By Carl O. Smith Jr.

Special to the Telegram

Rick McMahon, superintendent of Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools, was the featured speaker at the regular luncheon meeting of the Rocky Mount Rotary Club held at the Gateway Convention Center on April 28. Club President George Ramey presided. Rotarian and Rocky Mount Assistant City Manager Charles Penny provided the introduction.

McMahon, who is completing his 32nd month as superintendent, played basketball at East Carolina University and began his career as an educator with his first teaching assignment in Spring Hope in 1974.

He talked about the sales tax increase proposal on the ballot for May 6. He said that in light of the need to replace Rocky Mount High School that the Nash Central High School facility built for $27 million would cost upwards of $50 million to build today, so funding school construction now not only deals with overcrowding but also is a good way to manage limited resources.

In additional to the new high school, other major projects proposed include a new elementary school to help with the burdens that Nashville Elementary is serving.

Many new school rooms are planned for Middlesex, an area experiencing new growth given ease of access to the Raleigh area.

Saying that the essential equation in education is that good students equal good teachers, he went on to talk a bit about auxiliary services. Each day, the system serves more than 19.000 meals. Over the system's 590 square miles of coverage, each day, Nash-Rocky Mount school buses travel more than 13,000 miles. Although the state provides some additional assistance, increased fuel costs are hitting the system hard.

McMahon said that one way the system is fighting back is the installation of GPS devices in the buses. Among other useful information, the GPS system can track so called "idle engine time." To save fuel, bus engines aren't left to idle for more than five minutes.

McMahon referenced some partnerships with key area organizations. Nash Community College offers the Early College Program wherein high school students who attend classes while still in high school from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day over a five-year period receive either an associate degree or two years worth of college credits. Project Hope at the Opportunities Industrialization Center enables suspended students to "save the day" by doing their school work at OIC.