School forums rescheduled
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on February 19, 2004 2:01 PM
The Community Forum for a Mount Olive high school has been rescheduled to Thursday, March 4.
It will still be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Mount Olive Historic Assembly Hall, which once served as the old Mount Olive High School auditorium. The event is sponsored by the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce and the Mount Olive High School Steering Committee.
The forum has had to be postponed twice because of poor weather. Originally scheduled for Jan. 27, organizers postponed it again Feb. 17 when icy conditions threatened the area and schools were dismissed early.
"We are going to keep at this until the community has a chance to meet," said Lynn Williams, a member of the Mount Olive High School Steering Committee. "We know that some folks turned out Tuesday night, not realizing that we had postponed the meeting.
"We appreciate everyone's efforts and everyone's patience. The weather just hasn't been cooperative."
The new meeting date means that the Mount Olive and Grantham communities will have their forums on separate nights, and organizers can attend each other's events. The Grantham community, which is also working to have their community high school returned, had scheduled its forum for Feb. 17 as well. A date has not yet been announced for the Grantham meeting.
"We want to work together and support each other," Mrs. Williams said. "We share common goals."
The format for the March 4 meeting remains the same: It will be moderated by Mount Olive Commissioner Paul Smalley. Members of the Mount Olive High School Steering Committee, as well as several Wayne County Board of Education members, will speak. Then the audience can ask questions.
"We will also distribute a survey that evening for folks to fill out. The idea is to get a sense of the community's preferences as we move forward," Mrs. Williams said. "We believe the Board of Education will certainly look to the community for some guidance as to what to include in the long-range facilities plan for Mount Olive, and the steering committee wants to be sure folks here have an opportunity to be heard, even if they don't stand up and speak at the forum."