GARY
STEWART
Editor
Snow break
Snow can be beautiful, but it can present some prob-
lems. Fortunately, the blizzard of '96 which dumped up
to three feet of snow in many northeastern states was
kind to the Kings Mountain area, and was a lovely site
to see.
There were a few bump-ups, of course, and some of
the people who tried to navigate the roads found them-
selves in the ditch. Hopefully, most of them found a
kind motorist or neighbor to help them out.
Snow can be beautiful, if:
- You're young and want a long vacation from
school. In my roaming ‘round town in the snow, I
found dozens of youngsters on sleds, skis, pasteboard
boxes, trash can lids and other makeshift sleds having
the time of their lives. It brought back a lot of memo-
ries of my youth when little country boys had to im-
provise too. Whereas most youngsters today take their
pasteboard to the city streets to slide, we had to find a
steep hill (usually inside a pasture fence where we
sometimes, in the words of Andy Griffith, slid into
something that wasn't second base).
There is one big negative to this story, though.
Those missed, school days have to be made up.
Hopefully, there won't be so many snow days this year
that kids have to go to school on Saturday, which we
had to do once when I was in elementary school and it
snowed something like seven Wednesdays in a row.
My wife, who lived "higher up" in Taylorsville, said
they missed 19 days of school that year. If they'd
missed one more, they wouldn't have had to make
them up.
- If you're creative. I never could build a snowman,
but I saw some good ones last week. The best was a
"snow dog" which Styx Ross of the Oak Grove com-
munity made on the top of a car. Another good cre-
ation was a couple of small snow men built on the top
of a mailbox in the White Plains section. I even saw a
snow man sitting on a commode in the Margrace Mill
section. Someone in our community built a "real"
snowman and snow woman. I won't get into the de-
scriptions, but if you saw the movie "Dumb and
Dumber" you might have a good idea of what I'm talk-
ing about.
- You're on vacation or a long weekend, have plenty
of food in the house and wood for the fire, and the
power doesn't go off. If you're running low on food,
though, like we were last week because I had put off
going to the grocery store all week; you could find“ ig
yourself in the aggravating - and almost hilarious - ex-
perience of being among hundreds of people who are
raiding the shelves of grocery stores as if the world is
coming to an end and you're going to miss out on that
one last sandwich or drink. But after you get home and
wind down and have an entire weekend of football
playoff games and ACC basketball to look forward to,
it's nice (especially when the Tar Heels go 42 and 0 at
home against Clemson).
-You're in the business of selling cars, sledding and
ski equipment, etc. News reports said that because of
the blizzard of '96 there is an increased demand for
four-wheel and front-wheel drive vehicles all up and
down the east coast, and my daughter looked all over
Gaston County for a sled and couldn't find one (I still
say there's one in the barn). I'm thankful I purchased a
four-wheel drive pickup five years ago, but this was
really only about the second time I've had an occasion
to use it.
- You just need a rest. Maybe a weekend snow is
God's way of calling time out. Many people who
couldn't get to work last Monday, and again on Friday,
probably needed to rest their bodies and clear their
minds anyway. Rev. Bill Taber, Executive Presbyter
for the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, who
spoke at our church Sunday, said that only one of the
130 or so churches in the Presbytery had services the
previous Sunday, and at that church only six people
showed up.
But, time is "in" again.
THIS WEEK'S BIBLE VERSE
"...whatever things are true, whatever things are no-
ble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of
good report, if there is any virtue and if there is any-
thing praiseworthy - meditate on these things."
Philippians 4:8
SERENE SCENE - This lake on Canterbury Road in Kings Mountain looked like a postcard one might
receive from the Land Of Lakes, Minnesota, after Mother Nature dumped a couple of snows in the area
last week. The snow has almost disappeared after the temperature hit the high 60s Monday and has stayed
above freezing since. The forecast for tonight and tomorrow is a high in the 50's and a chance of rain.
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Schools making progress
As we come to the mid-point of this school year,
let's take a look at our progress on the four goals our
board of education established for 1995-6. I will deal
with goals #1 and 2 in today's column. My: next col-
umn will look at goals #3 and 4.
(1) Expect results of performance on all state mea-
sures of student achievement to be at or above the
North Carolina average realizing that acceptable
growth is an indicator of progress towards the goal.
