Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The Kings Mountain Herald
Page 5A
Success in Cleveland classrooms in 2010
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
Although budget issues lurk in
the shadows of the near future, the
path Cleveland County Schools has
taken over the past year has seemed
pretty bright. !
CCS has worked to improve its
communications, expand its use of
technology, construct a new middle
school and excel in academics. The
district has been able to do all of
these things, while still holding on
to the No. 1 rank in the nation in
per capita giving to the United
Way.
Although the same can’t be said.
for the fiscal year it faces, CCS has
been able to even save teachers’
jobs, implement the beginnings ofa
uniform salary scale and offer
teacher supplements this year.
While other area school systems
were scrambling to avoid teacher
layoffs, the Cleveland County
Board of Education applauded
Supt. Dr. Bruce Boyles in April for
a $161 million budget without cuts
and with a 10 percent increase in
supplement scales for certified
staff. The budget was also packed
with a uniform classified ‘salary
scale to take the non-certified staff
to an equitable pay scale level
|
across the system.
“We're trying to fix the in-
equities in our non-teacher salaries
that existed since merger between
Kings = Mountain, Shelby and
Cleveland County,” Dr. Boyles
said. “We had three really different
salary schedules. We're trying to do
some salary adjustments this year
to fix that.”
“It’s kind of unusual to be doing
that at a time when we are facing
cuts, but that’s a commitment the
board made and the (county) com-
missioners have encouraged us to
fix those salaries,” he added.
Funding constraints had pre-
vented the implementation of this
initiative previously.
Although some teachers and
staff were asked to take on more re-
sponsibility last year after a round
of budget cuts eliminated positions
through attrition, retirement and
resignations, classrooms have con-
tinued to make the grade.
Academic successes
“We’ve done well academically
this year,” Dr. Boyles said. “We
again had’ no federal sanctions
under the No Child Left Behind
program, which I think is an ac-
complishment.”
He also noted that East was rec-
ognized among the top 20 elemen-
tary schools in the state. East Ele-
mentary ranked 15th in
performance’ for the whole state at
95.6, outscoring schools in other
cities in the ABC’s of Public Edu-
cation, the North Carolina im-
provement/accountability program
of the N.C. Department of Instruc-
tion.
“Eighty-eight percent of our
schools achieved growth on the
ABC's, which I think is just phe-
nomenal,” Boyles added. “We had
the highest percentage of National
Board Certified teachers in the re-
gion again this year.” . -
He also noted the graduation
rate in schools appears to be im-
proving.
“The state has not released the
drop-out rate numbers yet, but
we’re doing much better,” he said.
“This past year, the graduation rate
improved at least five percent in all
of our schools. We had as much as
10 percent in a school.”
But he cautioned that those stats
have to be verified and released by
the state.
“I think with the strategies that
we’ve put in place and things like
the Freshman Academy, those
kinds of things are starting to pay
dividends now. And we knew when
we started those that it would take
a couple of years before we started
seeing it. But we’re seeing across
the district now, our graduation rate
is improving significantly,” he said.
Dr. Boyles credits programs like
the Freshman Academy, Turning
Point Academy (the district’s alter-
native school), the Cleveland Early
College High School, teachers and
graduation coaches for working to-
gether to make a difference in the
graduation rate.
“There’s a lot of things that have
made a difference there,” he said.
* Kings Mountain High, Crest
High and Burns High have housed
Freshman ‘Academies for two-and-
a-half years now. Shelby High is
into year four. Dr. Boyles, whose
son attentls the academy at KMHS
has noticed firsthand the successes
in the program. “We're seeing
fewer discipline referrals, higher
grades, less absenteeism, so all of
the indicators of student success
are there and they’re making a dif-
ference,” he said.
Good times with PBS
Another program in schools that
seems to be doing well is Positive
Behavior Support (PBS). “(It) re-
ally has worked to help focus on
positive behavior rather than nega-
tive behavior,” Dr. Boyles said. “It
encourages and teaches kids good
behavior as opposed to always pun-
ishing them for bad behavior.”
He added that they are seeing
the benefits of the program in the
schools where it is being imple-
mented. Kings Mountain Interme-
diate has noted success with the
program. Students are encouraged
to earn points through good behav-
ior and meeting goals. Points can
later be cashed in on rewards days
and special activities.
Another accomplishment, Dr.
Boyles added, is the construction of
the new Shelby Middle School.
“That is well underway. It’s
about half done. We’re shooting to
be in it by the fall,” he said.
The current Shelby Middle
School will hause the district’s cen-
tral offices and the Turning Point
Academy, once students and teach-
ers settle into the new building.
The LeGrand Center that will
one day house the Early College
High School across from the Bai-
ley Building on the campus of
Cleveland Community College is
also under construction. In this
joint project between CCS, CCC
and the county, the LeGrand Cen-
ter is set to open in Spring of 2012.
