Vance County Schools are seeking volunteers to serve as proctors during year-end testing at our middle and high schools. Volunteers are needed each school day May 30-June 8, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. each day. Interested volunteers may contact Terri Hedrick with Vance County Schools by email at thedrick@vcs.k12.nc.us or by phone at 252-492-2127, extension 2100, to let her know what days you may be available. Thank you so much for your support of our schools!
Vance County Schools
For Immediate Release
May 22, 2017
The 48 members of the Class of 2017 who will graduate from the Vance County Early College High School were honored during their Class Night event on May 18.
The Class Night celebration was held in the Civic Center at Vance-Granville Community College.
Graduating seniors were recognized with a variety of school awards and were presented with thousands of dollars in scholarships to further their education at a four-year college or university.
The top 10 percent of the academic achievers in the Class of 2017 include Christopher Brame, Sierra Hawkins, Kristen Oakes, Janet Rodriguez-Morales and Jacob Weaver.
Additional members of the graduating class are Celene Acuna, Jasmine Allen, Christopher Ayscue Jr., Megan Ayscue, Keana Baskerville, Je’Ronee Blackwell, Christopher Blue, Lauren Chavis-Hargrove, David Cobbs Jr., Ashlyn Collier, Chadstity Copeland, Erika Decena-Santos, Alexis Hanks, Mya Hargrove, Hayden Harris, William Harris, Robert Hawkins IV, Ronald Renteria, Tia Johnson, Mychell Keith, Darius Macon-Majette, Jaylil Majette, Nyesha Miller, Michelle Perdomo Dominguez, Xavier Perry, Bali Reavis, Autumn Richardson, Tara Roberson, Kellie Robinson, Stephon Sample, Alexandra Saravia, Rebecca Short, Timothy Terry Jr., Alicia Tucker, Christian Vazquez, Angel White, Darius Williams, Malik Williams, Hailey Williamson, Jordan Williamson, Amber Wilson, Anautica Wilson and April Zuniga-Trejo.
Vance County Schools
For Immediate Release
May 10, 2017
Travis Taylor, who has extensive experience as a high school and middle school principal, has been named the new principal at Eaton-Johnson Middle School.
Taylor was approved as the school’s new principal by the Vance County Board of Education at its meeting on May 8.
He joins Vance County Schools after serving as the principal of Carver High School in Winston-Salem, since 2014.
“We are extremely pleased to have Mr. Taylor join our team,” said Dr. Anthony Jackson, superintendent of Vance County Schools. “We look forward to him providing excellent leadership to the Eaton-Johnson Middle School staff, students and community.”
Taylor’s previous positions as principal have been at Lexington Senior High School in Lexington, the Southern School of Engineering in Durham and East Lee Middle School in Lee County. Taylor also has experience as an assistant principal and science and math teacher with Durham Public Schools.
He was named the Lexington City Schools Principal of the Year in 2013. He also was named the 2012 Principal of the Year by the N.C. Association of Scholastic Activities for increasing student participation in scholastic activities and competitions.
Taylor earned his bachelor’s degree in middle school education from N.C. Central University and his master’s degree in school administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He will assume his duties as principal at Eaton-Johnson on July 1.
Vance County Schools
For Immediate Release
April 20, 2017
The Vance County Board of Education at its regular monthly meeting on April 17, approved a funding request of $10,219,321 for appropriations from Vance County for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
The request will go on to the Vance County Board of Commissioners for its review, along with other county funding requests, beginning at its May 1 meeting.
The school system’s local funding request includes an increase of $1,021,881 from the current fiscal year. The increased funding request would help the school district continue its positive trend through sustaining operations with continuation funds of $121,523, fully funding the school system’s teacher supplement with an additional $400,359 to help retain and support quality staff and increase the capital outlay funding by $500,000 to support the district’s school safety plan.
If approved, the requested county appropriations funding would maintain existing programs and services based on current per-pupil funding and inflationary factors.
The request for increased teacher supplement funding would boost available revenues which currently fund supplements for only 64 percent of eligible teachers. The school district has been using available fund balance monies to offset the difference each year for the last several years.
The requested increase in capital outlay funds will be used for school safety initiatives that include installing new cameras on all school buses and in school buildings.
The Vance County Board of Commissioners is expected to approve all county funding for the upcoming fiscal year by July 1.
The Vance County Board of Education at its meeting on Monday, April 17, approved the year-round calendar for the 2017-2018 school year for E.M. Rollins Elementary School, which has been designated as a restart school by the state.
E.M. Rollins will begin the new school year as a STEAM school, with an emphasis on student instruction in the areas of science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics.
E.M. Rollins Elementary will be the first year-round school in the Vance County Public School System.
With the approved calendar, school staff members will begin work for the new school year on Monday, July 17. The first day of classes for students at E.M. Rollins will be Tuesday, August 1.
The calendar will follow the basic format of students attending school for 45-day periods (nine weeks) and then having 15 days (three weeks) as a break after each nine weeks through the year.
The school will still observe all designated state holidays, as do our other local schools. The school’s Thanksgiving break will include Wednesday, November 22, as a non-student day and Thursday, November 23-Friday, November 24 as holidays.
Christmas break will be Monday, December 18-Friday, January 5. Their spring break will be observed during one of the school’s three-week breaks, Monday, March 19-Friday, April 6.
The last day of school for the 2017-2018 school year at E.M. Rollins Elementary will be Friday, June 22.
Administrators and students at the Vance County Schools Empowerment Academy have created a garden outside of the facility’s main entrance with funding from a special grant program.
