Mary Katherine Murphy

Staff reporter

The Scotland County Board of Education voted to accept two bids placed last week for the East Laurinburg and Scotland Accelerated Academy surplus facilities.

After discussing the matter in closed session Monday night, the board accepted the bids of $2,500 for the East Laurinburg property and $75,000 for the Scotland Accelerated Academy facility placed by the Rockingham District Partners in Ministry and Lighthouse International Outreach, Inc., respectively.

The board’s acceptance will be final pending a 10-day upset period, in which higher bids may be placed.

“The school board cannot give final approval to those bids tonight until there’s been an opportunity for a ten day upset period,” said Nick Sojka, the school system’s attorney. “If no upset bid is received for one or both of the properties, the board authorizes the acceptance of the original bids for either or both of the properties.”

In other business, Jimmy Bennett was recognized for his leadership of the board during his three year tenure as chairman.

“Mr. Bennett was our school board chairman for the last three years, until December of this past year, and he oversaw some very trying and difficult times for the school district,” said Andy Cagle, the schools’ public information officer. “He provided exemplary service to the school district and our students in Scotland County and our employees.”

The staff of Covington Street Elementary School was also recognized during the meeting, as the school was named a model school by the North Carolina Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Initiative.

“This is an initiative which works to promote positive behavior within the schools,” said Cagle.

Scotland High School volleyball coaches David and Shelly Barnes were commended at the meeting for coaching the team to seven consecutive conference championships.

Waiving the 30-day public review period, the board tentatively approved two prospective school calendars for the 2012-2013 school year, one with 180 student days and one with 185. The board has applied to the state school board for a waiver of the 185-student day requirement.

“No matter what we approve here tonight, a 185-day or 180-day, some of this could be changed, and we could be bringing this back to the board for some amendment in some way, shape, or matter,” said Superintendent Rick Stout.

Cindy Goodman, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, briefed the board on a new dual-enrollment program at Scotland High School.

“The purpose is for students to leave their high school with college transfer courses or entry-level job skills,” Goodman said.

Career and College Promise, an initiative of Gov. Bev Perdue, offers motivated students the opportunity to either take college courses that will enable them to graduate from high school with transfer credit, or technical courses that will provide them with job skills while still in high school. The program is free to students who maintain a weighted 3.0 GPA, among other requirements.

The program encourages students and parents to prioritize career readiness early on, whether or not a particular student’s career path includes four years of university.

“The title of the initiative is ‘Career and College,’ and I thought it was interesting the order that the title goes in, because … every student doesn’t go to college,” Goodman said. “But every student needs job skills. We can’t let our students leave our high school without either going to college or having some job skills.”