Category: Education

Parents of school-age children in North Carolina have been adding a new word to their vocabulary: PowerSchool. Until three years ago, most parents lacked easy access to real-time information about their children’s grades in school and attendance. Now, with a new school year getting underway Monday for most schools, technology leaders with the NC Department of Public Instruction expect more parents will be logging in to the online PowerSchool application as a key source to help keep abreast of their …

Vance-Granville Community College held a pinning ceremony for its 2016 Medical Assisting program graduates on Aug. 5 at the college’s Franklin County Campus in Louisburg, where the program is conducted. As VGCC’s program is nationally accredited, the graduates are now eligible to sit for the American Association of Medical Assistants’ (AAMA) certification examination to become Certified Medical Assistants. The 22 graduates being honored included Heather Harwood and Kimberly Richardson, both of Castalia; Amanda Newton and Shatory Yarborough, both of Franklinton; …

Fall classes are under way at N.C. State, and Transportation Secretary Nick Tennyson paid a visit to campus Tuesday to encourage students to consider working toward a career with the department. Secretary Tennyson sat in on a civil engineering class in the school’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. He reminded students that the transportation challenges we face in the 21st century, coupled with Governor Pat McCrory’s emphasis on improving the state’s transportation infrastructure through his 25-year Transportation Vision …

Vance-Granville Community College Culinary Arts students recently became teachers, as they helped youngsters explore the world of cooking. The City of Oxford Parks and Recreation department offered a week-long “cooking camp” twice this summer, and employed students from VGCC as basic culinary instructors during the morning hours for three days. In July, VGCC students Randy Bullock of Stem and Jasmyne Schmitt of Bracey, Va., taught some of the basics of cooking and baking to the campers, who ranged in age …

Vance-Granville Community College recently named Chef Teresa Davis as the new head of its Culinary Arts program. The two-year Associate in Applied Science degree program, based at the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford, prepares students to assume positions as trained culinary professionals in a variety of settings, including full-service restaurants, hotels, resorts, clubs, catering operations,  contract foodservice, and health care facilities.  Davis has been an instructor for VGCC’s Culinary Arts program since August 2015, but her association with the …

Dustin Gregory of Oxford, a student in the Culinary Arts program at Vance-Granville Community College, is back on campus after representing not only his school but the entire state of North Carolina in a nationwide competition. Gregory competed at this summer’s SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. He qualified for the competition by winning the top prize in Culinary Arts at the state-level SkillsUSA conference in April, and became the first student from VGCC to take part …

Vance County Board of Education Committee Meeting Dates:             * Building & Grounds, Thursday, August 25th, 8:30 am                   * Curriculum Committee, Thursday, August 25th, 9:30 am             * Policy Committee, Wednesday, August 31st, 5:30 pm                   * Finance Committee, Wednesday, August 31st, immediately following Policy                                         * Personnel Committee, Tuesday, September 6th, 8:30 am Note:  All meetings are held in the Superintendent’s  Conference Room.

Jonathan Carlock of Henderson made history on Aug. 8, as he became the first Vance-Granville Community College student inducted into the “Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses” (RIBN) program. He and one student each from Davidson County Community College and Guilford Technical Community College have started their journeys as members of the first cohort in the new partnership between the community colleges and North Carolina A&T State University. At the induction ceremony, held in Proctor Hall on the university’s campus in Greensboro, …

Please note the following schedule of committee meetings.  Both meetings will be held in the county’s administrative conference room. HR Committee – (Brown, Taylor, Wilder) Tuesday, August 16 at 3:30 p.m. Water Committee – (Wilder, Brummitt, Taylor) Tuesday, August 16 at 4:00 p.m. All commissioners are invited to attend.

Vance-Granville Community College officially dedicated “Building 10” at a ceremony on Aug. 3, expanding the college’s Main Campus in Vance County to the west side of Poplar Creek Road while providing new space to train public safety professionals and other students. The building will provide a new home for VGCC’s Emergency Medical Services, Fire/Rescue and Law Enforcement Training programs. Among the guests attending the dedication were county commissioners from Vance and Granville counties, who provided some of the funding for …

Area middle school students recently had opportunities to practice their skills as both budding artists and scientists at Vance-Granville Community College’s sixth annual Science Camp. The theme of this year’s camp, held in June on the college’s Main Campus in Vance County, was not just “STEM,” but “STEAM,” according to VGCC Science department chair Steve McGrady. “Adding an ‘A’ for ‘Arts’ to the common acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a way to emphasize that innovation, creative thinking, …

The Vance County Board of Education will have a Board Retreat on Monday, August 8, 2016, at 4:00 pm in the ASC Conference Room, 1724 Graham Avenue, Henderson. The regular Board Meeting will begin at 7:00 pm in the Board Room. Click to download the Board Agenda Packet along with a Policies that will be presented at the meeting.  The Board Retreat Agenda is also available.

Vance County Board of Education Committee Meeting Date:         * Personnel Committee, Tuesday, August 2nd, 8:30 am Note:  All meetings are held in the Superintendent’s Conference Room.   

High school students from across the region recently attended “Mini-Medical School” camps organized by the Wake Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in partnership with Vance-Granville Community College. The camp was held first in June at VGCC’s South Campus, located between Butner and Creedmoor, and in July at the college’s Franklin County Campus, just outside Louisburg. Between the two locations, 44 students completed the program. This was the college’s third summer partnering with Wake AHEC on the Mini-Medical School, which is …

A “Meet and Greet” event will be held on Thursday, August 25, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Civic Center at Vance-Granville Community College to provide an opportunity for students, parents and community members to meet Debbie Hite, the new principal at the Vance County Early College High School. The public is invited to attend.

Andrew S. Dawson of Henderson recently became the first Vance-Granville Community College student to earn the “Microsoft Office Specialist Master” certification. The certification is awarded to someone who successfully passes a set of certification exams that test proficiency in multiple Microsoft software applications. Dawson completed the Excel 2013, Excel 2013 Expert-level, Access 2013 and Word 2013 certifications, all during the spring 2016 semester. He said he hopes in the future to accomplish the same certifications for the newest (2016) versions …

Vance-Granville Community College was recently recognized as the top two-year college in North Carolina for online programs, and, in a separate ranking, was named one of the top five two-year colleges in the state for the second year in a row.  In its list of the “Best Online Schools in North Carolina for 2015-2016,” the California-based organization, Accredited Schools Online (ASO), ranked VGCC first among all of the state’s two-year institutions of higher learning. “Vance-Granville Community College (VGCC) is one …

The Vance-Granville Community College Board of Trustees selected Danny W. Wright of Henderson as its next chair, succeeding Deborah Brown, as the board met for its bi-monthly meeting on Monday, July 18, on the college’s Main Campus. Herb Gregory of Oxford was re-elected as vice chair, while Brown, a Henderson resident, was elected secretary of the board, succeeding Dr. Doris Terry Williams. Wright first served as a trustee in 2011-2013, having been appointed by N.C. Gov. Beverly Perdue, and then …

Vance County Schools will host school bus driver training sessions Monday August 8  – Wednesday August 10, at L.B. Yancey Elementary School. Interested persons must attend the training on all three days to receive certification. We will only be training individuals to drive school buses. The training sessions will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at approximately 3 p.m. each day. Those interested in participating in the training sessions must register five days prior to the sessions with the school system’s Transportation Department, located at 226 …