
will probably apply their share of
the $4,000 prize money for schol-
arship funds. Cleveland
Community College received half
of the grant money and the three
other schools split $4,000.
Gamble's goal is for 80 percent
of the KMIIS student body to be
enrolled either in ‘Tech Prep or col-
lege preparatory courses. ‘Tech
Prep offers a student a chance to
carn an associate degree. in techni-
cal traning after graduation.
Kings Mountain High will grad-
uate its first full class of High ‘Tech
students in 1995, another fact of
which Gamble is proud
"It's something for the middle
majority in our school systems who
don't plan to go to college,” said
Gamble.
In the Class of 1995. a total of
69 students will earn their Tech
Prep diplomas and then go on to
receive an associate degree at a
college or trade school. This year a
total of 305 students in grades 9-12
are enrolled in Tech Prep.
"We start with the freshman
class and try to prepare boys and
eirls for their field of work so they
will take the required courses.”
said Gamble
Brandy Byers, 12th grader.
Sisavath Phanthalack. 12th grader.
and Dennis Mills, 12th grader.
share Gamble's excitement about
Tech Prep
See Tech Prep, 3-A
which is the Boys Club's office
See Central, 2-A
KMDS Violence Task Force
A newly-formed 21-member
task force on school violence, in
collaboration with the Kings
Mountain Police Department, will
resubmit a grant November 1 to
target school safety.
"Identify what you want to ac-
complish and how you want to do
it," said Dr. Gene Miller, assistant
superintendent of Lexington City
Schools at the organizational meet-
ing Thursday attended by 20 peo-
ple representing various segments
of the community.
"Use students to gain informa-
tion on tailoring your plan to meet
the needs and go from there and fo-
cus on safety and the prevention of
school violence," said Mary Jane
Martin, community relations offi-
cer.
The first application by the
Kings Mountain Police Departmen
r $73,866.99 to he N
Student Support Services, and
Chief of Police Warren Goforth
were asked to review the plan and
present it to the full committee on
October 28 at 7 p.m. in the superin-
tendent's office.
The grant seeks money to edu-
cate students against weapons.
Officers became visible on cam-
pus at lunch hours last year after an
incident at the middle school in-
volving a gun.
Last week a plan was suggested
by KMHS Principal Jackie
Lavender and endorsed by the
Board of Education that students
involved in fights and severe dis-
ruptive behavior will be turned
over to the local magistrate who
will file charges against all persons
involved. During the last school
Child visiti
ild visitin
A 3-year-old child visiting in
Kings Mountain died Sunday at
Kings Mountain Hospital of appar-
ent respiratory problems.
Medical Examiner Dr, Frank
Sincox ordered an autopsy, which
was performed at Gaston Memorial
Hospital through the Medical
Examiners System of the State of
North Carolina, but results have
not been reported to Dr. Sincox.
James Donald Folds of
Bradenton, Fla. and his parents
were visiting family and friends in
' has organizational meeting
KM students get
30-day jail terms
Two Kings Mountain High
School students were sentenced to
30 days in the Cleveland County
jail Monday for their part in fights
at the school on September 23.
Michael Novell Smart, 18, of
1004 Cansler Street, and David
Lee Bell Jr, 16, of 1015 Morris
Street, were both convicted of as-
sault inflicting serious injury.
Jean Toney, the mother of two
boys who were allegedly assaulted,
filed the charges. One of her sons
was injured and was treated at
Kings Mountain Hospital.
Judge Keaton Fonvielle heard
the case.
volved in the incidents.
Lexington City Schools Board
of Education has funded a fuil-
time, armed, sworn police officer's
position and their district safety
plan has become a model in the
state. The initiation of a
Crimestoppers program for grades
6-12 offers $1,000 cash awards and
high management classes followed
a public outcry in Lexington about
violence in the schools. Only one
student was suspended for the rest
of the school year this year after he
took a miniature bat to school.
"Our policies are tough but we
are seeing results and the students
are respecting them," said Miller.
"Lexington is not quite an inner
city system but almost,” said
See Committee, 3-A
g in KM dies
Kings Mountain when the child be-
gan experiencing breathing prob-
lems. He was taken to the hospital
emergency room where family
members claimed he had to wait.
Huitt Reep. hospital administra-
tor, said "there was some wait, but
[ can’t give you the exact times be
cause I don't hive the chart here."
Dr. Sincox said the child had had
previous episodes and previous
hospitalizations for respiratory ill-
nesses.
Senior Brandy Byers, a ‘Tech Prep student, works at her computer
in the Business Department of Kings Mountain High School.