ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Schools Board of Education met Monday, July 17, with primarily recognitions and informational items presented.
The board opened the meeting by welcoming Randolph County Schools’ new public information officer, Amber Ward, who joined the staff following Tim Moody’s retirement after nearly 10 years of service to the county.
“She’s going to be good,” said Board Chair Gary Cooke. “She’s one of us. We’ll miss Tim, though. He did a great job.”
The board was presented with an update on their FY 2023-24 local budget.
“The county commission approved our budget on the 19th of June,” said Superintendent Stephen Gainey. “I’m very excited to announce that they approved everything we asked for in our local budget. It was $1,428,000, and it was all current expense requests. Our annual current expense request funding has increased by $6,588,974 since the end of the 2013-2014 school year. So that’s a pretty big jump.
“What’s equally exciting is that over the last ten years, our current expense funding has averaged an increase of $658,897.40 per year, and last year at this time, it was $573,000. It has not only gone up considerably, but we’ve significantly increased the average. I’m very excited about that.”
An important time from the approved budget that Gainey also pointed out was the increase in classified supplements.
“One of the special items in that budget request was increasing our classified employee supplements,” Ganey said. “So now when we start this school year, our classified supplements will have risen from 2.5% to 5.25%.
The board also recognized Shanna Good, a math interventionist at Trinity Middle School, who was named an NCCAT Honored Educator Scholar for Randolph County.
“Shanna Good has been named a 2023-2024 Lynda Petty Honored Educator Scholar,” Gainey said. “With this scholarship, she gets to go to a program of her choice at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The scholarship will cover all expenses for instruction, program material, food, lodging, travel to and from and cost of substitute teachers. She also receives a $250 monetary gift to use on supplies in her classroom. I just want to congratulate Dr. Good for earning this great honor named after Ms. Lynda Petty, who was one of the all-time great people that’s ever been associated with our school system.”
According to the NCCAT website, the Randolph County scholarship “honors the late Lynda Petty, who dedicated her life to improving public education for the children of Randolph County. Mrs. Petty, known as the “First Lady of NASCAR,” supported the Randolph County community in many ways, but most commendably, she served as a local leader in education. During her lifetime, Lynda served as a school volunteer, and from 1984 to 2000, served as a member of the Randolph County Board of Education, including taking on the role as its Chairperson for seven years. NCCAT’s Lynda Petty Honored Educator Scholarship pays tribute to her lifelong commitment to the teaching profession.”
“Lynda did a lot for this school board,” Cook said. “She wasn’t on here when I came on, but her mark was here.”
The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet August 21.
