Town of Wentworth
TOWN OF WENTWORTH
TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
M I N U T E S
March 7, 2006
7:00 P.M.
The Wentworth Town Council held their regular monthly meeting in the National Guard Armory on Tuesday, March 7, 2006, at 7:00 p.m.
Council members present: Mayor Dennis Paschal, Mayor Pro Tem Evelyn Conner, Councilwoman Iris Powell, Councilman Robert Aswell, and Councilman Nathan Hendren
Others Present: Tom Terrell and Jordan Nance, Attorneys (Smith Moore, LLP) and
Yvonne Russell, Finance Officer / Deputy Clerk
A quorum was present.
Article I. Call to Order
Mayor Paschal called the meeting to order.
Article II. Invocation: Councilwoman Iris Powell gave the Invocation.
Article III. Discussion / Revision / and Adoption of Agenda
A. Requests and Petitions of Citizens
Mayor Paschal reviewed the Speaker Register and noted that Pat Wulfeck signed to speak regarding the National Day of Prayer.
The Mayor advised Mrs. Wulfeck that Council would hear her remarks at the end of the meeting, “When we get to the Public Comments section, if that’s alright.”
Mayor Paschal then made a motion, “That we add an item to the Agenda under New Business…Item G—Discussion and Possible Litigation of the Postal Service’s handling of our post office request.”
Councilman Nathan Hendren seconded the motion. There was no
discussion. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Article IV. Approval of Town Council Meeting Minutes for February 7, 2006
Mayor Paschal asked for any changes/corrections to the minutes. There
were none.
Councilman Robert Aswell made a motion, “The minutes stand approved as written.” Councilwoman Iris Powell seconded the motion. There was no discussion. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Town of Wentworth
Town Council Meeting Minutes
March 7, 2006
Page 2
Article V. Old Business
A. Approval of Resolution
1. Appearance Committee 2. Recreation Committee 3. Historic Preservation Committee
Mayor Paschal moved to Old Business and Approval of Resolution to Establish Recreation, Appearance, and Historic Preservation Committees, for Phase 1 Implementation of the Land Use Plan.
The Mayor said there was no need to read the Resolution, but referred Council to the last paragraph, which references an attached application form. Mayor Paschal said he would like for everyone to “…take the application home and look it over and think about what we want in there and what we don’t want.”
Councilwoman Powell asked, “Didn’t she (Town Clerk) give us this last month? I’ve already read it and in fact, I’ve got someone to serve on a committee.”
The mayor said he had also looked at the application but that he had a couple of questions. “I’ll just go ahead and throw them out if y’all want to take up approval tonight. My concern is the last question—‘What do you feel are your qualifications for serving on the board requested?’ ”
Mayor Paschal said, “I have a little bit of a problem with any citizen not being able to sign up (apply) for it because he may think, ‘Well, I’m not qualified to serve on this board because I can’t think of anything to put down here.’ ” He added, “We’ve got farmers out here and people who have high school educations…and a lot of times you need folks with common sense. Sometimes the smartest people in the world don’t have a lot of common sense…not saying that…picking out anybody, but it is true. So, I have a little bit of a problem with that one. To me, I would like to strike it from the application, but it’s up for discussion.”
Councilman Hendren asked, “Do we need to know the employer and job title?” Mayor Paschal replied, “I personally don’t (think it is needed).”
“Or even the date of birth,” said Councilman Hendren.
Town of Wentworth
Town Council Meeting Minutes
March 7, 2006
Page 3
The Town Clerk advised Council that part of the information on the bottom half of the back of the application is necessary. She said the Secretary of State sends out a form for completion by the Clerk, regarding appointments by Council to boards and committees. She said she would check to see what is actually required.
(NOTE: The State form asks for sex—male/female. The other information may be
omitted from the application if council so desires. See attached excerpt from NCGS 143- 157.1 and note reference to selecting “from among the most qualified persons…”)
Council discussed leaving off the work phone number, “…because some people you can’t call at work.” the Mayor said.
Councilwoman Powell said, “It does seem a little like a job application.”
The Town Clerk commented, “It really is a job—to serve on these committees. It will take someone who is committed and willing to work.”
Mayor Paschal commented, “And that’s why I thought you may want to take a little more time and look over it, but if you want to, we’ll go ahead and take it up with a motion.”
Councilman Aswell said, “I make a motion we table it until the next meeting, look over it, make what changes we want and bring it back to the next meeting.” Mayor Paschal seconded the motion. All voted in favor
and the motion carried.
Mayor Paschal directed Council to the resolution and asked if anyone had questions or comments. There were none.
Mayor Paschal made a motion, “That we pass the Resolution to Establish Recreation, Appearance, and Historic Preservation Committees.”
Councilman Hendren seconded the motion. There was no further discussion. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Article VI. New Business
A. Update from ReDirections – Progress of Peer Mediation Program
-Tony Gibbons, Executive Director
-Debbie DuRee, School Mediation
Mayor Paschal invited Mr. Tony Gibbons of ReDirections to present his report to Council.
Town of Wentworth
Town Council Meeting Minutes
March 7, 2006
Page 4
Mr. Gibbons introduced Debbie DuRee, School Mediation Coordinator, saying, “She is the staff person in place who is probably most involved with peer mediation in the county…handling logistics and setting up dates, training materials, etc. I wanted you to be able to put a face with some of the effort that’s being made out there, since you guys have been such a wonderful investor in this project. Debbie is one of those investments.
