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Education
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School board member's hearing continued, DVO stays in place |
Dec 8, 2007 - District Judge Marion Warren has ordered a domestic violence order of protection filed against Brunswick County Board of Education member Ray Gilbert to continue. Gilbert was in court Friday, Dec. 7, concerning the ex parte domestic violence order of protection that was filed against him on Nov. 29.
Yvonne Hankins filed a complaint and motion for domestic violence protective order after she and Gilbert met in Little River, S.C., and discussed “several situations that occurred at church that day,” the motion said.
“We spoke about several situations that occurred with him at church that day. He then asked me if he goes down will I go down with him and was I afraid to die and would I die with him,” Hankins wrote.
Hankins confirmed outside the courtroom on Friday that she and Gilbert had been involved in a relationship. When she wanted to end things, Gilbert “got irate about it,” she said. By Kathy Jacewicz
Read Ray Gilbert's Hearing |
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Judge grants restraining order against board member Gilbert |
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Dec 5, 2007 - A member of the Brunswick County school board is facing allegations he committed domestic assault and made threats of violence.
Ray Gilbert, who has served on the board of education since 2002, was hit with a restraining order Thursday.
The complaint for temporary domestic violence protection was filed on November 28 by Yvonne Hankins, a former Brunswick County Schools employee who is “currently or (was at one time) in a dating relationship” with Gilbert, according to the document. Gilbert is married to Sheila Stanley Gilbert.
Based on accusations against Gilbert, the Brunswick County district court determined Thursday that he posed a danger to Hankins and granted the ex parte protection. Gilbert was ordered to stay away from both Hankins and her three children, who are all under the age of 15; Gilbert is not the father of the children.
As part of the protective order, Gilbert cannot go to the children’s daycare facilities or schools, including two of the district’s public schools: Virginia Williamson Elementary and South Brunswick High School.
The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department served Gilbert with the order Thursday, and confiscated all of his “firearms, ammunition and gun permits,” as mandated by the courts.
Hankins claims in her request for protection that as recently as November 25, Gilbert threatened to harm her. She contends he “committed acts of domestic violence” against her in the past. By Hilary Snow Read Board Member Gilbert
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School construction could raise tax rate by four cents |
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May 3, 2007 - Despite assurances of a “revenue-neutral” budget next fiscal year, Brunswick County may need to increase tax rates by about four cents soon to fund three needed schools, according to projections by the board of education.
Last month, county commissioners asked the board to decide the best route for funding an estimated $175-million worth of school construction and renovations planned within the next decade.
Although they focused their direction somewhat during a meeting Tuesday night, school board members left a fork in the road by approving two options for generating the cash needed to build an additional elementary, middle and high school.
Which of the two paths to take now, board members agreed during the meeting, is up to commissioners to decide. One option would generate more money for the schools at a lower interest rate, provided voters approve a bond in 2008. The second plan would provide less construction money but eliminate the need for a less predictable voter-approved bond.
Both concepts involve raising property taxes by about four cents per $100 of property valuation, assuming the county adopts new values announced in February. By Hilary Snow |
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States reject abstinence classes, funds |
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April 9, 2007 - In an emerging revolt against abstinence-only sex education, states are turning down millions of dollars in federal grants, unwilling to accept White House dictates that the money be used for classes focused almost exclusively on teaching chastity. In Ohio, Gov. Ted Strickland said that regardless of the state's sluggish economic picture, he simply did not see the point in taking part in the controversial State Abstinence Education Grant program any more. Five other states -- Wisconsin, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Montana and New Jersey -- either already have left the program, which is managed by a unit of the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services, or plan to drop out of it by the end of the year. To critics, the policy shift addresses growing concerns that sexually active youths are not getting access to medically accurate information about use of contraceptives and disease prevention. In an Oct. 3 report that surveyed abstinence programs in 10 states, the Government Accountability Office concluded that such programs have not been proven to work, and at times teach kids medically inaccurate information about condoms and AIDS. The report found that in one instance, materials used in the class "incorrectly suggested that HIV can pass through condoms because the latex used in condoms is porous." In another program, kids were wrongly taught that "when a person is infected with the human papilloma virus, the virus is 'present for life.' " By P J Huffstutter |
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April 4, 2007 - The Brunswick County Board of Education forecasts a student population of more than 14,000 in the next decade. Considering this, the board can already anticipate three new schools in the county’s near future. And school board members have calculated how much those facilities, along with improvements to some of the district’s 17 public schools, would cost.
But how to pay for the estimated $175 million in construction and renovations remains hazy. For that prediction, the school board turned to Brunswick County commissioners during a joint meeting Tuesday.
While they didn’t have all the answers, county commissioners advised that, when it comes to preparing for building needs over the next decade, the future is now. By Hilary Snow |
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