WEDNESDAY
TRINITY PARK: Council discusses grant for Center City. 1B
GUILFORD COUNTY – Ferndale Middle School may see another reward linked to the school’s performance turnaround. The High Point middle school is on a list of schools that may not have to offer parents a transfer choice next year under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Others are Kirkman Park, Northwood and Oak View elementary schools. The Guilford County Board of Education will review several lists Thursday of acting and possible choice and receiving schools parents can choose next spring for their children attending schools that did not make Adequate Yearly Progress goals. The board will meet
125th year No. 350
DRUG BUST: More details emerge in Central High arrests. 3A
www.hpe.com High Point, N.C.
NO SWEAT: Duke makes quick work of Gardner Webb. 1D
50 Cents Daily $1 Sundays
Ferndale Middle may shed opt-out status BY DAVID NIVENS ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
December 16, 2009
at 6 p.m. in the district administrative offices in Greensboro. Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is the federal accountability standard under the No Child Left Behind Act. It is based on end-of-grade and end-ofcourse test proficiency in reading and mathematics in third through eighth grades and 10th grade. Ferndale Middle saw an
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GOALS
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AYP: For the 2009-2010 school year, AYP targets are, for the third- and eighth-grade test, 43 percent of students passing in reading, and 77 percent passing in math. For the 10th-grade test, the targets are lower, 38 percent in English and 68 percent in math.
Kiva Elliott, a first-year graduate student in the School of Education at North Carolina A&T State University, received a Society of Human Resource Management scholarship. A native of Whitsett, Elliott is pursuing a master of science degree in adult education.
18.5 percent gain in 2009 student proficiency on end-of-grade tests. The Change: Title I schools school also made AYP for that don’t make AYP the first time. goals for five years must The federal act requires be turned over to a transfer options for low-inproject team for restruccome families whose chilturing. dren attend schools that previously have not met AYP goals. Schools can (SES), i.e., free tutoring, avoid the opt-out system and they can avoid drastic by providing “supplemental educational services” FERNDALE, 2A
INSIDE
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Unilin request up for debate
CHRISTMAS IN BLOOM: Holiday flower in plentiful supply.
BY DARRICK IGNASIAK ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
1B
THOMASVILLE – The Thomasville City Council next week is expected to consider waiving Unilin Flooring’s minimum job creation clause for 2010 in the company’s 10-year economic development contract with the city. Before making a decision on the waiver, the City Council will hold a public hearing on Unilin Flooring’s request inside the City Council Chambers at the Thomasville Police Department at 7 p.m. Monday. In September, Kristen Lauten, Unilin Flooring director of manufacturing finance, sent notification to the city of Thomasville that the company has not met its goal for job creation. In the memo to Thomasville officials, she said Unilin Flooring has had to reduce its staff to manage costs in the economic downturn, citing the company had been hit hard because flooring is tied closely to residential construction and remodeling. “When we broke ground on this plant in 2004, we had planned to
OBITUARIES
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The Unilin Flooring plant is seen off N.C. 62. have almost 400 employees by this time and be well into the execution of our Phase 3 expansion,” Lauten wrote in the memo. “The reality is that we will employ approximately half that number at year end 2009. ... Despite the economic challenges, we are still on track to have invested $80 million at this campus by the end of 2009 as we originally planned.” In 2004, the city of Thomasville, Davidson County and the state of North Carolina agreed to a total of $14 million in incentives for Unilin Flooring to locate in Thomasville, where officials have said the
city has paid out economic incentive grants to Unilin Flooring in 2007, 2008 and 2009, with the last payment being $236,163.14. Councilmen Raleigh York Jr. and David Yemm said Unilin Flooring officials are looking to take advantage of a new incentives policy the City Council recently approved. The policy allows the City Council to waive the minimum job creation clause for any business that invests $50,000 when the county’s unemployment rate has been at or above 10 percent in the last six months.
If the City Council decides to waive the minimum job creation clause, Yemm and York said the City Council likely will give a percentage of the incentives package based on the number of jobs Unilin Flooring has created. “If their goal was a certain number, and if they only met 65 percent of it, then they only get 65 percent of the incentive on that,” Yemm said. “If they only met 50 percent of the incentive, they only get 50 percent of the incentive. It’s kind of on a sliding scale.” dignasiak@hpe.com | 888-3657
Post offices remain on potential closings list BY PAM HAYNES ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
TRIAD – Two local post offices remain on a list of potential closings from the U.S. Postal Service after more than half of the locations were removed from the list on Monday. The Furnitureland office in High Point at 913 W. Fairfield Road and the Greensboro Plaza Station at 1852 Banking St. are included in the updated list of about 170 post offices that could close. The list contained more than 400 candidates nationwide for consolidation, including 12 in the North Carolina, when it was first released
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Jerry Ledwell has had a post office box at the Furnitureland post office for 20 years. With his business nearby, he is not happy about the possible closure of the branch. in September. Five post office locations in the state remain on the list, including one in Raleigh and two in Charlotte.
“This means that these post offices still on the list right now are still under consideration for consolidation,” said Carl
Walton, spokesman for the Postal Service in the Triad. “The idea is to see if it’s feasible to consolidate those offices into another operation.” A Winston-Salem post office at 200 Town Run Lane no longer is on the list after it was included in September. Murdoch McMillan, retail supervisor for the High Point post office locations, said questionnaires had been sent to customers regarding their use of the Furnitureland office, and leaders from the community had written letters in support of the office to the Postal Service. He said those pieces of informa-
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tion have been sent to the Postal Service. “Whatever they decide is what will happen,” he said about Postal Service officials. “It is not a decision that will be made locally.” Walton said if the offices closed, those employees would be moved to other locations. He said the updated list was released by the Postal Service unexpectedly, and further action could be taken any time in the coming year. The Postal Service reported a $3.8 billion loss at the end of its 2009 fiscal year in October. phaynes@hpe.com | 888-3617
Lauryn Benton, infant Sally Bullock, 75 Lindsay Hill, 80 Judith Kenney, 65 Thomas Morris, 88 Monroe Thompson, 77 Mary Welch, 80 Obituaries, 2B
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Sunshine High 49, Low 24 6D
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