Tag Archive for: #eatonjohnsonmiddleschool

Vance County Board of Education Approves School Consolidations

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Vance County Board of Education Approves School Consolidations

— The Following is a Press Release from Vance County Schools:

The Vance County Board of Education approved at its March 19 meeting a plan to combine the middle schools and the high schools for the 2018-2019 school year.

With the board’s action, Eaton-Johnson and Henderson middle schools will be combined and serve middle school students in the facility currently housing Northern Vance High School and Northern Vance and Southern Vance high schools will be combined to serve high school students in the facility currently housing Southern Vance High School next school year.

In January, members of the Board of Education directed the superintendent and school system staff members to seek community input on a potential facilities consolidation plan for the current, traditional middle and high schools. Discussion of consolidation became necessary as the result of several years of declining student enrollment across the district and the need to improve the efficiency and financial sustainability of school operations.

Since early January, over 25 meetings have been held with community stakeholders to seek input on the feasibility of combining the schools and their programs. School officials have heard from over 500 people in the local community with their attendance at community conversations, through email responses and an online survey with school system employees.

The feedback received during community meetings has been extremely informative as to what the public expects from its public schools and their services and programs for students. The majority of the feedback from parents, students, school system employees, elected officials, business leaders and local residents has been in favor of combining the schools.

The board is expected to review and approve a detailed implementation plan to accomplish combining the schools at its April meeting.

To address the concerns voiced during the community meetings about school safety, an ad hoc committee from the local community will be established to develop recommendations for board consideration.

“I am pleased with the board’s decision tonight and applaud them for their courage and willingness to do what’s right for students,” Superintendent Anthony D. Jackson said. “We have lots to do. Exciting times and great things are ahead.”

Eaton-Johnson Students Attend First Ever Camp Discovery

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This year, rising sixth, seventh and eighth graders had the opportunity to experience the first ever Camp Discovery at Eaton-Johnson Middle School.

Partnering with the Henderson chapter of Triangle Literacy Council, Eaton-Johnson was able to offer a new and exciting summer bridge camp opportunity for students. Over the course of three weeks, campers participated in reading and literacy activities, created hands-on math, science and technology projects, and took a Character Education Course designed specifically for middle school students. Campers also participated in several sports and recreation mini-blocks throughout the camp session, including a trip to the movie theater to see animation in action.

The inaugural Camp Discovery season concluded with a very special awards ceremony on July 13. At the ceremony, parents and other family members shared in recognizing the incredible accomplishments of EJMS campers. Each camper received a Certificate of Program Completion and many campers also won individual awards. As part of Eaton-Johnson’s ongoing collaboration with Triangle Literacy Council, every camper was given a new personal computer. The summer program represents the third segment of a year-long collaboration between Eaton-Johnson Middle School, Henderson Middle School and Triangle Literacy Council. To date, the program has served over 200 middle school students in Vance County and awarded more than $50,000 worth of new computers to students. Most of the students received their new computers in June, following their completion of academic work in the second semester of last school year.

Eaton-Johnson Middle School, VGCC partner to show students pathways

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As local educational partners, Vance-Granville Community College and Eaton-Johnson Middle School in Henderson help inspire young students to prepare for higher education. A faculty member recently made a visit to the middle school and brought along an EJMS alumna who is now a VGCC student.

VGCC Public Services Department Chair Steven Hargrove was accompanied on his visit by McKallah Pendergrass of Henderson, a Criminal Justice Technology student who had not set foot in her old middle school in years. Pendergrass is preparing to graduate this academic year and plans to transfer to either North Carolina Central University or UNC-Charlotte.

Hargrove and Pendergrass met with the middle school’s lead counselor, Dr. Priscilla Chavis-Lockley, who took them on a tour of the new EJMS Paxton/Patterson lab. Established under the leadership of the school’s new principal, Dr. Brad Jones, the lab features hands-on stations that help students learn about various fields, including manufacturing, robotics, forensics, audiovisual production and computer graphics.

Hargrove noted the clear connections between all the lab’s different skill areas and VGCC’s Business and Applied Technologies programs, showing students that they could continue to study these fields at their local college. As a longtime Criminal Justice instructor, Hargrove was particularly interested in the forensic science computer program that students were using to create a digital reconstruction of the face of a criminal suspect. He noted that now, students have a new opportunity to complete an entire bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice without leaving VGCC’s main campus, thanks to the “Eagle Voyage” partnership with North Carolina Central University. The program is set to graduate its first students in 2017.

“It is important for us to talk to eighth-graders about college,” Hargrove noted, “because that is when they start thinking about careers. They need to start planning their high school and college education and they need to see pathways. We must let students and their parents know about the opportunities that are available.”

Planning for college studies at the middle school level has become increasingly important in recent years, as students have options to enroll in Early College High Schools, offered by VGCC in partnership with local school systems, starting in the ninth grade. In addition, new Career & College Promise pathways have been developed for students in traditional high schools to earn college credits, tuition-free.

Eaton-Johnson’s partnership with VGCC is largely the result of the efforts of Dr. Chavis-Lockley, who earned two degrees at Vance-Granville — early childhood education and associate in arts (college transfer) — before moving on to North Carolina Central University for a bachelor’s degree and three master’s degrees, and to North Carolina State University for a doctorate in education and counseling. She also established a student ambassador program at EJMS that has partnered with VGCC’s own ambassador program in the past.

Days after the visit to the middle school by VGCC, the partnership continued as a group of EJMS students visited the college campus for the annual “Manufacturing Day” event to learn about technical careers.

Duke Energy helps Eaton-Johnson Students have fun

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The National Theatre for Children, sponsored by Duke Energy, provided two actors to perform several sketches for students at Eaton-Johnson Middle School on October 6.

The sketches or skits were entitled “Save the World” and focused on energy conservation covering a wide range of topics including using low energy light bulbs, energy efficient shower nozzles, being conservative with water usage and turning off lights when you leave a room.

Students laughed at the antics of the two male actors as they quickly changed costumes and became different characters during the sketches. Several Eaton-Johnson students volunteered to help in the sketches. The actors mostly portrayed middle school aged students who were learning about how to conserve energy both at school and home.

Eaton-Johnson Middle School is part of the Duke Energy program to help save 10 million kilowatt-hours of energy this school year. Schools in five different states are involved in the conservation effort. Parents and students at Eaton-Johnson have already received information on how to request a free Energy Kit. For each 100 Energy Kits ordered at the school, Duke Energy will provide a $250 prize to the school. The school with the most kit requests by December 31 will win $2,500.

Items in each Energy Kit are LED light bulbs, an LED night light, an energy efficient shower head, faucet aerators, switch/outlet gasket insulators and more.

Parents, students and school staff members can visit myenergykit.org to track energy conservation at the school and the number of kits ordered.