See SCHOOLS on Page 11
2010
Continued from Page 1
After winning the pri-
mary, Democrat Alan Nor-
man won the election, went
back to work and later was
fired from the Cleveland
County Sheriff’s Office
while. interviewing officers
. for his transition team, He -
and three other officers also
shown the door were grace-
fully hired by Gaston
County. Six days before
Norman was to be sworn
into office as sheriff of
Cleveland County, Hamrick
resigned from his post, leav-
ing the role of high sheriff to
County Coroner Dwight
Tessneer, who rehired,
swore-in and deputized Nor-
man and the others.
Hamrick’s salary was
$92,000 a year and his re-
tirement benefit of $4,200
. monthly started Dec. 1 (the
day after he retired).
In a primarily Democrat-
strong county, Republicans
now hold the majority in the
chamber of county commis-
sioners. They took the chair
and vice chair of the board
and four out of five of the
commissioners now hail
from Kings Mountain.
3. City Welcomes
New Industry
In spite of a sluggish
economy, industrial an-
nouncements of new compa-
nies moving in and new
grants to bring them in have
come as welcome news and
have hit the headlines at least
18 times this year. Kings
Mountain and Cleveland
County welcomed Solaris
Industries, an international
steel tubing company based
in Canada, to its first U.S.
home on Industrial Drive,
after hammering out incen-
tive deals for the company
codenamed ‘Project Bon-
jour” (with 40-50 jobs).
In March, the city re-
ceived an $82,678 grant to
renovate a former manufac-
turing building on Quality
Lane for reuse by the new
Qual-Tech Industries, which
opened with five jobs for,
skilled laborers with hopes
of adding 25-30 more.
Duke Energy broke
ground on its new 188,000-
square-foot training center,
the Kings Mountain Genera-
tion Support Facility, in the
Cleveland Industrial Park in
August, The site is set to host
thousands of workers in
training. \
A couple of months after
sources confirmed that In-
focrossing, Inc., a division of
India-based technology giant
Wipro Ltd., had chosen to
locate its new flagship data
center in KM’s former Chris
Craft boat factory, the Gov-
ernor came to announce it
officially. The data center
(also known as a server farm
where instead of assembly
lines and hundreds of work-
ers, thousands of computers
work to compute and trans-
mit heeds for clients) are
popping up across the state
and region. .
In October, construction
was underway at the 275-
acre site of Southern
Power’s proposed $400 mil-
lion Cleveland County Gen-
erating Facility between
Kings Mountain and Grover.
Construction was also get-
ting underway for the new
lithium plant at the existing
Chemetall Foote Kings
Mountain production site.
The lithium expansion is
funded partly by a $28.4 mil-
lion grant from the U.S. De-
partment of Energy for
advanced transportation bat-
teries.
Martin-Marietta ~~ pur-
chased a city building permit
for a $1.2 million expansion
of its Kings Mountain
quarry.
4. Downtown
Developments
This has also been a busy
year downtown. In January,
representatives of the city
and Mountaineer Partnership
Inc. traveled to New Bern to
collect their official award as
a “Main Street City” from
the North Carolina Main
Street Program.
The city and MPI have
secured nearly three-quar-
ters-of-a-million - dollars in
grant money for downtown
businesses in 2010 with
more to come. Three new
restaurants are on the hori-
zon:
* Old Stone Steakhouse
and Battleground Bar, 220
Railroad Avenue; a nearly
million dollar project of fa-
ther and son restaurateurs
Nick and Rich LaVecchia,
who have partnered with
downtown property owners
Scott Campbell and Bobby
Horne. $204,000 in grants.
+ JAX Backstreet Tavern,
218 Railroad Avenue; an-
other project of the LaVec-
chias. $185,000 grant
(including upstairs office
space for Sparrow Eye Cre-
ative, SG6 Enterprises, and
Campbell & Campbell of
NC, LLC).
» Center Street Tavern
and Smokehouse, 238
Cherokee Street; project of
Kathleen Hover (owner of
Center Street Tavern in
Cramerton), set to open Jan.
13;
A $250,000 grant was ap-
proved by the state to help.
Majors Wellness Center,
AFAB Promotions, . and
Hometown Hardware and
Garden Center expand and
improve their businesses
downtown.
Officials from the NC
Main Street Center toured
the city in July, meeting with
downtown property owners
and merchants and looking
for strengths and weaknesses
in the downtown. Helping
‘MPI and the city chart a path
to growth, the Main Street
team revealed their findings,
including a list of things KM
is doing-well and things*to
work on. ¢
5. National News Hits
Home
Kings Mountain is not
immune to the outside world
and headlines this year
proved it. After a 7.0 earth-
- quake rocked Haiti to its
core, local churches, mis-
sionaries and schools rallied
to its aid. Students at Grace
Christian Academy raised
money for the relief effort
wearing “Hats for Haiti.”
Grover Elementary class-
rooms held “Penny Wars”
for Haiti. Kings Mountain’s
Family Worship Center sent
truckloads of relief items to
Port-au-Prince in a mission
nicknamed “Operation Com-
passion”.
KMHS teacher Dan Pot-
ter and students raised
money for a Haitian family
that had ties to Kings Moun-
tain, hoping .to bring
them...or at least the children
back to the city they once
called a safe home. A woman
who lived through the earth-
quake, Michelle Remy, came
to speak about the terrible
experience at local churches.
