The Rant Monthly | May 2023

The RantMonthly

NORTH CAROLINA

TRICK OR THREAT

HOW LEE COUNTY SCHOOLS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT HAVE HANDLED RECENT FALSE ALARMS AND HOW THEY’RE PREPARED FOR THE REAL THING

SANFORD,

The RantMonthly

May 2023 | Sanford, North Carolina

A product of LPH Media, LLC

Vol. 5 | Issue 5 | No. 50

Editorial

Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com

Billy Liggett | billy@rantnc.com

Jonathan Owens | jonathan@rantnc.com

Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com

Advertising Brandon Allred | brandon@rantnc.com

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Contributors

Ben Brown, John Crumpton, Lily Jones

Editorial Board

Jorge Garcia, Indira Varma, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig, Jim Parsons, Neve Campbell, Adam Scott, Tyra Banks and Steve Burns

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Harrington Update

We won’t do this every month, but it’s been fun watching former Southern Lee and Campbell University pitcher Thomas Harrington break into professional baseball this spring. While his Camel teammate Zach Neto has become the first from the 2022 draft class to break into the major leagues, Harrington is getting his feet wet with the Class A Bradenton Mauraders of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system.

Through three appearance, Harrington has a 2-0 record and a 4.26 ERA. All six runs he’s allowed came in one game — the other two appearances have been stellar — five scoreless innings and seven strikeouts in his first start and 10 strikeouts in five shutout innings against a good Daytona squad.

This from The Athletic: “Perhaps the biggest adjustment for Harrington will be the grind of a professional baseball season. Right now, the Pirates have him pitching every seven days, mimicking a college workload. But Harrington knows he must prepare himself for a tougher grind. ‘Experience is probably going to be my best teacher,’ he said.”

DID YOU KNOW?

Speaking of Zach Neto, the former Campbell All-American shortstop and now shortstop for the Los Angeles Angels set a Major League Baseball record by getting hit by a pitch six times in his first 10 games. It’s no accident, Campbell — currently ranked No. 9 in the nation in NCAA Division I baseball — coaches hitters to stay in the box and take the hit. The Camels, in addition to leading the nation in runs per game, lead the nation in total “hit by pitch.”

PAGE FOUR

FOUR BIG EVENTS FROM 50 YEARS

This is the 50th edition of The Rant Monthly. To honor this, here are four big things that happened back in 1973:

WAR IN VIETNAM ENDS

WATERGATE

Fifth graders from W.B. Wicker Elementary School made the trip to Raleigh and NC Public Schools to promote their “Lion King Jr.” performance in April. The show ran April 20-21 at the Wicker school auditorium.

AGO

BATTLE OF THE SEXES

Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs at the Astrodome in Houston. With 30,492, on hand, it remains the largest live audience ever to see a tennis match in U.S. history.

U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. A month later, the first prisoners of war in Hanoi are released.

The Watergate scandal would eventually take down President Nixon, who famously declared, “I am not a crook.” All presidents since then have been squeaky clean, right?

OJ2K

Nearly 30 years before not killing his exwife and her lover in a fit of jealous rage, O.J. Simpson became the first NFL running back to run for over 2,000 yards.

NANTS INGONYAMA ...

YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIVE INSIDE THE GATES TO BECOME A MEMBER OR HOST AN EVENT!

OPPORTUNITY TO BE A MEMBER FOR A DAY SCAN TO INQUIRE!

School safety is paramount

We ask a whole hell of a lot of our teachers and school administrators. We want our kids to learn. We want them to feel special and loved and important. We want them to take part in sports and other extracurricular activities, and we want the social aspect of their school experience to be fulfilling.

And as the number of mass shootings — several of them involving schools — continues to rise in our country, we want our children to feel safe and be protected. Active shooter drills are as much a part of the school experience today as tornado and fire drills were for previous generations.

Coming off a few months full of bomb threats and weapon threats at Lee County Schools — and really, schools all across the state — we look at how the school district and local law enforcement have handled these recent incidents and the steps they’ve taken

to make our schools safer. Metal detectors are now found at the entrances of Lee County and Southern Lee high schools. Armed deputies and other law enforcement officials are as much a part of our elementary, middle and high schools as the faculty and staff are.

It’s sad that it has come to this, but there’s comfort in knowing protection is in place. We can debate for the next 100 years about gun control, mental health and all the other factors that have led to the rise in mass shootings in our country — and we’ll probably be debating rather than doing forever. But these reactionary measures are necessary.

It’s possible they may not be enough. We’ve unfortunately seen instances just in the last two years where it wasn’t in other schools. But as we hope you see in this edition, our school district is trying. Perhaps one day as voters we can make it easier for them.

— Billy Liggett

THE LEAD

LOCAL ECONOMY

FONDA LUPITA OWNERS TO OPEN “MARISCOS NO. JUAN” IN OLD LOCATION

Signage in the window at the old Fonda Lupita location, 129 W. Main St. in Sanford, indicates a new restaurant will occupy the site soon.

Work on Mariscos No. Juan is nearing completion by the same people who brought you Fonda Lupita, which opened at the same location in 2020 and was named one of the best new restaurants in the United States before moving to South Horner Boulevard in 2022.

Mariscos — the Spanish word for seafood — will feature dishes like ceviche, fish and shrimp tacos and tostadas, and rotating specials, according to owner Biridiana Fausto. Fausto said diners can expect a “fast casual” concept similar to the one Fonda Lupita uses.

“We’re going to keep the same flavors,” she said. “The menu will be more strictly seafood.”Fausto said most of the work is done, and she’s just waiting for the inspections and permitting process to play out before opening.

TWO PLEAD GUILTY IN 2019 MURDER OF SANFORD MAN

Two Sanford men charged in connection with a 2019 murder pleaded to reduced charges on the day jury selection in their trials was set to begin.

Jayden Hodges, 22, and Elijah Rose, 23, each offered Alford pleas in response to charges that they shot and killed 29-yearold Eric Thompson Jr. and shot and wounded another victim at the WestRidge apartment complex on Pathway Drive in Sanford in 2019.

Governor visits Sanford to tout

VinFast

deal, tour CCCC’s worker training site

By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper was in Sanford on April 19 to visit the site on Central Carolina Community College’s campus where the 7,500 workers of the state’s first automotive manufacturing facility will be trained over the next two years.

It was a day that has been long-coming for Cooper and for the state, and CCCC was chosen to host it because of the critical role it played in landing the largest

economic development project in state history. The Tar Heel state had tried for years to lure a company from the automotive sector but kept coming up short. But it never quit and just 13 months ago, its lucky number finally came up when Vietnamese car company VinFast announced it had chosen a site in Chatham County just 15 miles north of Sanford for its first North American manufacturing facility.

Just over a year after that announcement was made in Raleigh, Cooper gathered again with VinFast’s CEO and

others, this time in Sanford, to celebrate that success and review milestones, both those that are still to come and others now in the rear-view mirror.

“We are the number one state in the country for business, and there is really only one group of people that deserve the credit for that. It’s because we have the best people, the most dedicated people, the hardest working people, and the besttrained people in the country right here, and companies from the other side of the

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and VinFast North America CEO Van Anh Nguyen toured Central Carolina Community College’s E. Eugene Moore Manufacturing and Biotech Solutions Center in April. The site will train 7,500 workers of the state’s first electric automotive manufacturing facility in Moncure in the next two years. Photo: ednc.org

globe are recognizing that. And that is why they are here investing in North Carolina,” Cooper told a group of more than 100 present for the event.

VinFast will produce both electric automobiles and the batteries that power them at Chatham County’s Triangle Innovation Point, a 2,150-acre advanced manufacturing site formerly called the Moncure Megasite. It’s located southeast of U.S. 1 between Pea Ridge Road at Exit 81 and Christian Chapel Church Road at Exit 84. Grading work has been happening at the site for most of the past six months.

Kirk Smith, chairman of the Lee County Board of Commissioners, also spoke at the gathering and highlighted the $7.2 million the county has invested in the 22-acre site where the gathering took place, the same site where the VinFast employees will receive their training. Lee County’s acquisition of the property site previously owned by Magnetti Marelli in July of 2021 came a full 18 months before VinFast’s announcement and gave the state a big card to play in the hand that ultimately brought the company to North Carolina.

“Lee County has a lot of skin in this game,” Smith said. “My peers across the state of North Carolina are just fascinated with this facility that we’ve acquired here for the use of training our future workforce. We look forward to a very productive partnership here in Lee County with VinFast and with other manufacturers.”

Cooper joked that the reason he visited Sanford was to test drive one of the company’s new VF-8 models that were on display for the event. But he was really on hand to talk about was the need for new legislative initiatives in childcare that help support students while they are learning new skills for the workforce. The governor called childcare support, now under discussion at the General Assembly in Raleigh, “the triple play” because it provides three pillars of support for the economy.

“First, it gives the children a quality early childhood education, which we know is so important,” he said. “Second, it allows that parent to work and bring income into the family, and third, it gives that employer a great employee you might otherwise not be able to be in the workforce at a time when we need to be strengthening our workforce.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper toured Central Carolina Community College’s E. Eugene Moore Manufacturing and Biotech Solutions Center in April. Photo: ednc.org

The least of their concerns

This edition of The Rant Monthly focuses a lot on our students. On Page 30, it’s a success story — a young woman who’s benefited from a school focused on preparing students for higher education (Lee Early College). On the other side of the spectrum, our cover story, beginning on Page 18, deals with the safety of our schools and the numerous bomb threats, false alarms and drills our students have experienced.

Education and safety. Our schools — public, private, charter or other — should place these two items as No. 1 and 2 on the priority list every day and every year. Perhaps No. 3 is the budget and how all this is paid for, and no fear, we cover that too on Page 36

Yet in the first now four months of existence of the new Republican-led Lee County Board of Education, an unnecessary amount of time and resources have been spent on rewriting policy codes and shoving in language that — though professionally and vaguely worded at times — ultimately targets students already facing undeniable discrimination at the state and national level.

As we reported in the April edition, the Board’s new “Parents Bill of Rights” suggests teachers are now responsible for informing parents if their student is considering a change in their gender identity or pronoun usage without their parents’ knowledge. In short, they’re being asked to “out” their students instead of teaching them.

There’s so much that’s wrong and unnecessary about this, and there’s not enough room in this gray space to list the reasons why. Other policy is aimed at “Critical Race Theory” and states any negative aspects of American history — and face it, friends, we are an imperfect nation — will be off limits in local classrooms. “The U.S. foundational documents shall not be undermined,” the policy reads. The First Amendment, obviously, is not included in this statement.

Education and safety. Not politics and grandstanding. It’s not a lot to ask, but this group of board members don’t seem to understand the assignment. We as parents and voters need to speak up (and out) against their indoctrination.

OPINION

COLUMN | BILLY LIGGETT

WHEN THE KID (FINALLY) WINS

The day many dads know is coming — yet fear nonetheless — will arrive for me soon. Much sooner than I ever expected. I’m going to try like hell to stave it off, but I discovered recently that when it does arrive, it’s not going to be nearly as depressing as I thought.

I’m referring to, of course, the day I lose in a sport — really, any kind of competition that doesn’t require chutes and/or ladders — to one of my kids.

It nearly happened last month. In pickleball. Yes, this was the first time I ever played it (although, I’ve played a lot of tennis, ping pong and whiffle ball in my life, so I got the gist of it).

And yes, I was coming off a three-day man-cold that kept me in bed and away from human contact before playing. The excuses were there. And I still took the first set rather easily, 5-1 (we played short games).

