Robbinsville – Tuesday’s meeting of the Graham County Board of Education reflected hard financial times, recovery from low school scores – and a glimmer of hope for the future.
The glimmer of hope was the appearance of almost two dozen Noble Knights, high school students picked by their classmates for their trustworthiness and leadership. Noble Knights are students struggling classmates can lean on when they need a helping hand. The students led the Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of the school board meeting.
The Noble Knights introduced themselves along with their aspirations, after which board chairman Rodney Nelson, who taught in Graham County schools for 39 years, praised them.
He told his students that As and Bs are great, but the thing that will follow them through life is their character, and nothing shows good character more than being picked by classmates for being trustworthy.
Other news and notes
* Auditors gave Graham County Schools a clean report, but warned school board members that funding continues to be an issue and – as COVID-19 funding goes away – could result in big challenges starting around 2024. The school district has just $17,000 in its fund balance – and only after transferring $440,000 from other parts of the budget. Graham County commissioners upped the county’s contribution to the district to $263,000 with regular annual increases moving forward, but with higher costs for personnel, goods and services, school budgets will continue to be a challenge.
* Following school test scores of D received by Robbinsville Elementary and Robbinsville Middle schools, Graham County Schools as a whole are under the microscope from state education officials because two-out-of-three district schools received low scores. The school district is formulating plans to raise the scores, which will be presented in a special called meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2 and be considered for approval at another special called meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1. The special meetings are necessary to meet strict deadlines imposed by the state to take action on the low test scores.