Thursday, August 3, 2000
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Vol. 112 No. 31
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INSIDE
SPORTS
G. STEWART / HERALD
Kings Mountain High
football coach Dave
Farquharson watches his
players go through open-
ing-day drills Saturday
morning.
Mountaineers start
hitting on Saturday
Kings Mountain High's
football team has been condi-
tioning for a week, and now
they're eager to get down to
serious business. The team
will have its first heavy con-
tact practice Saturday with a
Black-Gold scrimmage. 6A
PEOPLE
Moore attending
GOP convention
Kings
Mountain’s
Tim Moore is
having a ball
as an alter-
nate delegate
to the
Republic
a 28 Party's
Convention in Philadelphia.
The party’s presidential can-
didate, George W. Bush, will
officially accept the nomina-
tion tonight. 5A
Jim Belt resigns
from Senior Board
Jim Belt, longtime chairman
of the Kings Mountain Senior
Center’s Advisory Board, has
resigned his seat on the Board
effective immediately. Belt
was also recently removed
from the Planning and Zoning
Board and Board of
Adjustments because his
neighborhood was annexed
into the city. 5A
COMMUNITY
KM Little Theatre
prepares for play
Kings Mountain Little
Theatre is gearing up for the
season at Kings Mountain
Woman's Club. KMLT has
planned “Get Acquainted
Thursdays” every Thursday
in August and is also audi-
tioning for “Nuncracker” on
August 13-14. 2B
EEE
SCHOOLS
Benin,
KM bus routes,
menus announced
Kings Mountain students
will be heading back to school
Monday morning. The school
bus routes, lunch menus, and
stories on orientation at local
schools are on page 5B
School bells ring
No merger,
business
usual for KM
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
School bells will ring for some 4,500 students in
Kings Mountain Monday morning - and they're
still a part of Kings Mountain District Schools.
With the planned merger of the KM, Shelby
City and Cleveland County systems still in limbo
because of KMDS lawsuits against the Cleveland
County Commissioners and State Board of
Education - and, also, because the U.S. Justice
Department has yet to preclear the plan under the
Voting Rights Act - Kings Mountain students and
parents should see a typical school year.
Partly because of the hovering merger, but
mainly because of its past success, KM Supt. Bob
McRae said there will be no major changes in pro-
grams this year.
“We really have tried to keep an even keel,”
McRae said. “Given the fact that we do have to
face the possibility of merger, we didn’t think it
was fair to try to do a lot of new things. But part
of that is, our folks have done very well and we
feel like what we're doing is working and we
need to keep the course.”
Kings Mountain students will see a lot of new
faces in administrative roles this year. The Central
Office has made appointments to key depart--
as
ments, KM High and Middle Schools have new
principals and assistant principals, and Bethware
and Grover Elementary Schools
tant principals. :
Closing
have new assis-
Sie School, 3A
the Gap
Educators, citizens seek ways
to improve minority test scores
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Educators, civic leaders, and
concerned citizens met last
Thursday evening at Adams
Chapel AME Zion Church in
Kings Mountain searching for
answers to the academic
achievement disparity between
black and white students.
Dubbed “Closing the Gap
Public Forum,” the meeting fo-
cused on teamwork between
schools and parents to improve
scholastic performance for stu-
dents who were below grade
level proficiency.
Reading and math proficien-
cy percentages between black
and white students in Kings
Mountain schools for the last
four years have differed by as
much as 30 percent in some
years and categories. Efforts to
reduce the disparity have seen
increases as high as 15.3 percent
proficient in reading in black
male students in Kings
Mountain. J
At a low of 48.9 percent in
1995-1996, the percent of black
males proficient on their end-of-
grade reading tests has risen to
the 1998-1999 figure of 64.2 per-
cent. For this same period, the
percentage of black females
who were graded proficient in
their reading scores was never
below 65.3 percent and was as
high as 77.6 percent. For the pe-
riod 1996-1997, the percentage
of black females proficient in
reading in Kings Mountain
schools was higher than white
males by a score of 75.1 to 73.9
percent.
