NHCS

New Hanover County Schools is looking to revamp their district-wide Title IX survey. Proposed questions would include topics on discrimination, bullying, and school climate. And maybe one on sexual harassment.

There are close to forty-four hundred preschool students in licensed programs in New Hanover County, but that represents just 37% of pre-K aged children. The county has been asked to consider universal pre-K, but there are barriers to expanding.

  The New Hanover County School Board has approved reopening pre-k-5 schools for full in-personing learning on January 19th, pushing back an earlier opening date by a week. It’s been a difficult decision for members, especially the newest ones who had to make up their minds quickly. 

Four new members of the New Hanover County School Board were sworn in at last night’s meeting. After the induction ceremony, the board fell into a contentious discussion about reopening elementary schools. Incoming board members noted that they would have preferred to have had more time to consider the plan before it was put to a vote.

The New Hanover County School System has struggled to provide an equal education to all students. That’s according to a recent New Hanover County/City of Wilmington’s Community Relations Advisory report. But whether or not redistricting is the answer remains an open question.

The New Hanover County School district admits in a federally-mandated report that it failed to provide a prompt and fully equitable handling of a student’s sexual assault complaint, contradicting years of assertions to the contrary from former top administrators.

The district claims it was unable to ascertain if those failures had caused lasting impacts on the student involved. In an addendum to the report, the district responded to a related complaint by denying that former administrators had retaliated against the parents of the student.

Editor's note: The report and addendum can be found at the end of this article. Both have been redacted by NHCS to comply with federal privacy laws.

  At November 10th's New Hanover County School Board meeting, members discussed rising Covid-19 cases, school operation plans, and the first quarter’s student failure rates.

  Among the six candidates for New Hanover County School Board Stephanie Walker, Hugh McManus, and Stephanie Kraybill have all won seats. WHQR reports this flips the Board to Democratic control.

New Hanover County Schools opened for in-person classes last week. WHQR checked-in with some school personnel to see how things went.   

  New Hanover County Schools are opening for in-person classes on Monday. But as WHQR reports, parents and teachers still have questions.

Last night, New Hanover County Schools held the first of three town hall meetings focused on reopening plans.

The New Hanover County Board of Education has three open seats in this election, with incumbents Lisa Estep, David Wortman, and Jeannette Nichols all choosing not to run for re-election. 

There are three Democrat and three Republican candidates running for office, and if elected, they will serve a four-year term. 

At Tuesday evening’s Board of Education meeting, members voted to begin the second nine-week period with Plan B. As WHQR reports, this means students will rotate in three groups, with one week in-school instruction followed by two weeks online.       

Dr. Charles Foust was sworn in as New Hanover County Superintendent of Schools at the Board of Education's September 1st meeting. He spoke with WHQR about the challenges and opportunities he sees as he begins his new job. 

At its Tuesday evening meeting, the New Hanover County Board of Education continued its debate about renaming Parsley Elementary School.   

Walter L. Parsley was a white supremacist and co-conspirator in the 1898 Wilmington coup d'etat.  His grandson, also named Walter L. Parsley, inherited the family property in the Masonboro Sound area, and in 1999, sold a little more than 17 acres to New Hanover County Schools. Walter L. Parsley Elementary opened in 2001. Simple enough. But after that it gets complicated. 

It’s official -- New Hanover County Schools will be “online-only” when they reopen next month. WHQR has the details.