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The Kings Mountain Herald
July 26, 2007
EMILY WEAVER
eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
Cleveland County Board of
Education members gathered at
the Kings Mountain High School
cafeteria around 5:30 pm on
Monday for dinner and a tour of
the main campus.
Board members walked
through the old welding and car-
pentry shops that are currently
under construction. New walls
have been put up to transform
the open shops into classrooms,
which will accommodate 10 new
instructional areas within the
main building. Assistant
Superintendent for Operations
John Yarbro said that three
Spanish classes and three
Exceptional Children classes, all
of which were formally in mobile
units, will find a home in the
new classrooms, along with four
floating teachers. The Phifer
Road Project that produced the
new Business and Industry
Technologies (BIT building)
across from the main campus,
opened up a total of 12 addition-
al instructional areas. Fourteen
teachers will be permanently
housed in the BIT building and
two teachers will float.
Eight mobile units will be
removed from the main campus,
three of which will be going
across the street to the BIT build-
ing, Yarbro told members. “This
will completely clean the park-
ing lot out on that side of the
campus,” he said. “This leaves
nine mobile units on the main
campus.”
Four Math teachers, two
History teachers, two Drama
teachers, and one French teacher
will be stationed in the mobile
units. “Seven of these nine teach-
ers were in mobile units during
the 2006-07 school year. The
other two teachers floated,” he
said.
The term, “floating teachers,”
EMILY WEAVER/HERALD
Assistant Superintendent John Yarbro (right) explains to school board members and CCS personnel
some of the current renovations establishing 10 new classrooms Inside KMHS' main bullding. Left to
right: Shearra Miller, Tommy Greene, and Superintendent Bruce Boyles.
have a permanent classroom and
therefore use the instructional
areas that are empty and avail-
able to them at the time. Last
year, KMHS had 10 floating
teachers. Only five have been
predicted for the 2007-08 school
year. The school is also adding
another Huskins course, which
offers students a chance to earn
community college credits with-
out leaving KMHS. Kings
Mountain High is also offering
10 AP (Advanced Placement)
courses next year, including two
virtual classes: from Burns and
Crest high schools. Students at
KMHS will be able to take an AP
Government class on the KM
campus that is taught at Burns
and Crest. Through a live video
feed they will be able to hear and
see the remote instructor and be
refers to instructors who do not ape to verbally. interact with the
cart dato axe |
A dieitalh Plorave aliggac ars 1
teachers, who are, in reality,
dozens of miles away. The
instructor will also be able to
hear and see the KM students.
Also new this year is the open-
ing of the BIT building, posing
the question “how do the stu-
dents cross the road?” The NC
Department of Transportation
recommended that Cleveland
County Schools pay them to
build an overpass or a tunnel for
the children to cross. But that
option is a little out of the school
system's price range. They also
posed the idea of rerouting
Phifer Road around the BIT
building. Also pricey. The DOT's
concept plan for a temporary
solution is a refuge island with
crosswalks. :
According to the plan, a cross-
walk will guide the students
across the first lane of Phifer
Fin)
Road, into a concrete median
(“refuge island”) where they will
then venture across the last lane
of Phifer to a concrete area at the
corner of Maner and Phifer. The
students will make their last
cross on Maner to a concrete
sidewalk that leads them to the
BIT building. “Our goal is for
them never to cross the road
without adult supervision,” said
Principal Ronny Funderburke.
He added that whether teachers
in their planning periods or the
student resource officer act as
crossing guards, an adult should
be present.
Board member Philip Glover
asked if flashing caution lights
would accompany the signage
recommended in the proposal.
Yarbro said that the plan for the
refuge island is just a draft.
Nothing is set in concrete yet.
$150,000 hike in
school milk prices
© eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
Milk may do a body good, but
Career Readiness may do a stu-
dent good. Milk-supplier bids
and Career Readiness
_ Certificates were the main high-
lights of the Cleveland County
Board of Education meeting
Monday night in Kings
Mountain High's Media Center.
Jada Brown, CCS” director of
child nutrition, presented bids
for bread, milk, foods and sup-
plies for the 2007-08 school year
to the board for approval. She
received price quotes for the
nutrition supplies, after the bids
were sent out to companies and
officially opened on April 20. For
bread products, she said that
they received no bid from
Flowers Bakery Company, a bid
of $123,400 from Sara Lee
Bakery, and a bid of $120,750
from Interstate/Merita Bakery.
She recommended that the
board accept the lowest bid from
Merita.
For foods and supplies, Brown
suggested the lowest bid they
received of $2,164,019.94 from
US Food Service.
She recommended the lowest
bid they received of $615,209.85
for milk products from PET
Dairy. Board member Richard
Hooker asked if the prices have
gone down any from last year.
“Our bread bid consistently goes
down year after year,” she said,
adding that the competition
between Merita and Sara Lee
keeps the prices low. “Merita,
who we've always had in the
past as our low bidder, continues
to be our low bidder.”
Milk, however, will impact
“our budget $150,000 more than
last year,” she added. The cost of
a carton of milk last year was 19
cents. This year, it will cost 25
cents. “Foods (and supplies)
remains relatively unchanged.
Milk will be the significant
impact this year,” she said.
ACC ONVIFPULISHNMENT
CONMNMIT INVENT
COoONN/ENIENT
=NT
CAROLINA
OYE
Assistant Superintendent
Darrin Hartness gave a presenta-
tion on the NC Career Readiness
Certification program. For the
first time this year, students
were able to take a Work Keys
test, designed by ACT to “mea-
sure real-world skills.”
“It measures Applied Math,
Reading for Information, and
Locating Information,” he said, -
which have been “identified by
employers as the most critical
(beginning assets) for employ-
ees.”
But the system also profiles the
basic skills needed for specific
jobs, measures the skill levels of
test-takers, highlights areas that
need improvement, and “recog-
nizes accomplishments with a
Career Readiness Certificate at a
Gold, Silver or Bronze level,” he
said.
“We recognize that not all of
our students are college bound,”
Hartness added. “We thought it
tm ee a en i ke
would be nice to give them this
assessment so that they could
determine ‘where am I with
being employable in the commu-~
nity?’ It would also give us an
idea of the skills that we need to
infuse into our curriculum. If
would also give current and
future employers in our commu-
nity an idea of the broad range of
abilities within our community.”
The results are promising. In
the district, 728 high school stu-
dents were tested in spring 2007.
Most of the test-takers were
sophomores or juniors, finishing
ahhh hahha St hd
up their first CTE course. Out of °
the 728, 74 percent (542) scored
at the gold, silver or bronze lev-
els. Sixty-eight gold certificates, -
313 silver certificates and 61
bronze certificates were “person-
ally signed” by the governor and
sent to CCS to be delivered this
Fall. Hartness said that students
will have opportunities to see
how they scored and in which
FOr H 2m ei
areas need improvement.
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