SATURDAY
ELECTION DAY: Republicans have high hopes. SUNDAY PARTY TIME: Washington Street festival set for today. 2A GREAT START: Drew Weaver wins first stage of PGA Q-School. 4C
October 30, 2010
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CITY SHOWDOWN
DEBT
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In 2008, voters approved $457 million in bonds for school construction projects, $79.5 million for Guilford Technical Community College projects and $115 million for the downtown Greensboro jail annex. But voters twice rejected a quarter-cent sales tax hike to pay off the bonds.
WHO’S NEWS
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Daniel Butler, a senior majoring in criminal justice at High Point University, completed an internship with the North Carolina Information Sharing and Analysis Center in Raleigh. Butler worked with different agencies, assisting them with a variety of tasks, including helping put together data for the FBI regarding the status of homegrown terrorist organizations.
TAX HIKE Hard times could help referendum’s chances BY DAVID NIVENS ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
GUILFORD COUNTY – Although more voters in North Carolina counties have approved sales tax increases over the past year, Guilford County voters have stubbornly said “No.” And a third quarter-cent sales tax hike referendum is on the Nov. 2 ballot. Proponents hope that a soured economy has changed voter attitudes where the question is on the ballot in 14 counties. Voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax increase in Randolph and eight of 11 counties that have held referendums since last November. In the previous two years, voters statewide said yes just eight times while rejecting tax hikes in 41 other referendums, according to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. Proponents say people are unwilling to lose more local services while watching debt grow. Guilford supporters claim it makes sense to use the $12 million to $15 million the hike would collect each year to help pay off county debt, especially when visitors pay as much as 40 percent of sales taxes. It would cost consumers just a quarter for every $100 spent on general sales, excluding gasoline and food. The alternative is to increase the sales tax to 8 percent is raising the property tax rate as much as 8 cents to pay for the $600 million in bonds voters approved in 2008, proponents say. Responding to the harsh economy, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners has not raised the property tax in two years and has cut budgets by millions of dollars. “The increase would help reduce the tax burden by up to 3 percent,” High Point attorney and community leader Jim Morgan, a co-chairman of Quarter-Cent Makes Sense committee, said when the committee launched a billboard campaign. The referendums could be derailed, however, if people attracted to the tea party movement vote in large numbers, observers say. Conservatives for Guilford County has lobbied commissioners for weeks to reduce county spending instead of raising the sales tax under the “Taxed Enough Already” (TEA) slogan. “Let the folks of North Carolina enjoy the fruits of their own labor,” said Jodi Riddleberger, a group coordinator. The Associated Press contributed to this report. dnivens@hpe.com | 888-3626
127th year No. 303
INSIDE
DON DAVIS JR. | HPE
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It was a big conference clash Friday night in High Point as High Point Central battled Southwest Guilford for bragging rights. Southwest Guilford Cowboys enter the stadium with the flag carried by Braxton Daye. Game details on 1C.
GROWTH PLAN New health school will bring in 100 high-paying jobs BY DAVID NIVENS ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – High Point University’s newest school will have a staff of at least 100 professors when it opens in three years as a “little medical school,” HPU President Nido Qubein said Friday. The new $50 million school will house the current undergraduate programs in exercise science and athletic training, as well as new graduate programs in physician assistant studies, Qubein physical therapy and occupational therapy. The university also is studying the creation of a School of Pharmacy. The program became available
EXPANSION PLAN
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The High Point University expansion plan also includes: • A new School of Education. • Two new residential communities and three dining facilities. • A Greek Village for fraternity and sorority housing. The neighboring Fifth Street Lofts will offer another central campus residential community.
when the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s plans for a school did not develop. “These jobs will pay $100,000 and more,” Qubein said during the State of Education event held
on the HPU campus. “We’ll hire 30 to 40 professors this year.” The health science program is part of a 10-year, $2 billion expansion plan. A major part is a $60 million, 5,500-seat basketball arena. The expansion is designed to accommodate 5,000 students by 2017. The university has tripled the size of its freshman class in the last five years with an annual 22 percent growth. The university’s net worth has grown from $50 million to $400 million in 2010. “Some people don’t believe what we have done and what we are going to do,” Qubein told the gathering of education and business leaders. “If we find we can’t do it all, we will pull back. But we
GROWTH, 2A
PAY UP: Businessman pleads guilty in insurance fraud case. 1B OBITUARIES
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Don Bowman, 81 Darrell Byerly, 65 Elsie Douglass, 88 Willie Jelev, 78 Shorty Koonts, 94 Betty Thompson,59 Albert Varner Jr., 78 Richard Willard, 79 Harold Williams, 69 Marty Wilson, 51 Obituaries, 2B
WEATHER
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Sunny, cool High 64, Low 42 8C
School board extends contract for Superintendent Mo Green BY DAVID NIVENS ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – Guilford County Schools Superintendent Mo Green announced Friday that the Guilford County Board of Education extended his contract for an additional year following an early morning session. Green, speaking at the State of Education program on the High Point University campus, will work an additional year until June 30, 2014, under the extension. The board voted unaniGreen mously to approve the contract. “I will have four more years, and I look forward to the journey,” Green said. “So far, it has been a joyous ride.” Green, superintendent since 2008, earns $250,000 a year plus benefits. He turned down raises the last two years because of the district’s budget crunch.
BACKGROUND
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Superintendent Green is a lawyer who moved into school administration in 2001 as general counsel for the CharlotteMecklenburg district. He later became chief operating officer and deputy superintendent.
“There were some concerns when we heard that the new superintendent was not an educator,” High Point Chamber of Commerce President Tom Dayvault said while introducing Green. “Now we know the school board did a fine job with the hiring of Mo Green.” Green told the gathering the district still has many challenges despite the successes of elevating schools to excellence and distinction categories. “Only one-quarter of our schools perform at the highest level,” he said. “We have room to grow and many more students
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to challenge. We have taken a school district that was good and moved it forward. We are doing many innovative things.” Green said he is excited about the Advantage model magnet school theme the board approved on an 8-3 vote Thursday for Allen Jay Middle School in High Point when it reopens in 2012 with 100 sixth-graders. Additional students will arrive during the following two years. Some of the curriculum is based on the integration of music, dance and rhyme. “Come see us then to see how students will be excited about learning,” Green said. “It will rival some of the great schools that we are trying to compare ourselves to.” The school will combine the programs and methods of the Knowledge Is Power Program charter schools, the Ron Clark Academy private school in Atlanta and the Mastery Charter Schools chain. dnivens@hpe.com | 888-3626
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