I ■an a ■ ■ a a Editorial Senior

I ■an a ■ ■ a a

Editorial

Senior Center

A group of county citizens have persevered in trying to locate a new site for the county’s senior nutrition center.

For years the Community Services Board has had a nutrition site for county senior citizens that meets three days a week in the parish hall at Trinity Episcopal Church.

This site has several drawbacks including a lack of handicapped access, especially for the bathrooms, and the fact that the annual Dried Flower Sale put on by the churchwomen drives the nutrition site out of these quarters every year for seven weeks.

However, from the ,point of view of several members of the group, the main drawback is that the parish hall has many other uses, and very little can be stored there. The result is that any time the seniors embark on a project that will last several days, everything must be packed up at the end of each day and carried out of the building.

Now the group of citizens believes it has found the site it needs. The old Washington School building at the end of Mount Salem Avenue is mostly vacant after serving for several years as the home of Spring Mountain School. The owner, William Carrigan, is appar. ently willing to have one room of the building used as the nutrition site, and the volunteer citizen group is eager to do what can be dope tp ensure that the building is readied and the rent and utilities can be paid.

This effort deserves widespread support from the rest of the community.

Back to School

A lot has gone on over the summer to prepare the county’s two public schools for the start of the school year on Monday.

The elementary school has a new roof over the gym and cafeteria. The high school is close to having two new computer labs. Air conditioning will soon be available in the high school auditorium and new parking lot lights will soon be installed in the back parking lot at the high school. f Members of the school administration and School Board are grateful to the Board of Supervisors for returning unspent 1995-96 funds to the schools to be used for these purposes.

There have been numerous smaller maintenance projects overseen by Superintendent David Gangel. That has left the job of finding new teachers and getting them under contract primarily up to assistant superintendent Mary Ann Biggs. She has had quite a challenge as former teachers asked to be released from their contracts eiven with less than one month to go. I The group of new teachers assembled last week is indeed impressive, and particularly welcome is the sight of some of the best of the county’s former teachers returning to the classroom. ’■ With new Standards of Learning, a new elementary school reading program and the new block schedule at the high school, 1996-97 promises to be an exciting year.