But that second set. My daughter plays middle school tennis, and she’s not bad at the sport, if I may say. She summoned the power of all that he has learned to send me on a gauntlet of a second set that had me running side to side, reaching uncomfortably for short lobs and dashing unsuccessfully for cross-court smashes.

I lost the second set, 5-3. To my kid. In a game that I really tried to win. Sure, I ran the table in the third and decisive set, but the damage was done. And she could tell. My wife was thrilled for her, despite the vows she proclaimed to me 20 years earlier saying she’d always take my side until death do us part. Her little brothers were even happy for her, possibly because they saw the dent in the armor. Dad wasn’t invincible — that’s something they could surely expose in the coming years.

Speaking of the boys — they’ve both taken an interest in chess, thanks to a program in their elementary school that lets them learn from a coach and play classmates after school or during lunch. Their old man is a big fan of the game, and according to his online record against evenly matched foes, he’s not entirely terrible at it.

I have roundly whipped both of them in every game of chess we’ve played at home for the last two months. Already, though, the checkmates are taking longer to arrive.

Already, they’re learning my habits — catching set-up moves and not taking the bait when I dangle a bishop just so I can slide in with a queen two plays later. They haven’t beaten me yet, but they’re also 11 and 9.

The day is coming, and soon.

I never got to experience the joy of taking down a parent for the first time. My dad was an athlete through high school and even in the military, and I remember going to see him play in rec softball and volleyball leagues growing up. Of course, these were beer leagues — the volleyball court shared the same roof of an actual bar — but I still watched in awe when I saw him stretch out a double or spike a ball. But volleyball and softball aren’t really sports you can “best” a single opponent at. You can become better than them, but unless you’re playing one-on-one in either sport, you’re out of luck.

By the time I hit high school, he’d already begun a decades-long battle with bad backs, bad legs and the consequences of years of drinking and smoking. My first real “win” against him came on a golf course when I was in my 20s. And that really wasn’t as satisfying, because we both stunk at it. I just stunk a lot less.

Back to pickleball — which, by the way, the hype is real ... it’s a great sport — my reaction to my daughter’s second-set win was unexpected. While I mustered all I could to take that third set and send her home a loser, I was inwardly thrilled and proud of what she did a few minutes earlier.

It dawned on me that this is how I should be feeling as a parent. You want good things to happen to your children. You want them to succeed. You want them to be better than you — career, happiness, money, family ... all of it. Their happiness is your happiness, and if that means losing to a 13-year-old in something that requires athletic ability — or having one of your knuckleheaded boys pull out a surprising move and a checkmate in chess — then so be it.

These losses are coming, and I’m ready for them. I hope they get better grades than I got. I hope they become better writers (or doctors, or engineers, or roller coaster designers). I never thought I’d enjoy that moment of defeat like I did. Honestly, it felt way more like a win.

Challenge me to your sport of choice at billy@rantnc.com

GUEST COLUMN | JOHN CRUMPTON

TRUST AND FAIRNESS IN POLITICS

Last month I talked about the lack of citizen engagement in local government. One of the reasons I identified for this was trust in government — or a lack thereof. Along with fairness, these are the two attributes that people associate with good government. But studies and research show government isn’t trusted, and fairness is one of the reasons why.

“Trust” and “fair” are two words probably in your company’s vision or mission statement. They are probably the foundation for treatment of employees in your organization. But say them in a political context, and you may get laughed out the door. It’s hard to explain why government officials aren’t trusted. However, like most issues, it only takes a few bad people to create a sweeping generalization.

Elected officials I’ve worked for have gotten backlash over both “trust” and “fair.” In Scotland County, the chairman of the board was not re-elected after an exchange with a citizen during a public hearing on a landfill. The citizen yelled, “this is not fair,” and the chairman responded with “the fair is in Raleigh in October, and for two weeks you can get all the fair you want. You won’t get any here tonight.”

Three years later in Lee County there was controversy over a new quarter cent sales tax and how the proceeds would be spent. Many in the public wanted the funds spent on education only, while some on the board wanted the funds for both education and economic development. The chairman said, “trust me, we will spend the money on education first.” He didn’t win re-election and actually lost in his primary. You can’t ask to be trusted. Trust is earned when people are honest and follow through. In my line of work I learned two things that allowed me to earn trust. First, don’t make commitments you can’t keep. Second, always tell the truth even if it hurts. As an appointed employee of the board, I always found it easy to tell people the truth even if my brutal honesty hurt the other person and was not what they wanted to hear.

It’s more difficult for most elected officials to be brutally honest. Each interaction with a constituent is an opportunity to win or lose a vote. Telling you what you want to hear is easy. Telling the truth may not land so well. It’s difficult for an elected official to keep a commitment because three other board members have to go along with it. In my case, if I wanted to get something accomplished, I had to get four votes out of seven from the board. Managers shouldn’t get in the habit of making recommendations their board doesn’t support, because they might not have a job for long. Further, it wasn’t my job to tell the public what the board did was good or bad. I worked for them — and they work for you. You hold them accountable.

Many people assume fairness went out the window with recent “polarization” between the two major political parties. Sorry to bust the bubble, but the two-party system has always had disagreements. The difference between today and say 30 years ago is you get to see it in real time and there is more of it.

When I was growing up, there were three TV stations that gave the news maybe three times a day. Today we have TV stations that report 24 hours a day. When news is slow, they go looking for it. When there isn’t news, they give their opinion. It’s now more entertainment than reporting.

Now you probably believe I’m blaming the media for political polarization. No — they’re just talking. You’re listening and reacting. I get frustrated with people who vote based on a 30-second sound bite or candidates calling each other names that are just buzzwords.

Last month I wrote about citizen engagement. Swinging your vote based on information digested in less than 30 seconds is not research. It’s not fair to our democratic process that citizens can be swayed so easily. Who is really to blame for the outcome? Voters should do their homework and understand who they’re putting in positions where important decisions are being made every day.

I can remember a picture of U.S. Representative Tip O’Neill (then Speaker of the

House and a Democrat from Massachusetts), holding up the arm of Senator Bob Dole (then the Republican Senate Majority Leader) when they passed bipartisan legislation to move our country forward. Bipartisan legislation takes compromise. Believe it or not, there are still a lot of bipartisan votes at all levels of government, you just don’t hear a lot about them. The most difficult issues are the ones that are most polarizing. Just a few months ago inflation and the economy were the top issues in the general election. Has Congress or the President passed legislation to address inflation since January?

How do trust and fairness play into all this? To move our country forward, both parties should try to work together and compromise. That will be blasphemous to many on either side. But when two people compromise, trust is created as long as both can say they got something out of it. Fairness comes into play because a good compromise seems more fair than one side winning all the time.

I’ve never liked the word fair. What I view as fair you may view as unfair. The most important characteristic of a good relationship is respect. Unfortunately, when people think or act differently, we do not respect their right to be different. This creates trust issues, and when we can’t trust each other, we can’t compromise. That’s not fair to anyone.

One last point on politics. In my experience, anyone can be a critic. It’s easy. You don’t have to stand for anything and you can criticize what the majority does without ever being held accountable. But when the situation flips and the critic has to govern, they often have trouble adjusting. Just like in school, the bully doesn’t like to be bullied.

Having seen effective boards work, when the majority is willing to have the minority involved, there is less critiquing going on. This creates trust and fairness. When the majority crams it down the throats of the minority — well, that’s when we have to go to Raleigh to find fair.

READER RESPONSE

MISUNDERSTANDING SB41

[Re: Billy Liggett’s “Massacre. Rinse. Repeat.” column in April]

I first want to say I read every issue, and think you all do a fantastic job. Keep up the good work! I may not agree with you on every article and column, but this is America, we are allowed to disagree.

I agree with gun control. Any responsible gun owner would agree with gun control. There are many unfit U.S. citizens who should not be allowed to own a gun, ever. I also think there should be something done about all of the mass shootings, including in school, however this is not something that I am willing to offer any opinion on. I am not well versed enough on school security or any type of security for that matter.

However, I believe you may have misunderstood the vote to override Bill 41. This was simply a step to reduce government redundancy. Go talk to any firearm dealer in our area and ask how many background checks have failed since the veto of Bill 41. The general public believes that no background check is required to purchase a firearm since the veto of Bill 41. This is absolutely not the case.

Before a gun shop/store/etc. can sell you a firearm of any make, model or type, you must complete ATF Form 4473, Firearm Transaction Record. You must also pass a (NICS) federal background check before they complete the transaction. So, before you condemn NRA members and gun owners, understand the inner workings of the current gun purchasing process first.

Mitch Williams

FOCUS ON MENTAL HEALTH, NOT GUN CONTROL

[Re: Billy Liggett’s “Massacre. Rinse. Repeat.” column in April]

I feel that the voices of concern [regarding mass shootings] are being ignored, and our elected officials are not representing the people but rather themselves.

The people who we rely on to make us safe are there for profit. Of course, that is a broad statement — there are many of those who care and are truly trying to make a difference.

Dr. John Crumpton retired as Lee County Manager after 16 years on Feb. 28.

READER RESPONSE

Unfortunately, they get overshadowed, outcasted, and like in your column, get vetoed. The system is unjust. It is unfair. It is for the benefit of the 1 percent who hold the wealth in our country. How is it that America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet a majority of the people can’t afford to live here?

Why is it that America is the leading country in the world for [mass] shootings — at 288 in 2023, compared to second place being Mexico with only eight? The answer is: We need to be focusing on mental health.

America would rather send you to a therapist twice a week and shove pills down your throat than actually get rid of the ailment. Why? It makes them money. Can you imagine what would happen if people got healthy just by doing no-brainer things like banning plastics in cow feed, for example? Yes, we are eating animals that eat trash. We are eating trash. We are eating poisonous plastics. No one stops to think that maybe it’s our consumption — food, medicine, social media, television, drugs — that is the cause of the decline in health.

As a mental health advocate, I am constantly doing research on how the brain and body work and the responses your body gives to specific stimuli. Cortisol, for example, is enough to drive someone literally insane if they have the predisposition for it. Cortisol is simply the chemical released into your body when you are stressed. So if stress itself, a natural chemical response in our body, can change the way you think, why are we not looking into the way kids are being treated and their diet and how that affects their mentality? If you look at the lifestyles of the people who are shooters, I am sure that poor nutrition will be a common factor.

The answer is not gun control, it’s total social reform. Reform health care so it is no longer profit driven, reform schools to have children learn like children and not like prisoners, and reform lifestyle choices to gear more toward healthy and sustainable living and not the latest newest “must haves.”

We are killing ourselves and blaming it on others. It’s depressing. You know what makes this situation worse? Nobody is going to do anything about it until the problem is slapped in their face. By then it will be too late to reverse our actions.

NEW LIBRARY PLANS MOVING FORWARD

Lee County’s Board of Commissioners, in a refreshing moment of bipartisanship, approved a design of the new county library to reduce the rising construction costs. Rant readers spoke up about the importance of having public libraries in a community and whether or not the $19 million price tag was still worth it:

Some people may think today’s technology might make a public library obsolete, but nothing could be further from the truth. Libraries are so much more than the books on the shelves — they are community hubs, offering internet access for job seekers and those without internet at home. They offer programs for children, teens and adults; and they provide community outreach to nursing homes, daycares and shut-ins. There are story times, meeting spaces, PopCon! (which was attended by more than 1,000 people in 2022) and perhaps the most valuable resource — the human librarians and staff that can help you sift through all the information to help you find just what you need.

