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FOR MAYOR
Andy Moore <	751
Marlon Lee	468
FOR COUNCIL
Roger Wood <	649
Steve Rabil <	619
John Dunn <	611
Doris Wallace	467
Stuart Lee	294
Felicia Baxter	237

Incumbents win the day
in Smithfield's election

The Johnston County Board of Elections reports that 1,236 persons voted in Smithfield's municipal election – well over half of them voting early or by absentee ballots. All told, that's less than 18% of the town's 7,000 or so registered voters.

They produced a ringing endorsement of the incumbent mayor and three Town Council members who had sought re-election.

Mayor Andy Moore will begin his fifth two-year term in office next month while councilmen John Dunn, Steve Rabil, and Roger Wood will begin their third four-year terms of service.

Although Marlon Lee came up short in a bid for the mayor's seat, he will continue serving on the Town Council, currently in the middle of his third four-year term.

Meanwhile, we're just a month away for the filing period for candidates seeking election next year to a large number of local and state offices in North Carolina. The filing period opens at noon Monday, Dec. 4 and ends at noon Friday, Dec. 15. Primary Election Day is March 5. General Election Day is next November 5.
 

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School board unveils 3 proposed electoral maps

Public has midnight Sunday deadline to offer feedback

The Johnston County Board of Education at its monthly meeting Tuesday chose three maps to present to the public for electing members of the board by residential districts, starting with next year's elections. Those maps were immediately posted on the schools' website and a deadline of midnight this Sunday was set for the public to offer its preferences.

The board plans to meet at 11 a.m. next Wednesday to adopt which map to use.

The board is working to meet a November 17 deadline set by the N.C. General Assembly for adopting district representation with a map of its choosing. If that's not done, the districts now in place for electing Johnston's county commissioners would be used for next year's school-board elections as well.

The board wants its districts drawn with respect to the location of Johnston's high schools, which now number eight and soon will grow to nine. Toward that end, the proposed maps keep the county's larger high schools in separate districts, with the smaller North Johnston and Princeton high schools sharing districts with others.

Another consideration in mapping the districts is to avoid so-called "double bunking" of incumbent school board members by keeping them in separate districts.

Although the impetus behind the change to residency districts is to make sure board members come from different sections of Johnston, voters countywide will continue to elect them all – four next year, the other three in 2026 to maintain the current set-up of staggered four-year terms. The positions will remain non-partisan.

VIEW the proposed maps and fill out a form for submitting your reactions>

At last, there's an adopted budget for Johnston's schools

The school board gave unanimous approval to the final draft of the system's 2023-24 budget – a task that couldn't be completed before now because the N.C. General Assembly didn't adopt the state budget – the basis for local public-school operations – until mid-October, three and a half months after the start of the current fiscal year July 1.

Stephen Britt, the schools' chief of financial services, pointed out that the locally funded budget for operating Johnston's schools totals $110,806,480 – $88,797,179 covered by county appropriations, the remaining $22,009,301 to come from the schools' current Fund Balance of about $25 million.

But he added that it's likely just $12 million of that $22 million will actually be spent, primarily because of unfilled staff vacancies, which currently number about 300.

Mr. Britt said the budget anticipates about $7.8 million for a "state funding reversion" because the N.C. Department of Public Instruction overestimated this year's enrollment in Johnston's traditional public schools – the basis for funding allocations from the state. He surmised that the reason is DPI's uncertainty about how many students will attend local charter schools (see story below for the latest numbers).

2023-24 schools' budget summary including state and federal funding>
 

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Enrollment in all of Johnston's schools tops 40,000
Yet the yearly increase is a relatively modest 281 students

Enrollment is up in the county's public-school system and Johnston's three independent charter schools, yet the overall increase is modest in light of Johnston's recent population boom – up 281 students when comparing the total from this year's first month of classes to the number reported after the first month a year ago.

Johnston County Public Schools report a gain of 112 students year to year; American Leadership Academy Johnston a gain of 79 after adding grades 11 and 12 (the charter school opened a year ago with grades K-10), Neuse Charter School a gain of 6 students (in grades K-12), and Johnston Charter Academy at Clayton a gain of 84 students (in grades K-8; no high school there).

Comparing last year's first-month report with the end-of-year report shows that all three charter schools lost students during the 2022-23 academic year – a total of 138 altogether. At the same, Johnston's traditional public schools registered an enrollment gain of 298 students from start to finish.

Here are the numbers compiled by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction:

ENROLLMENTS REPORTED TO N.C. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION	1st month 2023-24	1st month 2022-23	Final report 2022-23
Johnston County Public Schools	36,522	36,410	36,708
ALA Johnston	1,838	1,759	1,637
Neuse Charter School	915	909	883
Johnston Charter Academy	756	672	682
TOTALS	40,031	39,750	39,910

 

School board gets updated enrollment numbers

Enrollment at Johnston County's public schools climbed to 36,882 by the end of October, the county's Board of Education learned at Tuesday's monthly meeting. That's a gain of 360 students above the first-month total reported to the state.

