RAEFORD & HOKE COUNTY N.C.Hoke County’s newspaper since 190575¢

Calendar ...............2BClassifi eds ...............5B

Deaths ...............3AEditorials ...............2A

Sports ...............5AWorship ...............2B

Wednesday, February 11, 2015No. 49 Vol. 109

Other Stuff

This Week

A year after shootingfamily waits for arrest

BY KEN MACDONALD

When you’re laid up with Norovirus, the three days of misery go easier if your last memory isn’t of an iPhone-size piece of dark chocolate-covered hard toffee. It also helps if you aren’t on Chapter 15 of the novel “Station Eleven,” an account of how the Georgian fl u suddenly killed so many people that civilization collapsed. It’s especially a good idea to not read the article in the current issue of The New Yorker, “Why Did the Chicken Make You Sick,” which asserts that federal standards permit 44.6 percent of ground chicken to test positive for salmo-nella—and 100 percent of chicken parts.

No, it’s best just to lie there and take your punishment, watching old episodes of The Offi ce for the umpteenth time.

(See OTHER STUFF, page 4A)

www.thenews-journal.comwww.raefordnj.com

NJSOLD HERE

Look forthis symbol

to fi nd stores that sell The

News-Journal

BY CATHARIN SHEPARD

Staff writer

County leaders face a $64 mil-lion question this budget season: Should taxpayers take on a fi ve-cent property tax increase and a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for a new addition to Hoke High School?

Last week, the board of educa-

tion pitched to the commissioners the idea of adding a third campus to the school. The proposal comes after several years of discus-sion among offi cials – and Hoke residents – about how to address overcrowding at the aging school.

The additional campus would include classrooms with a focus on science, technology, engineer-ing and math (STEM) and career

and technical education. The building would also have a new cafeteria, administrative offi ces and a gym—and a swimming pool hidden underneath a retract-able fl oor in the gym. Equipment for fi refi ghter and emergency medical technician (EMT) train-ing could also be a part of the package.

The all-inclusive price tag

on the facility comes out to an estimated $64 million, school offi cials reported. The cost would be around $400 per square foot, including all the contents and special facilities. Paying for the school would require an ad valorem tax increase of about fi ve cents, which would raise county taxes from the current rate of 73 cents to 78 cents per $100 valu-

ation, and a half-cent sales tax increase.

County commissioners toured Hoke High’s campus last Thurs-day and heard presentations from FirstFloor architect Robert Ferris, who worked with the county to build the high-tech, “green” Sandy Grove Middle School, and others with a stake in the matter.(See HIGH SCHOOL, page 6A)

BY CATHARIN SHEPARD

Staff writer

Hoke County Schools fared about as well as most other counties in North Carolina, with most getting Cs and Ds, when the state released its fi rst-ever letter grades based on student per-formance and growth. Scur-

BY CATHARIN SHEPARD

Staff Writer

Hoke County leader, educator and veteran Harold Gillis died Sunday at the age of 88. A former Hoke commissioner, leader of the eco-

nomic development group, the Com-mittee of 100, and vocational director for Hoke Schools, Gillis died Sunday in Laurinburg, where he and his wife

Peggy retired.Gillis was born in Raeford to A.C.

and Ethel Guin Gillis. He and his wife, Peggy Monroe Gillis, were married for 62 years. He graduated from Hoke County High School and served in the United States Army. After his time in the military, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in account-ing. Gillis started working with the Hoke County school system in 1970 and later became the vocational director.

(See GILLIS, page 4A)

BY CATHARIN SHEPARD

Staff writer

Johnte Holliday Jr. sucked on a pacifi er as he stared up at the three balloons that bobbled over his head, and at the strings attached to them that his mother and two grandmothers had placed in his curled hand. It took a bit of coaxing, but after a mo-ment, he let them go and drift into the sky.

The eight-month-old said goodbye to the father he will never meet at a ceremony he was too young to remember, but fam-ily and friends of the late Johnte Shaheed Holliday will never forget.

Holliday, 18, a graduate of the Hoke High Class of 2013 was shot and killed a year ago during an apparent home invasion at his uncle’s house in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Inves-tigators in South Carolina continue looking for suspects in the case, but have not made any arrests.

It’s been a hard year without her son, Holliday’s mother LaSharon Thomas said.