Public libraries are for everyone — they help even the playing field. During the pandemic, they offered up wifi in the parking lot for anyone who needed it and developed a curbside pick up program to keep readers reading.

The current building is bursting at the seams, and Lee County continues to grow. I am so thankful the commissioners voted to invest in the residents of Lee County with this new library.

If you are a person who thinks that public libraries are no longer relevant, I encourage you to visi find them online to see for yourself all the exciting things happening there. We really have a gem here in Lee County.

Crissy Miller

When you walk into the current Lee County Library building, you may get the impression that the situation is as quiet and serene as a single swan floating on a peaceful lake, but let me assure you under the surface, those swan feet are paddling like mad!

The most recent monthly figures I have in hand (January 2023) show me that 9,792 items were checked out from the library desk. Nearly 5,000 people came through the door. In January, the library had 28 in-per-

son programs with 857 participants. Add to this the 1,473 wifi users, the 3,827 website views, the 2,412 e-book check outs, and 838 N.C. Kids check outs. And January is not the library’s busiest month.

Our Library is a BUSY place. Under-staffed, pinched for space and stretched to the maximum in every way, they provide invaluable service to our county. The fact that they manage to do it all so gracefully and efficiently that you don’t notice is a testament to their dedication and professionalism.

Cathy Griffith

I have mixed feelings on this one. I won’t discredit the value of a good library and its staff. Nor will I forget the age and limitations of the current library building.

However, the question becomes: Is the cost of the new building worth the price tag? Nineteen million dollars is quite a cost for the number of people the library services and the resources the Library provides. Keep in mind that there are many things such as wifi access, meeting space and events that can be done in all kinds of various less expensive ways. Some of the services are redundant for the area, as well.

Nonetheless, glad I’m not the one casting votes on this one. I feel like the real vote is between continuing a valuable and enriching service that has served the community well over the years or drastically changing the way the community is served in the capacities the .ibrary fulfilled over many years. I tend to lean toward a more economical change, or maybe a more multi-purpose building that houses a library.

Jeremy Cleary

DEBATING SCHOOL DISTRICT’S NEW ‘PARENTS BILL OF RIGHTS’

Borrowing a page from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican-led initiatives across the country, the Lee County Board of Education has added a “Parents/Guardians’ Bill of Rights” to its policy code. Believe it or not, the topic has a lot of people talking:

Outing students to their unsupportive parents is not serving the children. It’s dangerous. Will they also be outing students who are in opposite sex relationships too?

Allison Fulcher

Parents should pull their kids and homeschool whenever possible. Public schools are failing our children. Worry more about academics and less about pronouns and gender identity.

What difference does it make how they identify if they don’t get an education that gives them the skills to succeed?

Duane Williams

The headline should read: “School board votes to increase adolescent and teen suicide rates in Lee County.” Because that’s what this will to.

When Republicans can’t count on guns to kill children, they’ll settle for cruelty and bullying to get the job done. In Jesus’ name.

Craven, cowardly, hateful.

Will Rickard

This is a case of crackpot politicians failing our schools and our children. With all the problems facing public schools today, the Republican members of this board choose to fight culture wars and rewrite history instead of ensuring a sound education and the safety of our children.

Christopher Lynn

I think the school board should save taxpayers money and not meet. Womack, Gaster, Rummel and Davidson already have their talking points and votes lined up prior to every meeting. Have they once not voted in harmony? All we really need is for Lee County Republican Chairman Jim Womack to come up with his list of changes and rules for the public schools to follow and be done with it.

Jeff Cashion

While I agree wholeheartedly that parents have the right to decide whether or not their children can change their gender identity, I disagree that teachers should be given that responsibility or be required to “tattle” on children. Parents need to raise their own kids, period. Let teachers teach and stop piling all the home responsibilities on top of their incredibly difficult load — before you lose them all.

Phyllis Maddox

Upgrades made to Lee County High School’s campus in 2011 included making the campus more secure and closed to non-approved visitors.

TRICK OR THREAT?

Local schools have been inundated with threats (like bomb scares and weapon warnings); each distraction requiring serious law enforcement response

By Gordon Anderson

In some ways, the 2022-23 school year in Lee County — at least with regards to the two traditional high schools, Lee County High School and Southern Lee High School — may be remembered as the year of the threat.

It all started on Nov. 4, when word spread throughout the community that something was happening at Lee County High School.

That something was undefined to begin with, as some said they’d heard reports of an active shooter, while others heard it was a bomb threat. In any case, it didn’t take long for dozens of parents who’d been texting with their children to quickly converge on a dirt lot across from the school as law enforcement guarded the front door and other points of entry and exit.

Students could be seen through windows communicating with those outside and law enforcement quickly got the word out that there had been an anonymous bomb threat called in. Officers didn’t take long, all things considered, to deem the threat non-credible after an exhaustive search of the campus, but the experience was jarring enough for everyone involved that school was dismissed early that day.

Nobody knew it at the moment, but it was just the beginning. Through April 28, threats reported to the schools (some have been described as bomb threats, while

EXTRA MEASURES

In the past month, school officials have installed metal detectors at the entrances of Lee County and Southern Lee high schools. Every student and guest must pass through the detectors to enter the school. “We have entrances for bus traffic, car traffic and student parking traffic,” said Lee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Andy Bryan. “Everything we do is in coordination with the sheriff’s office — the preparation, the planning, the practicing of various safety and security drills.”

others are characterized more vaguely as threats of violence) have initiated lockdowns and campus searches seven more times since that day in early November — six total at Lee County High School and two more at Southern Lee. In one case, classes were canceled a full day ahead due to a threat that came late in the evening.

Crissy Miller has three children in local schools, including twins who are seniors at LCHS. She has vivid memories of hearing about each threat, in real time, from her children.

“For me, the first reaction is ‘oh my god, what’s going on,’” she said. “And there’s a rational voice in my brain saying bomb threats usually don’t come to pass.”

Then, in the commotion, she saw her daughter was calling her. The call was accidental, but enough to cause some alarm.

“In that moment, what went through my mind was all the news stories you see about kids calling their parents to tell them ‘I love you,’ and saying goodbye,” she said. “It kind of made me a wreck the rest of the day.”

Law enforcement arrested three juveniles in April in connection with making some of the earlier threats, but it hasn’t stopped them from coming in — a threat came in to Southern Lee the day after the first arrest was announced, and the most recent

threat to LCHS was reported on April 25.

To be clear, none of the threats reported since November has turned out to be credible, and no students or staff have been harmed. In that sense, these false threats might be characterized as the modern day equivalent of pulling the school’s fire alarm and subsequently disrupting the school day.

Law enforcement and the schools’ administrations, obviously, see it as something far more serious.

“Kids need to understand, and we need their parents to make sure they understand that this isn’t a game, and we’re going to do everything we can to prosecute in these cases,” Lee County Sheriff Brian Estes told The Rant . “We don’t want to ruin their lives, but they have to know there are very serious consequences when they do something like this.”

A bomb threat at Lee County High School back in November led to confusion among students and parents, as some thought the threat was an active shooter. The confusion led to a large group of parents gathered outside of the school waiting for their children to be released. Said one parent at the time: “[My son] texted me and said he was barricaded in a classroom. Barricaded. One classmate was in the closet, another was in the bathroom. That didn’t sound like a bomb threat to us.”

“In that moment, what went through my mind was all the news stories you see about kids calling their parents to tell them ‘I love you,’ and saying goodbye. It kind of made me a wreck the rest of the day.”

— LCHS Parent Crissy Miller —

One teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, spoke to The Rant about their experience with the repeated threats, noting that some of their peers’ spouses were pushing them to look for new careers due to concerns about safety.

“It’s made it so whenever the intercom comes on at an irregular time, I start to panic,” the teacher said. “I know a few teachers who have updated their wills.”

The issue isn’t one that’s unique to Lee County. Estes noted that in at least one instance, Western Harnett High School received a threat identical to one received the same day locally. And both New Century Middle School and Sandhills Community College in Moore County received threats in April. Authorities in Moore County made an arrest in the Sandhills Community College case.

Estes said even private businesses have reported similar threats, and they’re treated the same.

Asked about the nature of the various threats — whether they’ve come in live phone calls, voicemail messages, social

media, or through other methods, Estes said, “It’s a little bit of everything.”

District officials pointed to the “Say Something” system, a no-cost program developed by Sandy Hook Promise in the wake of the shooting there in 2012 to teach “middle and high school students to recognize the warning signs of someone at-risk of hurting themselves or others and how to say something to a trusted adult to get help,” according to the Sandy Hook Promise website.

Another measure taken in response to the various threats is the installation of metal detectors at the traditional high school entrances that every student must now go through upon arrival.

“We have entrances for bus traffic, car traffic and student parking traffic,” Lee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Andy Bryan. “Everything we do is in coordination with the sheriff’s office — the preparation, the planning, the practicing of various safety and security drills.”

In the cases where arrests have been made, the suspects have been charged with a variety of felonies. But because

they’re juveniles, their identities aren’t known to the public and the cases will be prosecuted out of the eyes of the public.

Both the sheriff and the superintendent said it’s important for the public to know that the cases are being treated seriously by not just the criminal justice system, but also the district, which says “very significant” consequences have already been imposed on the students thought to be responsible. Still, given the current state of technology, tracking down those who make the threats can be difficult.

“Sometimes they’re spoofing numbers, having them come in as spam calls, it could even show up as coming from another country,” said Major Bryan Allen of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s affecting more than the schools — the elderly, the disabled. We’ve had reports where people are getting spam calls telling them to come to Walmart because there’s a warrant out for their arrest.”

Allen also stressed the impact frequent threats against the school have on students and teachers.

“You really have to praise the kids,” he

said. “At both high schools, they’ve been very receptive as far as listening to the instructions and doing the things they’ve been taught over the years. We know it’s aggravating and scary for them.”

When a threat is reported at a school, the first people made aware are the principal and the school resource officer, one of whom is stationed at each of Lee County’s 17 public schools. From there, the SRO has the discretion to call for a lockdown and investigation. From there, the district

begins a process of communicating with parents and the public that includes robocalls, automated text messages and emails, and social media.

“It can vary a bit depending on the situation, and some of that involves making sure we understand the situation as much as possible,” Bryan explained. “And the situations unfold so quickly that we can put out a social media message and two or three minutes later things have changed.”

Allen said, like the situation with Miller and her kids, the fact that basically everyone has a cell phone today complicates the rush to get good information out.

“It really affects the parents, because they start hearing from their kids right away,” he said. “Every time this has happened, I’ve gotten 15 or 20 text messages from parents I know asking what’s going on. And I’m not the only one.”

Miller said she wonders about the toll the repeated threats have had on children in the schools.

“When they’re in it, they sound nervous,” she said. “I came home that day and (one of her children) was already there. I went and hugged her, and she was like ‘oh my god mom, it was just a bomb threat.’ But she’s also told me in the past that she had a plan for what to do if a shooter came. I didn’t have plans like that when I was in school. We had tornado drills. It’s really sad that they have to think like that.”

— additional reporting by Lily Jones

Two resource officers, LCHS principal Betsy Bridges and, on this day, Superintendent Dr. Andy Bryan at the entrance of Lee County High School.

COVER STORY | SAFETY IN OUR SCHOOLS

View: School security is about more than safety

By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com

Nearly 25 years have gone by since two heavily armed high school students walked into their Colorado school and killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives. The ritualistic murders at Columbine High School were not the first school shootings in the United States, but the systematic nature of the slaughter there lowered the bar and established a new level of depravity that all others are now measured against.

