Anson County Schools off to a successful start

WADESBORO — The recently passed Parents Bill of Rights and the start of school were foremost at the Anson County Board of Education meeting on August 28.

The Parents Bill of Rights or, NC Senate Bill 49, outlines a parent’s authority in regards to their child’s education. The Bill covers many issues such as; student grades and attendance, sex education and gender orientation. More information on the bill, first passed by the Senate in February, is posted on the Anson County school district website.

“Please trust your superintendent to make sure that we meet all the guidelines, by law, and make sure that Anson County school district embraces the recently approved Parent Bill of Rights,” asked Superintendent Howard McLean.

“If you’ll go to our website, you will see where we posted the recently approved Parents Bill of Rights. Parents, we are still looking at how to interpret what the law has said we need to do, over the next several months we will be making sure that we are within the jurisdiction… we are in compliance thus far,” updated Superintendent McLean.

School Board members visited several Anson County schools, assuring themselves that schools were running properly and efficiently on their first day.

“Many of our citizens form their opinion of our schools by what they see from the road. I visited every school in Anson County and looked at it from the perspective of the road and I was well pleased by what I saw. All of our schools were properly mowed, shrubbery trimmed, with beds maintained,” praised Chairman Dr. George Truman.

“There was no trash accumulated in the yards or in the beds, our principals and our custodians have done a very good job,” Truman stated with obvious pride.

“I was able to attend three of our schools for open house, and I intended to do many more, but I enjoyed myself so much at each one that I stayed too long! I was very pleased with where I went and received a lot of good vibes,” commented board member Carol Ann Gibson.

“I also attended convocation and my daughter who works for Wake County schools sent a text of me dancing and wanted to know where I was and what I was doing… I kept her in mystery about it,” teased board member Bobbie Little.

“I was not able to make convocation and I was real sorry about that. But I did get to see it and you folks got some moves, I’ll say that!” quipped board member Lisa Davis.

Principal Chris Stinson appeared before the board, along with other Anson County school district principals, to update the board on any first day issues.

“It was a little slow getting started with the metal detectors; it was a new experience for us. We want to make sure we are as effective and efficient as possible. We learned a lot this morning and we had a practice session this afternoon. We look for a more efficient start tomorrow. Once we got everybody in we were safe, secure, and had a great day of teaching and learning,” summed up Stinson.

“Mr. Stinson, I heard something about the high density of the metal detectors,” inquired Superintendent McLean.

“You can change the settings to determine what it (metal detector) detects. So we have our settings turned up so that it detects more things,” Stinson answered.

“We really want to make sure we are screening everything as tight as possible, which did slow us down a bit… so it was a little slow today but we are making some adjustments and we’ll make it happen tomorrow,” he concluded.

“We had a marvelous day at Morven Elementary school, staff and students were very excited. My custodian called me at 6:06 a.m. and said, “You have teachers out here at the door, should I let them in already,” shared Principal Dionnya Pratt.

At Anson Middle School, metal detectors were in place but not yet in use, according to Principal Darrell Potts.

“We started off setting up the metal detectors but we did not turn them on. We installed a new traffic light and we wanted people to get used to the traffic pattern,” stated Potts. “We did have a practice clinic with our teachers prior to students arriving so we would know how best to put the students through the metal detectors.”

“Each teacher walked their students through the metal detectors showing them how we are going to have our arrivals and procedures each morning at the car rider and bus rider lots. We want to get them accumulated and trained, and we are going to turn them on Monday,” updated Principal Pratt.

The middle school plans to follow suit with the high school, setting their detection levels to high as well.

“We have a little younger crowd than the high school and we want the kids to be familiar and not scared,” she said.

The only real hiccup experienced by Anson Middle school staff related to temperature in the classroom, as some ac units were not working properly.

“We thought everything would be working perfectly but sometimes things don’t work perfect, so we made some adjustments, moved kids to different classrooms, and made sure the environment was comfortable to learn in,” Principal Pratt informed the board.

Anson Middle School also received visits from the Men for Life group on their first day.

“They will continue to be on campus throughout the year as their work schedules will allow,” updated Superintendent McLean.

“We got our students in class, ran our regular schedule, with staff able to troubleshoot any of the issues that we had. We had a really great day, with a lot of positivity and support,” informed Principal Adams of Wadesboro Elementary, on how students first day went.

“Our biggest hiccup was students not remembering their lunch numbers, but we have a plan and hopefully all students will have those (numbers) learned again by Friday,” stated Heather Gerald, Principal at Wadesboro Primary school.

“We practiced what we call Our Wadesboro Primary Way routines and procedures today. I believe that is a lot of the reason we had such a smooth day. Teachers conducted practice lessons with students on last Friday, which “was also a huge help… so we had a fantastic day at Wadesboro Primary,” wrapped up Principal Gerald.

Lilesville Elementary school Principal, Becky Flake, was excited to have, “Sherriff Howell and some of his team, other organizations on campus this morning welcoming our students, and also the Anson High School football players came to visit this morning so that was exciting for our students.”

“Teachers had routines and procedures in place and they implemented the new…curriculum. It was an awesome first day with no tears,” commented Flake.

At Anson Early College the, “Biggest hiccup was with breakfast but we have a plan for that tomorrow. Metal detectors come in September. I trained with Mr. Stinson on the metal detectors and students were made aware we will follow the same procedures as the high school. Training and implementation will begin in September,” apprised Principal Carri Decker.

“Our staff was extremely prepared for the start of a new school year, it was almost like we were a month into school,” boasted Principal Travis Steagall.

“I’d really like to commend them for a job well done. Our students were extremely excited to be back in the building — lots of hugs, fist bumps and high fives,” he said.

“I was very impressed with your signage and landscaping,” Truman said, recognizing the hard work of Principal Steagall and his staff.