— information obtained by press release from Vance County Schools
The Vance County Board of Education has approved naming the newly combined middle and high schools for the 2018-2019 school year Vance County Middle School and Vance County High School.
The board members took the action during their regular monthly meeting held on Monday, April 16.
Also at the meeting, the board approved Rey Horner as the principal for the new Vance County High School and Heddie Somerville as the principal for the new Vance County Middle School for the 2018-2019 school year.
Horner currently serves as the principal of Southern Vance High School and Somerville is the principal of Pinkston Street Elementary School.
Horner has worked with Vance County Schools since August of 1997 when he began work as a science teacher at Southern Vance High School. He served as a teacher at the school until he was named an assistant principal/lead teacher in August of 2012. Horner became principal of the new STEM Early High School in July of 2014 when the school was located on the campus of Northern Vance High School. He remained in that position until becoming the Southern Vance principal in January of 2017. Horner was a finalist for the district’s Principal of the Year award for the 2017-2018 school year.
Somerville has worked in the school system since August of 1994. She began her career as a fifth-grade teacher at Pinkston Street Elementary School. She also became a lead teacher at the school in July of 2004. Somerville became the assistant principal at Pinkston Street Elementary School in November of 2011. She also has served as an interim principal at Pinkston Street Elementary. She became the principal of the school in July of 2012. In 2015-2016, Somerville was selected as the Vance County Schools Principal of the Year.
Horner and Somerville will now lead efforts to establish the new schools. They will be working collaboratively with their staffs to develop comprehensive school programs.
“I am excited that we have such talented leaders who are proven educational leaders at successful schools,” said Superintendent Anthony Jackson. “I’m extremely excited about the future of our new Vance County Middle School and Vance County High School.”
Vance County Middle School will be housed in the facility currently known as Northern Vance High School and will serve students who now attend Eaton-Johnson and Henderson middle schools.
Vance County High School will be located in the building now known as Southern Vance High School and will serve students who now attend Northern Vance and Southern Vance high schools.
Operations at all 10 of the district’s elementary schools will be unchanged for the new school year. The STEM Early High School will continue to serve students in grades 6-8 on the current campus of Southern Vance High. The Vance County Early College High School will remain in operation on the campus of Vance-Granville Community College near Henderson and the district’s alternative school, AdVance Academy, will remain in operation next door to the current Henderson Middle School on Charles Street in Henderson.
With combining the middle schools and high schools next school year, the Eaton-Johnson and Henderson middle school buildings will no longer be used by the school system.
Board members took action in naming the schools following a presentation by Superintendent Anthony Jackson who proposed several names for the new schools. Among the potential names offered for the middle school were: Vance Henderson, Vance Central, Vance Community and Vance County Preparatory. These names also were proposed for the high school in addition to Henderson High and Henderson Preparatory.
(The above information is a blending of two press releases written by Terri Hedrick, Public Information Officer, with Vance County Schools.)