Others have followed. Many of the body counts have surpassed the Colorado slayings in 1999. And because school campuses contain numbers of buildings cloistered together in facilities designed to encourage learning and personal growth, they have become among the easiest of targets.

Virtually every state, including North Carolina, is reporting a rise in the number of crimes occurring on school campuses. A report released by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in March shows 11,170 reportable crimes in schools across the state during the 2021-22 school year. That number represents an increase of nearly 17 percent from the 2020-21 school year.

The top three reported across North Carolina schools during 2021-22 were pos-

session of controlled substances, followed by possession of a weapon, and finally, assault on school personnel.

Information for Lee County High School and Southern Lee High Schools is contained within a single data point in the DPI summary. The two high schools had a combined 62 reportable crimes during the same 2021-22 school year. Like their peers across the country, Lee County students returned to the classroom last year as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to taper off.

Counselors and teachers quickly learned that a startlingly high percentages of their students brought mental health issues with them, often manifesting through aggressive and confrontational behaviors with their peers and even with teachers and staff. Others seemed almost paralyzed by the helplessness of society to do anything

about the world around them, and this sense of fear became nearly incapacitating for some following the killing of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Ulvalde, Texas just as school was nearing an end last May.

In the wake of school shootings across the country after Columbine, communities began to act. Here in Lee County, the county commissioners provided funding in 2013 to place an armed sheriff’s deputy in each of the county’s 17 public schools. After Ulvalde, interest began to grow within the community to expand that same coverage to include an officer also in the county’s private and Christian schools.

The school board has made a concerted effort to make use of a fleeting moment to make improvements that will help students and parents breathe a little easier. Security and safety upgrades are expensive because

LCS received about $36 million to pay for relief of the impacts of the pandemic. ... But there still may not be enough money to make these levels of security upgrades at every school.

they mostly revolve around technology solutions, and the county has simply not had the money needed to do the level of upgrades that make all campuses much safer without having to surround them with razor wire.

But as federal COVID relief dollars targeted to schools began to arrive two years ago, the Lee County Schools district began moving on a plan for improvements at entrances to the two traditional high schools and three middle schools. Although the details of how these upgrades work remain confidential, they are generally believed to harden entrances to the buildings, improve communication systems, and provide for greater visitor control.

A portion of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds continue to be used in funding security improvements in Lee County Schools. All those dollars, with some exceptions, must be committed by 2024 and even then,

it’s unknown today whether there will be enough money to go around at each of the county’s remaining 12 schools.

And there’s the rub. In three rounds of funding, Lee County Schools received about $36 million to pay for relief of the impacts of the COVID pandemic. But even with this large and unprecedented infusion of cash from Uncle Sam, the likes of which we may never see again, there still may not be enough money to make these level of security upgrades at every school. If there isn’t, then the county or the state may be asked to pick up the tab.

But do we really have a choice? Do we have more than just a fiduciary responsibility to use our limited funds wisely? Shouldn’t our highest goal be the protection of the most vulnerable among us? Security is about more than just safety. It’s also about equity, or at least as much as we can make it be.

LOCAL

GAMING STORE RETURNS TO LEMON SPRINGS

A gaming store which initially opened five years ago in downtown Sanford is back in a new location.

Infinite Gaming Respawn is a new modern and vintage gaming resort that opened April 1 at 1365 Greenwood Road in Lemon Springs. Owner Logan Stancil said the first iteration of the store closed due to timing inconveniences but has since bounced back with assistance from his five and nine year old children.

Stancil opened the store to give his children as well as other youth in Lee County a place to enjoy hanging out with friends and play video and board games. Infinite Gaming Respawn offers everything from modern day games and consoles to vintage Nintendo gaming, Wii consoles and games, and tables for both board and card games.

The store is open Monday through Saturday, is available for party rentals, and offers collectibles, free arcade games, and more. — by Lily Jones

SANFORD CARES DONATION

Members of the Sanford community have come together to make a monetary contribution to the Sanford Community Assistance & Relief Emergency Support (Cares) program, which provides temporary assistance to help Lee County residents pay their water and sewer bills.

The donors – Pamela Adkins, Sophia Blount, Sadé Byrd, Maria McLean, LaCrecia Reives, Hope White and Elonda Womble – are involved in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Sanford 101, and the Let’s Do It Together Foundation.

PICKLEBALL THE REAL DILL

“have something fun to do” with their son and his family visiting from out of town.

By Billy Liggett billy@rantnc.com

Jimmy and Cindy Coppedge bought their first pickleball starter kit — a few paddles and the whiffle balls that came with them — just last Thanksgiving to

Six months later, they’re addicted. They’ve signed up for a local league. They’ve got (unofficial) rankings. They’re in great shape from the exercise. And just in the last few weeks, they’ve graduated from the starter kit and purchased nicer equipment.

“It’s just fun. Fun for the whole family,” says Cindy Coppedge. “It’s challenging. It’s competitive, and everyone can play it to some degree. We’d love to see more

places to play [in Sanford].”

The Coppedges are far from the only one who’ve fallen in love with the sport in the last six months. Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America, a title it’s held for three years running now, according to Pickleheads.com — a site where visitors can find official pickleball courts and organize leagues. Described as a cross between ping pong, badminton and tennis, the sport has been around for nearly 60 years, but only recently has it surged in popularity in the United States (thanks in large part to the pandemic and

Pickleball participation has grown more than 158 percent in the last three years, and an estimated 36.5 million people in the U.S. play the sport. Sanford is home to three “official” pickleball court sites. Photo: Wikipedia

Sanford home to three official pickleball sites and growing number of leagues

(sorry)

the creation of professional leagues backed by famous athletes from other sports).

At the start of 2023, more than 36 million Americans said they play pickleball, according to the Association of Pickleball Professionals. The sport has grown an average of 158 percent over the last three years, and while it’s popular at country clubs and with the older crowd, those aged 18 to 34 make up the largest percentage of players in the country. The U.S. is home to more than 10,000 official pickleball courts, and the paddle market was estimated at $152 million 2021 and has grown considerably since.

Tonya Wicker is the official USA Pickleball ambassador for Lee County, overseeing leagues and tournaments and guiding players new and old to the best places to

play and compete in the area. Wicker went before the Lee County Board of Commissioners in 2021 and made the case for pickleball courts and junior tennis courts when renovations for Kiwanis Children’s Park in Sanford were being considered. Today, the park is one of three “official” pickleball sites in the city — the other two at O.T. Sloan Park and inside the gym at First Baptist Church in downtown Sanford.

An elementary PE teacher, Wicker discovered the game only in the last few years, and she’s since taken part in tournaments and league play and has gladly accepted the role of “local ambassador” for the sport.

“I love it. Anyone can do it, from small kids to their grandparents,” Wicker says. “I love the social aspect of it. I played softball,

If you've played tennis or table tennis, you get the gist of pickleball. One rule change is the serve must bounce, and the return volley must bounce before the ball is hit. Scoring is more similar to volleyball. Source: Pickleheads.com

and I found pickleball to be just as fun and just as competitive. You don’t need a ton of equipment to get started. Just a paddle and a whiffle ball. I’ve made friends all over the state through it.”

Sites like Pickleheads.com and GlobalPickleball.network not only provide maps of local courts, the basic rules of the game and where to get equipment, they’re also a social network where you can find like-minded lovers of the sport and schedule games or enter leagues or tournaments. Wicker organized a tournament in April at O.T. Sloan that attracted players from Raleigh, Fayetteville, Pittsboro, Pinehurst and beyond, with the funds going back to the county for upkeep of the courts.

The sport may be new to many, but it’s anything but new.

Invented in 1965 near Seattle by Washington state congressman Joel Pritchard and businessman Bill Bell, the game began with ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball on a badminton court when the two couldn’t find badminton rackets. They liked the way the ball bounced on the asphalt, so they lowered the net and made their own game. Two years later, the first

The pickleball courts at O.T. Sload Park in Sanford were empty on April 28 because of rain, but on most mornings and evenings, local leagues and pickleball groups can be found playing there. Photo: Billy Liggett

permanent pickleball court was constructed in the backyard of Pritchard’s neighbor. In 1972, a corporation was formed to protect the creation of the sport, and in 1975, The National Observer published the first pickleball article.

As for why it was called “pickleball,” the origins of the name differ depending on who you ask. Pritchard’s wife, Joan, said she called it pickleball because “the combination of different sports reminded me of the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats.” According to another source, the name came because Pritchard’s dog was named Pickles, and Pickles loved to run off with the ball during game play.

The United State Amateur Pickleball Association was formed in 1984, and the first official paddles were introduced, made of fiberglass and honeycomb panels. By the 90s, the sport was being played in all 50 states. In 1999, the first pickleball website, Pickleball Stuff, was launched, and in 2001, the game was introduced for the first time at the Senior Olympics in Arizona.

Fast forward to 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and USA

Pickleball membership reached the 50,000-member milestone and ended the year with 53,000 members, a 43 percent increase over the previous year. In 2022, pickleball was officially “trending” in the U.S., reaching unprecedented levels of media coverage both locally and internationally.

This year, more than 70,000 people are members of USA Pickleball, and in March, the organization announced the 2023 USA Pickleball National Championships, which will be played in Dallas in November.

According to Wicker, local membership has grown from just over 40 members to more than 200. O.T. Sloan Park’s three courts regularly host morning and evening matches, and the courts at Kiwanis Children’s Park stay busy as well.

“It’s exploded,” Wicker says. “I’m excited to see it, and I’m happy to see so many people discovering the sport.”

Learn more about pickleball, where to play and how to join leagues at pickleheads.com or at GlobalPickleball.network

Voted Best of Lee County

HIGH SCHOOLS

Early College senior has Ivy League suitors

Student compiled more than 60 college credits at LEC, will enter college as a junior

By Billy Liggett billy@rantnc.com

When Jackie Vollbracht graduates high school in June, she’ll be a college junior. The only question now is where she’s going to spend her junior year, because the options are many.

A soon-to-be graduate of Lee Early College, an alternative public high school whose students earn college credits — up to an associate degree — while also working toward their diploma, Vollbracht has been accepted by (and offered scholarships for) two Ivy League schools in Brown and Columbia, and she has scholarship offers from schools all over the state and country. She’s narrowed the field to Brown University in Rhode Island and nearby High Point University — the choice will come down to whether she wants to stay close to home or head north.

Whatever she chooses, Vollbracht credits her Lee Early College experience for getting her to this point. She practically beams when asked how the program prepared her for this moment.

“I love to be challenged. When it came time for high school, all I wanted was a chance to excel as fast as I could,” she says. “The chance to have college experience while in high school, I just thought that would look great on my college applications. I knew I’d get an education and a great experience. High school and college credits. It’s killing two birds with one stone.”

Lee Early College is home to fewer than 300 high school students who have to go through an application process before enrolling. The school was founded with the intent of attracting students often underrepresented in college — minorities, students from low-income families and those

GRAD CEREMONIES

Lee County’s high schools will hold graduation ceremonies in May and June this year. See when and where your school will hold commencement:

o Lee County High School: June 8 at Paul B. Gay Stadium

o Southern Lee High School: June 9 at Cavalier Stadium

o Lee Early College: May 25 at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center

o Grace Christian School: May 22 at the Grace Christian Worship Center

o Lee Christian Academy: May 29 at Lee Christian Academy

o Ascend Leadership Academy: May 25

friends.

who would be first-generation college students upon graduation. Traditional high school courses are mixed in with college courses. High school students take classes with college students on Central Carolina Community College’s Sanford campus. Faculty members help students select their college degree program and enroll in the right courses.