“If 10,000 words could bring Johnte back, he’d be here because I’ve said them. If 10,000 tears could bring Johnte back, he’d be here because I’ve cried them,” she said. “Last year this morning I got the phone call, I went numb, and I went numb for about eight days.”

(See YEAR LATER, page 6A)

$64 million question: bigger high school?

Civic leader, educator Gillis dies

Grades for Hoke schools: a B, an F, the rest in between

18-year-old killed in South Carolina

lock Elementary School earned the county’s lone F grade, while SandHoke Early College High School earned the county’s only B. All of the other Hoke pub-lic schools earned either a C or a D.

Nearly half of the state’s 2,424 schools scored on the grading scale earned a C, according to the in-formation released by the state Board of Education. A total of 1,003 schools made a C. Another 582 earned a B, while 561 earned a D grade and 132 schools earned an A. A total of 142 schools across the state made an F.

Don Steed Elementary,

Rockfi sh Hoke Elemen-tary, Upchurch Elemen-tary, Sandy Grove Middle and Hoke High earned Cs, while J.W. McLaughlin Elementary, Sandy Grove Elementary, Hawk Eye Elementary, West Hoke Elementary and East and West Hoke middle schools earned Ds. Turlington Alternative School was not counted in the grading process.

The grades are meant to be a simplifi ed way for parents to see how their child’s school is doing, state offi cials reported. The system is not tied to school funding and does not carry any penalties for

low grades or benefi ts for high grades. Parents will not be allowed to change their child from a low-graded school to one with a higher grade based on the

school report card.Hoke County Schools administrators

argued that the formula used for (See LETTER GRADES, page 6A)

Gillis (left) and The News-Journal’s retired editor Sam Morris often convened in the newspaper offi ce to discuss local issues.

LaSharon Thomas, the mother of 18-year-old Johnte Holliday, talks about her son and life without him at a gather-ing marking the one-year anniversary of his death. (Catharin Shepard photo)

Gillis

6A THE NEWS-JOURNAL Raeford, N.C. February 11, 2015

(Continued from page 1A)

Letter grades(Continued from page 1A)

High school(Continued from page 1A)

An internationally recognized choreographer from Raeford is

troupe to Fayetteville this weekend for a special performance.

Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence Dance Company will perform in Seabrook Auditorium at Fayetteville State University on Sunday, Febru-ary 15 at 4 p.m.

Brown as an expert in the history of African dance. He has created choreography for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire, Ko-Thi Dance Company and Philadanco, among others, according to his biography. Brown also choreographed Regina Taylor’s

award-winning play “Crowns” and won an AUDELCO Award for his work on that production.

Evidence Dance Company has toured internationally including per-formances in Cuba, Brazil, England, France, Greece, Mexico, Senegal and South Africa, among others. The company performs for over 25,000 people every year.

“I hope that when people see the work, their spirits are lifted. I am interested in sharing perspectives through modern dance, theater and kinetic storytelling. I want my work to be evidence of these perspectives,” Brown said in a publicity statement.

Brown’s Evidence Dance Com-pany “focuses on the seamless inte-gration of traditional African dance with contemporary choreography and spoken word,” a spokesman said.

“Brown uses movement as a way to reinforce the importance of com-munity in African American culture and to acquaint audiences with the beauty of traditional African forms and rhythms. He is an advocate for the growth of the African American dance community and is instrumen-tal in encouraging young dancers to choreograph and to develop careers in dance.”

Tickets are $10.00 general ad-mission and free to FSU students with ID. Contact the FSU ticket office at 672-1724 for more infor-mation. The performance is made possible by the support of the FSU Office of Title III, the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County and the FSU Friends of the Arts. For more information, visit the FSU Fine Arts Series website at http://fsuarts.com.

Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence Dance Company has earned renown in New York City.

Brown drew inspiration for one dance from his grand-mother’s church, Word of Life Temple in Raeford, according to The New York Times.

Raeford’s Brown brings dance performance to area Sunday

She still has the texts on her phone from the day her son told her she would be grandmother to a grand-son, Thomas said. Holliday learned the gender of his unborn child with girlfriend Mercedes Chante, another Hoke High graduate, just weeks before he was shot and killed. The baby was born several months after his death.

Friends and family recalled Hol-liday as a strong young man who had a good sense of humor and was looking forward to being a father. They shared stories that brought laughter, but also tears.

