LUMBERTON — West Lumberton Elementary School students will stay at Lumberton Junior High School.
“For the time being,” Shanita Wooten, interim schools superintendent, said after the regular school board meeting held at Lumberton Junior High on on Monday night.
School board members voted unanimously, and without discussion, to allow West Lumberton Elementary students who lost their school to Hurricane Matthew to begin the 2017-18 school year at Lumberton Junior High. T
Allowing the West Lumberton students to stay at Lumberton Junior was one of two options presented to the board members. The other option was moving them to W.H. Knuckles Elementary School.
Two people rose to speak against the second proposal, arguing it made no sense to move the students again if the move wasn’t to be permanent.
Wooten said the students will remain at the junior high school until the board studies options and works out details.
Just how long and how much it will cost to rehabilitate West Lumberton Elementary still is unknown.
“I should have an assessment in about three weeks,” said Chad Cronin, project manager for sfl+a Architects.
An initial walk-through has been performed, Cronin said.
“We need to make sure the equipment isn’t good for five years but then breaks down after those five years,” he said.
Once the assessment is complete, the district can move forward with producing a project worksheet to present to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Project worksheets for more than $412,000 in repairs have been submitted to FEMA, Wooten told the board members. The district has received $164,000 from FEMA.
“That’s only for the fuel spill,” said Wooten, speaking about damage that happened when the central office was flooded and destroyed.
The board learned worksheets for damaged vehicles have been submitted, but the district is waiting for the insurance company to do its part so reimbursements can be made by FEMA.
“I’m not fussing, but that seems to be where we were about two months ago,” board member Steve Martin said.
Board member Dwayne Smith was upset that an insurance company represent was not at the meeting, something he called for at an early meeting.
“I am appalled that we do not have an insurance person down here,” Smith said.
In other business, the board:
— Recognized students who took first-place honors in Greensboro during the recent North Carolina Unity Conference’s Indian Education Art Show. Each student won a $25 cash prize at the conference and received a certificate Monday. The winners were Karina McMillan, Lumberton High School; Rayla Craft, Pembroke Elementary; Joshua Deese Jr., Pembroke Elementary; Alaina Chavis, Purnell Swett High; Brittany Chavis, Purnell Swett High; Anika Locklear, Purnell Swett High; Maya Goodman, Rosenwald Elementary; Faith Locklear, Rowland Middle; and Niyah Locklear, Union Elementary.
— Presented certificates to the teachers included in state’s top 25 percent of third-grade teachers. They were Kena Freeman, Carolee Hardin, Sylvia Dubuke, Lisa Locklear and Keyna Pittman from East Robeson; Nancy Stevens and Deborah Freeman, Janie C. Hargrave; Amelia Schuster, Long Branch; Stephanie Barbee, Tanya Fore and Naomi Lancaster, Peterson Elementary; Allison Musselwhite and Marian Emanuel, Piney Grove; Annie Evington, Prospect; Tinaisa Abrilz, R.B. Dean; George Marston Jr., Rex-Rennert; Sally Pennington, Gwendolyn Rogers and Morgan Howington, Rowland Norment; Susan Dowless, St. Pauls; Vanessa Hunt, Melissa Cox and Angela Barnes, Tanglewood; Joy Hunt, Magnolia; and Angelina Beck-Hall, Parkton.
— Recognized Carla Oxendine, of Piney Grove Elementary School, as the Bus Driver of the Month, Taneva Martin, of Peterson Elementary, as the Classified Employee of the Month and Clarice Stewart-Hunt, of Piney Grove Elementary, as the Teacher of the Month.
— Tabled hearing a financial report until next month.
— Approved placing the mobile planetarium next to Exploration Station in downtown Lumberton.
— Heard a request to sponsor sending two Beta Club members and their sponsor to the national convention in Orlando, Florida, at a cost of about $1,000 per person.