We cannot know the results of this goal yet. The only
state tests we will have given by the end of first
semester are the end-of-course tests for students at our
high school in the appropriate first semester courses.
Courses required for testing by the state are English I;
English II; Algebra I; Biology; Economic, Legal, and
Political Systems; and U.S. History. Final results are
not complete, and of course there will be more of these
tests given at the end of second semester which will
not be available until late summer.
We are encouraged by the results of end of grade
testing for the last two years which show good
progress in reading and mathematics in most grades, 3-
8. In fact, the recently released state report card
showed us above state average in both of those areas
on a composite score with especially strong mathemat-
, ics results. It also showed strong growth in the re-
couraged by a fairly incredible effort both in planning
and teaching which I see going on in our schools.
Most tests results used to measure progress on this
goal come from the grade 3-8 tests which are given at
the end of the school year. Iam certain of one thing -
if there are shortcomings, they will not be due to lack
of effort. Our schools are focused on what they need
to pursue and are diligently moving forward. We will
share our final results with you when they become
available.
(2) Communicate to the school community high ex-
pectations for student attendance, ethics, and behavior,
and academic vigor. Our school system has worked
very hard on this recommendation. There are glim-
mers of hope, but much remains to be done. A review
of attendance figures after the third month of school
showed improvement across the system. In fact only
one school, East, is down in attendance from last year.
East's drop is very slight, and that school still leads the
other schools in the system in student attendance.
Attendance at our high school is up over 1%, but con-
tinues to be too low at 92.8%. Some of our high
school students must better understand the connection
between good attendance and learning. Overall, I
think we can be pleased with the improvement in at-
tendance this year.
I believe we are also making strides in regards to
student behavior. We still have problems, and I wish
suspensions were not so frequent. We will not, how-
BOB McRAE
Superintendent
Kings Mountain Schools
ever, allow poor behavior so that we can decrease sus-
pensions. We have taken several steps at the High
School to attempt to communicate our expectations for
good behavior. The addition of a full-time resource
officer and the installation of a video security system
help promote this message. Staff members are also
doing a more thorough job of supervision. I think the
expectations for behavior at all or our schools are high.
We will not be totally successful in this goal until stu-
dents better understand what good behavior says about
pride. Iam particularly impressed by the efforts or our
SAVE clubs at both the Middle School and the High
School. There is a student initiated fight-free cam-
paign at KMHS which is positive proof that we'¢an’’
have excellent schools if our students join us as part-
ners in the effort. Students must want good schools if
we are to have them.
I am completely convinced that we are sending out a
strong message in regards to academic vigor. Each of
our school staffs are very focused on instruction. They
continuously monitor progress to make needed adjust-
ments. Their part of this effort is being done well.
The final piece is to make students better understand
that learning should be a push for excellence not a "get
by with the least you can do" exercise. The key to suc-
cess in this effort is for parents to send the same mes-
sage to their children that we are trying to send.
Parents must motivate their children to excel if we are
going to succeed.
I believe we are making substantial progress in
achieving the first two board goals for 1995-6. In my
next column, we'll look at the other two goals.
Kings Mountain Weather Report
Jan. 10-16 Year Ago
Total precipitation .30 3.51
Maximum one day 30 (11) 2.70 (14)
Year to date 1.66 5.41
Minimum temperature 22 (11, 12) 33 (16)
Maximum temperature 65 (15) 69 (13)
Average temperature 38.8 53.8
Sidewalk Survey
REFLECTICNS ON
RELIGION AND LIFE
Rev. Harold Schwantes
Pastor
Central United Methodist Church
L KINGS MOUNTAIN , NC
ih *
The deadly epidemic
When the snow covered Kings Mountain last week.o|
it was beautiful to look out across the unblemishe ot
fields of white and see the glistening crystals sparkle: 21
It was like, for a moment in time, the slate had bectizt
wiped clean and we were starting creation all over
again. Indeed, many of us found our slated schedules 3
wiped clean for a few days, and we had tie to fume or
to enjoy, depending on our disposition. But alas, 3
snow is melting, and all the tasks undone before the
snow are still before us.
