Columbus County Community Chat

By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

The Columbus County Schools have something to crow about.

The career-technical education students had a proficiency rate on end of course tests of 80.6 percent, the fifth highest rating in the state.

Of the 23 school systems that comprise the Southeast Region, the system ranked first.

The county system has enjoyed a steady climb, increasing its scores annually since the 2001-2002 school year when its students had a proficiency rate of only 58.5 percent.

This past year was its largest gain, going from 69 percent proficient to 80.6 percent.

Statewide, the scores ranged from a low of 37.5 percent to a high of 83.4 percent.

The Whiteville City Schools had a proficiency rate of 60.8 percent. Other career-technical proficiency rates in area school systems included: Bladen, 54.9 percent; Brunswick, 66.5 percent; Clinton City, 71.6 percent; Cumberland, 59.1 percent; New Hanover, 67.3 percent; Pender, 69 percent; Robeson, 58.3 percent; Sampson, 72.6 percent and Scotland, 45.1 percent.

“Columbus County Career-Technical Education has been involved with end of course testing for the past 16 years, longer than any other program area,” said Keith Jefferys, the director of career-technical education in the county. “Results from the data have shown steady improvement every year since 2000. Teachers have utilized this data to improve the way students learn and the way information is delivered.”

Jefferys said that career-technical education, which used to be known as vocational education, offers credentialing in all program areas.

“Our focused curriculum provides students a no-nonsense approach to their career aspirations,” he said. “Students use up-to-date equipment in live-project simulations giving them practical application experience they can transfer to post-secondary education or work immediately after high school.

“Columbus County career-technical education is committed to providing students a quality educational experience. We are proud to say that career-technical education in Columbus County Schools continues to rank among the leaders by providing quality program choices to students,” Jefferys said.

The county’s three high schools have extensive career-tech programs.

South Columbus High School has one of the most advanced automotive service technology programs in the state.
SCHS and West Columbus High School build houses each year that are auctioned in the spring.

“Our professional teaching staff is well aware of the challenges our students will face in the highly competitive job market and they are prepared to help students reach their full potential,” Jefferys said. “Our award-winning college tech prep programs prepare students to make a seamless transition from high school to the community college and beyond.”

Jefferys said that career-technical education foundation courses at the middle grade level help provide students with workplace readiness and work-skill basics,

He said that those skills will help students make good decisions when they choose their courses of study.

Competency-based courses are offered in five program areas, with each having school-based and work-based learning opportunities.

In the areas of trade and industry, the county high schools offer cabinetmaking, welding, masonry, construction technology and computer engineering.

In agriculture, they offer, landscape construction and maintenance, agri-science, agricultural production, management and engineering, horticulture and environmental and natural resource studies.

In business and office education, they offer principles of business, business law, small business and entrepreneurship, computerized accounting, business and financial management, computer applications, keyboarding, business and electronic communication and business advanced studies.

In family and consumer sciences, the high schools offer teen living, clothing design, foods and nutrition, interior design and housing, parenting and child development, life management, early childhood education, culinary arts and hospitality and family and consumer sciences advanced studies.

In health occupations, the schools offer health team relations, allied health science and advanced health sciences studies.

“We have put a tremendous amount of effort into improving our career-technical education programs over the last 15 years and the outcome is looking very bright,” Superintendent Dr. Dan Strickland said. “Our teachers have persevered through dedication and diligence. Our students have met the challenge and proven that they can excel.

“I am pleased we are moving in the right direction and look forward to continued student success in the years to come.”
Strickland added that career-technical education is an essential part of a student’s overall curriculum.

“Math, English, science and social studies are all important academic skills and through our career-technical education programs, students experience the rigor, relevance and relationships essential to the transference of those skills to employment.

“Career-technical education will play an important role in the new courses of study from the Department of Public Instruction and in the county’s strategic improvement plan. We will continue to support and improve programs in order to provide students the best possible preparation for their career choice.”

Columbus County’s career-technical education programs serve more 3,500 students in grades 7-12.

A quarter-cent.

Alone it is just one-fourth of a penny.

As an additional sales tax for goods (not food) purchased in Columbus County, it could amount to close to $1 million in revenue that county commissioners say would not have to take from additional property taxes.

A referendum to be held on Nov. 6 will determine if the board will be allowed to levy the additional sales tax come April 1, 2008, along with other counties across the state pursuing the option.

The Columbus County Board of Commissioners, along with every other county in the state, had the option of pursuing either a land sales transfer tax or sales tax. Columbus chose to pursue the sales tax that is estimated to bring in $934,000.

The one-fourth percent land transfer tax, opposed at the state level by real estate groups, would have generated approximately $443,968 in 2006 and $577,284 in 2007, according to N.C. Association of County Commissioners data.

Some counties are asking voters to vote on both, but only one option may be chosen. After the referendum, it is up to the boards to actually vote in the tax.

County officials say the additional tax is necessary to meet future needs and to build up the county’s low fund balance.

“Our problem is attempting to rebuild the fund balance,” Interim County Manager Leo Hunt said.

In June, as interim finance director, Hunt told the board that the county’s fund balance (savings) had been depleted for years to balance the budget while spending had increased.

Essentially, the county was spending more than it was generating in tax revenue and had covered shortfalls with savings – savings the state recommends stay at or above 8 percent of the county budget.

Columbus County is close to that minimum and earlier this year was advised that for counties close in size to Columbus the average fund balance was 26 percent of the total budget.

Columbus County had just half of that at 13 percent.

“We need to do some maintenance and repair on the courthouse – if not, we are going to have to build one,” Hunt also said.

