Special awards were presented at a recent Awards Night at Victory Christian School according to Principal Jim Petersen.

Sarah Stallings received a MVP trophy for her performance in the Victory Challenge Basketball Invitational Tournament. Summer McMahan was awarded a trophy for being selected to the NCCSA 1-A All-State Girls’ Basketball Team. Brayden McMahan received a trophy for being selected to the NCCSA 1-A All-State Boys’ Basketball Team at the same meeting.

Students earning an “A” average received a medal and certificate for their Academic Excellence.

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Honors student heads for medical school

Rivers Woodward graduated from UNC Chapel Hill on May 8 with honors in Biology and Theater. During his Chapel Hill years he was active in Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the coaching of Special Olympics and set up a clowning program at the UNC Pediatric Hospital. He traveled to Haiti, Nicaragua and Guatemala to perform service work, has appeared in several Chapel Hill theater productions, and has been president of the student Club Racquetball team. Rivers brought Patch Adams to Chapel Hill in April for a student/faculty workshop and several talks on human relationships.

Canyon Woodward, a recent graduate of Far Horizons Homeschool, will be studying at Harvard College in Cambridge, MA, starting this fall. Having participated in academics and extra-curricular activities at Franklin High, Southwestern Community College and Far Horizons, you might actually call Canyon more of a “hybrid student.”

At Franklin High, Canyon was active in the Interact Club, Mock Trial and Math Club, often taking the leadership role in these activities. He excelled in Tennis and Cross Country, being selected team captain in both sports.

In the greater community, Canyon organized Empty Bowls two years in a row, an event which raised funds to feed the hungry, both in Haiti and here in Macon County. 

Reacting to the finalized State budget now awaiting action by Governor Beverly Perdue, the Co-Chairs of the Quality School Coalition (QSC) charged legislators with “setting education at all levels back decades.” They further said, “We don’t have to go this deeply. Keeping all or part of the current one-cent sales tax would avoid most of the cuts to universities, community colleges and K-12 schools. This is a self-inflicted wound that doesn’t have to happen.”

Tom Bradshaw, former Chair of the State Chamber of Commerce, and Larry Price, former State Superintendent of the Year, Co-Chair the coalition which now speaks on behalf of over forty statewide and local organizations. Commenting on the budget for public schools, they said, “The final budget is the worst of both worlds. Only a week after saying they were going to reform education by cutting teacher assistants and lowering class size, the General Assembly has reversed itself and is keeping assistants while finding the money to add over 1,000 teaching jobs to school districts that don’t have 1,000 classrooms. Worse, they are passing along the job of finding over $428 million in budget cuts to local school officials who will have to lay off thousands of employees at the same time they are getting 1,000 new teachers. That’s not school reform. It’s a shell game.”