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Newton-Conover SchoolsNewton-Conover Schools
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Newton-Conover City Schools to launch Red Blazer Award
Newton-Conover City Schools is launching what it hopes will be an annual award to recognize someone who made an outstanding contribution to the system, and is seeking nominations for the honor. The Red Blazer Award will be given to up to three people who gave time, money or effort to the system.
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Catawba County schools could start Aug. 7 for 2012-13 year
Catawba County Schools will have about two weeks less of summer this year, after the school board approved a new school calendar for the 2012-13 year on Monday. Under the new calendar, unanimously approved at the board meeting, students will go back to school on Aug. 7. In a previously approved calendar, they were scheduled to begin school on Aug. 27. Under the new version, students will have 67 days of vacation this summer, or just over two months, compared with the 79 days under the old calendar. Students will get out of school on May 23, 2013.
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School systems' top earners change little from 2010 to 2011
Little has changed in the salaries of the employees of Catawba County’s three school systems since the Hickory Daily Record requested the information a year ago. This is due primarily to a freeze placed on pay raises by the state, which has been in place since 2009.
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New Newton-Conover Middle is second green school for county
Although the new Newton-Conover Middle School is still about five months from completion, several of its environmentally green elements are already obvious as its construction progresses. The new school will be the second environmentally green school in the county — Snow Creek Elementary was the first. Newton-Conover City Schools is aiming for platinum level LEED certification with the new middle school. The US Green Building Council has a rating system to determine green buildings. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building rating system has several levels, with platinum the highest for the most environmentally green elements in the design. If Newton-Conover Middle remains on track for platinum status, it will be the first school in the state to do so, said system Superintendent Barry Redmond.
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Catawba County school districts to each get a new elementary school
The three school systems in Catawba County will each receive $11 million from the county for a new elementary school in this funding cycle. The cycle runs from 2011-15. Catawba County Schools plans to build its new school in the Banoak area, close to Propst Crossroads in the Foard area, said Superintendent Glenn Barger.
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2 Newton-Conover High students suspended over hazing incident
Two Newton-Conover High School students are suspended following a hazing incident on the wrestling team less than 24 hours before the team was scheduled to leave for a tournament in Raleigh. Several students on the school’s wrestling team were in the practice room after school on Thursday when someone turned the lights off, said Barry Redmond, superintendent for Newton-Conover City Schools. A sophomore on the team grabbed a freshman and put him in a wrestling hold.
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Push on for higher grad rates, test scores in Newton-Conover's high schools
Newton-Conover City Schools’ two high schools are raising their standards, planning for students to have higher test scores, pass more Advanced Placement exams and have higher graduation rates.
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1 new person, 2 incumbents elected to Newton-Conover school board
The board of education for Newton-Conover City Schools will have one new member after Tuesday’s election. Voters re-elected incumbent and board Chairman Scott Loudermelt to one of the Conover seats. However, rather than re-elect the second incumbent, Mark Murphy, challenger Jeanne Jarrett will fill the second seat. She garnered the most votes of all of the candidates, with 522, and 40 percent of the vote. Loudermelt received 484 votes, or 37 percent. Murphy received 23 percent of the vote, with 297 votes.
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School board candidates stress their dedication, involvement
The League of Women Voters of Catawba Valley sponsored a school board candidates forum at the Clinton Tabernacle AME Zion Church for the Hickory Public Schools and Newton-Conover City Schools on Tuesday night.
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Four candidates file for three seats in Newton-Conover City Schools race
Three incumbents are filing for three of the four seats. This year's candidates are Jeanne C. Jarrett, Scott Loudermelt and Mark Murphy for the two Conover district seats and Jim Stockner for the one Newton district seat. Early voting begins Thursday, Oct. 20. Election Day is Nov. 8.
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Career conference preps seniors for working world
Hickory High senior Dametrius Lewis learned how to be confident in an interview, how to improve his resume and what to look for in a job at the career prep conference on Tuesday. High school seniors at the three school systems in Catawba County participated in the conference, which was hosted by Education Matters. The conference was designed to give the seniors a taste of what the professional world is like and how they should prepare for landing a job. “Their first impression is made in less than 10 seconds,” Lewis said of employers. “You need to speak out and make eye contact.”
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Newton-Conover Schools discusses new state curriculum
Students in kindergarten through second grade at Newton-Conover City Schools are already being taught differently than students in those grades last year. By this time next year, students throughout the system will have a brand new curriculum taught to them under state standards.
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School districts rank in top 10 in state for graduation rates
Catawba County Schools was named one of the top school districts in the state for students who graduated with their four-year cohort, according to data collected by the NC Department of Public Instruction. The school district was ninth in the state, with 86.2 percent of students who entered high school in ninth grade remaining with their class and graduating four years later, in the 2010-11 school year. Catawba County Schools was about 5 percent behind the No. 1 school system, Elkin City Schools, with 91.7 percent of its students graduating.
