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PUBLISHED
ONLINE MAY 16, 2019
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School board adopts budget request
asking county for $20.5-million increase
The Johnston County Board of
Education on Tuesday adopted Superintendent Ross
Renfrow's proposed local budget totaling $84,062,810 ---
an amount that would require an increase of $20,498,958
from the County of Johnston during the new fiscal year
that begins July 1.
LATE-BREAKING
NEWS:
County Manager Rick Hester's recommended county budget,
released this morning (Thursday), includes an
appropriation of $66,042,842 for Johnston County Public
Schools --- an increase of 3.9% above the current year's
appropriation but well short of the school board's
request for 2019-2020.
A public hearing on the county budget is scheduled for
Monday, June 3. The County Commissioners will begin
their public budget deliberations after that.
Here's the manager's budget message in
full>
Back to the school board's requested budget:
It adds 1% to local salary supplements paid school
teachers, a new 2% supplement for teachers at
low-performing schools that show improvement on
end-of-grade tests, and funds to employ 53 additional
full-time school-bus drivers to reduce the system's
reliance on teacher assistants and other employees to
cover more than 1,200 routes driven daily.
Across-the-board salary adjustments for all Johnston
school employees, including teachers, are based on a 5%
increase in state pay granted by the N.C. General
Assembly now in session. Approval of raises that high
appears uncertain at this point.
During Tuesday's brief discussion of the local school
budget, Superintendent Renfrow noted that county funds
pay for 275 positions not funded by the state. That
number includes 52 classroom teachers, 37 assistant
principals, 99 "operations and facilities" personnel who
maintain everything from buildings to buses, and other
positions beyond state funding allotments.
Here's the complete local-budget
request approved Tuesday>
READ
MORE from Tuesday's school-board meeting>
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"IF IT'S
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Cancer survivors line up for a
ceremonial walk around the track at Smithfield-Selma
High School during opening moments of Saturday's
day-long fund-raising festivities.
Relay for Life cancer fighters raise more
than $113,000
Johnston County's 2019 Relay for
Life fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society has
raised $113,407, according to an online report updated
Wednesday.
Saturday's event on the football field at
Smithfield-Selma High School was the 25th held here
since 1995. That first year raised a modest $44,000 but
it quickly grew into what organizers say was the
nation's biggest Relay for Life fund-raiser when more
than $500,000 was raised in the late 1990s.
For the Johnston County event, the leading individual
fund-raiser year after year is Jackie Parrish
(pictured), who just turned 92. She and her team of
"Friends" raised $10,739 this spring.
Smithfield's First Presbyterian Church placed third in
team competition by raising $8,242 this time around.
READ MORE on the Johnston
County Relay for Life Facebook page>
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  JOHN P.
(JACK) O'HALE
Attorney at Law
102 S.
Third Street
Downtown Smithfield
919-934-6021
e-mail kim@jackohale.com
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Leading the way for South Smithfield School's walkers
are (left to right) third-graders Micah Sanders, Drew
Webster, Wellons Lee, and second-grader Hyannah
Mitchell.
(Photo from South Smithfield School's Facebook
page)
Youngsters walk and bike to school
in tune with a nationwide movement
South Smithfield Elementary School
celebrated National Walk or Bike to School Day May 8 by
organizing a parade of youngsters, accompanied by adult
protectors, from the Civitan Baseball Field beside
Bright Leaf Boulevard to the school's campus several
blocks away.
Since 2006, the National Center for Safe Routes to
School --- a component of the University of North
Carolina Safety Research Center --- has been coordinator
for these events throughout the nation. Besides this
month's "Walk or Bike" event, National Walk to School
Day has been observed the first Wednesday in October
since 1997 under auspices of the UNC Center's Pedestrian
and Bicycle Information Center.
More pictures from May 8 on South
Smithfield School's Facebook page>
TODAY'S
FEATURE PAGE shows sidewalks are making a
comeback here>
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SUSAN
LASSITER
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SSS student serves as page in N.C. Senate
Smithfield-Selma High School's Camryn
Barefoot has been serving this week as a Senate Page in
the N.C. General Assembly. Her sponsor is State Senator
Jim Burgin, who represents portions of Johnston,
Harnett, and Lee counties.
According to SSS Principal David Allen, Camryn has
interest in pursuing a government career that requires
leadership and communication skills.
(Photo from SSS)
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Johnston Community College news
• JCC receives $283,800 National Science Foundation
grant
for engineering and biotechnology
training
Read the story on
JCC's website>
• JCC receives $200,000 Golden
LEAF Foundation grant
for "specialty care" nursing unit
Read the story
on JCC's website>
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The eastern end of road-widening project
The widening of Booker Dairy
Road on a new course to Bright Leaf Boulevard winds up
near this point just north of Wal-Mart. What will be the
name of this new road? Booker Dairy Road presently runs
into Bright Leaf almost a mile southwest of here. This
new section is closely parallel to another relatively
new street: Ava Gardner Boulevard. No official word at
this time on the new road's naming.
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Full
service printing, graphic design, and
promotional products!
1294 W. Market St., Smithfield •
919-934-9036 • www.hinsprint.com
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DEATHS & FUNERALS
Each week we'll post links to obituaries about persons
who have died during the past week. We'll monitor the
websites of local funeral homes to compile our list, and
we welcome links provided by readers to obituaries of
persons with Smithfield connections who have died
outside our immediate area.
HUBERT THOMAS DeHAVEN, 72 -
died May 14
JUANITA GREY REGISTER WYNN, 87 - died May 13
LISA HIX KERSEY, 51
- died May 10
BENNY LEE DEW, 64
- died May 8
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THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS
This 1964 photo of Downtown Smithfield is an eastward
view of Market Street from Second Street. The large gray
building opened as the Tuscarora Inn in 1902. No longer
a hotel in the 1960s, its ground floors included Fleming
Pharmacy and the infamous Pickwick Pool Room. The upper
floors were mostly vacant by that time. The building and
several others beside it were demolished in the
mid-1970s to make way for a new home and parking lot for
Smithfield Savings & Loan Association. Today it's
the location of the local Wells Fargo bank.
(Photo from Johnston County Heritage Center)
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Public Service Announcement
WHERE TO MEET:
• Smithfield Community Park, 600
E. Booker Dairy Road
• Bob Wallace Jaycee Kiddie Park,
350 S. Second Street
• Smith-Collins Park, 909 E. Lee
Street
• Gertrude B. Johnson Park, 1222
W. Market Street
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