The Vance County Early College High School would like to invite the community to attend its annual Fall Festival on Friday, Oct. 28th, at Vance-Granville Community College Civic Center, from 6:00-9:00pm.
Families are urged to attend for good food, fellowship and fun!
The deployment of almost 600 new laptop computers to teachers in Vance County Schools began today with teachers from six schools coming to the Administrative Services Center in the afternoon to get their new devices.
The teachers were returning their old devices and then picking up new ones, which are Lenovo E460 laptops, that have been fully programmed and equipped to use as teaching tools each day in their classrooms.
Technology Department staff members have worked long hours to get all of the new laptops ready for the teachers.
Teachers from Southern Vance High, Early College High, Aycock Elementary, Carver Elementary, Clarke Elementary and New Hope Elementary received laptops today. New laptop computers will be given tomorrow afternoon to teachers from Northern Vance High, STEM Early High, Dabney Elementary, E.O. Young Jr. Elementary and Zeb Vance Elementary.
More computer deployments are planned for teachers at additional schools on October 25 and 26.
Grandparents of students at Zeb Vance Elementary School were invited to join their grandchildren for lunch in honor of National Grandparents Day. Although the official day is to be observed on the first Sunday after Labor Day, Zeb Vance hosted its festivities on the following Monday.
“The smiles on the students’ faces when they saw their grandparents come out to have lunch with them was priceless. I was floored by the number of grandparents we had visiting,” said Kristian Herring, Principal of Zeb Vance Elementary School. “101 grandparents had lunch with their grandchildren. This shows just how important our grandparents are to our students and how important our students are to our grandparents.”
Guidance Counselor Valerie Hairston was also ecstatic at how Grandparents Day connected generations. “Grandparents left with joy in their hearts and a token of appreciation in their hands,” she stated. “This was a great way to honor grandparents.”
This initiative was started at Zeb Vance as a way to have grandparents visit the school and enjoy the company of their grandchildren over a nutritional meal. Zeb Vance also uses this as a venue to recruit volunteers for the school.
“It is wonderful to see our students’ faces light up when they see their grandparents in the cafeteria to join them for lunch,” shared Marian Faulkner, a third grade teacher at Zeb Vance. “Some students invited their classmates (who didn’t have a family member there) to join them and their family for lunch. Anytime we can merge our Zeb Vance family with our students’ families is a positive experience.”
Mike Patel, grandfather of a Zeb Vance Kindergarten student, shared his satisfaction with the Grandparents Day celebration. “I enjoyed the lunch very much,” he said. “I liked seeing all the loving moments between the grandchildren and their grandparents.”
President Jimmy Carter signed a federal proclamation declaring the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. What a way to celebrate Grandparents Day by promoting participation and community involvement.
Pictured in the attached photograph are (left to right): Mike Patel, Maci Hunt, Maci Short and Dinky Ramsey
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.
The Vance County Board of Education during its meeting Monday night approved the rescheduling of Tuesday, November 8, which is National Election Day, to a mandatory teacher workday with no school for students. It was originally scheduled as a regular school day.
Five of our schools, New Hope, L.B. Yancey, E.O. Young, Henderson Middle and Northern Vance High, are used as voting sites. It was the opinion of the board and school system administrators that with the expected large turnout for the election the day would be especially disruptive at these five schools, if it would have been a regular school day.
With the board’s action, no students in Vance County Schools will attend school on that day. However, all school system employees will be working.
End of Grade Tests Better; Vance Has Exited Low Performance Status; Closing Gap to State Averages; Vance Improving Quicker Than Several State Averages
On Wednesday, September 28, 2016, Superintendent Anthony Jackson addressed a crowd of about 70 business and community leaders. In his opening remarks he said, “I want you to leave with a renewed commitment to the schools and the community. Put your name on every child you encounter.”
Discussed was student achievement, safe and orderly schools, quality of education, effective and efficient operations and how to be good educators in the 21st century environment.
The luncheon event was co-hosted by the Henderson Rotary Club and the Vance County Public School Foundation.
Jackson also discussed aspirations for the 17 local public schools for the current school year and provided those in attendance with a “Strategic Roadmap” for the next five years.
He told those in attendance he wanted young adults “ready for society the Monday after graduation.” Jackson wants feedback from business and community leaders about how to better prepare students for entry into the local workforce.
And Jackson said a supportive community is key, that the mindset here needs to be one of looking at the improvements and tying them to excellence.
Some of the information shared by Jackson included:
“All of this took a lot of hard work,” Jackson said. “Our teachers and students should be commended for their accomplishments. This doesn’t happen overnight. We want to continue to increase our student achievements at a greater rate than students are growing across the state. We recognize we have a gap between our achievements and state achievements, but if we can continue to grow as we did last year we can eliminate the gap over the next few years.”