The grant funding, totaling about $170, came from the Karma for Cara Foundation which funds youth volunteer projects.
Brian Schlessinger, a teacher at the Empowerment Academy, led efforts to apply for the grant and create the garden. He worked with his students and administrators at the academy to seek the grant funding and follow through on building the garden that is beside the facility’s main entrance.
The garden was completed by early February after students and their teachers worked to prepare the soil, install landscaping timbers for borders for the garden and had soil brought in to fill the space. They then worked to plant tulip bulbs, two evergreen shrubs and a cedar tree in the garden. Schlessinger and students are shown in the first two photos as they work on the garden.
Antavius Turner, a seventh grader who was attending the Empowerment Academy and is now a student at Eaton-Johnson Middle School, was one of the students involved in the project. Turner is shown with Schlessinger in the third photo as they work online to complete paperwork for the grant funding.
“Building the garden was a really good experience,” Turner said. “All of us in the academy worked together to get it done. We wanted to give the area outside the building life and make it look nice. We really like how it turned out and I think the project helped to show when you give us another chance we can do good things.”
The four female students and 10 male students who attend the Empowerment Academy are all on long-term suspension from their home schools because of behavior issues. Girls attend classes at the academy in the mornings and the boys attend their classes in the afternoons each day. Schlessinger and other teachers, along with Dr. Ralphel Holloman, coordinator of the academy, work with the students in online course work as well as teacher led math and language arts classes on a daily basis. Turner spent the first semester of this school year in the Empowerment Academy. He was able to return to Eaton-Johnson for the beginning of the second semester in late January after he completed necessary course work and met attendance and behavior requirements.
“All of the Empowerment students pitched in to help with the garden project,” Schlessinger said. “It made them feel good to have a role in creating it. We hope to do more with the garden at a later time and continue to improve the appearance of the areas outside of the building.”
Schlessinger pointed out that the funding from the Karma for Cara Foundation was a perfect fit for the academy’s project. The foundation was established in memory of Cara Becker, who lived in Maryland and at the age of 21 was diagnosed with leukemia. She battled the disease for four months, but died of complications from her treatments in December of 2012. Her family has carried on her legacy through the foundation. Becker throughout most of her short life was involved in volunteer work and community service. She had a special interest in helping children who were experiencing tough times and promoted community involvement with those her age and beyond. The foundation regularly awards small grants for community projects involving youth groups and also recognizes the efforts
Vance County Schools
For Immediate Release
February 13, 2017
E.O. Young Jr. Elementary School celebrated science during a special Science and Spaghetti Night event on Thursday, February 9, at the school.
The evening featured parents and students visiting classrooms and participating in science experiments and activities led by teachers.
Students in third grade and fifth grade won honors with their science projects.
Capturing top honors in the third grade were Aaliyah Alenlain, first place; Devan Markham, second place; La’Niyah Terry, tied for third place; and Canaan Evans, tied for third place. They are shown in the first accompanying photo, from right to left, with their projects.
The fifth-grade winners included: Nathaniel Durham, first place; Kendall Sizemore, second place; Nathan Richardson, tied for third place; and Mason Pendergrass, tied for third place. Durham is shown in the second accompanying photo with his project.
Richardson and Pendergrass are shown in the third photo from right to left. Sizemore was unavailable for a photo.
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction has announced the 2015-2016 graduation rates and the 2015-2016 dropout rates for public school districts across the state.
Vance County Schools saw significant improvement over previous years in both areas.
With a four-year cohort graduation rate of 81.9 percent for the class of 2016, this is a record high for Vance County over the past five years. The class of 2015 had a four-year cohort graduation rate of 77.6 percent in Vance County.
Vance County Schools’ dropout rate for the 2015-2016 school year continues to improve as it has for the past six years. The dropout rate for the school system is 2.07 percent for the 2015-2016 school year, which is a 13-percent decrease from the 2014-2015 school year rate of 2.28 percent. This is a record low for Vance County over the past six years.
Improving the graduation rate and reducing dropouts are top priorities for Vance County Schools. It is an ongoing and focused effort for the school system as we work to ensure that every student graduates prepared to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing local, regional and global economy.
Additionally, Vance County Schools currently provides students new and exciting opportunities for credit recovery through online and other non-traditional programs designed to help as many students as possible realize the goal of completion of high school with their peers.
The state data also reported that during the 2015-2016 school year our schools were among the safest in our region, with reportable incidents and student suspensions down or about the same as the previous year. We are pleased with these data and hope to see continued improvement.
As a school system, we will not be satisfied until all students, parents, staff members and community members feel safe coming into our schools; where all students are learning, expectations are high and students are graduating on time prepared to contribute positively to our community and be 21st Century global citizens.
We are excited to share this news with you and look forward to celebrating with our students and their parents in the future as we continue delivering on the promise that we will provide each student a high quality educational experience as we create a school system in which our community can be PROUD. I am Vance County Proud … Are You?
Dr. Anthony D. Jackson, Superintendent
Vance County Public Schools
On Thursday, November 3rd, the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting for Vance Charter School to celebrate the official opening of their brand-new building, located at 2090 Ross Mill Road in Henderson. Students & parents, faculty and Board members, local dignitary and other supporters were in attendance.
This new facility is now home to over 645 students in grades K-9. Once a dream shared by many, several years in the planning, then construction and now a facility that feels like home and will be around for decades to come.
First day of class for students in the new location will be on Monday, November 7. For more information about Vance Charter School, please contact them at 252-431-0440 or check them out on the web at www.vancecharter.org.