Holliday’s grandmother Sarah Holliday said she and her grandson had been very close. Even when they were states apart, he always kept in touch by calling every morning before he went to school.

“Johnte was a good child. I never had any problems out of Johnte from a small child coming up,” she said.

The young man was well loved by many, Holliday said.

“I miss Johnte so much, you just don’t know,” she said.

His grandmother Annie May Lewis said she still can’t believe Holliday is gone.

“Even now, I’m still looking for him to walk through that door saying, Grandma, you don’t have something cooking?” she said.

The night of his death, Holliday

let two men into his uncle’s home, possibly thinking they were his uncle’s friends, before at least one of the suspects shot him, authorities said. Holliday suffered two gunshot wounds to his upper body. Holliday was taken to Clarendon Memo-rial Hospital where he died several hours later.

Thomas said that she struggled with blaming herself after her son died.

“I was like, why did I even let him go down there? What was I thinking?

downs, was I a good mother, did he

go through all the emotions of being angry at people. Everybody else was going on with their life, don’t you know I lost my son?”

Her faith helped her get through times when she did not even want to live, Thomas said.

“When it got cold and I’m in my house and thinking my son’s out here and it’s so cold, and I’m thinking maybe he needs a blanket,” she said. “It’s like a nightmare that goes over and over and over, but a nightmare would go away. It’s been a year and it seems like it was yesterday. Even in the midst of this, God has, I can say, he has strengthened me.”

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Clarendon County Sheriff’s Office at 803-435-4414.

calculating the grades doesn’t take into account the issue of poverty and puts too little emphasis on student growth. Schools were graded on a score that weighed student performance at 80 percent and student growth at 20 percent.

Before the scores were re-leased, Hoke principals said they welcome parents to visit the schools and see firsthand the edu-

cation their children are receiving.The grade release also included

additional data about student performance. Hoke High School’s graduation rate is currently at 73 percent, while the graduation rate at SandHoke Early College High School is over 95 percent. Hoke High students’ performance on the ACT was an average score of 39, while the average score among SandHoke students was an 80.

The addition is necessary be-cause the high school is bursting at the seams and will continue growing, school officials reported.

“We’re growing at the high school at about a rate of 200 new students per year,” Hoke County Schools Superintendent Dr. Freddie Williamson said. There are currently 1,998 students at the high school, which does not take into account the several hundred students who at-tend SandHoke Early College High School or Turlington Alternative School. Growth predictions suggest the campus will have to hold as many as 2,500 students in coming years.

Besides crowded classrooms, the cafeterias and gymnasiums are overflowing during lunch periods and basketball games, Principal Roger Edwards said.

The proposed high school addi-tion “is a place we want kids to be excited about learning,” Ferris said.

“We all know that strong schools create vibrant communities and vibrant communities make a better future for everyone,” he said. “At the end of the day, this is about making Hoke County strong financially, for the long-term.”

Providing enhanced information access, minimizing traffic between classes and improving student cir-

culation through the campus, better energy efficiency and project-based learning are all goals that the school system can help fulfill through the new school, Ferris said. The architect pointed to Sandy Grove Middle as an example.

“We’ve integrated the building into the curriculum and it has be-come a driver of change, not only in that school but in that community,” he said. The middle school, which opened in 2013, is listed among the top 10 green energy buildings in the United States, Ferris said.

However, he said, the cost of building a third high school campus is going to be higher than building the middle school, not only because of the scope of the project but because prices have gone up in recent years. When the county decided to build Sandy Grove Middle, the country was still in the first few years of coming out of the recession. More tax credits were available at that time, which saved the county millions on the construction.

There are still some tax credits to be found and applied to the high school addition if the county decides to move forward with building it, Ferris said.

“A lot of what this building is going to be about is bringing the community in and creating programs

where it’s not just student learning, it’s the students and community coming together, and that is excit-ing,” Ferris said. “That’s taking the idea behind Sandy Grove…to a whole new level.”

The swimming pool would be open to the public and a part of the cafeteria would be too, Edwards said.

“It’s a centerpiece of the com-munity so it should be used by as much of the community as it can be used,” he said. The facility could also be used by the county’s Parks and Recreation Department, the principal said.

Why no new high school?The reason the school system is

looking at adding a third campus instead of building a second high school comes down to one issue: affordability, Williamson said.

