Local News - August 2002

Lincoln students head back to class

By JACQUELINE CASEY, LTN Staff Writer

August 7, 2002 - At 7:20 this morning Union Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Debbie Cook made final touches to her classroom as she listened to classical music. Outside the classroom door, her students’ names were displayed in a fishing net labeled “Miss Cook’s Catch.”

It was the calm before the storm.

Minutes later Cook was welcoming students, just some of the 11,000 students who returned to Lincoln County classrooms today.

Christie Kelly avoided most of the traffic backed up on Reepsville Road by arriving at Union early with her daughter Tess Gibson, a kindergartner.

“I just wanted to make sure she got settled,” said Kelly, who admitted to being a little nervous about her five-year-old starting school.

Down the hall, Kim Moran helped sons Jacob, a first-grader, and Jeremy, a third-grader, find their classrooms.

“I think I’m more nervous than they are,” said Moran.

Jeremy wasn’t so sure about being back at school.

“I just wanted to stay at home,” he said.

At Pumpkin Center Middle newly-planted purple flowers around the mailbox welcomed students. By 7:50 only one bus was still out on route and cars were slowly making their way in a steady stream along King Wilkinson Road into the school parking lot.

Most of the school’s 640 students — 50 more than at the close of last year — had already made their way to class.

Assistant principal Tim Ward said he was pleased that hard work by the school’s staff during the past weeks had paid off in a smooth start.

“We’re looking for a good year,” said Ward. “We’re going to be focusing on AIG kids and get everybody to raise their test scores.”

The opening of school was “fairly typical,” said Superintendent Jim Watson, who by 10 this morning had fielded phone calls concerning buses, traffic and air conditioning.

Watson said the focus of this school year is to build on the achievements of last year.

“Our previous year was very good. We want to build on that and continue helping each child be as successful as they can,” he said.

Except for a few last minute resignations, the system is starting the year with all teaching positions filled, said Watson.

Running Lincoln County Schools is a big endeavor. The district operates 19 schools and has 1,600 employees, 800 of them teachers, making it the largest employer in the county. Its 109 regular buses travel almost 6,700 miles a day and its cafeterias feed lunch to 5,600 students and breakfast to 2,600.

Watson said the system is concerned about its student population numbers. New apartment construction in Lincolnton and east Lincoln  has staff working to project how many new students to expect during the year.

One thing is certain, said Watson, today’s student count will not be the year’s highest.

“I know we’ll get a phone call today from someone asking, ‘When does school start?’”

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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