NEWBERRY COUNTY — The Newberry County School District Board of Trustees honored multiple Newberry County students for their achievements during Monday’s meeting.
Students from across the county were recognized for their performances on SCREADY or SCPASS. The Mid-Carolina Middle School Academic Team was also recognized after they competed in the National Academic Challenge in June — finishing third in the regional national competition.
First up, were the students being recognized for their performances on the Spring 2019 SCREADY or SCPASS. These students answered all items correctly and scored the highest obtainable scale score. Those students are:
SCREADY — Math
• Little Mountain Elementary: Bailey Meetze.
• Prosperity-Rikard Elementary: Braden Cockrell, Meleena Gallman, Zoe Reid and Drake Sauls.
• Mid-Carolina Middle School: Arie Longshore, Emma Metts, Lillian Stuck, Julianne Wicker, Lane Hobby and McKenzee Chadwick.
• Newberry Middle School: Randal Berry.
SCPASS — Science
• Pomaria-Garmany Elementary: Ashleigh Bunce, John Henry Gibson and Jenna Senn.
• Mid-Carolina Middle School: Katlyn Crooks.
After winning the South Carolina Academic Challenge Division I Title, the MCMS Academic Team traveled to Orlando, Florida in June to compete in the National Academic Challenge, finishing third.
At Nationals, the team entered the finals with a record of 3-2, to ultimately take the third place finish against Trinity Catholic Junior High.
The members who participated in the National Challenge are: Madelyn Coker, Katy Mae Crooks, Jack Gantt, Emma Stuck, Rachel Redd, Micah Schafer, Maya Williams and David VanZadelhoff.
In other business, Newberry County resident Elizabeth Rivera spoke during the public forum in regards to home-bound instruction for students with IEPs.
“We had a lack of teachers, which I understand there is a lack of teachers in the District. Some of the home-bound students didn’t receive any teacher until the third week of school. If my child didn’t go to school for 10 days straight, I believe somebody would be knocking on my door,” Rivera said. “These students do get an IEP before school is out — that is already in their IEP which should already be worked out, a teacher for the home-bound students.”
Rivera said their is a lack of communication between administrators, teachers and parents. She asked the Board to help with the transition of getting a home-bound teacher a smoother transition and have more communication between everyone.
Other business:
• A motion was made by Board Member Ike Bledsoe and seconded by Board Member Quin Cureton to approve the recommendation to purchase Motorola walkie-talkies for the schools to enhance school safety communications from the fund balance for an amount up to $50,000.