Vollbracht is a poster child for the school’s potential for success. Wherever she’s going to college — she only has a few weeks left to officially decide — she plans to double or triple major in engineering, math, biochemistry or another STEM field.

“My pre-calculus professor wrote my recommendation letter to MIT, my bio

lab professor sent in one of my papers to Princeton, my English teacher recommended me for a writing coach position here, and my algebra teacher recommended me to become a tutor at the college,” she says. “The support system you get here is great, and working here is amazing, too. I get to meet such a diverse group of people, and the chance to work with and tutor adults who’ve been out of education for over 30 years has been a wonderful experience.”

Her parents, John and Cheri Vollbracht, moved to Sanford and the Carolina Trace area when Jackie was entering pre-school. John worked as a civilian auditor with the U.S. Army, and the native Nebraskan transferred to Fort Bragg before choosing

Cheri Vollbracht says they first noticed their daughter’s love of learning when she was very young — John’s mother was a reading teacher, and she noticed little Jackie catching on with words and books before most her age. “They saw it in her early,” she says. “Her kindergarten teacher saw it, and by the second grade, they were putting her in advanced programs.”

As for Jackie’s love of all things STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — she says that began, oddly enough, through her love of watching The Weather Channel with her dad in the mornings. Famed meteorologist and storm chaser Jim Cantori became a sort of obsession of hers, she admits, and for a while,

Sanford based on recommendations from

Jackie Vollbracht will graduate in May from Lee Early College and has narrowed her college choices down to Brown University in Rhode Island and High Point University closer to home. Photo by Billy Liggett

“meteorologist” was the only career she could dream of. When the pandemic hit during her freshman and sophomore years, Vollbracht’s interests shifted from weather to virology — the study of viruses and how they interact with cells.

Whatever industry or career path she chooses, Vollbracht says she wants to one day teach as well. The tutoring and lab assistant work she’s experienced at CCCC has planted that seed, so a doctorate and perhaps a professor role could be in her future.

That’s the good thing about youth. Jackie Vollbracht’s future is still very much ahead of her, and there’s plenty of time to make those big life decisions. But there is one big decision that’s coming very soon — which college to choose. The dozens of options have been reduced over the last several months to Brown and High Point. They’re two different experiences, both with their benefits. Brown is offering a large financial need-based scholarship and has the Ivy League reputation behind it. High Point is close to home, is offering a

full ride and has impressed the Vollbracht family by making their daughter already feel like part of their community.

“They’re both excellent choices,” says her mother. “I just want her to feel comfortable wherever she goes. It’s something she has to decide, but I think she’ll be happy wherever she goes.”

Vollbracht has one more big job before she goes. Lee Early College doesn’t name valedictorians or salutatorians, but she has been chosen to deliver a speech at their upcoming graduation ceremony later this month. She hasn’t written the speech yet, but she has an idea of the message she wants to share.

“I just want to celebrate everything we’ve done together and everything we’re going to do,” she says. “I also feel like it’s important to address some of the issues we’re going to face, whether it’s in our field or just in our lives. But more than anything, I want to celebrate everybody and celebrate what we’ve been able to accomplish at Lee Early College.”

Boston band Mom Rock brings fun, ‘unpretentious’ rock to Indie Fest

The third annual Carolina Indie Fest returns to downtown Sanford on May 12 and 13 with 10 hours of all original rock, glam rock, country, R&B, glitter grunge and more. Ten bands will perform on stage at the rear of Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford, surrounded by food trucks, beer trucks and crafty vendors.

The Rant’s Gordon Anderson spoke to Boston-based Mom Rock on the Friends of The Rant podcast in April. Mom Rock — named one of “America’s best young bands” by Rolling Stone — will perform at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, May 13 (Day 2 of

the festival). Portions of that interview with band members Curtis Heimburger, Wilson Reardon and Tara Maggiuli are below:

Gordon Anderson: I am joined by the members of Mom Rock who are going to be performing at Carolina Indie Fest May 12-13, and I have been really enjoying their music over the last few days. It’s so much fun — that’s the first thing that comes to mind. But for me, it’s got a powerpop feel to it. It’s danceable, but it’s also really, really catchy. You guys have a great sense for melody and hooks and all that good stuff. Let’s start by telling us the Mom Rock story.

Curtis Heimburger: We met when we were going to school in Boston. Wilson and I were going to Berklee, and Tara was going to Northeastern and it just so happened that we had a mutual friend. Terry ended up joining the band on bass after we lost a bass player. We’ve just been continuing ever since. We only went on our first tour about a year ago now with the Unlikely Candidates. And we’ve been on three tours since then; we just finished up one with a band called The Collection, who are also based in North Carolina. Boston is where we got our start. It’s also kind of where we got our weird costume ideas. We’re just trying to stand out literally any way possible.

Gordon: One of the things that I think is cool is you’ve been a band for a few years, but you’re still relatively new. It’s like I don’t even see a proper full length album. And you’ve gone from it. You’ve gone from that and the DIY circuit around there to being like, recognized by Rolling Stone out of nowhere. What does that feel like? And what does that do for a band?

Wilson Reardon: It feels like a lot of impostor syndrome, for sure. It just gives us a sense of like, alright, we’re doing something right. Like, people enjoy this. It’s not just us having fun; it’s actually giving other people enjoyment. The Rolling Stone [article] was like, wow, that’s something. If you told me when I was a kid that when I was 23 my band would be in Rolling Stone. It’d say I made it. But the goalposts keep moving and yeah, our heads can get too big.

Curtis: It’s really hard to comprehend, because especially, going to a music school [like Berklee], when you leave your town, you’re like, man, I was the hottest player in my town. And now everyone from their town is the hottest player from their town, and just these incredibly talented people. So you get this, what Wilson said, “imposter syndrome,” a lot of the time you are comparing yourself to other people, one who maybe played a festival when they were 20. It’s just hard to really let it sink in and be kinda like, I did it. I really made something with music.

Gordon: There’s a lot going on in your music. The first time I noticed that, I think, was in the song “Dishes.” It sounds like a very simple, almost like a Weezer song. And then I noticed there’s all these notes happening, kind of coming and going. And it’s not nearly as simple as it sounds. I’m just curious about your approach to writing. Is it lyrics first, then chord progression? Is it collaborative?

Curtis: We’ve actually only just started collaborating on songs. With songwriting, I usually put myself in a corner and a hole, so no one can hear me. And then start writing. I’ll usually start just by playing something. It’s literally just going up and down the guitar, playing chords, playing random things until something happens. And I hear something that I really like and something that catches my attention. With “Dishes,” I think I was playing bass, but I can’t remember who it was on guitar. But I had that main riff idea. Something just clicked. That song is about my incredible girlfriend, Eva, and the minute I started playing that chord pro-

Mom Rock — made up of Tara Maggiuli (bass/vocals), Curtis Heimburger (guitar/vocals) and Wilson Reardon (drums) — will perform on Day 2 of Carolina Indie Fest at 6:45 p.m. Photo courtesy of Mom Rock

INDIE FEST LINEUP

Where: Hugger Mugger Brewing, downtown Sanford

o Friday, May 12

5 p.m. The Five Nines

6:15 p.m. Paleface

7:30 p.m. Hustle Souls

8:45 p.m. The Pseudo Cowboys

o Saturday, May 13

3 p.m. Camp Culture

4:15 p.m. Blood Red River

5:30 p.m. Haley Mae Campbell

6:45 p.m. Mom Rock

8 p.m. Rhinestone Pickup Truck

9:15 p.m. Regence

gression, I kind of knew it was gonna be a very sweet love song. None of our songs are that complicated, mostly just because it just doesn’t need to be. I’m not a flashy player. I think there’s more fun in finding something so simple. Making it so hooky and different from other things. It’s hard to explain, but lots of songs just have the same four chords or three chords. But how do you turn those four chords into something someone hasn’t heard before? And that’s what I really love to do — just find something like a melody in those chords that I haven’t heard before, or a riff that I haven’t heard before.

Wilson: One of the main, just thoughts, ideas that Mom Rock was kind of born out of was just like the idea of, we were freshmen at Berklee at the time and we’d get kind of hot headed, you know. You’re 18, you get there and then like, everybody’s better than you. You think, oh, I have to be more pretentious than this guy. But then you think, why don’t we just play some music. This is fun. I love Weezer and bands like that. I listen to them because their songs are fun. And because they’re having fun. It’s not that we refuse to do anything that’s more difficult than three chords or whatever. But

I feel like it’s always been kind of the focus of … just make it fun and sound good. As long as we’re having fun, people are gonna enjoy it. It doesn’t have to be pretentious or complex in any specific way.

Gordon: From everything I’ve read, it sounds like you guys put a lot of work into translating that into the live show as well — with the costumes and the high energy. I’m just curious if you want to talk about your live show a little bit, tell people who are coming to this festival and what they can expect to see and hear.

Curtis: Expect the unexpected? We try and leave it all on the stage every single time, especially when the audience is into it and they’re dancing or they’re singing along. We really feed off of the audience’s energy when they’re in it. Regardless of what happens, we give it our all and make sure that we don’t have any energy left at the end of the set. Tara and I are always dancing around. And we’re like crossing wires and coming back and doing dance moves. The outfits we’ve been wearing — these baseball uniforms for quite a while now — we love it. When we were playing the basements, it was how we stood out, because all these bands are so good.

Tara Maggiuli: We don’t want to look like everyone else. That’s not really our style. Curtis got this space suit — it was gold, purple and shiny. And it was like a spacesuit tracksuit. And we eventually each found our own monochromatic jumpsuit, which made us look like The Wiggles for a little bit. I love it. We don’t do it, because we’re not trying to be like anyone else. We’re trying to be like Mom Rock, whatever iteration that is. So the baseball thing, it’s very nostalgic. It’s classic, all American, everyone has memories of, you know, going to the baseball game in summer. We sell the jerseys as merch as well, so people can be part of the team.

Gordon: How did Carolina Indie Fest come about?

Tara: I think it was at a recent show back in December. We got approached by a guy asking us for our email, saying he had this small Indie Fest at a brewery. And we were like, hell yeah. That’s great. We’d played in North Carolina, and we were very jazzed to come back. And he also saw us when we did a show in Saxapahaw, out in the middle of nowhere. It was gorgeous out there.

SOME DID-YOU-KNOWS ABOUT ESTATE PLANNING

Comprehensive estate planning can protect your legacy for future generations. But it can also involve some issues you might not have thought about.

For example, if you have children in college who are considered legal adults, you may not have any control over their medical treatment if they face a sudden, serious illness or are involved in an accident. So, you may want to have your children sign a medical power of attorney form, which will allow you to make decisions on their behalf, if necessary.

Here’s another issue: Property owned by spouses can be treated differently in community property states than in common law states. If you move from one type of state to another, you may want to consult with an estate-planning attorney in your new state to determine where you stand.

Ranking Methodology: Data provided by SHOOK Research, LLC. Data as of 6/30/21.

And don’t forget your pets. To ensure they will always be taken care of, you might want to establish a pet trust, under which payments can be made to a caregiver you’ve designated if you become incapacitated or pass away.

Estate planning certainly covers big-picture issues.

But don’t forget the other ones, which can be meaningful to you.

