This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

They’re everywhere this fall – but they’re relative newcomers.

Thumbnail-sized brown or gray bugs crawling into homes, cars and businesses around Caldwell County are brown marmorated stink bugs – not the green stink bugs native to North Carolina.

Native to Korea, brown marmorated stink bugs first crawled their way into North Carolina in 2009, after entering the United States in 2001. These insects start making their way into warm structures – like your house – in September and October, seeking winter shelter. They can’t harm people, but they do, true to their name, secrete a chemical that doesn’t smell particularly pleasant if you squish them. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

After a year as assistant principal at South Caldwell High, Michael Wyant is taking the reins as principal at Gamewell Middle School.

Wyant, who describes himself as a student-centered principal with high expectations on both behavior and academics, said parents won’t see many changes when school starts next week.

“There won’t be anything new right away,” he said in an interview Monday. “I’m not one that comes in and changes things just to be changing them. I want to make sure I know what’s going on before we start making changes.” Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

When he was cast in “The Sound of Music” at 20 years old, Dan Truhitte didn’t know how huge the film would one day be – but he knew he was surrounded by talent.

“I don’t think I knew that it would have the longevity that it has had,” said Truhitte, who played Rolfe Gruber in the 1965 film. “But we knew we had something great, because of who we had.”

It’s been a long time since Truhitte, now 70, played Rolfe, the Austrian telegraph delivery boy who performs “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” – and later turns the Von Trapp family over to the Nazis. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

Brian Oliver isn’t new to the Caldwell County Schools, but he has been away for a while.

Oliver was principal at Hibriten High School from August 2010 to July 2012, when he was called into active duty in the Marine Corps Reserves.

Now he’s back as the principal at Oak Hill School, the fifth school where he has served as principal – the second K-8 school and the third elementary school. He replaces Dr. Phyllis Blair, who was Oak Hill’s principal for 10 years and will now serve as the district’s director of grants and the academically or intellectually gifted program. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

Everything that happened onstage at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center Thursday night was about strength.

As the night came to a close, Kay Roukema – chair of the Caldwell County Council for Women – stood and made the announcement that was the purpose of the night: the recipient of the 2013 Caldwell County Distinguished Woman of the Year award.

She introduced the winner, Deborah Ashley, who is the president of the Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce and thought thought when the night started that she was on her way to dinner with her husband in Hickory. Ashley was born in Happy Valley, graduated from Hibriten High School and Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, and, after a stint in Thomasville, came back home. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

Lowell Rogers spent Tuesday logging miles at Sawmills Elementary, stopping in and meeting with teachers on their first day back, walking halls that, before the start of classes, have been painted and bulletin-boarded but not yet covered with crayon student art.

“I love walking the hallways,” Rogers said in an interview. “I love being out and about and meeting everyone.”

Rogers will serve this year as principal of Sawmills Elementary, replacing Robin DiBernardi, who retired this spring after seven  years at the school.

Rogers, who was principal at Lower Creek Elementary for five years and at Davenport A+ School for a year, spent the first two weeks of his appointment in individual meetings with SES teachers, staff members and PTA officers. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

The shape of election law is changing across North Carolina, but the changes that made headlines don’t take effect this year.

A sweeping bill signed by Gov. Pat McCrory on Aug. 12 shortens the early-voting period by about a week starting in 2014 and will require photo identification starting in 2016.

Some local boards of elections, shifting to Republican control because their makeup is partially based on the sitting governor’s political party, have also instituted changes of their own, primarily affecting college students. Watauga County, for instance, eliminated on-campus voting. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

Ryan Brantolino was 8 years old and had a friend who needed help.

A friend in her fourth-grade class, along with his mother, had just fled from abuse at home. They were staying at a local women’s shelter and had nothing but the clothes on their backs. No change of clothes. No toys.

“I’m thinking to myself, well, I have all this stuff and I don’t even use it,” said Brantolino, now a 15-year-old rising junior at Hibriten High School. “I was like, well, what can we do to help?” Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

In Sandy Crump’s kindergarten classroom on Monday, nine children were asked, on their first day of public education, to think about their last day.

The students lined up one by one to have their photo taken, each in the same red T-shirt. Stickers on the front of the shirt spelled out “Class of 2026.” Photos of all Crump’s 5- and 6-year-old students wearing it will form the center of a graduation-themed bulletin board in the hall.

“We’re really pushing, countywide, to talk about graduation from day one,” said Crump, a 13-year kindergarten teacher, as she rearranged the shirt over a pair of tiny shoulders. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

Chris Greene has 680 children, not one, at Granite Falls Elementary School.

Greene, a former assistant principal at South Caldwell High and principal at Gamewell Middle, was appointed this year as principal at Granite Falls Elementary School. One of his children is in first grade at Granite Falls, and the other will start kindergarten there next year, but Greene said he wants parents to know he views every child at Granite Falls as part of one family.

“I want them to know that when their children come in here in the mornings, that the 680 students who attend here are all my children during the day, that I take that job very seriously and that I will do everything in my power to protect them and to help my teachers give them the best education possible,” Greene said in an interview Wednesday. Continue reading →