The Bladen County Board of Education passed its 2003-2004 school calendar Monday night, and endorsed a resolution that will almost surely lead to the donation of most of what last year was Bladen Middle School property to a group in Elizabethtown that wants to develop it into a community center.

Holding its regular "first Monday" March meeting on what actually was the "fifth Monday" of April, the board chose a 2003-2004 calendar that will call for students to report for classes on Wednesday, August 6. Teachers will report on July 29.

The action came in a split vote after the board deliberated between two calendar proposals submitted to it by the committee appointed by the board to study and suggest a calendar. Bill Turner of the Administrative staff, who chaired the study committee, told the board that the committee chose this year to give the board two calendar options, rather that make a single calendar proposal as it normally does.

One of the submitted calendars proposed an opening date for students on Monday, August 11, with teachers reporting August 4. The other was the proposal which, after lengthy discussion, the board chose.

The choice of the August 6 starting date for students came despite pleas to the board from representatives of the White Lake and Elizabethtown business community to open schools as late as possible because of summer related business. Both Goldston Womble, White Lake Mayor and with his family a major business operator at White Lake, and Leon Martin, who spoke for the Elizabethtown-White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations in the community, told the board that when school opens, what is traditionally "summer" business is adversely affected. In fact, Womble pointed out, at White Lake, it basically dies.

"Our original proposal was to not start schools till after Labor Day," Womble told the board in referring to efforts by him and others on the calendar committee. "We saw there were too many problems with that. So we tried to find a compromise date but never could get any movement the other (our) way."

Womble explained that not only White Lake customers, but workers as well, are affected by the opening of school.

"We use hundreds of students each year in our workforce," Womble said. "When school starts, we lose them."

Womble asked the board to vote for the calendar which called for an August 11 opening day for students, rather than the calendar which calls for the August 6 opening day. He pointed out that the August 11 opening day basically gives the merchants another week before the summer ends.

The board members, in their discussion of which calendar to choose, agreed that teachers as a group tended to favor the August 6 opening day. The August 11 opening day gave them no "teacher work days," which they all want and say they need. The August 6 proposal gives them three scheduled work days.

Both calendar proposals call for the ending of first semester prior to the Christmas holiday, a schedule adopted by the school system several years ago to make its schedule more compatible with college schedules.

When the vote was taken, board members sided with the teacher sentiment. Berline Graham voted for the August 11 opening date. All others, either through actual votes or having their votes recorded that way through abstaining, voted for the August 6 opening. As Chairman, Bruce Dickerson votes only to break ties.

School property will

go to Focus group

The board agreed, after lengthy discussion, to adopt a resolution asking the North Carolina legislature to enact local legislation which will enable it to give, without going through a bid process, buildings and land of the former Bladen Middle School campus to Bladen Youth Focus.

Prior to being used as the middle school in recent years, the property had been Bladen Central High School, and before that, Bladen County Training School. The property was originally developed as a school for Blacks, and its location is still today one that is surrounded predominately by Black residents and Black-owned businesses. Bladen Youth Focus is made up of mostly Black residents of the community who, in their words, "want to keep the pride and history (of the school) alive."

Bladen County Training School opened in September, 1928, with five teachers including the principal, Paul R. Brown. Brown served as vocational agriculture teacher for the local farmers as well as the students of the school. Students came to the school from the most remote areas of the county, walking, in wagons or cars, and many of them lived in private homes in the community during the early years. Later, buses were purchased and maintained by the parents and patrons in each community.

The Focus group, once ownership of the property is obtained, plans to develop a center "to enhance the lives of youth, families, and the community as a whole." The facility will be named the Paul R. Brown Community Center in honor of the first principal.

Most of the property is no longer being actively used by the school system. The middle school was moved to what formerly was East Bladen High School at the beginning of the current school year. One building and a small amount of land is being used now by the system's alternative school, the School of Extended Hope.

The system also vacated what was formerly the Spaulding Monroe Middle School campus this year, and the board voted at a meeting earlier in March to seek a resolution which will enable it to give that property to a group in Bladenboro which wants to develop a community center there. The primary difference in the Spaulding Monroe campus and the old Bladen Middle campus is that none of the Spaulding Monroe campus is presently being used, and board members feel confident that it will not be needed again.

Not so with the Bladen Middle site.

The decision to seek the local legislation resolution came after long discussion that could have been much shorter. Most board members quickly announced they were "all for" giving most of the buildings and a good portion of land of the campus to the Focus group, but the amount of land to be included formed a roadblock to a final vote.

The Focus group wanted the board to include all the land not being used by the School of Extended Hope. That includes a large clear area that was used by the school system for playground and ball fields. Most board members were reluctant to give all the land, at least at this time.

"We need to make real sure we don't need it down the road," said Member David Edge.

Three board members-Graham, Esther McNeill and Vincent Rozier-sided with the Focus group and urged their fellow board members to include all the land in the resolution. The other board members held firm, however, and a motion was finally passed that the buildings in question and a "buffer" amount of land as needed would be included in the resolution. The remaining land not being used by the School of Discovery can be leased to the Focus group.

The buildings included in the resolution include the one story building in the center part of the campus, the two-story building on its south side, and the gymnasium located to the rear.

The resolution will, in essence, ask Rep. Edd Nye to seek the passage of local legislation that will enable the school system to give away the property, or at least sell it without going through a bid process. If such legislation is not enacted, the school system would be required to go through a selling process before it could pass along title to the property.

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