Source: Forbes.com (April 2022). Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisors ranking was developed by SHOOK Research and is based on in-person, virtual, and telephone due diligence meetings to measure best practices, client retention, industry experience, credentials, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, such as: assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Investment performance is not a criterion because client objectives and risk tolerances vary, and advisors rarely have audited performance reports. SHOOK’s research and rankings provide opinions intended to help investors choose the right financial advisor and are not indicative of future performance or representative of any one client’s experience. Past performance is not an indication of future results. Neither Forbes nor SHOOK Research receive compensation in exchange for placement on the ranking. For more information, please see www.SHOOKresearch.com.SHOOK is a registered trademark of SHOOK Research, LLC. Member SIPC

CAROLINA FIREARMS TRAINING

1614 Hawkins Ave., Sanford

(919) 356-6954

Viral video lands Sanford man, his fellow soldiers on AGT

By Jonathan Owens jonathan@rantnc.com

It all started with a rendition of “My Girl” while lying on a dropzone with parachute gear in a video that went viral on TikTok last July.

Staff Sgt. Marcus Gilbert and his fellow soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division All-American Chorus have shot to fame in the last eight months since the video captivated the country. They have since competted on the popular NBC talent competition America’s Got Talent, and their appearance will air on May 20.

Gilbert is an assistant coach on Southern Lee High School boy’s soccer team and lives in Sanford with his wife, Jessica.

The viral video has led to “15 minutes of fame,” Gilbert joked, including appearances at high-profile events and a spot on The Today Show. He has events lined up and down the East Coast before heading to Normandy, France, for the D-Day memorial event in November.

He can’t talk about the specifics of his appearance on the show until it airs. But just getting there was a win in itself.

“It took a lot of convincing with the Army to let us compete on the show,” Gilbert said. “That’s not something we do as soldiers. We are donating anything we win to charity.”

He said when his kids on the soccer team found out, they immediately made him sing.

“They’ve enjoyed taking advantage of me,” he said. “They make me sing on the bus for away games, and I sing the national anthem at all of our games now.”

The singing gig is a sharp contrast to his day job. He is a “chemical soldier,” he said — a part of the Army’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives 82(CBRNE) team – and is on the front lines of the most deadly attacks our military faces. He will likely have to leave Fort Bragg and the singing group to continue this

career. The fame is a nice break, but not something he wants to do full-time.

“For right now, I’m enjoying it,” he said. “I love to sing.”

Staff Sgt. Marcus Gilbert, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division’s All-American Chorus, will appear with the group in an upcoming episode of NBC’s America’s Got Talent on May 20. He’s pictured below with AGT host Terry Crews.

Commissioners come together to save costly library project

By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com

In a moment of bipartisanship, the Lee County Board of Commissioners rolled up their sleeves in April to solve a problem in a fashion that — believe it or not — left everyone a winner.

Vines Architecture of Raleigh was selected last year as the designer of the new county library that will be located on Bragg Street near O.T. Sloan Park. The county had budgeted $13 million for its construction.

But with almost every sector of the economy being pushed to the limit by inflation, public construction projects seem to be among those that have felt the pain of rising prices and materials shortages most keenly. Victor Vines, president of Vines Architecture, met with the board just three months ago to gain input on several possible schematic designs to develop an overall theme for the new library’s look.

In that three months, Vines and his team have met with the project’s contractors and a group of professional estimators. All agreed that in the current market, the building as it had been envisioned would now cost closer to $19 million. The library’s cost had increased by nearly 40 percent in just 90 days.

The April meeting’s audience included Beth List, director of Library Services for Lee County, Cathy Griffith, chair of the Library Board and several members of the library’s board of trustees. Griffith spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting to express support for the original design. A second person to speak on the library’s behalf was Virginia Strucinsky of Broadway. A soft-spoken retired schoolteacher in her 80s who was barely taller than the podium she spoke from, she spoke for barely a minute.

“A library is very, very important,” she said, “and we really cannot let the education of our whole population fall behind. We certainly need this new library, and we are so happy that the board of commis-

sioners is in favor of this and leading the way for the rest of us.”

The commissioners were faced with two choices. The first, and perhaps easiest, would be to scale back the size of the library and do as much as possible with the $13 million they had committed to the project.

Vines and his team had come prepared with a selection of options that would still allow the library to be constructed, but with changes to the design that would require reductions in services. One of those possibilities suggested eliminating the building’s three wings to reduce its overall footprint by 9,000 square feet. Another proposed reducing the number of parking spaces to the minimum of 56 the building code requires. Vines offered an option to change the materials used in the structure’s exterior to less-expensive alternatives, such as replacing the planned wood flooring with carpeting.

As these were explored one-by-one, there seemed to be a growing consensus among the commissioners that reductions or alterations to the design would cause the kinds of reductions in service to the community that couldn’t be justified.

As Chairman Kirk Smith, a Republican, began polling his colleagues for their thoughts on how to proceed, Democrat Cameron Sharpe spoke first.

“This building will be a centerpiece for our community, and I feel about it the same way that I do about the sports complex. I don’t want to do either of them half-way. I’m 59 years old and this may be the last new library I’ll ever see, so I want it to be a good one,” he said.

Based on the design that Vines’ group had developed, Minter estimated the commissioners would need to add an additional $6 million to construct the project as envisioned. The board voted unanimously in favor of keeping the original library design in place without changes made to cut costs, and also in favor of adding another $6 million in county reserves to fully fund the project to its completion.

CITY REJECTS 600-HOME D.R. HORTON PROPOSAL

The Sanford City Council unanimously rejected in April the latest plan by developer D.R. Horton for a 600-home subdivision that has stumbled repeatedly for months along the road to approval.

City leaders have been working in recent months to draw a line in the sand about the quality of proposals for new subdivisions submitted to them for approval, and the absence of a more global perspective in how those subdivisions are going to relate to others nearby.

D.R. Horton’s vision for this development, to be known as Gum Fork, was a sprawling one. Initial designs submitted to the city detail plans for 167 single family homes, 300 apartment units, 128 townhomes, and a commercial area that could potentially include a convenience store, retail shops, a restaurant with drive-thru options, daycare opportunities and even a hotel.

The site is a 110.48-acre tract south of U.S. 1 and east of Colon Road, just across the road from where the city is planning to start construction later this year on its new fire station. It’s also just across the four-lane from another large Horton project now under development with a lengthy history of controversy, Galvin’s Ridge.

The single-family dwellings Horton proposed to build within the development are from its “Express” line, the company’s cheapest housing product. “Express” is described on the company’s website as “an entry-level option for those who want a place to call their own” and they are marketed as homes for first-time buyers.

— by Richard Sullins

EDUCATION

By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com

What a difference a month makes.

When the Lee County Board of Education met on March 14, it seemed to have a huge problem on its hands. The chair of the board, Republican Sherry Womack, came to the meeting with a letter she’d received that same day from the district’s auditor — Anderson Smith & Wike of Rockingham — informing her he would be including a note as part of his upcoming report that cited issues about the finance office’s practices of transferring funds.

As Womack spoke to her fellow board members and the general public that night, it was clear she felt exasperated by the situation. Four months into her term as chair, this had the potential to be a major crisis. She said it was the second occurrence of an audit-discovered problem in the board’s financial practices over the past five years, leaving her to say that “I am losing confidence in our ability to act as fiscal stewards over our school finances.”

But by the time the school board met again just 29 days later on April 11, the auditor, Dale Smith, explained the issues Womack had questioned were actually routine occurrences that could be explained by taking into account a set of circumstances not unique to Lee County. Instead, Smith said, they are commonly seen among large units of government.

What were the concerns?

Womack said an audit conducted in 2018 contained a listing of issues seven pages long. Audit reports generally classify items of concerns in one of two ways. They may be considered to be a significant deficiency, or an issue that is believed to have a lesser potential for an impact on a company’s bottom line. The other classification is a material weakness, where one or more of the organization’s internal controls becomes ineffective.

The 2023 report will be about 75 pages in length but will have only a few issues the auditor has decided to make mention of. Smith said his report “is a clean, unmodified opinion, which is exactly what you want to receive. That basically means that we feel as though that the amounts and the disclosures in the report are reliable and free from any sort of material misstatements or errors.”

When Fiscal Year 2021-22 ended, the school system had total assets of $7,819,210 and liabilities of $2,909,427. Its fund balance, or the accumulated cash that is left over at the end of the fiscal year and held in reserve for use in urgent situations, was a healthy $5,519,783. That represents a $434,000 increase over the previous year, better than most years because school districts have been able to use federal COVID relief dollars for many projects and save local funds for a rainy day.

Taken together, all these numbers provide support for the notion that Lee County Schools’ finance staff is doing far more than just an adequate job in managing its cash flow. The finance office was presented with a Certificate of Excellence in March by the Government Finance Officers Association of the U.S. and Canada for its excellence in financial reporting, an achievement it received for the past 26 years.

Smith came with more good news.

During the course of the audit each year, the auditor is required to do “compliance testing” of the board’s internal controls and its expenditures of grant dollars from federal and state sources. Here, the auditor’s words almost rose like those of a song:

“The two letters that relate to the state and federal funding are both clean unmodified opinions, and there were no findings, no questions, no calls, and no internal control weaknesses noted related to the state and federal funding that flow through the district for the June 30, 2022 period.”

Those letters are crucial. Grant-making

agencies often ask for copies of them to see if there was even a tiny sliver of a doubt about the ability of a grantee to potentially spend large sums of money that can sometimes run into the millions of dollars. In the case of Lee County Schools, that box got a very large check mark of approval this time.

Lastly, Womack had raised an issue that had been originally noted in Smith’s letter of March 14 regarding budget transfers that gave an appearance that substantial sums of money had vanished or were suddenly unable to be accounted for. Starting in January of this year, the finance office began migrating its operations from one computer-based software service to another as part of an overall update and, true to form, there were lots of starts and stops, wrong turns, and the like.

Computer migration rarely goes according to plan, and the issues that had to be resolved by the finance office before the audit could be completed just kept sprouting like weeds. Because of the delays, the audit fell behind and the financial staff wasn’t always able to provide the information that the auditor requested at the time he needed it. One long wait was followed by another, and it seemed that in just a blink of an eye, the system was getting bogged down.

A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

The rule of thumb in cases like this one is to ask for an extension of the deadline and maintain solid communication with the auditing staff while the materials are located and examined. The thinking is that a late audit is far preferable to one that never gets done.

A situation that fits this scenario happened not long ago and it was noted in the audit letter. A journal entry showed that $81,000 in surplus state funds was ready to be returned, but when the time came to transfer the funds back to Raleigh, they weren’t there. The computerized line item showed a zero balance. But, in fact, they were in a local

School board’s audit fireworks show ends with a fizzle; district deemed ‘clean’

bank right here in Lee County that is among several used by the district. The existing software was having difficulty communicating with the newer platform, but the money was safe and sound. It was just waiting on a human being to initiate a manual transfer.

Womack said that in the end, a lack of communication between everyone involved would have cleared up most, if not all, of the misunderstandings that required more time to work through. It was a point that found agreement with former board chair and independent Sandra Bowen.

“Could it have been communicated better? Absolutely, it could,” Bowen said. “And as you pointed out, we were in the post-election, pre-swearing in, no chairs of committees left on the board, and so I just could have been communicated better, absolutely.”

The only actions to come out of the discussions that took place over the March and April meetings are for Policy Committee Chairman and Republican Chris Gaster to lead a review of existing board policies and practices to see places where they might need to be tightened up or revised, and for Finance Committee Chairman and Republican

Alan Rummel to have a standing item on the agenda to report to the board on the progress of the auditors anytime they are conducting field work for an LCS audit. These will help strengthen the firewall designed to protect Lee County Schools from human error.