Stephen Britt, the school system's chief of finance, mentioned the second-month count as he presented the final 2023-24 budget for Johnston's schools. He also noted that the county's three charter schools are showing a total of 3,993 students at the end of the second month – a gain of 484. That brings total enrollment in all of Johnston's schools to 40,875 – a gain of 844 from the first month's total.

Neuse Charter gets 10-year extension from the state

Neuse Charter School's Superintendent Melissa Blackwell reported to the Johnston County Board of Commissioners Monday morning that the school, now in its 17th year, has met "all the requirements" for a 10-year extension of its charter – the longest period allowed by state law.

"We are a non-profit organization... born and bred in Johnston County," she told commissioners. "Every penny we get goes back into our school, our classrooms, and our teachers' pockets," she noted, adding that Neuse Charter gets no state or county funding for capital improvements or teacher supplements. "We are the only charter school in the county who can say that," she said.

(Johnston's other two charter schools are operated by private enterprise: ALA Johnston by American Leadership Academies based in Arizona, Johnston Charter by National Heritage Academies based in Michigan.)

Dr. Blackwell also told commissioners that Neuse Charter in 2022-23 achieved its best year of academic growth in seven years, with its 57 high-school graduates last spring earning more than $2 million in scholarships to continue their studies.

Accompanying the school's superintendent to Monday's meeting (pictured in JoCo YouTube screenshot) were two seniors who began attending Neuse Charter in kindergarten. Both Whitley Kate Moore (left) and Clare Harris (right) were members of the school's volleyball team that won the Carolinas 1-A Conference tournament and advanced to the third round of this year's state 1-A playoffs.
 

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WHAT'S COMING UP

Veterans Day observance at SSS High School on Friday

With Veterans Day coming up on Saturday this year, this Friday the 10th will be the official holiday when government offices and public schools will be closed. As a result, the 17th annual Veterans Day observance at Smithfield-Selma High School will be held at 11 a.m. Friday. Following the ceremony, all Johnston County veterans are invited to the school's cafeteria for a Thanksgiving-style meal from noon till 2 p.m. Friday's event is open to the public without admission charge and will be live-streamed on YouTube by Johnston County Public Schools>

NLT's "Sisterhood Christmas Spectacular" opens Friday

The Neuse Little Theatre's production of "The Charitable Sisterhood Christmas Spectacular," a comedy, will be presented at 8 p.m. this Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, and again at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, November 17-18 at The Hut on Front Street above the river. Ticket information is posted on the NLT's website>

Downtown's "Holiday Bazaar," a new event, this Saturday

The Twisted Willow, an antiques and home-decor shop on Downtown Smithfield's South Third Street, has organized a "Holiday Bazaar" to be staged along that block from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. Saturday, featuring "local artisan vendors with wonderful gifts and treats," a variety of food and drink offerings, petting zoo and pony rides, performances by local musicians, and an appearance by the Grinch. Admission will be free of charge.

Town Council to consider police-pay incentives Tuesday

The Smithfield Town Council, at its regular monthly meeting at 7 p.m. next Tuesday at Town Hall, will be asked to approve a hiring incentive of $5,000 and a retention incentive of $7,500 to help fill the Police Department's 13 vacancies. The council will also be asked to add three firefighter positions with additional funding coming from the County of Johnston under a new financial matrix for assisting local fire departments. VIEW the complete agenda for Tuesday's Town Council meeting>
 

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Johnston County Arts
Cooperative Studio
cordially invites you to our annual
Christmas Open House
Tuesday, Nov. 28 – 4 until 6:30 pm
619 South Third Street, Smithfield

Featured artists:  Kathy Booth   Jo Lee   Dee Lee
Linda Ridout    Michelle Fields Laughinghouse

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DEATHS & FUNERALS

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A WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE EDITOR

An election quirk – and some eye-opening stats

I didn't realize till it was brought to my attention at Smithfield's central polling place on Tuesday that the new East River subdivision on Buffalo Road is within one of Selma's voting precincts although it's part of the Town of Smithfield.

As a result, East River residents who chose to vote in Smithfield's election on Tuesday had to ride over to Selma to cast their ballots. Only five of them did that.

I asked Leigh Anne Price, the county's supervisor of elections, if that could be changed, and she said it would require action at the state level to alter the voting boundaries to put East River in a Smithfield precinct.

Hopefully, that could be done by the next municipal election in 2025. By then, it's likely more than just a handful of East River residents will want to participate in choosing who represents them on matters of Town Government.

Looking further into the numbers regarding voters and demographics, the Board of Elections reports that 40,443 of Johnston County's 153,218 registered voters (as of September 5) were signed up to participate in this year's municipal elections in our 11 incorporated towns.

And more than 37% of those in-town registrations – an astounding 15,179 – reside within the corporate limits of Clayton. Voter registration in Smithfield, the county's second largest town, totals 6,913 (without the East River residents included). At the other end of the spectrum are Princeton's 923 registered voters and Micro's 263.

In case you're wondering, the latest official U.S. Census estimate (from July 2022) puts Johnston County's total population at 234,778.

Holt Lake amplifies its colors of autumn

It's still too early to write off this season's fall colors as less than spectacular since a number of our trees are just now starting to change. But just in case, here's a view of Holt Lake's colorful cypress trees at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the last day of this year's Daylight Saving Time.
 

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