Since I last wrote in this column, a new year has be-
gun. A lot of us try to wipe the old slate clean and res:
solve to write a new one in the year to come. But most?
often we find ourselves still plagued with the same old:
_problems, and the same old habits have their way in us
again. Ah, but it doesn't have to be that way. That is_
why we tried to be different when the new year begai;
and that is why we have every reason to keep on trying
today. What we need is hope: hope that helps us wipe
the slate clean and write a new future. ob
sil
4
i
'
i
Our nation is facing a deadly epidemic. It is espe-
cially menacing among our youth. No, it is not AIDS,
or drugs, or teen promiscuity, but rather a plague of 3
pessimism that has infected millions of young
Americans. Student health clinics in Ivy League uni- .
versities report that the service they provide most fre-
quently to their mostly privileged students is to treat
clinical depression. In a national survey of young
adults by MTV, the word selected least describing their
generation was 'lucky,’ while ‘angry’ and 'stressed out’
were called the best description of this age group. This
depressed and nihilistic attitude toward life could be -
the biggest threat to America today. Human beings
will not learn, will not grow, and will not develop good.
character traits if they believe that discipline and hard
work are pointless, that life is meaningless and unfair,
and that the outlook for the future is grim.
What is the cause of all this pessimism? One factor _
might be the mass media, particularly television, that %
occupies a significant portion of our children's waking
hours. Time and again the media portrays the ugly,«%
consistently dysfunctional images in our society. From
the local news, where alarming or bizarre news is ali ~
ways given the most attention, to talk shows that pa-:v
rade human perversions and tragedy, or movies that ~ii
send a message of an inevitable holocaust coming ini
one form or another, our children are inundated in Deg
ative imagery. The simple solution for every family to. |
consider in this matter is the 'off’ swilch c on the televi-+ 7
sion. dq nai A 510)
Still another cause of he pessimism: is ingratitude. WM
«In a nation that offers. so. many blessings:and so much yd
opportunity, it is inexcusable that we are so unappre« of
ciative. "Honor your father and mother" is more than a:
commandment: it is absolutely essential if society is tony
exist. Yet many children today have no training in this _
basic relationship and no appreciation for the love ands",
sacrifice that parents have given that have made a
child's well-being possible. Besides ingratitude at:
home, there is a rampant ingratitude for Americabud
among youth. History is being rewritten by some that:o2
trashes our American heroes and stains their lives andi
actions in the midst of perilous times. Whether every: ©
motive was pure and simple or not, how could we ever.
repay this country for all the gifts this nation hasczi:
showered upon us so freely? 5d
Perhaps the most basic explanation for the ingrati- qs
tude in this country is that too many of us refuse tos
recognize the great Benefactor who most richly de-is:
serves our thanks. We have tied the hands of our edu- 15°
cators so that they cannot teach our children who toi: fi
thank and can't explore the role of religious faith as thei”
foundation of our civilization. We who have open op: “iii
portunity to influence the lives of this nation's children‘!
must redouble our efforts to demonstrate and tell about vi
the blessings that we have received from the hand of 3
God. Ss
Whenever our vision is clouded by the fog of pes-
simism in this new year, may we recall that we have
deeper reasons for confidence and joy. And may all of ©
us rise up and tell our children so that they can grow in’ 9
that confidence as well. on
* By Elizabeth Stewart
What would you like to see City do
GENE WHITE
former city planning director
The number one prior-
ity of City Council
should be to hire a per-
manent city manager as
soon as possible, sec-
ondly to hire a new audi-
tor and thirdly, to restore
integrity and profession-
al leadership to the city.
work.
GARY HICKS
Interim City Manager
Make more jobs
available by focusing on
recruiting new business
and industry. It's tough
when people are out of
NORMA BRIDGES
City Councilwoman
I would like to see the
full City Council work
together and for 1996 to
begin and end on a posi-
tive note for more eco-
nomic growth for the
city and all citizens.
RICK MURPHREY
City Councilman
Move forward with
planned annexation and
recruit new industry for
more job opportunities
and increased revenues.
in ‘96?
BETTY CLARK
Vision Cable
More places to shop
are needed so that we
don't have to drive out-
of-town. Attracting new
business should be a pri-
ority of City Council.