Photo Credit: Orange County Schools[/caption]Orange County Schools superintendent Gerri Martin resigned on May 12, 2014, after submitting her resignation letter to the school board. Dr. Del Burns has taken over as the interim superintendent until a new superintendent can be found. According to the letter, Martin’s mother has stage 4 cancer so she resigned to care for her.
Martin was contracted to work through June 2017. The board will pay her $100,000, an amount decided upon in the resignation agreement. It gave Pam Jones the position of acting superintendent. When Burns is unable to attend meetings, Jones will temporarily be superintendent.
Donna Coffey, the board’s chair, had “no comment” on whether or not Martin had been a successful superintendent, according to a News & Observer article. In a statement released about the decision, the board said, “It is the unanimous opinion of the Orange County Board of Education that it is in the best interest of the students, parents, staff and community to conclude Dr. Martin’s employment as the superintendent of our great school system here in Orange County.” It called Burns’ hiring “a new bright day here in Orange County.”
In Martin’s letter, she wrote, “I have matters to address regarding a serious family medical situation that has to be a priority for me. Thank you for selecting me to serve as your superintendent and for affording me the opportunity to serve. I will be happy to assist in facilitating transfer of my responsibilities.”
Martin was the OCS superintendent for almost eight months before she resigned. She was previously the superintendent for the McDowell County school system.
Photo Credit: Cierra Smith.[/caption]This summer Nina Daye, with several other teachers from Orange, plans to travel to Germany on an exciting adventure. She is not only going to benefit herself, but she also believes that students at Orange, and the many students yet to come her way, will benefit from the things she will learn on her trip.
While on this trip, Daye would like to learn if she would be able to communicate with certain German schools and how she could do so. As of February 28, she believes they can communicate through Skype. Her reasoning for connecting with them is so that “both of us can have worldwide data, mostly about pollution.” She plans to exchange data about how much pollution they have, how they are working to remove it, and vice versa. Daye wants the people in Orange County to have a larger view of what is happening in the world.
While in Germany, Daye also plans to learn more about alternative energy. Germany's green energy is quickly growing and they are trying to reduce nuclear energy use. Daye thinks that her trip to Germany could allow her to bring back new ideas and hopes for Orange High School to follow in Germany’s footsteps.
Another mission for Daye is to learn about Germany's school system and see if any of their ideas could possibly help modify our school system. Daye hopes to expand her knowledge by seeing the school systems first hand.
Daye commented, "I like to keep learning and discovering new ways to bring the real world into the classroom."
This year at Orange High we have a wonderful array of new faculty and staff members. One of these is KayCee Butcher, a new English II teacher who has a passion for her students and the school she works at.
Butcher is originally from Wilson, North Carolina. She went to UNC-Chapel Hill as a Teaching Fellow. Butcher knew she wanted to be a English teacher since she was in high school. For Butcher, it just “made sense” because of her love for working with students, English being her favorite subject, and her enjoyment of high school. It was her plan to teach a high school class due to her wanting to be able to hold a conversation with her students. Not only that, but she has a love for being interactive with her students. She said, “I take my students everywhere with me. They’re always with me.”
Butcher said her favorite part of teaching is “my lovely students,” and that teaching is easier than many people believe it is. When asked about her inspiration for becoming a teacher, she said that she did not have just one teacher that made her want to teach. "It’s the only thing that made sense for me to do with my life… I can’t see myself doing anything else right now.”
Butcher thinks that Orange has an exemplary student body and a wonderful faculty. She says that she has been warmly welcomed and that it’s a great way to meet all different kinds of people. She believes that Orange is a lot like her high school, and that the diversity is one of the qualities that makes it so special.
As one of the newest and youngest teachers here, and well as her bubbly personality, makes her more likely to connect on another level with students. Butcher has just graduated college at UNC, her all-time dream school. She traveled to China to teach for a couple months and said that Chinese educations are vastly different from American educations. Classes start at 9 am and end at 9 pm. For six months she lived in Spain. She also traveled to Africa for a couple months. She got a touch of all different education systems, including ours.
Butcher briefly commented on Banned Books Week, saying, “ It's awful. I think that when books are banned and expression and knowledge is limited, I think that’s dangerous.” She also mentioned student laptops, saying that she loves the fact we get to work with technology and help the environment unlike students at many other schools.
So with her new job and bright personality, we welcome Ms. KayCee Butcher with open arms here to Orange High School.
The meeting was opened by Donna Coffey, chair, who read the agenda and introduced the moment of silence. The moment of silence was in memory for a deceased board member. Next, Gilbert gave a short introduction and asked for Nicholas Mauriello to elaborate on the OCJCL National wins. Mauriello recognized the efforts of 2012 Cedar Ridge graduate Alden Roberts, Kirkman, and Vassello.
"I think it was really cool that we were recognized," said Vassello. "We worked really hard all year, especially on that scrapbook, and it's nice to know that other people appreciate that." When asked if the recognition would change OCJCL's approach to the current year, Vassello responded, "Definitely. Because we had a really successful year last year, there are a lot of expectations for OCJCL. We have to make sure that we're prepared to meet those expectations, if not exceed them, regarding everything that we do."