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VOL. 94 NO. 81
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 17, 1981
KINGS MOUNTAIN. NORTH CAROUNA
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TALENTED GROUP - Norma Cissell works District. Over 800 students in the district are
with a group of academically talented classified as exceptional,
students in the Kings Mountain School
Over 800 Exceptional
Students In KM Schools
By lANE SHIELDS
Who are the exceptional
children in Kings Mountain
District Schools? How are they
classified as exceptional? What
kinds of programs serve these
students? These are but a few
questions parents, students and
the community ask in an at
tempt to discover the world of
exceptional children in the
schools. Most persons have an
image in their minds of an excep
tional child whether it is a son,
daughter, neighbor, friend or ac
quaintance. In this article it is
the intent of the writer to ex
pand that image and to create a
better understanding of these
students. Perhaps the first ques
tion one needs to answer is who
are these children.
The North Carolina State
Board of Education recognizes
Richard Greene Resigns
As Central School Principal
Richard Greene, principal of
Central School since 1978 and a
principal in the Kings Mountain
District Schools since 1968, has
resigned his position to take a
newly-created position as ad
ministrative coordinator of the
N.C. Alternative Energy Cor
poration’s electrical load
management program.
Greene, whose resignation
was accepted Monday night by
the Board of Education, will
assistthe public schools and com
munity colleges in the state to
implement effective electrical
load management plans which
will reduce their energy costs
and ease the utility companies'
peak load demands.
Greene’s resignation is effec
tive September 30.
Mrs. Glenda O’Shields, who
was acting principal at Central
last year while Greene was on a
leave of absence to work in the
North Carolina Leadership In
stitute for Principals, has been
named acting principal.
Superintendent William Davis
RICHARD GREENE
was authorized by the board to
take whatever actions necessary
to fill the assistant principal’s
positon previously held by Mrs.
O’Shields.
Greene, who will move to
Raleigh, said his first order of
business in his new position w ill
Turn To Page 6-A
the following categories of ex
ceptionalities: autistic, gifted and
talented, hearing impaired, men
tally handicapped, multihan
dicapped, orthopedically im
paired, other health impaired,
seriously emotionally handicap
ped, pregnant school girls,
specific learning disabilities,
speech and language impaired
and visually impaired. Of these
twelve categories. Kings Moun
tain District Schools has 818
students who fit into ten of the
categories. Of these students ap
proximately 226 are gifted and
talented and the remainder are
handicapped.
How does a student qualify
for placement in the Exceptional
Children’s Program? First, a
referral form is completed by a
parent, teacher, or principal to
indicate the student has a par
ticular need. Once the referral is
made, a variety of activities take
place which include the follow
ing: obtaining parental permis
sion for evaluation; testing ses
sions; and conferences with
parents, teachers, school
psychologists and others to
determine if a student meets
state requirements for inclusion
in a program. Other activities in
clude placement in a program if
the student qualifies and the
writing of an individual educa
tion plant (lEP).
When looking at placement
one must also consider program
ming or what is available to the
youngster who qualifies for a
program in Kings Mountain
District Schools. Each school in
the system has professional staff
to serve these youngsters. In
Turn To Page 3-A
UF Drive
Is Launched
On Monday
The Kings Mountain United
Way officially launched its 1982
fund-raising drive Monday with
a luncheon at the Holiday Inn
and an announcement that the
Industrial Division has already
received pledges of $9,700.
Rev. Clyde Bearden, presi
dent, said those pledges repre
sent 15.6 percent of the total
goal of $63,000, and 23.6 per
cent of the Industrial Division’s
goal of $41,000.
Dick Ford, vice-president of
Wix Corporation of Gastonia,
was guest speaker for the occa
sion, and Dwyer Sump, ex
ecutive director of North
Carolina United Way, also at
tended and spoke briefly to the
huge gathering of campaign
volunteers.
Turn To pago 4-A
A. 1 V
.V
20<
Nation Chevrolet
Bought By Testa
Jim Testa, owner of Kings
Mountain Truck Plaza and the
Jim Testa Racing Team, an
nounced today that he has pur
chased Jerry Nation Chevrolet
Corporation from Jerry Nation
of Kings Mountain and Ralph L.
Abernathy of Lincolnton, and
has begun clearing for construc
tion of a new facility on York
Road at Interstate 85.
Testa will assume manage
ment of the dealership Monday
morning.
Carl Bell of Kings Mountain
will join the company as General
Sales Manager and J.T. McGin
nis, who has been associated
with the business for a number
of years, will remain in the sales
department.
Harold Allen, a former
employee who has been working
at a car dealership in Gastonia,
will return to work in the service
department.
Traffic
Problems
Tackled
The Kings Mountain Board of
Commissioners Monday night
approved a plan which will align
East and West Gold Streets.
The plan will include aligning
the streets at what is now the
corner of East Gold and Bat
tleground, close the current
West Gold railroad crossing and
relocate it some 178 feet south.
Mayor John Moss told the
board he has discussed the pro
ject with Southern Railway and
the N.C. Department of
Transportation, and there will be
some cost to the city in the
relocation of the railroad
signalization and lights.
“But this will augment the
flow of traffic which is being re
routed as a result of the con
struction of the Highway 74
bypass,” Moss said, “and will
also help augment the flow of
traffic in the future as Kings
Mountain grows.”