Jackson acknowledged continuing to make substantial student achievements and closing the gap between proficiency by local students and state proficiency will take more hard work. “But, I’m convinced we can get it done,” he said.
Jackson continued to stress the school system’s theme for 2016-2017 of “Excellence . . . Without Excuse!” He also repeated the increasingly popular slogan of “I’m Vance County Proud. Are you?”
(Editor’s Note – WIZS News attended the luncheon. The article above was written from our notes and includes excerpts written by Vance County Schools Public Information Officer Terri Hedrick as well. WIZS News encourages you to read the full VCS article written by Hedrick and posted on the VCS Web Page by clicking on the link below.)
Vance County School State of Schools Luncheon Article as written and posted by Terri Hedrick
A ribbon cutting was held on Friday, September 30th for Carver Elementary School as they celebrated their new multipurpose room was officially dedicated in memory of Eddie Wright, the late Vance County Board of Commissioners’ member who proved to be the school’s biggest advocate in getting the facility constructed.
All of the 225 students in the school were joined by the entire school staff, parents, friends and local officials in dedicating the new multipurpose room and participating in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Marion Perry, a valuable and outstanding supporter of Carver Elementary, presented the plaque, which will hang in the new facility, commemorating the amazing contributions of Wright. She presented the plaque to Wright’s widow, Maresa, and their two daughters, Sabrina and Ashley.
In making the presentation, Perry talked about Wright’s devotion to Carver Elementary School and all public schools in Vance County. She said they often shared conversations about the importance of education and their mutual passion for helping children.
Principal David Westbrook told the audience that the handsome, wooden plaque, with a color photo of Wright, will be placed at the front entrance of the new multipurpose room.
Several local dignitaries were on hand to offer comments of praise for Wright and his steadfast support of the school and local children. Those who spoke included: Gloria J. White, chairwoman of the Vance County Board of Education: Gordon Wilder, chairman of the Vance County Board of Commissioners; Henderson Mayor Eddie Ellington; John Barnes, president of the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce; and Dr. Anthony Jackson, superintendent of Vance County Schools.
Students and teachers from the school assisted with the ribbon-cutting, which was led by White. Mrs. Wright and her daughters also participated as did all of the local officials in attendance.
“This is a great day for our school,” Westbrook said. “We are so proud to have this wonderful facility for our students. We will always remember Mr. Wright for his amazing support in making this new facility possible.”
The Biodiesel 4 Schools Program has donated $460 to Vance County Schools since June.
The school system entered a partnership with the program in January of 2015.
Dean Price of Green Circle N.C., administers the program that partners with public school systems across this region of North Carolina to turn used cooking oil from local businesses into biodiesel fuel used in certain motor vehicles. The program then provides the school system with a percentage of the funds collected each quarter when the fuel is sold to customers.
Price made the first donation in early June and the second donation in mid-September. He has also reported that the program is now using the old N.C. Biofuels Center in Oxford to produce the biodiesel from the used cooking oil.
Green Circle on a regular basis collects used cooking oil from 16 local restaurants and other businesses that donate their oil for the Biodiesel 4 Schools Program.
“These businesses are showing their support for local schools and we expect to get others involved in the program,” Price said.
Local businesses currently participating in the program include: Denny’s; Skipper Forsythe’s Bar-B-Q; George’s; Golden Corral; Ichibar Japanese; J.J. Fish and Chicken; Ma’s Country Kitchen; Pegram’s Dairy Bar; Randy’s Kitchen/Amerigas; Village Kitchen; Maria Parham Medical Center; Henderson Moose Lodge; New Hope Mini Mart; Drewry Fire Department; and Vance-Granville Community College.
Students from the four local high schools attended the annual College Fair held at Vance-Granville Community College on September 21.
The two-hour event was held in the morning in the community college’s Civic Center. There were representatives from approximately 60 colleges and universities in attendance to share information about future educational opportunities with students from Northern Vance, Southern Vance, Western Vance and the Vance County Early College high schools.
The community college partners each year with school systems in the four-county area it serves to provide information to high school students. Vance-Granville officials did another great job in hosting the event and getting a large number of colleges to participate.
Among the colleges with representatives on hand were Appalachian State, Barton, Campbell, Chowan, East Carolina, Elizabeth City State, Johnson & Wales, Liberty, Meredith, N.C. Central, N.C. State, Sweet Briar, UNC Pembroke, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Wilmington, UNC Greensboro, Shaw, Western Carolina, William Peace and Winston-Salem State.
