Board of Education has emergency call meeting

Morganton, NC – Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024

During an emergency called meeting at noon today, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, via phone, the Burke County Board
of Education heard a district-wide update from Superintendent Dr. Mike Swan following the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Status of buildings
Our campus buildings sustained minor damages, mostly leaking roofs, during the storm. Some have trees down, but maintenance is working to clear the debris. At the time of the meeting, schools without power, water or internet were:

Elementary
● Forest Hill
● WA Young
● Drexel
● Hillcrest
● Mull
● Oak Hill
● Salem
● Valdese

Middle
● Table Rock
● Heritage
● Walter Johnson

High
● Patton

Power has since been restored to Mull, Valdese, Heritage and Walter Johnson.

Calendar update
● Sept. 26 and 27 were counted as Remote Days (the state allows 5 in an academic calendar year)
● Sept. 30 - Oct. 2 are counted a No School Days
● Oct. 3-4 will be counted as Optional Work Days
● During Monday night’s regular meeting the board will consider moving the scheduled Oct. 21, work day to a regular academic day
● All athletic practices are on hold and games will be rescheduled.

Child Nutrition
● The Child Nutrition Department is expecting a food shipment on Thursday, Oct. 3, and will store food for the 12 schools without power at the schools that have power
● All schools had to purge food due to prolonged power outages

Daycare and PreK
● YMCA is considering using one of our schools as a daycare site for essential worker
● Due to damage caused at several private preK programs, Burke County will open up space for community daycares to operate 4-year-old classrooms for approximately 60 4-year-olds to attend their preschool programs.

Donations
● All donations are being directed to the Foothills Higher Education Center, 2128 South Sterling Street,
Morganton
● Our Nursing Department is able to donate hygiene supplies left over from COVID to the Foothills Higher Ed Center
● Other school district have reached out asking how they can help and we are directing them toward the High Ed Center
● We were able to donate 1,000 gallons of fuel to the county to help emergency personnel vehicles

Moving forward toward reopening
● Director of Auxiliary Services Dr. Bob Acord is in touch with the NC Department of Transportation on road accessibility for buses, student drivers and staff
● The unknown factors being considered to reopen schools include the boil water orders
● We would like to have at least 85% of school with restored power before we consider reopening

Well-being of students and employees
● We understand that some employees, as well as students’ families evacuated the area and state and will need notice to be back in town
● We will have mental health services available to students and staff to help process the traumas of this event
● We are collecting information from student’s families and staff about their needs and losses

We have posted a resources page on our website at www.burke.k12.nc.us