May 10 - 16, 2018
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IN THIS ISSUE News in Brief.................................... 3 Oak Ridge Town Council.............. 4 Happy Mother’s Day!..................... 6 Community Calendar................. 12 Crime/Incident Report................ 14 Vikings Set Sail.............................. 18 Youth Sync..................................... 19 Student profiles.............................22 Letters/Opinions...........................24 Grins & Gripes...............................26 Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO
Summerfield Elementary kindergartners in Jennifer Summers’ class share their thoughts on their moms for a special Mother’s Day feature. See their comments on p. 6.
Classifieds..................................... 27 Index of Advertisers..................... 31
Educators plan to make their voices heard on May 16 Educators from across the state will travel to Raleigh for the NC General Assembly’s opening day by PATTI STOKES
resulted in Guilford County Schools announcing that schools will be closed that day because there are not enough substitutes to cover the classrooms vacated by teachers who are taking a personal day to travel to our state capital.
Over 2,000 educators from Guilford County will be joining others from across the state in Raleigh on May 16 to make their voices heard when the NC General Assembly convenes for opening day. The movement has
“This has been building year after year since we have lost teacher assistants, money for textbooks and supplies, and stagnant teacher pay,” said Todd Warren, president of Guilford County Association of Educators.
“We’re 39th in the nation for per-pupil spending.” Warren said this is not a new situation for public school educators, but it does seem to have reached a “boiling point.” “Educators around the country have finally realized that we have marched, rallied and voted and nothing seems to be working except for going to our state capitals and demanding some accountability. Educators seem to be taking inspiration
from each other and realizing they do have power, and they do have a voice,” Warren said. Despite the focus some want to put on teacher pay, Warren said the issues educators are advocating for go far beyond that. “This is about an overall level of school funding,” he said. “We know there is broad bi-partisan support for increasing education spending. The general population wants to see public
...continued on p. 8