Bladen County has 13 public schools. That number may be reduced to 10 beginning next school year.
It was learned during the week that Bladen County Schools Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor is expected to recommend closing Clarkton School of Discovery, Booker T. Washington Primary in Clarkton and Plain View Primary near Tar Heel to the Board of Education as part of a consolidation plan. The board has to approve any consolidation plan.
In other news,
** The rain was threatening, but memories and hope were all that washed over the crowd at the Bladen County “Cry Out America” event held Sept. 11 at the Bladen County Courthouse front lawn in Elizabethtown. Bagpiper Arch Decascrique was heard playing in the background as many gathered for a chance to honor the lives lost on September 11, 2001, the many heroes Bladen County has lost, and for the chance to “Cry Out” with others in America.
** ‘Facing South,’ a publication of the Institute for Southern Studies, featured an article recently, “New Developments in possible lynching case out of North Carolina,” an update of recent activities related to the Lennon Lacy case in Bladenboro.
** Less than half of Bladen County’s 13 schools met their academic growth goals in 2014-15 in the Performance and Growth of North Carolina Public Schools report released last week, but, says Superintendent Robert Taylor, one report doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story about how a school is performing. “Student performance is certainly increasing in some areas and decreasing in some areas,” Taylor said.
** Bladen County high school seniors in 2015 had an average combined SAT score of 1,206, according to The College Board’s annual report released earlier this month. That’s a 26 point drop, about 2.1 percent, from 2014 scores.
** Bladen County EMS’s mission is “To provide Bladen County with professional and efficient patient care in a responsible and timely manner,” but how much can the county afford? Commissioners met Sept. 8 to review the current system and discuss ways to make it better.
** Bladen County commissioners denied a request for an additional $120,000 from the Board of Education to cover current operating expenses. Dr. Robert Taylor, superintendent of Bladen County Schools, first requested $200,000 to cover the cost of funding teacher supplements, supplies and materials for teachers, drivers education and teacher assistants’ salary.
** A Raleigh man pleaded guilty Sept. 8 to first degree murder in the death of former Elizabethtown resident Melissa Huggins-Jones. Ronald Lee Anthony, 25, was sentenced to life in prison in Wake County Superior Court in the beating and stabbing death of Huggins-Jones in May 2013 inside her Allister North Hills Apartments home off Six Forks Road in Raleigh.
** Robert Kinlaw, filmmaker and producer of the video documentary entitled “White Lake – Remembering the Nation’s Safest Beach,” has been selected by Our State magazine as the voice of Bladen County in the September, 2015 collector’s issue.
** The West Bladen football team rolled past St. Pauls 43-20 on Sept. 11 to improve to 3-1 in its final non-conference game. East Bladen, 3-0, did not play.
That’s the week that was in Bladen County.
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