Moss said the street will run
through the field on the south
side of West Gold which the city
acquired through the Communi
ty Development program. He
said it would probably also be
necessary to acquire some addi
tional property from two
citizens.
Moss said the city would pro
pose an amendment to the
Department of Housing and Ur
ban Development to use HUD
funds in the project.
The new street would meet
the present street in the area of
the gas regulator station near the
West Gold-Cansler Street in
tersection, Moss said. It may be
necessary to move some utilities.
Moss said engineers would study
Turn To Page 3-A
Photo by Gory Stewart
DRIVE BEGINS - Members of the Industrial
Division pick up their materials to begin
soliciting funds for the 1982 Kings Mountain
United Way Campaign following Monday's
kickoff luncheon at the Holiday Inn. Left to
right are Lavon Strickland, Maude Norris.
Russell Greene, Barbara McDonald, Poul
Dover and Alex McCollum. The Industrial
Division already has pledges of $9,700.
IIM TESTA
Other present employees will
be retained and Testa said he
hopes to build a work force of 35
to 40 employees within a year.
Testa will build a new facility
on York Road on a six to eight
acre tract of land which lies
behind the recently-closed
Phillips 66 gas station and fronts
the Kings Mountain Cam
pground Road.
The showroom will consist of
16,000 square feet of space and
will be capable of showing three
or four cars. Testa said, and both
the service and body shops will
be in large areas and offer im
proved services.
The Phillips 66 building will
be remodeled to include office
space for used car sales.
Testa said cost of the new
facility will be $600,000 to
$700,000. Terms of the sale was
not disclosed.
Testa will be President of the
company and will work at the
dealership. He will continue to
operate the Kings Mountain
Truck Plaza which will be
Turn To Page 3-A
McCarter, Ross File
For Election In Grover
Grover Mayor W.W. Mc
Carter has filed for re-election to
his fourth term and Grady Ross
has filed for one of the five seats
on the Grover Town Council.
Filing began last Friday and
will continue through October 2.
The election is set for November
3.
Incumbent commissioners
Quay Moss, Juanita Pruett,
Martha Byers, Edward Philbeck
and Ronald Queen have not yet
announced their intentions.
McCaner is completing his
third two-year term of office. He
served for 18 years as a coun
cilman prior to being elected
mayor.
He said his main goal, if re
elected, will be to continue to
work on a sewer system. “That’s
been our goal for years now,” he
said, “and even though the
Reagan Administration cuts will
move further into the future, 1
don’t want us to miss the chance
to get it.”
McCarter pointed to an im
proved water system, paved
streets and full-time police pro
tection as accomplishments of
M ■ v :
McCarter boss
the past McCarter Administra
tions.
“Pure, good, honest govern
ment is my biggest goal,” he add
ed. “I think we’ve accomplished
some good things in the past. I’m
real proud of this little town.”
Ross is running for council for
the second time. He was
defeated in the last election two
years ago. He’s been a resident of
Grover for over 30 years and is
employed by Foote Mineral.
“I think we’ve got to have
some better cooperation on the
part of the commissioners,” he
said, ‘That’s the main reason I’m
running. There are a good many
things to work on, but 1 don’t
want to make promises and then
not be able to fulfill them.”
Hunting Accident Fatal
For Louis Sabetti Sr., 59
Funeral services for Louis G.
Sabetti Sr., 59, of 915 Crescent
Circle, Kings Mountain, were
conducted Friday at 4 p.m. at
Resurrection Lutheran Church,
of which he was a member, by
the Rev. Gerald Weeks. Burial
was in Mountain Rest
Cemetery.
Sabetti, a well-known Kings
Mountain insuranceman and
community leader, was killed ac
cidentally Wednesday afternoon
while dove hunting in a field off
Road 2013 north of town in the
Ebenezer Community.
Sabetti had gone dove hunting
with his son, Louis Sabetti Jr.,
and his brother-in-law. Jack
Whetstine.
According to Cleveland Coun
ty Assistant Coroner Jim Gold,
^betti was sitting down and a
cornstalk stuck between the trig
ger and trigger guard, and as
Sabetti picked up the gun, it
discharged and hit him at point-
blank range in the chest.
There were several other
hunters in the field. Gold said,
but Sabetti was alone. Whetstine
discovered his body.
Sabetti was a retired sales
manager for Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company of
Gastonia, and worked for that
company for 28 years before his
retirement.
He was active in Resurrection
Lutheran Church, was a past
president of the Kings Mountain
Kiwanis Club, past president of
the York County Life Under
writers Association, and was ac
tive in the Kings Mountain Boy
Scout Program.
LOUIS SABETTI SR.
He was chairman of the Kings
Mountain area fund-raising
drive for the Cleveland County
Unit of the American Cancer
Society, and was instramental in
that unit surpassing its goal of
$40,000 this year.
He served in the Pacific
Theatre during World War 11.
He was a native of Washington,
D.C.
Surviving are his wife,
Virginia McGinnis Sabetti of the
home; two sons, Louis Sabetti Jr.
of Kings Mountain and Tony
Sabetti, a student at Western
Carolina University in
Cullowhee; and two brothers,
Tony Sabetti of Cherryville and
Bill Sabetti of Minneapolis,
Minn.