Given Smith’s oral report that the school system’s overall financial health seems good and that the items he noted in his draft report are of the type that are sometimes seen in systems going through software migration, it appears unlikely that the school board will be surprised by the auditor’s final report when it is received later this year. It looks as if the systems put in place years ago to prevent financial chaos have done their work. They just needed to be sorted out.

It remains to be seen, though, how the board will emerge as a unit from all this. Experiences like these can widen divisions that have already opened up, or they can help form cohesion and collaboration.

On thing is certain. How well those seven persons can learn to work together and communicate effectively could well be the determining factor in how the county moves into the future that waits ahead.

LEE COUNTY SCHOOLS | INSPIRED

Spanish immersion program shows results

Dual language programs blossom in two Tramway, Broadway elementary schools

By James Alverson Lee County Schools

In two of Lee County Schools’ eight elementary schools, there are different sounds emerging from one of the kindergarten classrooms. For the first time at Broadway and Tramway Elementary Schools, some students are able to take part in Spanish-language immersion learning for their kindergarten experience.

There are 16 kindergarten students at Tramway and 23 currently at Broadway who have been able to participate this year, and the district has plans to continue growing the program annually, adding a new grade level each year until the program is a K-5 offering.

“Any new initiative is a little scary. You make the commitment and then you step back and think, did I just make the right choice for my school and our community?” said Tramway Elementary Principal Andrea Cummings. “I feel like I owe it to our students and their families, to be able to give them a different choice, an opportunity to help make their child more marketable in the future workforce.”

Broadway Elementary Principal Ricky Secor echoed those comments, “This was just an opportunity that, when it was made available to us, just felt like a natural fit for what we want to do here, which is give kids as many opportunities to explore and figure out what they are supposed to be. To provide Spanish in kindergarten is just the best time to do it, as early as possible.”

Research has continually shown that the brains of bilingual people are more developed in areas that organize and process speech. Students in dual language programs consistently outperform monolingual peers on state-mandated tests, regardless of demographics.

The first fruits of these programs here in Lee County are starting to show already.

Nancy Wazenegger’s son Malachi is enrolled

in the program, and she was amazed at how much progress her son has shown. “After the first week of school he was starting to pick up Spanish immediately. It has been amazing how I took two semesters of Spanish in college and he already, by about mid-year, had already bypassed my two semesters. He is understanding what people are saying, which is just amazing to me,” she said.

“Just the fact that this program requires students to use so much of their brain all the time, just to try and make meaning of things that you do not fully understand. The more active your brain is, the more you are going to learn and grow. You have to work it out, you have to exercise it to grow,” added Secor.

Secor highlighted how special an opportunity this could be for some students, saying, “For these kids in school now, retirement age is in the 2080’s. I don’t know what this world is going to look like then. But I do know that the

more opportunities we create, the more doors they can open later on throughout their lives.”

The immersion program at Broadway and Tramway is a 90:10 model, also known as a full immersion program. This means that 90% of instruction in both kindergarten and first grade is delivered in Spanish with the remaining 10% delivered in English with special classes like art, music, and PE. In second grade, English literacy instruction is introduced and the instructional time in Spanish decreases each year until there is a 75:25 ratio by the end of the K-5 program.

Broadway’s Spanish-immersion teacher, Sara Pardo, is a 15-year teaching veteran in her native country, Colombia. It has been challenging for her to adjust to a new country, new school and a new place to call home, but she is energized by her students. “It has been a wonderful experience for me and the kids. They feel so proud of what they are

doing in this classroom. They are proud of learning another language, and that has been amazing for me.”

One of her true passions is bringing out the best in students, and it shows daily in her classroom. “I love that they can learn Spanish, but even more than learning another language, it is them being motivated to be here, in the school and learning.” She added, “The school has supported me in everything, and that really has been the best thing. It is that support that has helped me to do my job in the best way.”

When Pardo describes the support of the school community, she really means it. When she got her first place to live here, several months into her stay in the area, she needed everything. The Broadway staff came together and did a housewarming celebration for her, providing kitchen equipment, towels, and other basic items needed to make a house feel like home.

Sarah Pardo from Medellin, Colombia, teaches kindergarten Spanish immersion at Broadway Elementary School. Pardo taught for 15 years in Colombia before coming to North Carolina in 2022. Photos from Lee County Schools

Secor described the bond he has seen between Pardo and the staff saying, “She kept using the term ‘family,’ and we want to be her family away from her family in Colombia. This is a big jump, a big leap of faith for her. She is coming here for years. She is trusting that this is going to be a great fit for her, and I appreciate that faith she had in us.”

Paola Matallana’s story as the kindergarten Spanish-immersion teacher at Tramway is similar. “This year, I got here and immediately had to start teaching. I did not have the two weeks of work days for planning and such. I got here and we did not have the books yet, because they were delayed. They came a few weeks later. It was hard, but now that I have the resources in Spanish, I feel more comfort-

able and feel so supported,” she said.

It is easy to hear the difference in Matallana or Pardo’s teaching, but one thing that simply cannot be described without seeing it, is the joy that they express and help their students see through the cultural exchange that is ongoing. “I love dancing,” Matallana said. “On Fridays we celebrate and we dance. So, the students have started, when I ask them what day it is, they don’t say a simple ‘Viernes,’ they dance when they say it.”

Pardo noted similar experiences, “Now they sing in Spanish. We say instructions in Spanish, and they understand. It is just exciting, it is almost like a game for them, when we say that ‘I can’t remember that word in Spanish’ and they respond with that word in Spanish

and have confidence that they can do it.”

Secor observed, ”I see more confident students. I see more confident teachers. I see kids that are excited to tell me about this thing that they are learning.” He added, “I see kids who have done things at home that their parents bring back to me with big smiles on their faces saying, ‘I don’t know what they’re saying all the time, but they’re very proud of themselves.’”

“I hope that my students take some of my culture. I hope that they can be spontaneous, happy, and optimistic. I also hope they learn to be empathetic, and understand that others are different,” said Matallana, describing her goals for students beyond the curriculum.

“We went from I could barely fill the

classroom with 16 students, to almost half of the people interested in coming to Tramway wanted to be in dual language,” explained Cummings. “I’m just so glad we moved forward with it when we did. We have gotten some remarkable talent from the teaching side. The kids are happy. Parents are happy.”

Ms. Wazenegger agreed, “It is scary to send your child off to kindergarten the first time, and then on top of that you are putting them in a classroom where they may not understand anything someone is telling them, but our children are so much better at adapting than we are. They will adapt. They will figure it out. I don’t know how they are going to keep people out of this program. I can only speak positively about it.”

IN BRIEF

of insurance they may (or may not) have. Access to affordable health care, he said, is essential for the entire community to prosper.

He backs up his words with action. As head of Sanford Pediatric Dentistry, Braithwaite is a regular at CCCC’s Give Kids A Smile and this year brought with him Dr. Anthony Brown, one of his colleagues. If some of the children need more advanced care, Braithwaite will refer them to dental providers in the community and often bring them into his own private practice for additional treatment at no charge.

“We have a joke in our office where we say that we ‘give kids a smile’ every day,” Braithwaite said. “And so, today is no different. It’s just our continued service to the community, so we can have kids as healthy as they can possibly be, and so they can go forward and be prosperous in life.”

CITY’S SUMMER MUSIC CONCERT SERIES BEGINS JUNE 1

The City of Sanford’s parks department has scheduled another summer of music to help families get outside and enjoy local parks. Bring your chairs or blankets and a meal to share. Even better: Pick up dinner at one of the many downtown eateries open on weekday evenings.

The music lineup includes:

• June 1: The Plank Road Band

• June 8: Big Time Shine

‘Give Kids a Smile’ returns at CCCC

This wasn’t the only young patient receiving dental care one recent Friday morning at Central Carolina Community College. The clinic with about 20 large cubicles, each one furnished with a dental chair and state-of-the-art equipment, was full of students from Broadway Elementary School participating in this year’s Give Kids A Smile.

Give Kids A Smile provides free oral health education, screenings, preventative and restorative treatment to over 300,000 children nationally each year.

CCCC has been part of the program since 2007, focusing primarily on preventative care for children enrolled in Lee County Schools.

Because of the pandemic, this year’s event, held on March 31, was the first in three years and was slightly smaller than usual as organizers worked to revive the event. For many of the young patients today, it was their first trip to the dentist ever. For others, their first in a very long time. For some families, the big obstacle may be money or parents not being able to get off from work for an appointment during the day. For others, it may be a common misunderstanding about how important dental care is, even for children.

CCCC Clinical Manager Chrishinda Horton, who organized Give Kids A Smile, said many parents assume that problems

with baby teeth aren’t as serious, since they eventually fall out to be replaced by adult teeth. But that misunderstanding can lead to two serious problems. One, any condition that might be easily resolved early ends up becoming more damaging and especially painful. The other, baby teeth hold the space for adult teeth later to grow. Keeping baby teeth healthy means adult teeth can come in straighter and be healthier.

Dr. Antonio Braithwaite, a board-certified pediatric dentist who supervised the clinic and consulted with dental professionals on site, said this kind of event is essential because it helps all members of the community gain access to affordable health care, no matter what income they earn or what kind

• June 15: Cage Bird Fancier

• June 22: The Anointed Ones

• June 29: Tuesday’s Gone

• July 13: Guy Unger Band

• June 20: Tuesday Night Music Club

• June 27: Dalton Davis

• August 3: Tonk Honky and Rod Abernathy

• August 10: Craven Melon Duo

• August 17: The Mix Tapes

• August 24: Surprise performance!

Each concert will be held at Depot Park starting at 6:30 p.m. There is no charge to attend. To stay updated on the music series, follow the parks department on Facebook or visit their website. For questions or to inquire about performing, contact Parks Administrator Nick Fortune at (919) 777-1203.

Free dental services were provided at the Central Carolina Community College Give Kids A Smile event.

Lee County High School hosted students all over the county for its annual Special Olympics “Day of Excellence.”

Lee Christian elementary students visited several local fire departments, the sheriff’s office and the Sanford Police Department, where they delivered care packages they made during LCS Serves Day and got the opportunity to learn about what each of these organizations do to keep the community safe.

Christina Stone’s fifth-grade class at B.T. Bullock participated in a live video chat with their Classroom Champions Paralympic athlete mentor Emma Schieck. Students asked her questions about sitting volleyball, her world travels, this year’s Classroom Champions memories and her future plans after graduating from UNC in a couple weeks.

Nicole Cannaday brought some sheep for “Show & Tell” at Grace Christian School — students were able to tell the class about a special sheep they have that was born with only on eye (and how God has plans for everybody).

MAY 13

PIEDMONT BLUES MURAL DEDICATION CEREMONY

Join the City of Sanford Appearance Commission, the mayor, city staff and sponsors for the dedication of the Piedmont Blues mural in the parking lot across from Temple Theatre from 1 to 5 p.m. The mural features local blues legend Floyd Council and fellow North Carolina musician Pink Anderson — the two were the inspiration for Pink Floyd’s band name in the 1960s. The mural is the first large exterior permanent mural in North Carolina for Pittsboro-based muralist Britt Flood.

SEND YOUR EVENT

The Rant Monthly's community calendar has returned, and we're doing our best to track down everything going on in Sanford and Lee County. Send us your events by email at billy@rantnc.com and include the date, time, location and a brief description.

THINGS TO DO

MAY 1

Central Carolina Community College will host Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Painting Class at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. This event is open to CCCC students, staff and faculty, as well as the general public. Contact Katy Jones at kdjones@cccc.edu.

