Ray Trine steps down; Henke, Moss named to fill vacant school board seats

By Lynn Hotaling

Former Smoky Mountain High School Principal Ken Henke and Nathan Moss of Cashiers will be sworn in prior to the Oct. 28 meeting of the Jackson County Board of Education, said Chairman James Roper.

Henke will replace Martha Queen, who died in July, as the District 2 representative. Moss will represent District 5 in place of school board member Ray Trine, who resigned during Monday's meeting.

Both Henke and Moss won election to the school board during the Sept. 10 primary and were slated to join the board in December. With Trine's resignation, the three remaining members - Roper, Ali Laird-Large and Mary Jane Dillard - named Moss and Henke to fill the unexpired terms.

"We needed to fill those seats because there were just the three of us left," Roper said. "It wouldn't be right with just three board members up there."

Superintendent Mack McCary expressed support for the decision.

"I'm thrilled to have a full board again," he said. "It helps to have the whole team in place."

Trine, who announced his resignation near the end of Monday's business session, termed his four years on the board an "extremely frustrating experience."

"The future of public education is scary, and I don't know what we as board members can do to turn it around," Trine said.

A real estate broker and father of seven, Trine said he had come to realize that much of what happens with regard to public education is beyond the school board's control because it comes in the form of federal and state mandates.

New federal legislation titled "No Child Left Behind," with its emphasis on testing to ensure that all children reach minimum standards is "extremely scary and ultimately will be the final blow to public education," Trine said.

"People with the opportunity will take their kids to private schools and charter schools," he said.

A longtime critic of North Carolina's current emphasis on testing, Trine said such tests occupy too much time and too much of educators' thoughts.

"Our testing does not accurately reflect what's going on," Trine said. "The purpose of testing should be to show advancement and how our students compare to the nation as a whole."

After expressing his appreciation to the people of Jackson County for letting him serve, Trine said it was time to "retreat."

"I feel personally that my time will be better used helping my kids with their homework," Trine said. "It's time to go to the house."

BRS parents ask school officials to deny out-of-district bus transportation

By Lynn Hotaling

Their comments Monday (Sept. 23) were triggered by a request from Cashiers-area parents for bus transportation for their children who attend SMHS.

In a letter to the Jackson County Board of Education dated Aug. 26, the parents' cite safety considerations because 17 or so students have to "travel over dangerous roads" in order to attend the school that "meets their educational needs."

Teacher Diane Gholson and Blue Ridge parents DeWayne Mills and Andy Shaw all voiced their opposition to the request. "No one needs to travel out of district for a quality education," said Gholson, who told school leaders that Blue Ridge is the "only high school in the county that had met the expected growth" component in state ABC testing two years in a row.

Granting the request for bus transportation for high school students who live in the Blue Ridge district but attend Smoky Mountain High would unnecessarily burden taxpayers, Gholson said.

Mills focused on the safety concerns involved with busing children up and down N.C. 107 and said he didn't understand why the school board would consider such a plan.

"Very few parents would support it," he said. "That road is very treacherous."

Shaw, who owns a business in Sylva but lives in Cashiers, said he and many others were opposed to the use of tax dollars to transport kids from "our attendance area to your attendance area."

Some 18 students who live outside the Blue Ridge district attend the K-12 school, Shaw said, and they don't receive transportation.

Shaw presented board members with a petition signed by 108 parents of Blue Ridge students who, he said, "don't want their kids bused, don't want Blue Ridge's high school to be disrupted and don't want tax money wasted busing kids to Smoky Mountain High."

Most of the students who have chosen SMHS over BRS are former Summit Charter School students, Shaw said.

At the conclusion of the remarks, school board Chairman James Roper said board policy states that parents who choose to send their children out of district are required to provide transportation to and from school.

Superintendent Mack McCary pointed out that the only way to grant the request would be to change board policy and make out-of-district bus transportation available to all.

McCary also told board members the county receives limited state reimbursements to operate its buses and is penalized if it runs inefficient routes.

With regard to course offerings at Smoky Mountain and Blue Ridge, vocational director Arlin Middleton said "workforce development" courses like drafting and health occupations are the only type of classes offered at SMHS that are not available at BRS.

Parent Regina Marrone, who made a similar transportation request two years ago, told board members she and other parents of students who travel to SMHS from the Cashiers area feel a school bus is the only safe way for their children to make the commute.

"We didn't want to pit school against school," Marrone said. "My son graduated from Blue Ridge. Why would I request a bus if I didn't feel a bus was safer?"

Chairman Roper ruled Marrone out of order because she didn't speak during the designated period for public input.

Another parent asked if a bus transported a student as far as Fisher's Store in Glenville. Blue Ridge Principal Lib Balcerek said that a special needs student receives bus transportation from SMHS to the store.

"Why is a special needs student more important than our children?" the parent asked.

"Federal law," said school board member Ray Trine in a reference to the Americans With Disabilities Act, which spells out accommodations school systems must make for special needs students.

Back to Archive: 09/26/02.