See Gap, 3A
Coming to t
Employees of Concrete Concepts
fix up 86-year-old woman’s home
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Though their usual projects
involve building tilt-wall indus-
trial structures, Concrete
Concepts of Kings Mountain
took a couple of days recently
to help 86-year-old Mrs. John
Ida Tomes fix up her house.
The job got underway when
Tomes’ friend Ruby Mackey
was visiting her home on Tracy
Street and noticed the poor con-
dition Tomes’ porch was in.
Mackey called Amanda Hoyle -
at the Cleveland County
Council on Aging, who in turn
referred the case to Sharon
Eaker at the Kings Mountain
Senior Center. Like the U.S.
Cavalry coming to the rescue,
Concrete Concepts soon entered
the scene and went to work on
Tomes’ porch.
When the first of two crews
from Concrete Concepts arrived
on the scene, they expected to
find a cement porch in need of
fixing. The job, however, was a
See Porch, 3A
Amber Owens was loading up on school supplies Tuesday
morning in Kings Mountain. The first-grader said she was ex-
cited about beginning her academic career. ~~ © Hw
Staff Writer
Citing more pre
Commissioners
turned down a re-
quest by Kings
Mountain District
for a $2.7 million 1
grades 5-6 school.
“We're caught b
would be paid bac
as possible.
done.”
McRae went on
that Kings Mount
missioners that a
lecting a site that
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD money.
McRae said.
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD
Bethware Elementary principal Mary Accor and Shelby busi-
nessman Richard Hooker looked over some materials before
last Thursday’s “Closing the Gap” forum at Adams Chapel
AME Zion Church in Kings Mountain. The forum focused on
parents getting involved in their children’s scholastic perfor-
mance.
Schools Tuesday night
to build their planned
ssing needs for their $3.3 mil-
lion cash reserve, Cleveland County
Commissioners
face another
merger-related
lawsuit 3A
oan
etween a rock and a hard
place,” commissioner Joe Hendrick said in refer-
ence to uses already slated for the cash reserve.
Several times throughout his presentation to
the commissioners, Kings Mountain Schools su-
perintendent Dr. Bob McRae emphasized that the
requested money would not be “a gift” but
k as soon as possible. McRae
also stressed that the money would be used fru-
gally to build the best school as cost-efficiently
“It is good business sense to go ahead with this
project,” McRae told the commissioners. “The
loan would open the door to get the project
to remind the commissioners
ain had not built a totally new
school since the 1970s. He also assured the com-
lot of effort had gone into se-
provided the best land for the
“We want to build a solid, attractive school,”
See County, ZA 0 0
State Board
may reaffirm
school merger
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
The State Board of Education
is expected to reaffirm its ap-
proval of the merger of Kings
Mountain, Cleveland County
and Shelby Schools at a meeting
Thursday morning in Raleigh.
Chairman Phil Kirk told The
Herald Tuesday night that the
Board would meet in closed
session Wednesday afternoon to
study transcripts from
Administrative Law Judge
Morrison, who had earlier de-
nied at Kings Mountain request
for an injunction to prevent im-
plementation of the Cleveland
County Commissioners’ merger
plan.
The State Board took the
merger action off its agenda last
month because it had not re-
ceived that information.
Kings Mountain's merger at-
See Merger, 3A
e aid of a neighbor
Concrete Concepts in Kings Mountain recently volunteered two crews of employees to help 86-
year-old Mrs. John Ida Tomes repair her home. Among the workers who helped were, left to right;
Jeff Young, Johnny Mills, Jeff Horton, and Chris Walker.
OXS
OCC
helt)
HOMETOWN
BANK
| Kings Mountain Gastonia Shelby Bessemer City
FIRST NATIONAL BANK 300 W. Mountain St. 529 New Hope Rd. 106 S. Lafayette St. 1225 Gastonia Hwy.
Celebrating 126 Yeare 739-4782 865-1233 484-6200 629-3906
Member FDIC
Monday
Commissioners
hold off on loan
for KM school
BY ALAN HODGE