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Leaders told more focus needed on early childhood education
Early childhood education is one of the most important investments a community can make in its future and one of the things getting underfunded by the state legislature, said Bill Millett. Millett is the president of the Charlotte-based Scope View Strategic Advantage and an advisor on the economic benefits of early childhood education. He spoke to Catawba County education and business leaders Wednesday about how critical it was that something be done to educate children at a young age.
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No dress code for Newton-Conover elementaries
Although the Board of Education modified the dress code, Newton-Conover City Schools will not have a standard code of dress for elementary schools. The proposed dress code would have required students to wear polo-style or button-down shirts that were tucked in, and pants, capris, shorts, skorts jumpers or skirts. Denim, corduroy and cargo pants would have been prohibited. Shoes were to be close-toed and have backs. At Monday night’s meeting, three residents spoke out against the proposed policy. One, Jennifer Ingle, was a teacher at Newton-Conover High and the mother of a student at Thornton Elementary. She said her son has high-functioning autism and compared shirts with collars to spider webs — something he would want to brush off the moment they touched his skin.
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New mentoring program designed to help middle-schoolers
About 100 students in Catawba County will have someone to help build their self-esteem and become positive role models this year, with a pilot program launching in three middle schools this fall. Mentors will meet once a week at Grandview, Newton-Conover and River Bend middle schools, with students who are selected for the new Lunch Buddy program. The superintendents for each school system selected the school and grade level, said Lamar Mitchell, executive director for Champions of Education. “Volunteers are needed now more than ever with budget cuts,” Mitchell said. “We want to have a manageable level of students and mentors with each school.”
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2 seats still have no candidates in school board elections
Filing for school board elections for Newton-Conover City Schools and Hickory Public Schools closes in six business days and there are still two seats with no candidates. Both districts had to look at the lines for their wards with the change in 2010 Census population. Newton-Conover’s didn’t shift, but Hickory’s did, affecting where people live who file for the ward seats. The incumbents up for re-election — Joab Cotton in ward 6 and Charlotte Williams who has the at-large seat — are not affected by the new ward lines.
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School bus routes released
Bus schedules for Catawba County Schools, Hickory Public Schools and Newton-Conover City Schools.
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Newton-Conover to vote Sept. 12 on elementary school dress code
he three Newton-Conover City Schools elementary principals said they were in support of a standardized dress code at the board of education meeting Monday night. The school system first publically proposed the idea in February of expanding its standardized dress code that is already in place at the middle school.
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Schools improve in state testing, but achievement gap remains
Although the schools in Catawba County improved in state testing, there is still work to be done. The biggest achievement gap is between white and minority students, and the districts in the county acknowledged that is something to improve upon. The test scores were officially released Thursday by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. The state ABCs of Accountability are usually preferred over the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) test results, because school officials believe they give a more accurate representation of how a school is doing.
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No change for Newton-Conover City Schools' voting districts
After examining data from the 2010 Census, Newton-Conover City Schools will not change its voting districts. Newton-Conover City Schools is divided into two districts: Newton and Conover. After each Census, the school district much examine the data and determine if the voting lines must be redrawn, based on the population.
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Fewer Catawba schools make yearly progress under higher standards
The state released the annual adequate yearly progress (AYP) scores Thursday for the 2010-11 school year. The tests are part of the federal No Child Left Behind program, now in its 10th year, to measure proficiency in reading and math. Only nine of 44 schools in Catawba County’s school districts made AYP, in part because of the sharp increase in the proficiency goals, the superintendents said. In 2009-10, for North Carolina public schools to make AYP in third through eighth grade, 43 were to be proficient in reading and 77 percent in math. For sophomores, 39 percent were to be proficient in reading and 68 proficient in math.
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Schools deciding how to cover driver's ed costs
Getting a driver’s license is something most teenagers long for. With it comes freedom. It now may be a little harder to attain. The state legislature cut some of its funding toward driver’s education in its just-approved budget, but allows school systems to now charge up to $45 per child to take driver’s education. The three school systems in Catawba County are still deciding what to do this fall. Catawba County Schools knows it won’t be able to offer the service for free.
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Citizens urged to be Champions for education
At Wednesday’s quarterly Champions of Education meeting, area leaders were presented with facts about the state and school districts’ budgets and were urged to be champions for students. The meeting began with news that the N.C. House, the main hurdle to Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto, approved the state budget with a three-fifths majority early Wednesday morning. The Senate approved the budget later in the day. “I’ve been in education since the 1960s, and I have never seen such a hands-off, turn-your-head attitude,” said Glenn Barger, superintendent of Catawba County Schools, about the state budget.
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How budget cuts will affect Hickory, Newton-Conover and Catawba County schools
Although the new version of the state budget that awaits Gov. Beverly Perdue's signature or veto includes $300 million more than an earlier version, eliminating funds for school technology and teacher assistants is likely.
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