Mr. Gibbons passed out some information to council members— “These are the preliminary results we have on the training sessions that have taken place this year.” Mr. Gibbons commented, “There are two reasons why I am here. One is that, as you recall, we were awarded $12,000 at the beginning of the year and we are very grateful for that. We have received $6,000 and hope to receive the second installment
as well. But mainly, what I wanted to be here for is to tell you the great things that are happening in the Peer Mediation programs at the middle school and at the high school (Wentworth). We’ve had a really good year
with activities, trainings, etc.”
Mr. Gibbons referred to the information sheets he passed out, which he said reflect the outcome of their training thus far this year. He reviewed the statistics and noted, “This year was a fairly active year for both Rockingham Middle and High School, for two reasons—at the high school, we have continued with the conflict resolution curriculum that is being implemented in the ninth grade health classes. Every ninth grader has to take Health, and every ninth grader is going to receive 4-1/2 hours of conflict resolution information.”
Mr. Gibbons said the idea behind including it with the Health class is to try to reach as many students as possible with an introduction to the concept. He said they continued in the middle school, however, with 18 – 20 hours of training, “…where we pull out about 25 students…we put them through a series of role plays, video, discussion, lectures, give them
some workbook activities, to help them become proficient in applying the
concepts to their daily lives.”
Mr. Gibbons said his staff is doing something different this year— implementing a pre-test and post-test with both the middle school and the high school. He explained, “So far, about two-thirds of the ninth graders have received instruction with one more set of trainings—3 or 4 classes in that set—to be done in the next month or so.”
Town of Wentworth
Town Council Meeting Minutes
March 7, 2006
Page 5
As far as the test results, Mr. Gibbons said, “So far, we are seeing about a
seven-point increase in the average performance between the pre and post tests. This is a fairly significant increase in their knowledge base of conflict resolution. About ten percent of the folks are showing a twenty percent or greater increase in their knowledge from the pre-test and post- test on the scoring. Three out of four people taking the pre-test and post- test end up increasing their score, which we feel is very positive evidence of the impact of the teaching component of the curriculum.”
Mr. Gibbons advised Council that ReDirections has trained 13 individuals at the Middle School. He said, “Fifty-three percent (seven) of them showed a twenty percent increase in performance on the post test. The average score reflected about 19 points from the pre to the post- test, and the range between the lowest and highest scores reduced from 40 to 15 points.”
Mr. Gibbons, referring to the High School program said, “The High School is not doing a very formal peer mediation program where two students sit down with some peers who are in conflict because of a referral, etc. It is a much looser structure.”
He continued, “But, in the Middle School, it’s a whole different story.
They have really taken the path that we hoped they would take with this program—the model researched three or four years ago when you guys got on board with us on this—this is what we were hoping to have
happen. We started with just training a group of kids, got the school counselors on board, and we had maybe a half dozen peer mediation sessions that took place during the year. Slowly but surely that has gained momentum and this year, as of last month, they had done twenty-
five mediations at the Middle School. That is fantastic and indicative of what we are hoping to see happen with the peer mediation effort over there.”
Mr. Gibbons said that much of what is happening at the Middle School has to do with the two counselors, the principal, and the rest of the staff at
the school. He said, “They have taken that program and really made it work.”
Mr. Gibbons said he is happy to be able to give a good report to the Town Council, “…because you are investors in this program and we want you to understand that the long-term outcome is proof of its success.”
Town of Wentworth
Town Council Meeting Minutes
March 7, 2006
Page 6
Mr. Gibbons remarked, “The overall programs at both schools are going very well. We’re actually going to go back to the Middle School to do some booster training with them and with the thirteen we trained this year, to keep them fresh as well. Again, the staff there is doing a great job keeping the students involved in the program. The counselors are bringing in the students to involve them in the administration of the program as much as they are involved in facilitating the peer mediation sessions. We have students who will come in to help identify the referrals and get the process moving. So that actually reduces the time that is spent by the staff there on administering the program.”
“All in all,” Mr. Gibbons concluded, “your commitment to the two Rockingham County schools here in Wentworth has had a wonderful impact, in my opinion, in keeping Peer Mediation here. It has helped us meet our goals that we wanted to meet at the onset of this project. Your flexibility in allowing us to change directions with the high school, so that we could really cater the program to fit that situation has allowed it to be successful. I am just here to tell you that your investment has paid off in a number of ways.”
Mr. Gibbons asked if anyone had any questions regarding the report.
There were no questions for Mr. Gibbons, and Mayor Paschal explained that Council, when it approved the funding request, asked for a mid-year
report on the Peer Mediation program.
Mr. Gibbons added, “I wanted to share this with you…you guys were really the first big-ticket investors for this effort here in Rockingham County, and it has allowed us to lay ground work to gain funding from other sources so that we could take it to the other schools.
He explained, “We were really fortunate to have Annie Penn Trust Funds behind some of our efforts in Reidsville, and Eden and over in the west, but if we had not already had the foundation with you all, I don’t think it would have been as likely that we would have received that grant. So, without your investment, I don’t think the rest of the county would have benefited from these programs.”
Councilman Hendren replied, “We are trendsetters here in Wentworth.” “A very impressive group, said Mr. Gibbons.
Mayor Paschal thanked Mr.Gibbons for coming.
Town of Wentworth
Town Council Meeting Minutes
March 7, 2006
Page 7
Article VI. New Business – Continued
B. Consideration of Revised Contract for Town Attorney
Mayor Paschal asked Council if they had any questions regarding the revised contract. He noted that Tom Terrell and Jordan Nance from Smith Moore LLP in Greensboro, would be happy to answer their questions.