District Teacher of the Year recognized
By Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
The Clay County Board of Education meeting on Thursday, June 29 encompassed a full agenda.
Hayesville schools ended the 2022/2023 fiscal year with a balanced budget. In addition, positive results from all four schools, District Teacher of the Year was named and a progress report was presented on the new Hayesville Intermediate School.
Superintendent Dale Cole made a presentation on Clay County Schools lead in, a North Carolina educational attainment change. Cole gave the report to the board and public as the Thursday evening meeting opened its recognition segment.
“We received notification last week and I wanted to share this with the board and the public,” Cole said. “You may recall, three and a half years ago Clay County Schools entered into a memorandum of understanding with a state-wide non-profit called My Future N.C. This non-profit was started with seed money from the North Carolina General Assembly with the goal of increasing the number of North Carolina citizens that hold a post-secondary degree or nationally recognized job certification by two million by the year 2030. So almost every school district in the State of North Carolina entered in a memorandum of understanding to help them with their goal.”
Cole said, “That ultimately pushed the work with the school board in finding new ways to open up opportunities for our students to take college courses during high school, paid for by North Carolina citizens at Tri-County Community College, as well as going through a re-vamp of the Career and Technology Education program, so that all of the CTE pathways ended with a nationally recognized job certification.
“As a result of that work we received notification that out of all 115 school districts in the State of North Carolina, Clay County increased its population of citizens who have a post-secondary degree or nationally recognized job certification by 15.34 percent, which was the highest growth over the last three and a half years in North Carolina. The state average was 3.5 percent of growth and Clay County outperformed that growth by almost five times.”
Cole said that the notification was testimony to the work of the CTE teachers and Revonda Palmer, Director of Career and Technology Education; the school counselors and to Tri-County Community College.
Recognition continued when kindergarten teacher Kimberly Staton was named Clay County Schools District Teacher of the Year. Jubilant applause went up from the board and public. Staton received an honorary plaque and flowers and she will go on to the Western Region Teacher of the Year selection.
Progress on the new Hayesville Intermediate School which is still in the planning stages was reported on by Jonathan Capp of the LS3P architectural firm. Capp said that the firm had presented drawings to the building committee which had been approved, and cost estimates, and stated that construction costs continue to be very unpredictable and it was good to go back and ask why we are making this big investment. Capp said that there are buildings not adequate for the current educational needs, there are buildings that can’t really be renovated or added to and there are buildings that have heavy maintenance needs.
“If you look at the lists, there are buildings that are on all three of the lists. The need is really there,” Capp said.
The square footage of the floor plan is 113,545 with two wings for the elementary school and middle school, a whole campus auditorium for grades K-12 and a cafeteria.
The cost estimate presented was $62,000,000. The grant funds for the new school total $40,000,000, making the current cost estimate $22,000,000 over budget.
“What do we need to do to give ourselves a viable path forward, and really, the viable path forward was to take a big chunk of square footage out of the building to give us some flexibility,” Capp said.
Capp added that there is the possibility of an additional $10,000,000 grant if approved by the legislature around July 4th, if approved, the firm would apply for the grant in August.
“We have to replace the auditorium, replace the cafeteria. The grant is for the middle school, so we have to replace the middle school. We’ll do some more pricing at the end of August, we’ll present to you guys in September, we’ll have a couple of different options,” Capp said.
Capp concluded the report with a project schedule and said most of the decisions would be made over the next two months. The last four months’ drawings would be for contractors. The bidding process would start January 2024; construction would start in the spring with a forecast to occupy the building in the summer of 2025.
Reports from all four Hayesville schools showed positive growth in reading and math skills. Hayesville High School had a 88.4 percent graduation rate that was up 10.9 percent from the previous school year. Hayesville High School Principal Stacey Overlin said that with the size of the school, you know every student by name and that’s a positive. “If they make it to their senior year, they are going to graduate,” Overlin said.
Chief Finance Officer Shelley Hollingsworth presented a summary of budget resolutions and amendments for year 2022/2023. The school’s fiscal year ended June 30. Revenues/Expenditures were balanced for the State Public School Fund, Local Current Expense Fund, Federal Grants Fund, Capital Outlay Fund, Education Foundation Fund and other Specific Revenue Fund. Detailed information on the Clay County Board of Education 2022/2023 Budget Resolution can be found at the school website.
Large improvements to the physical plant this summer include floors that are being finished, removal of carpet and for the first time in the history of Hayesville Middle School, the gym will have air conditioning.
The regular meeting ended with farewells to Cole from teachers, principals and the board. Chairman Jason Shook thanked Cole, stating appreciation for his leadership and competence as Clay County Superintendent of Schools.
During the ongoing search for a new superintendent, Scotty Penland will act as Interim Superintendent.
The next regular board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, July 24.