On March 21, after much
debate, Congress passed
health care reform into law
(219-212 with all Republi-
cans and 34 Democrat hold-
outs voting “no”). And in
Kings Mountain members of
both parties and two insur-
ance agents sounded off on
the bill’s passing.
As reported in The Her-
ald on Dec. 8, a national de-
cision on gay pastors split
one local congregation with
Advent Lutheran Church be-
coming the third active wor-
shiping Lutheran
congregation in the city.
Sixty members of Resurrec-
tion Lutheran decided to
leave and join the newly-
formed North American
Lutheran Church Synod,
after the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America
voted “to allow practicing
homosexuals in committed
relationships to.be ordained
as pastors.”
6. Reaching Out to
Those in Need
From planting potatoes to
feed the hungry and bringing
the “Billy Graham of the
streets” to save our youth to
Hospice and the rescue
squad opening new doors in
Kings Mountain, community
members continue to make a
difference. Roger Goins and
Councilman Mike Butler
collected enough coats to
help East Elementary keep
30 families warm last winter.
The Kings Mountain Police
Department’s Training
Room was filled with
enough treasures last Dec. to
assist 58 families for Christ-
mas.
A group of compassion-
ate citizens from different
churches and backgrounds
joined forces throughout the
county planting Irish and
sweet potatoes for the hun-
gty. Crops were given to or-
ganizations like the Kings
Mountain Crisis Ministry for
distribution. Youth groups at
Christian Freedom Baptist
and Patterson Grove Baptist
churches fasted in 30-hour
famines and slept outside the
comfort of home to raise
money, food and awareness
for those who have to go
without food and shelter.
Local pastors banned to-
gether to bring Nicky Cruz,
former gang leader turned
evangelist, to talk to the
youth in a rally attended by
thousands that packed the
stands at an arena on the
Cleveland County Fair-
grounds. Cruz, the author of
“Run Baby Run” and who
was nicknamed the “Billy
Graham of the Streets,”
shared a powerful message
with crowds in three local
events.
On May 6, Hospice
Cleveland County opened
the doors to its new facility
in Kings Mountain. Within a
week, the eight-bed facility
was full to capacity with pa-
tients and loved ones. On
Sept. 21, the Kings Moun-
tain Rescue Squad broke
ground for their new 6,000-
square-foot facility on
Shelby Road, a project 20
years in the making.
7. Talk About the
Weather
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The weather has garnered
some headlines this year
with colder-than-usual win-
ters and a hotter-than-hoped-
for summer. A
snow-threatening cold snap
+ in early January was noted as
the first one the region had
seen since January 1977. A
double punch of snow and
ice at the end of January
closed churches and schools
after a four-inch snowfall
kept residents inside. An-
other winter snow storm car-
rying about three inches of
snow blanketed Kings
Mountain in mid-February.
But then in August, a
summer heat wave fueled
more calls to the KM Crisis
Ministry for, assistance with
power bills.
Winter came early this
December as snow and
freezing rain entered the
forecasts before the official
day of winter on Dec. 21st,
and this weekend the state
saw its first Christmas snow
in over 60 years. The storm
dumped a foot of snow in
western North Carolina, a
couple of inches in the Pied-
mont and then transformed
into a blizzard as it moved
north up the east coast.
8. Missing Man
Found in Quarry
It was a sad ending to an
open case of a mother wait-
ing for her son to return.
Dustin Miller went missing
_ in August 2009. In Septem-
ber, two young men stum-
bled across bones in an
abandoned quarry on the
property of Chemetall Foote
production
site. The remains were iden-
tified to be those of Miller.
No homicide was suspected.
9.Legionnaires Fight
for Home
Legionnaires told Post
155 club officers and man-
agement that their home is
not for sale after a “for sale”
sign was Staked in the front
yard without general mem-
bership approval. An option
was offered to lease part of
the building, but was also re-
jected. After months of al-
leged limited profits and use
of the facility, Post Com-
mander Howard Kieser said
that the “Post is struggling”.
On Dec. 9, Legionnaires
voted 13-12 to keep the
Post’s home open, but with
new management.
10. A Light in a Dark
Economy
In the midst of this econ-
omy with unemployment
numbers bobbing in the
teens (percentage wise) for
much of the year, there was
some good news. Cleveland
County Schools saved jobs
and even offered supplemen-
tal pay to certified staff in its
2010-11 budget. Goodwill
Job Industries was helping
people learn new skills, pol-
ish resumes and get back to
work this year. They helped
Sally Adolf, of Kings Moun-
tain, who went from unem-
ployed to on-the-payroll at
Goodwill’s Gaston County
Job Connection. And with
help from private financial
counseling agencies like the
Cleveland County Commu-
nity Development Corpora-
tion, folks who have lost
their jobs or have had hours
cut have been. able to keep
their homes.
James Gregory
Thursday, January 20, 2011
7:00 & 9:00 PM
Joy Performance Center
202 S. Railroad Ave., Kings Mountain
General Admission $25 Reserved Seating $35
VIP Table Seating $50-°°
To reserve your tickets or for more information call
704.730 9408 or email jimchampion@carolina.rr.com
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