ASHEBORO – The Randolph County School System’s Board of Education was given an update on a new vision and focus for Uwharrie Ridge at a regular business meeting earlier this month.
“One of the challenges we’ve been working through as a leadership team, Uwharrie Ridge is a unique place being that it’s a 6-12 school so it has middle and high school grade levels,” superintendent Stephen Gainey said. “We’ve been continuing to look for ways of what can make Uwharrie Ridge 6-12 standout and continue to attract students to it. It is an application school. You can go if that’s your assignment based on your address, but you can also apply to go there. We have a beautiful facility there and we’re looking for ways to make programming there unique.”
With the new focus, all students will be immersed in “an extensive career-focused seven-year program, coupled with post-secondary placement opportunities.”
The plan is to provide students with both targeted career-based trips, which will be provided by the school, and employability skills training that are focused on three schools of choice: public service, design/technology and leadership/communication.
Uwharrie-Ridge will partner with the RCSS CTE Department, Randolph Community College and Communities in Schools to help achieve this.
“We’re really upping the partnership between our CTE Department and Uwharrie Ridge more so than any other school in the system,” Gainey said
Uwharrie-Ridge already offers a few paths such as light-duty diesel, agriculture but they will also be adding Early Childhood Education, Adobe Academy and Public Safety this school year and next year will be adding three post-secondary focuses including plumbing, photography and collision/repair technology.
High school students enrolled at Uwharrie Ridge 6-12 will be transported to and from RCC each day, where they will spend a few hours on these post-secondary programs, before returning to campus for the remainder of their generic high school courses.
Upon completion of the programs, students may participate in RCC’s graduation ceremony and earn an industry-aligned certificate or credential.
“You can’t make this feel like just another class,” board member Tracy Boyles said. “If you make it feel like another class, you’re going to fail. I’ve heard it from the students, I’ve heard it from staff members and I’ve heard it from parents.”
The board also swore in four members: Gary Cook, Sharon Farlow and Tracy Boyles who were all reelected to new terms on the board as well as Todd Cutler, who took over the seat formerly occupied by Phillip Lanier.
Following the swear-ins, the board also re-elected Cook as chairman and Farlow as vice-chair.
“I do appreciate the confidence and I do enjoy working with you guys,” Cook said. “I’ve been with several different boards and I’ve been lucky. I’ve always had good boards, but this is one of the best boards. We probably have the most open conversations of any board that I’ve ever been on. I love the fact that we talk about it here and that we work it out.”
The board then recognized the Endowment Teacher Grant Award recipients
“This grant program is made possible through a partnership with the North Carolina Community Foundation,” said Amber Ward, the district’s public information officer. “Recipients are selected by the RCSS Endowment Committee.”
Recipients included Jenna Lineberry, Wendy Baldwin, Lisa Phillips, Crystal Simpson, Kelsey Overton, Yuliya Skeen, Jennifer Snotherly, Tina Reeder, Gwen Hall, Pamela Hull, Carrie Reid, Amanda Quinn, Andrea Isley, Lisa Andreoli, Lib Keeter, Angela Hall, Joshua Wood, Angela Davis, Dylan Smith, James Price, Gloria Wilson, Sherry Allen, Kelli Gilchrist, Julie Lindsay, Laura Simpson, Sherry Vestal and Cindy Neal.
The total amount disbursed was a little over $6,500.
The board also recognized CTE students who had competed at the national level.
“Seven members of the Providence Grove FFA Hunter Safety Team competed at the Central Regional Youth Hunter Education Challenge on July 24-July 27 in Bentonville, Arkansas,” Ward said. “This challenging competition is one of the two national hunter safety competitions in the United States.”
Senior team members included Christian Swaim, Austin Williams, Jacob Bowman, Troy Blakley, Cooper Wright, Will Coble and Amelia Lackey along with advisor Amy Kidd.
Awards included second-place team rifle, first-place individual rifle (Williams), first- and second-place individual pistol (Bowman and Williams), second-place team shotgun and third-place team hunter safety test
In addition, eighth grader Tyler Williams from Northeastern Randolph Middle School placed for junior pistol.
The Randolph County Board of Education will next meet Jan. 13.
