Judge Angela Puckett administers the oath of office to Von Robertson at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting.
With his mother holding the family Bible, new Board of Education member Dwayne Bryant is sworn in by Judge Puckett Monday at Nancy Reynolds Elementary School.
WESTFIELD — The Stokes County Board of Education swore in two new members, plus an incumbent, as it began a new year of work in a meeting held in the Auditorium at Nancy Reynolds Elementary School.
Dwayne Bryant and Von Robertson took their seats on the Board, and Cheryl Knight, who was reelected in November for another term, was also sworn in. They join Pat Messer and Mike Rogers on the school board.
The Board elected Knight as its chair; she has previously served as the chairperson for the Board of Education. Robertson was elected as vice chair.
Knight said she asked for prayers. “It’s not an easy job.”
Other than those items, the main business of the night was the approval of financial assistance for the athletic departments of the middle and high school that have been affected by COVID. The proposal was discussed at the previous meeting of the Board and approved Monday night.
“The lack of gate revenue, concession revenue and fundraising options has left our middle and high schools facing a dire financial situation,” wrote Dr. Bryan Taylor in a memo to the Board.
The plan will offer up to $20,000 to the local high schools and $5,000 to middle schools to reimburse the cost of transportation and hiring officials. Schools will file for that reimbursement at the end of each season. The maximum cost to the district would be $75,000.
In other business the Board:
● Heard an update from Superintendent Dr. Brad Rice on the schools and the pandemic. Rice started with the latest numbers, most importantly that there have been zero clusters – “which the state says is five or more cases,” Rice said — among the 19 schools, and no cases of “school spread” as of Monday afternoon. “We’ve had multiple cases but they’ve been traced back to a birthday party or a wedding, some event,” Rice added. In pointing out the post-holiday return date of Jan. 4, Dr. Rice said he wanted to stay with the same schedule. “It will help keep some level of consistency,” he said, “and not knowing what the state will do.” Rice reminded the Board that high schools have started three sports – volleyball, cross country and swimming – and have started basketball practice in preparation for a January start of games. He also said that school officials had decided to make cheerleading an “outdoor only” sport this year. “Basically that takes away basketball,” Rice said. “If they want to cheer at baseball or lacrosse, we’re fine with that, as long as it’s outdoors.”
In response to a question from Chairperson Knight about the schedule, Rice said that a survey of teachers has shown that more than 90% want to keep the schedule the same, with the dismissal an hour earlier than normal. And responding to a question about a forecast for snow this week, Rice said some “snow days” could be turned into remote learning days and not be lost, which was done for Wednesday of this week, for example.
● Honored Brandie Jones of South Stokes High School as the county’s 2020 Exceptional Children Educator of Excellence. While the regular Educator of Excellence did not happen this year because of the pandemic, Jones will be honored on a “virtual recognition board” on the website of the state Department of Public Instruction’s Exceptional Children Division.
● Honored Christmas Card Contest winners Audrey Smith of South Stokes, Eli Wells of Piney Grove Middle School and Carah Rhodes, a first-grader at Pine Hall Elementary School.
● Celebrated a report from Academics Director Doug Rose that the system has been approved for a $200,000 federal grant that will fund an after-school program and a summer camp for middle school students. Rose said that only 13 grants had been awarded, and thanked partners the Stokes Family YMCA and Insight for helping put the proposal together, along with colleague Michael Sands, who works with all federal grants.
● Received an update from Rose on the NCStar program of needs assessment plans for the schools in the system. “Think of NCStar as a filing cabinet for each school,” Rose said.
● Received an update on capital projects from Facilities Director Ricky Goins, which included photos of completed work at the West Stokes track, an additional canopy at Southeastern and the CTE addition at West. Goins also reported on about a dozen projects that are still in progress, including a few still in the bidding process. “The West Stokes track looks fabulous,” said Messer in response. “I know they’ve been unable to hold a meet there for about three years, so it’s a blessing that it’s fixed.”
● Discussed whether or not to keep the current committee for calendar decisions in place, or leave those decisions up to the staff (with the Board approving the calendar as a whole). All of the Board members said they liked the committee approach because it offers parental involvement in the process.
● Approved a personnel report with four leaves of absence,11 new hires, two added positions, five resignations and two retirements. One item of note is that Chestnut Grove assistant principal Matthew Richardson will become the interim principal at Mount Olive Elementary School, as current Mount Olive principal Kelley Miller wants to return to classroom teaching. She will be Piney Grove Middle School starting in January.
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December 16, 2020 at 11:27PM
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New Board of Education begins its work - The Stokes News
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