“The real answer is so we won’t have to duplicate buildings,” he said.

It makes more sense to continue developing the existing high school than to have to duplicate services that it would take to build a new one, the superintendent said.

If the county built a second high school, it would double the school system’s needs in many areas. That would require more buses to run different routes to the school, more

administrators, more equipment and other costs to provide required amenities, and the county wouldn’t be able to offer the same programs at both campuses, Williamson said.

A second high school isn’t what students want either, he added.

“If you ask the students whether they’d rather have an additional high school or one Hoke High, you know the answer. They want one Hoke High School. They want everybody to be the Bucks,” he said.

Having CTE and STEM classes on the same campus as the school’s other program offerings makes it easier for students to have access to those opportunities, Edwards said.

“Here we have that and that’s a benefit for us. It allows us to incor-porate our academic program and arts program and the ROTC, all of those,” he said.

The sprawling layout of the high school’s large campus would change with the new addition, Edwards said. The third campus would become the main entrance for the school and the administrative offices would be located there.

The detailsRight now, Hoke has a “relatively

low level of debt outstanding” and has “a reasonable level of debt capac-

ity,” Cole said. Hoke has a AA bond rating, just below the AAA rating which is the highest possible, he said.

While the county commission has the authority to raise local prop-erty taxes and could get a quarter-cent sales tax increase, it would take an additional request to the state for approval of a second quarter-cent sales tax increase, officials said. School board Attorney Nick Sojka discussed getting the support of state representatives Garland Pierce and Ken Goodman before making the request to the state, if the county decides to move forward with the project.

A half-cent sales tax increase would generate an estimate $700,000 in additional revenue each year, and for every one cent increase to prop-erty taxes, the county would get an additional $270,000 based on figures from the recent property revaluation, Cole said. That would generate the roughly $2 million the county would have to pay each year to afford to build the new campus.

If the county does go through with building the school, there will need to be special permission from the Raeford City Council, school facilities director Charles Tapp said.

“There is an ordinance here in Raeford that you can’t build any-

thing higher than 35 feet,” he said. The problem is that the local fire departments don’t have the equip-ment to provide fire protection to taller buildings, although the Puppy Creek Fire Department in the county is working on getting a ladder truck that will fill that need, Tapp said.

If approved by the county commissioners, the project would also have to go through the Local Government Commission (LGC)’s approval process.

In addition to asking for fund-ing for the third campus, the school system also requested funding for additional classrooms at Don Steed Elementary, Rockfish Hoke El-ementary and Sandy Grove Middle.

The commissioners did not take any action on the matter and ad-journed the meeting, which counted as a public meeting as the board had a quorum of members present.

Budget preparations for the 2015-16 fiscal year are currently un-derway. The board typically attends budget workshops around March or April and usually approves a budget in May or June.

If the board decides to raise taxes, it will be the first increase since 2012 when commissioners approved a three-cent tax hike to pay for Sandy Grove Middle.

SPACE RESERVATION DEADLINE IS FEBRUARY 25, 2015. 1/8 Page............$ 95.00

1/4 Page............$160.001/2 Page............$250.00Full Page...........$410.00

ADVERTISING RATES

COLOR: $55.00

Hoke Countyis the

Fastest Growing County

in North Carolina

To reserve your spacein this special section call

Hal or Wendy at 875-2121.

This Special Sectionwill be published in the March 4th issue

of The News-Journal.

ADVERTISE your businessin this special section!

RESERVE Your Spot Today!!

COMING March 4th!

2015Business Section

Forecasting Hoke County’s future growth

Business Section will be distributed in the community.

Don’t believe us?Bring a special someone...

anytime now throughSaturday, February 14th, and

treat her (or him) to aValentine meal they’ll adore.At a price, you can’t resist.

Visit us @ www.western-sizzlin.com

FlameKist®Home Of The

Steak

Gift Cards Available

Above items include: baked potato or fries, Texas Toast. And if you dine in....you can add the Bakery, Potato, Ice Cream and Dessert Bars at no additional charge.

Thursday, February 12th, thru Saturday, February 14thValentine’s Week Special

12oz.Sirloin10oz.Sirloin

(#5)

(#9)

$899$999Reg. $11.99

Reg. $9.99

7735 S. Raeford Rd, Fayetteville910-867-3002