EDEN -- The Rockingham County school board voted Monday night to rename the Morehead High School auditorium after former choral teacher Duane Best.
The vote came after dozens of people filled the meeting to regale the board with outpourings of support for renaming the auditorium after Best, Morehead's choral director from 1960 to 1998.
Celeste DePriest and Wayne Kirkman, the two board members who represent Eden, voted against the measure. At past meetings, the two said there isn't wide support in the community for the proposal.
"People are saying 'It's been Morehead auditorium for more than 40 years and we'd like to keep it that way,'" Kirkman said.
By press time, the board had not voted on any of the other issues on its agenda.
Former students of Best led the push to rename Morehead Auditorium after the retired teacher.
"I consider him a very dear friend," said D.B. Dalton, a former Morehead student. "He could convince students they had the ability to do more than they dreamed possible."
The audience was filled with supporters of the proposal, who stopped on several occasions for standing ovations.
Pete Cunningham, who spoke for renaming, brought a letter from the descendants of the Morehead family that expressed their support for renaming the building.
Monday night, only one man spoke against renaming the building. "That building was dedicated to the Morehead family," said Richard Watkins, who graduated from Morehead around the time when the auditorium was built.
In other business, the board was expected to approve a plan to curb the county's high school drop out rate. Of the 1,183 students who entered county high schools in 1998, 716 graduated within four years.
The plan would create a home school counselor in each elementary school and expand mentoring programs at elementary schools by training volunteers to work with potentially at-risk students. It would also add a second set of school buses for middle schools that would arrive about 90 minutes after school gets out to allow students to stay for extracurricular activities.
The cost of the first year is estimated at $294,000, but school officials expect all but $26,000 to come from state and federal grants.
The board was also expected to approve changes in school testing.
The proposal calls for teachers districtwide to follow a teaching guide that would outline what learning objectives should be taught, when and for how long.
Every six weeks, students would be tested on the material to make sure they were grasping key concepts.
The board planned to take a position on a proposed redistricting of school board elections. Though no specific proposal is on the table, there has been a grass-roots push to allow some members of the board to be elected at large.
The county commissioners invited two school board members to meet with commissioners Keith Duncan and David Isley to discuss possible changes.
School board members are now elected in eight separate districts. Wayne Barham, the Bethany man who is spearheading the movement, has suggested four districts and three at-large seats, though a formal proposal has not been presented.
Any proposal must be passed by the General Assembly. Additionally, the U.S. Justice Department must approve any changes to the school board, because of concerns about minority representation related to the Voting Rights Act.
Finally, there was another renaming proposal, to name the Morehead High School concession stand after Mark Evans. Evans had been a pitcher on the team from 1997 until 2000. He died from a blood infection in January 2001 at the age of 20. No decision had been made by press time.
"He was a great person, he was a leader," said Jim Hamrick, Evans' former baseball coach. "He was loved and respected by his peers and his coaches."
More details about the meeting will appear in the News & Record on Wednesday.
Contact Scott Michels at 627-4881, Ext. 137, or at smichels@news-record.com