MAY 2

Lee County Libraries will host its Local History Club at 6 p.m. at the library on Hawkins Avenue. All are welcome to join the club meetings.

MAY 3

In partnership with Downtown Sanford Inc., Temple Theatre presents May Movie Night with the classic, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Doors open at 6:15 p.m., and the movie starts at 7. There will be concessions, popcorn and alcoholic beverages for those over 21.

MAY 4

The Downtown Alive! spring concert tribute series resumes with a Tribute to Local Bands, with the performances by Working on Commission, Brick City KO and TNMC from 6:30 to 8: 30 p.m. The concert series is sponsored by Central Carolina Hospital and Pinehurst Medical Clinic.

CVMA NC 15-6, the Triangle Chapter of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, will host 15-6 May Bike Night at 6 p.m. at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford.

MAY 5

Hugger Mugger Brewing, Sweetie’s Raspados and Tacos El Primo will host a First Friday Cinco de Mayo celebration from 5 to 9 p.m. at the brewery in downtown Sanford. Tons of vendors for shopping both inside the beer hall and outside in the beer garden. Food trucks will serve from 5 to 9 p.m. Live music from Andrew Kasab and his harp guitar.

MAY 5-6

Cameron Antiques Fair

The Cameron Antiques Street Fair will begin at 9 a.m. on May 5 and run through 5 p.m. on May 6. Come see items from 100-plus antiques dealers, plus tons of food and fun for the family.

You Are Invited to Celebrate Older Americans Month with Us!

The Enrichment Center

1615 S. Third Street, Sanford, NC 919.776.0501

Special Programs & Activities

For more information go to our website

www.leecountync.gov/ec

Or pick up a copy of The Center Post Newsletter

Estás invitado a celebrar ¡Mes de los estadounidenses mayores con nosotros!

The Enrichment Center

1615 S. Third Street, Sanford, NC 919.776.0501

Programas y actividades especiales

Para más información entra en nuestra web

www.leecountync.gov/ec

O recoger una copia de The Center Post Boletin informativo

Fiesta de cartas, martes 2 de mayo, 2 p.m. - 19:00

Pasando a la clase de fitness de mayo

6:30 p.m.

Recepción de celebración

Honrando a los ciudadanos del condado de Lee mayores de Miércoles 10 de mayo, 14:00 h.

Clase de cocina, viernes 19 de mayo, 13:00 h.

Autodefensa para personas mayores, martes 23 de mayo a

Envejecimiento Sin consolidar

Aging Unbound focuses on how older adults can age in their communities, living independently for as long as possible and participating in ways they choose.

Embrace the opportunity to change. Explore the rewards of growing older. Stay engaged in your community. Form relationships.

se centra en cómo los adultos mayores pueden envejecer en sus comunidades, viviendo de forma independiente durante el mayor tiempo posible y participando de la manera que elijan.

Aprovecha la oportunidad de cambiar. Explore las recompensas de envejecer.

Manténgase comprometido con su comunidad. Formar relaciones.

12 Premium Craft Beers on Tap!

Music!

MAY 5

The Steven Center in Sanford will host First Friday Family Night “Cinco de Mayo” from 6 to 8 p.m. Come celebrate and play Mexican bingo and enjoy pinatas and Mexican food.

The Pint Sized Pasture, Sanford Yoga and Community Center and Patrick Kelly will host a Full Moon Goat Yoga event from 9 to 10 p.m. at the farm located at 1525 Fire Tower Road in Sanford. BYOB.

Whiskey Bent, a three-piece acoustic cover band from Sanford, will perform at Smoke & Barrel in downtown Sanford at 8 p.m.

MAY 6

Buchanan Farms’ Strawberry Festival begins at 5 p.m. Admission is $10 (2 and under free). Come for berry picking, food trucks, games, homemade ice cream, kids activities, vendors, live music (Dalton Davis) and more. The farm is located at 2508 Broadway Road in Sanford.

Sanford Church at 2105 Pathway Drive will host a Pig Pickin’ and Live Music community event from 4 to 7 p.m. The event is free — music will include bluegrass, Southern gospel and contemporary.

MAY 7

Camelback Brewing will host its Happy Tails Spring Festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. — come out for a great day with your pup and support small businesses, drink beer and enter dog-related contests.

The Forsyth Off Road Bicycle Association will host a group trail ride at SanLee Park at 10 a.m. Meet at the trailhead parking lot.

MAY 11

The Downtown Alive! spring concert tribute series wrap up with September, an Earth, Wind & Fire tribute band, performing from 6:30 to 8: 30 p.m. The concert series is sponsored by Central Carolina Hospital and Pinehurst Medical Clinic.

MAY 11-13

Join Downtown Sanford Inc. for Strawberry Jammin, a full weekend of all things strawberry. From events at the Sanford Farmer’s Market to cocktail crawls and food strolls, downtown Sanford will be the place to be to celebrate the fruit of the season. This year’s event will also feature Carolina Indie Fest and the Piedmont Blues mural dedication.

MAY 12

Ethan Hanson , a multi-faceted singer/songwriter offering plenty of “feel-good grooves and meaningful, socially conscious lyrics,” will play at The Smoke and Barrel at 8 p.m.

May 12-13

Carolina Indie Fest returns to Hugger Mugger Brewing, featuring 10 hours of all original rock, glam rock, country, R&B, glitter grunge and more. Bands scheduled this year are The Five Nines, Paleface, Hustle Souls, the Pseudo Cowboys, Camp Culture, Blood Red River, Haley Mae Campbell, Mom Rock, Rhinestone Pickup Truck and Regence. Learn more at huggermuggerbrewing.com.

MAY 13

Rainbow Rescue & Retreat will host Musical Paws at Carolina Indie Fest in downtown Sanford from 3 to 10 p.m. While enjoying the live music and great food, come by and visit some cute, adoptable friends. The Kitty Cat Takeover will run from 3 to 6:30 p.m., and the Puppy Palooza will run from 6:30 to 10 p.m.

MAY 18

South Park Village Apartments in Sanford will host AM Buzz with the Sanford Area Growth Alliance at 7:30 a.m. AM Buzz is a monthly event hosted by a local business that allows for in-person networking, light breakfast and coffee, along with the opportunity to win door prizes. Chamber members and local business leaders are welcome to attend. Registration not required.

MAY 19

The Pint Sized Pasture and Simplee Boba will host a food truck market at 1525 Fire Tower Road from 5 to 9 p.m. Enjoy a Friday evening listening to live music, munching on delicious food and shopping to your heart’s content, all while surrounded by the sweetest miniature animals. Admission is $5. Ages 2 and under are free.

Tuesday Night Music Club will perform at The Smoke and Barrel at 8 p.m. TNMC performs a variety of classic rock, country and bluegrass.

MAY 20-21

The Lee County Community Orchestra will host “Reflections” at the Mann Center on Steele Street in Sanford. The orchestra’s season will conclude with a performance of César Franck’s Symphony in D Minor, the most significant French symphony of its day. Two shows are schedule — 7:30 p.m. on May 20 and 3 p.m. on May 21.

MAY 23

Sanford Yoga and Community Center will host Kitten Yoga with Rainbow Rescue

& Retreat at the yoga studio in downtown Sanford. Event starts at 6:30 p.m. Come out and get your yoga on while surrounded by cute kittens.

JUNE 3

RaleighExec Jetport will host Young Eagles Day — free airplane rides for kids ages 8 to 17, co-hosted by EAA Chapter 1114 of Apex. Register online in late May or in person on the day of the event.

The San-Lee AACA will host its annual Classics to Customs Car Show in front of Old Town Hall on Charlotte Avenue in downtown Sanford from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Come check out the vintage cars on display (some of them more than a century old).

Whiskey Pines, an acoustic act from Southern Pines performing Americana, country and rock, will perform at The Smoke and Barrel at 8 p.m.

JUNE 4

Yoga & Beer at Hugger Mugger Brewing is back at 11 a.m. Finish up your yoga session with an ice-cold beer — cost is $20 and includes a drink of choice. Drop by or register on the Sanford Yoga App or at

Sanford Yoga Center’s website.

TUESDAYS

Hugger Mugger Brewing will host Trivia Night from 7 to 10 p.m. “Our version of trivia is anything but trivial. Traditional question and answer format, yes. Also a healthy dose of twists and turns including the possibility of stealing an answer, making your answer the “correct” one and more.”

WEDNESDAYS

Join Raven Forge Games in Sanford for Dungeons & Dragons Adventures League. Perfect whether you a new player looking to get into the game or a seasoned veteran. Adventures League allows you to bring your character week after week and play with different players or DM’s.

SATURDAYS

The Sanford Farmers’ Market will run through Nov. 11 from 8:30 to noon each Saturday in downtown Sanford (behind the Buggy Building). Farm fresh produce, vendors and more each week.

The Enrichment Center in Sanford hosts weekly dances for seniors 50 and older,

MAY 6

Raven Forge Games

Community Chess Tourney

Raven Forge Games will host a Community Chess Tournament at 151 N. Steele Street in downtown Sanford at 10 a.m. Entry fee is $10. This fun community activity is open to adults and students ages 10 and over who know chess rules and how to play. This is a non-rated tournament. Reserve your spot by calling Raven Forge Games at (919) 292-2601.

CROSSWORD: Cartoon Characters

ACROSS

1. Unsuitable

6. Agency behind food labels, acr.

9. Pastoral sounds

13. More painful

14. “Maggie May” singer

15. Secret storage

16. Hajj destination

17. Inflated feeling

18. One in a quiver

19. *Scooby-Doo’s best friend

21. *Stone Age Fred’s best friend

23. Zip

24. Type of wave

25. “Mangia!”

28. Apple leftover

30. Unlike Pinocchio

35. Law school test acronym

37. Tiger’s forte

39. Jack Black’s Libre

40. For____ kitchen counter

41. Jewish folklore creature

43. Singer Whitman of “Secret Love” fame

44. Formerly known as dropsy

46. Spanish Surrealist

47. Stay out of its way!

48. Make a remake

50. Shawm

52. Yoda: “Do or do not. There is no ____”

53. Like hard times

55. Tube in old TV, acr.

57. *Jessica or Peter

60. *Anthropomorphic squirrel’s last name

63. Small and elegant

64. Mozart’s “L’____ del Cairo”

66. Like a whistle?

68. Optical illusion creation (2 words)

69. “Time,” e.g., colloquially

70. Hint of color

71. “The Way We ___”

72. Farm pen

73. Skedaddle

DOWN

1. What hedonism and idealism have in common

2. Rejections

3. Flatfoot’s lack

4. Pie option

5. Calamitous

6. One of the Eagles

7. *Pluto or Snoopy

8. Acrobat maker

9. Rural building

10. Homesteader’s purchase, sing.

11. Nabisco’s “Chips ____!”

12. To use a Singer

15. Dairy industry missing person-seeking prop

20. Nordic gl¸hwein

22. Ooh and ____

24. Troublemaker

25. *Fudd’s first name

26. Line to the audience

27. “It is silent,” in sheet music

29. Living space

31. Don Johnson’s Bridges

32. Plaudit and pomp

33. Bake an egg

34. *One of the Pickles

36. Like a broken horse

38. *Phineas’ stepbrother

42. Be a parasite

45. Just about (2 words)

49. Hula necklace

51. Builds a tower, e.g.

54. Very small particles

56. Opposite of ecbatic

57. Ready for picking

58. A bit cracked

59. Not the life of the party

60. Same as cagey

61. Lotto variant

62. Palm starch

63. Gift topper

65. *Garfield or Tom

67. Butterfly catcher