Local News - October 2002

MLK Jr. Day issue raised

By JEREMY ASHTON, LTN Staff Writer

October 4, 2002 - Concerned parents and community members lined the rear wall and filled the conference room in the Lincoln County Board of Education building Wednesday night.

The large crowd turned out at the school board’s monthly meeting to demonstrate its support for two issues — the recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an official school holiday and the protection of advanced placement courses.

Flanked by members of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance Committee, Sandra T. Nixon-Little, the committee’s chairwoman, read a prepared statement to the board requesting that it make King’s birthday an official holiday beginning this January, citing its “tremendous historical and educational value.”

The school system currently treats the holiday, which was first observed nationally in 1986, as an optional teacher workday, giving students the day off and allowing teachers the choice of whether or not to work.

During a recess in the meeting, Robert Hamilton, the president of the NAACP’s Lincoln branch, said children in Lincoln schools will fail to grasp King’s importance if a change is not made.

“This is an educational matter, as well as the fact that Dr. King is a great American,” Hamilton said. “We want to do everything we can to keep this before young people and let them know who he was and what he’s done for all of us.”

Hamilton said he was “guardedly optimistic” the request will be approved.

Associate Superintendent Edward Hatley, the chairman of the school system’s calendar committee, plans to talk to Hamilton in the next couple of weeks and then convene a meeting of the calendar committee to look at changing the schedule for this year and 2003-04.

The committee, Hatley said, will give it “every serious consideration.” Any final changes to the calendar would have to meet board approval.

The board also unanimously approved recommendations made by the curriculum committee to encourage more students to enroll in AP courses.

Under the new plan, students who want to take AP biology or chemistry must first take a semester-long honors course in the fall. Students could then take the AP course during the spring.

AP biology and chemistry have previously been offered as year-long courses worth only one credit. Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Elaine Jenkins said several students were reluctant to sign up for them out of fear they would adversely affect their class rank.

Earlier in the meeting, Terrie Jones, the parent of an East Lincoln High School student, presented the board with a petition signed by 128 parents “asking the board to take effective steps to prevent the cancellation of AP courses in the Lincoln County high schools.”

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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