So, Violet over at the Arts Council showed me these nuggets last week. Take them in.

Labels: Cleveland County Arts Council, county, internet, just for fun, movie, Real to Reel

I went to my first Shelby High School homecoming parade yesterday. Shelby's the only high school doing a parade this year but let me say, it looked pretty darn good.
The rain held back for the proceedings and a good-sized crowd gathered.
The band sounded great! The drum line was going when they passed me and the effect was awesome. I love a good drum line.

Labels: county, just for fun, schools

I'm pretty sure I could eat pure evil if it were batter dipped, deep fried and covered in powdered sugar.

Labels: county, fair, just for fun, moblog, weekend

I sympathize with all those students, I really do. For me, the return to school was always a mixed occasion. Happy to be occupied with something other than digging in dirt or, once I was older, a summer job, was great but having to get up that early...and..learn...things...gah.

But as an education reporter I gotta tell ya, I'm thrilled that school is back in session. Summer, as you can imagine is a pretty lean time for a schools reporter. And much like summer vacation, the first two weeks were bliss. After the hectic rigour of the last days of school, a little down time was welcomed.

Week three was a different story. Keeping my story count up -- it's all about quotas -- with no schools to visit, it's hard. So I wrote about camps, the environment, the occasional crime stuff. Still, it was a pale imitation of the school beat heyday that runs form August to May.

But all that's over now. School's back. I'm back. And I'm excited about the year.

Here are some things I'll be keeping an eye on...

Shelby Middle's new uniform policy - Looking good and at 99 percent compliance the first day, everyone's eyes are on this school. (Continuing updates as milestones are reached...)

Accountability Report - Looks like a lot of schools are getting it right. Great strides were made all over the county. Still, some fell short. Marion Intermediate and James Love had some disappointing numbers but already teachers are working on any number of ways to improve scores. There's a lot of teamwork going on in the school system these days -- and it's a great sight. It'll be interesting to see just how these efforts pan out. (You'll see more in the paper about this bevy of numbers and data.)

Freshman academies -Everyone wants to increase the graduation rate and reduce drop-outs but it's clear there's no magic key to getting it done. Area schools have been trying out a freshman academies. If a student understands expectations, there's a better chance they'll meet them. I'll be talking with schools about how this is working and what kind of strategies are being used.

What else should I be looking into?

Labels: county, education, schools, students

I recently did an article about SAT performance in the county. Things have changed since I took the SAT. A new writing section has been added and 1600 is no longer a perfect score. The test, has been criticized as being biased...

Example: A famous example of alleged bias in the SAT I is the oarsman-regatta analogy question.The object of the question was to find the pair of terms that have the relationship most similar to the relationship between "runner" and "marathon". The correct answer was "oarsman" and "regatta".
The question relied upon students knowing the meaning of the two terms, referring to a sport popular with the wealthy. While 53% of white students correctly answered the question, only 22% of black students did. Analogy questions have since been replaced by short reading passages. However, gaps in scoring between black students and white students persist. - Wiki

But one of my favorite parts about the new SAT is the fact that the writing portion is scored not on factual accuracy but on the flow of writing. I could write the earth was flat and as long as I punctated properly, I could get a decent score.

All in all, I think county schools did well. All together they prepared hundreds of students to do well on the SAT. Any student who wanted to take it got to take it, so the numbers reflect an entire population of demographics.

Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, our local charter school, had a better average score than any of the high schools -- but hey, they only had to prepare 15 students. And while their scores are impressive...I am more impressed with the fact that so many students from N.C. actually took the test this year. Behind all these averages and numbers are students working hard to do well in school, parents supporting their quest and teachers arming them with the tools they need to get it done.

Labels: county, education, schools, students

Here's what the area looked like at 4 on Tuesday...

Storm Prediction Center - Another good bit of storm goodness...here you can see national trends.

Coast Guard Storm Center - In a boat? No Jonah to throw overboard? Take a few tips from the guys that KNOW weather and water the Coast Guard. (More about hurricanes and the high seas but still, good stuff to know.)

American Red Cross - A good resource that covers a lot of basic safety tips for being around severe weather.

Disaster Kits - Here's what you need in your home, workplace or car. Trust me, if you have this stuff on hand, you'll end up being someone's hero.

StormChaser's Code - If you're intrepid (or as my grandmother insists, stupid) enough to chase after these storms, this is a code to live by.

Weather on the Radio...on your computer... - Live streaming audio of NOAA's weather information.

Labels: county, geek, internet, science, weather

What an itch...
With the help of Emily Killian's graphics know-how, I'm putting together a package about poison oak and ivy. I've never been terribly allergic to it, but when a quick poll around the newsroom revealed that most of my college-educated, knowledgeable colleagues didn't even know what the two plants looked like, I thought it might be a good idea to give everyone a refresher course.

Robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul...
A Medicaid relief proposal is floating around the General Assembly. SB 1484 proposes to take all sales tax revenues from incorporated municipalities across the state -- Shelby, Boiling Springs, Forest City, etc. around here -- and give that money to the counties the cities and towns are in.
In the League of Municipalities Legislative Bulletin (read in full here) has the following to say about SB 1484:

Senate Majority Leader and SB 1484 sponsor Tony Rand was quoted in the Fayetteville Observer as indicating that municipalities could withstand the freeze on a significant portion of their sales tax revenues. He was quoted as follows: “Counties have to build schools, so we’re just not costing the cities anything. We’re keeping the cities where they are, but they don’t have to build jails and schools.”

We certainly support Medicaid relief as a part of an infrastructure funding package that will benefit counties, but cities must not be left by the wayside. Cities and towns also provide vital services to growing populations and have tremendous funding needs for building and maintaining municipal streets (and sometimes state system roads), water and sewer systems, storm water systems, and other infrastructure. They also provide police and fire protection for a large portion of the populace in the state.

What does our senator, Walter Dalton, and area elected officials have to say about this plan?

That's it for now...

Labels: budget, county, government, news, spending

Here's some info I've gathered while learning about the county budget.

This comes from Chris Crepps, from the county's finance office. He explained some facets of the budget for me:

"The County has several operating "funds" that serve certain purposes.
Each fund operates almost like a separate entity. Our main fund is the
BUDGETED GENERAL FUND. It is this fund where we focus our
attention during budget because this fund includes the revenues collected
from the 58 cent property tax rate.

(I'd be glad to share a copy of our annual financial report if you want to review more details on all funds. Within the annual financial report, the "Management's Discussion and Analysis" and "Notes to Financial Statements" provide a lot of good
information that you may find useful. A copy of the annual financial report is also at the Cleveland County Memorial Library in Shelby.)

The total adopted budget for the current fiscal year in the County's Budgeted General Fund was almost $57.1 million. Including our projections for a 3% cost-of-living and increases in health insurance, the requested expenditures from next year's budget amount to $61.6 million.

From the spreadsheet I shared with you, all County departments are asking for $3,622,176 from the County's Budgeted General Fund. This figure does not include the 3% cost-of-living adjustment to all employees that the Commissioners are seeking. Further, the figure does not include any estimated increases in health insurance costs. Together, these additional items would cost approximately $900,000. In summary, we are faced with $4,500,000 in additional requested expenditures. However, we anticipate only about $1,500,000 to $1,600,000 in additional revenues in the next fiscal year (July 1 to June 30).

The County
Commissioners do not want to raise property tax rates. The County Manager, David Dear, will do all he can to limit the requested increases in expenditures without asking for an increase in the County's property tax rates.

Labels: budget, county, money