A representative from the Administrative Office of the Courts told commissioners at a recent meeting that the courthouse is one of the worst he had seen from a health and safety standpoint.

Opponents of the sales tax, such as the Locke Foundation, say it is another unnecessary tax that will only increase government spending.

Columbus County is one of several counties that are predicted to have increased revenues once the Medicaid swap is completely phased in in three years.

While that is true, Hunt said, “once you crunch the numbers of taxes taken, Medicaid increases and the state’s assumption the county will see increased revenues of $700,000 next year and roughly $1.7 million in the third year.”
Essentially, the swap doesn’t amount to the total $6 million the county taxpayers are paying in property taxes that go to Medicaid.

At a public hearing held on the tax, few spoke in opposition. One resident said he would like to see property taxes replaced completely with sales taxes.

Every commissioner spoke in support of the tax and said they saw it as a fair tax.

Come Nov. 6 when all the votes are tallied, it will be known which argument voters bought.

A possible book bag ban by Whiteville City Schools administrators set off a wave of disapproval last week.

The idea is well-intended because of recent incidents, but the practical aspect of a ban left both parents and students in a fury.

There are at least two sides to the issue. Students’ book bags are essentially their lockers. There is little time between classes to exchange books or retrieve shorts and shoes for gym; bags must be packed to the gills for the entire day.

On the other hand, school administrators believe that banning book bags would limit drugs and weapons from being brought onto campus. The administration has said student safety is a focus, and the ban would reduce opportunities for students to hide contraband.

What is needed, however, is a discussion among parents, students, teachers and school improvement teams before administrators hand down an edict. A discussion would give administrators the opportunity to present their case, perhaps to show that book bag bans in other schools have worked. A discussion would allow parents and students to reiterate the multiple problems a ban would bring.

There are other means that should be put on the table in any discussion about school safety. These include, among others:

• Send more students who break the rules or who are perpetually problematic to North Whiteville Academy, or expel the incorrigible. The state recently recognized North Whiteville Academy as one of only three alternative “schools of promise” because of the extraordinary job the staff does to counsel troubled students and to set them on a path of learning. North Whiteville Academy not only separates troubled kids from those who want to learn, it is an effective teaching institution.

• Bring the drug dog onto campus, unannounced, at will and often. Dealers and users are adept at hiding drugs. The dogs are hard to fool.

Dogs can also be trained to sniff out firearms and ammunition. Raising money for such a dog could be accomplished in one day.

• Institute a school uniform policy at Central and the high school. No more gangster wear. No more skin and tats. Gang members and gang wannabes will find ways to show their allegiances even with uniforms, but uniforms are an equalizer when clothes define students rather than their behavior and performance among their peers.

Parents should appreciate the schools’ attempts to make school safer but the decision shouldn’t be unilateral. Proposals such as book bag bans and school uniforms are controversial and have pluses and minuses. Because parents and the schools have a common goal –safety – solutions determined by community discussion and consensus are how it should be done.

“If a noise is a nuisance, the person will get a citation,” said Police Lt. Glenda George, “and a nuisance is well-defined in the city code.”

Police are starting a crackdown on noise pollution in accordance with the city ordinances.

The city has a number of rules regarding incessantly barking dogs, loud music on city streets or in homes, and other headache-producers. George said violation of the ordinance can result in a fine.

Anything audible outside of a vehicle or home can be considered a nuisance at any time of day or night, George said, but police use a lot of discretion in enforcing the rules.

“Mowing your yard at 10 in the morning won’t get you a ticket,” she said, “but mowing your yard at 10 at night will. People need to use common sense.”

According to the city code, amplified sounds are not allowed within 300 feet of hospitals, schools, churches, public buildings and nursing homes, or in any other “zone of quiet.”

Loud music or exhaust should only be able to be heard by the people in a vehicle, George explained.

“And that means inside a vehicle,” George said. “Standing in the front yard with the car doors open doesn’t put you inside the vehicle.”

George said the rules aren’t about keeping people from enjoying loud music or other sounds.

“It’s about being a nuisance to other people,” she said. “Anything that intrudes upon your peace and tranquility is a nuisance, and will be dealt with accordingly.”

George said parents can go a long way to helping with the problem by limiting how loud kids turn up the radio in the family car.

“If your children borrow your car and play the radio,” she said, “please tell them not to turn the volume past 03. Much more than that can damage hearing anyway.”

In the wake of last month’s post-football game murder at Lake Waccamaw and the rumored possible retaliation at WHS that following Monday — 70 percent of the students stayed home — Whiteville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Randall Shaver outlined what he plans to do to make the school safer.

Included in that list was the possible banning of book bags.

Last week, it was announced to students that the ban might begin Nov. 1 for WHS as well as Central Middle and Edgewood Elementary schools.

Whiteville Primary School would not be affected.

Other than the announcement, details were sketchy. No one was sure if mesh or clear book bags could be substituted or if the ban would extend to all types of bags, including pocketbooks or purses.

Critics of the ban say that it’s overkill and ask how students will be able to haul 20 or more pounds of books to and from school and from class to class.

Since the murder and retaliation rumor, WHS students have been going through metal detection devices each morning before their first class.

The process is time consuming – nearly 800 students have to be “scanned” and almost as many book bags, pocketbooks, gym bags and band instrument cases have to be visually or physically searched.

WHS Principal John Westberg said the process has gotten faster but still takes a large amount of time in the mornings.

Westberg had no specifics to offer on what the final plan would be. Shaver said that the system had yet to determine what exactly would be banned.

Each school’s school improvement team is working out the details.