Of the millions of students going to class in the new school year, many are attending junior high schools or middle schools. The first such school in the U.S. opened its doors this week in 1909 — the Indianola Junction Junior High School in Columbus, Ohio, with seventh, eighth and ninth grades. Ninth grade students were offered courses in English, German, algebra, science and geography, as well as manual training, domestic science, history, and the government of Ohio. Today, most middle schools are composed of grades six to eight, some even five to eight, with a much broader curriculum. Of the 78 million students across the nation — from preschool to college — over 16 million of them are enrolled in grades five to eight. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at <www.census.gov>.
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How discomforting to know that the Vance County School Board is still looking into security for the schools and plans to have that subject discussed at its October retreat—.
gotta talk about something…..
If this school board had been handling the surrender treaties which ended World War II, we would still be at war with Germany and Japan.
Why pay another fire chief for Vance Co, let Chief Wilkerson take the job back. Look at the mess created in the last 5 years when everything was split up, someone not from here was hired and from all accounts wasn’t a respected leader. Shouldn’t all the area fire units be united and operating on the same page? Can’t the same be said for the police and sheriff departments and for that matter having two separate governing bodies for one small city and county? Waste of time and money duplicating services and the 2 factions fight each other instead of uniting to solve the areas problems.
Dagny, do you know the reason for splitting the Vance County Fire Department from Henderson Fire Department? Since one commissioner favoring the split is deciding who will be the next fire chief the probability of melding the two into one is very low.
What the commissioners should be focused upon is to reverse their approval of another of the county manager’s poor recommendation, to forgoing annual financial audits of every fire department. The former fire chief objected to strong centralized internal controls governing fire department finances. During the past budget review cycle the county manager and the former fire chief obtained Board of Commissioners approval for decentralized accounting systems and weak reviews of fire department finances because it saves money. That same ostrich theory of management has cost the taxpayers some $379,000.
So instead of blogging for a fundamental structural change in city county government we need to demand that the commissioners require annual audits of each fire department using a centralized or decentralized accounting system. Any volunteer fire department objecting to annual financial audits is welcome to work without taxpayers’ money.
Michael, I will continue to blog, lobby and express my opinion that having 2 separate governing bodies in a small city and county like Henderson/Vance County is a waste of resources and money. Why do you think they should stay split apart?
Town Talk had a well spoken person on last week who claimed that the Co fire guys got scraps for resources as opposed to the City fire guys and that is why the 2 should remain separate but you had that Midgette man running the County Fire units and he was another crook hoarding and selling govt property so there was no leadership to represent the Co firemen before Henrich. Maybe I know “enough to be dangerous” about this situation…..
But I do know there are a bunch of financial incompitants managing the money here if that woman could get away with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars over many years from the County. I lay the blame at that Steven guy who was the finance director or what ever his title was and the County Manager for not recognizing the fraud was even going on, and what did we pay auditors for during that time? If not for her ex husband, it would still be going on!
I couldn’t agree more. It’s a pathetic shame this went on for so long, unnoticed. The accountant should NOT have this account any longer, and the leadership should NOT be re-elected. What a pathetic excuse of management there is there and the accounting is even worse. Totally unacceptable. On top of that, for there to be so little accountability in these issues shows just how pitiful Vance County has become. Leave the race out of it. It has nothing to do with black or white. It has all to do with green, green, and green. Shame on all involved.
Dagny,
Please do continue to blog and be an activist for a single government in this small county.
I have explored this topic with one local source expert. State law does not prohibit merging the two into one government body. There is a state law that requires each county to have a sheriff and a jail, think Maybery. The big issue of such a merger is elected officials, which council members and commissioners would retain their specific political districts. There is also a 40 year old voting rights settlement that requires court review of any changes to political districts.
Dagny, while pushing for a merger be open to some out of the box thinking to reduce expenditures without such a merger. I have suggested the county move their data center to the unused data center at the school district’s main office. I suggested the county ask the city to join in the re-location. Such a move might reduce operating cost through better allocation of office space, improved physical access controls, and a reduction of infrastructure costs (uninterrupted power source, H-VAC systems, fire suppression system, data backup processes, and media rotations).
About the fire departments I do not know enough to opposed or favor merging the two. What I do favor is for all county funded fire departments to use one centralized accounting system. Mr. Beck seems to understand the need for internal controls.