District One Welcomes AmeriCorps VISTA Member

Campobello, S.C. — District One is pleased to announce its newest AmeriCorps VISTA member, Samantha Sloan, who will serve as the Coordinator of Health Fitness and Wellness for the 2016-2017 school year.

In this role, Sloan will work collaboratively with all District One schools to facilitate and promote overall good health habits and wellness, as well as assist in the implementation of health initiative grants awarded by the Boeing Children’s Wellness Center.

“I applaud the efforts of District One and fully support their cause to strive for wellness, because school health is ultimately where the process begins. Children spend so much of their time and receive many of their life-shaping experiences in their school years. I believe a healthy lifestyle should be part of that experience,” says Sloan.

Sloan is a graduate of Adrian College in Southeast Michigan and received her Masters in Public Health from West Virginia University in May of 2016. As a VISTA member, Sloan has made a year-long, full-time commitment to serve at a nonprofit organization or public agency for a modest living allowance and limited health benefit options. Sloan says that AmeriCorps encourages their members to live on the this stipend in order to fully appreciate a lifestyle led on a near-poverty level income and have the ability to offer first-hand advice to the community members in which they serve. VISTA members focus their efforts on building the organizational, administrative, and financial capacity of organizations that fight illiteracy, improve health services, foster economic development, and otherwise assist low-income communities.

— Submitted By:

 

Sandra Williams, Director of Public Information

Spartanburg School District One

864-472-2846 ext.5244

P.O. Box 218

Campobello, SC 29322

Respecting the Stars and Stripes: American Flag Etiquette

Here’s a great article we found from the American Legion Auxiliary’s webpage about how to handle your American Flag this Summer!

https://www.alaforveterans.org/Respecting-the-Stars-and-Stripes–American-Flag-Etiquette/

Among some of the guidance you’ll find in the above link, there’s this great information you may not have known about flag care!

Hoisting and Lowering of the Flag:

• The flag should be hoisted briskly and lowered ceremoniously.
• The flag of the United States of America is saluted, or acknowledged by placing a hand over your heart, as it is hoisted and lowered.
• When lowered, the flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water or merchandise.

Manner of Displaying the Flag:

• The Flag Code states it is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open.
• When a patriotic effect is desired, the flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness.
• The flag should not be displayed on days when the weather is inclement, except when an all-weather flag is displayed.
• The flag should be displayed vertically, whether indoors or out, and suspended so that its folds fall free as though the flag were staffed.
• When displayed in a window of a home or a place of business, the flag should be displayed in the same way; that is, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the street.

 

Storing and Disposing of the Flag:

• The Flag Code does not require any specific method of storage, however, over time it has become tradition to fold the flag into a triangular shape like that of a three-corner hat, with only the blue union showing.
• When a flag is so worn it is no longer fit to serve as a symbol of our country, it should be destroyed by burning in a dignified manner. 
• Flag etiquette was established to honor and pay tribute to our nation and its history. As such, certain uses of the American flag are considered disrespectful. The flag should never be:
• Displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
• Used as a drapery or for any other decoration.
• Carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
• Used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
• The flag should never be used as apparel, bedding or drapery.
• Festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.

Visit the ALA Facebook Page here:  https://www.facebook.com/alaforveterans

Arts Initiatives Expanding In District One

Campobello, S.C. — Three elementary schools in Spartanburg School District One will be expanding their arts initiatives throughout the next year as recipients of the Distinguished Arts Program grant funded by the South Carolina Department of Education.

District One was recently informed by State Superintendent of Education, Molly Spearman and the SCDE that New Prospect Elementary School, Inman Intermediate School and Holly-Springs Motlow have been awarded Distinguished Arts Program grants. The arts teachers at these sites put significant time and energy into supporting quality arts education programs that significantly improve student achievement, as well as student growth in the arts.  Each school will receive $12, 600, for a district total of $37,800.

In addition to their school allocations, $5,400 has been allocated to each school for professional development opportunities at the SCDE Summer Arts Institute being held throughout the summer months.

Funding from these grants will enable the receiving schools to write a comprehensive strategic arts plan that includes dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. Each school will use this additional funding in unique ways including bringing in Artists in Residence, creating performance venues, and supplying additional arts materials and supplies. Through these grants, students will have expanded opportunities within the arts discipline that they would not ordinarily receive in the standard Arts curriculum.

Cindy Riddle, Coordinator of Visual and Performing Arts for District One explains, “The Distinguished Arts Program awards will assist HSM, IIS, and NPE in further developing and implementing innovative arts initiatives at each school site. One goal of our student-centered arts programming in District One is to continuously support an exemplary, sequential arts education to meet the individual needs of our students.”

The purpose of developing a strategic arts plan is to significantly improve student achievement in the visual and performing arts based on the implementation of the 2010 South Carolina Academic Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts (SCASVPA).

Seawright Funeral Home: Celebrating Special Loved ones since 1925

Article and Photos by Wendy McCarty

When embracing your own mortality, it is natural to react with fear and a wave of uncomfortable emotions.  As humans, we each understand the fact that one day, we will no longer be alive.  There is, however, no certainty as to when our lives will come to an end.  There are a select few individuals in our society who are equipped to be surrounded by death on a regular basis.  They are our morticians and funeral home operators.  These fellow humans help us to process, accept and grieve the losses of those around us.

I recently spoke with the staff at Seawright Funeral Home & Crematory, located at 26 East Main Street in Inman, South Carolina.  Founded in 1925, “Seawright’s”, as it is locally known, first began as a furniture store and funeral home.  Furniture was sold downstairs and caskets were sold upstairs.  In 1929, Seawright’s moved into their current building, which was once a residence built in the late 1800’s.