School & District News

 

Spelling isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for some LCPS students, it comes naturally. On the evening of February 4th, the winners of each school’s spelling bee came together at Northwest Elementary to see who would be crowned as this year’s district spelling bee champion.

Director of Elementary Education, Stacy Cauley, kicked off the event, welcoming families and recognizing each student one by one for winning their school’s spelling bee. LCPS Superintendent, Brent Williams, spoke on the importance of highlighting the success of our students, as well as celebrating the parents and teachers who are helping their students succeed. He also had a message for the students about who were about to compete: take a deep breath, relax and have fun.

One by one, Assistant Superintendent Nick Harvey called students up to spell a word. Judged by E.B. Frink Principal Dr. Michael Moon, Beginning Teacher Coordinator Lynn Morris, and Beginning Teacher Specialist Jennifer Sutton, all of the students passed through the first round with flying colors. After seven rounds of spelling words like ‘tsunami’, ‘onyx’ and ‘gargoyles’, two students were left. Jaxson James from Banks Elementary, and Horatio Nute from Contentnea-Savannah K-8 were going to face off in the final round.

In the final round, the rules changed. If a word is spelled incorrectly, the other student will have the opportunity to correctly spell the same word. If that student is correct, then they get a new word. If they also spell that word correctly, they win the spelling bee. James incorrectly spelled ‘barista’, and after Nute successfully spelled it, he went on to win the competition with the word ‘algebraic.’

Horatio Nute will now go on to represent LCPS at the Carolina Panthers Regional Spelling Bee at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on March 9th.

 

To make up missed instructional time due to January's inclement weather, LCPS has made an update to the school calendar.

February 14th, which was originally a workday, will be a regular school day with students on campus.

March 13th, which was originally an early dismissal, has been changed to a full day of student instruction.

On a warm January day, students from every grade level across Lenoir County Public Schools gathered together at the Kinston High School performing arts center to showcase their science fair projects. These students won the science fair at their individual school, and this was a chance to highlight their success and demonstrate ingenuity among LCPS students.

"Lenoir County Public Schools, we firmly believe that any opportunity we have to showcase our students and their learning is an opportunity that we want to take advantage of," said the director of middle school education, Christel Carlyle. "Part of what makes this event, the celebration of science fair, exciting, is that students have worked so hard to participate and to inquire about different scientific elements and concepts."

Students studied a wide range of topics, from which fruit contains the most citric acid and how to prevent flooding, to the best moisturizer products and electromagnetism.

"My question was, how does the amount of copper affect the magnetic pull of an electromagnet? The more electricity that flows through a conductor, it combines with ions and it turns into an electromagnet," 5th grade student, Dylan Jones, explained in his presentation.

During the day, students got to work with facilitators from the district to improve their science projects and presentations. Once the sun set, families gathered to celebrate their students' work.

"We have student scientists who are working with scientific exploration every single day, and we firmly believe that they are our future," Carlyle said. "They will solve the world's problems, and all of those skills and all of all of that, experimentation that they're doing. As a student is what's going to make the world a better place tomorrow for future generations. So it's very important what they're doing."

Watch the video here: https://fb.watch/xs-mtcC7Ij/

Due to the forecasted inclement weather, Lenoir County Public Schools will be closing at noon for all students and staff on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. LCPS will also be closed for all students and staff members on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.

These decisions were made in response to recommendations from Lenoir County Emergency Management and from the National Weather Service based on the arrival of a winter storm producing snow and ice. The recommendation to dismiss early on Tuesday stems from a desire to get students and staff home before temperatures drop below freezing with precipitation that diminishes the potential for safe travel in Lenoir County. The recommendation to remain closed on Wednesday is based on predicted frozen precipitation and the continuation of below-freezing temperatures.

Both decisions reflect our continued commitment to making the safety of our students and staff our top priority. Thank you for your support.

Like every other school system in North Carolina and many across the nation and around the world, LCPS has been notified by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction that a data breach has occurred involving the vendor for student information data management used by North Carolina's public schools, a company called PowerSchool.  On the afternoon of Tuesday, January 7, PowerSchool alerted all North Carolina public school systems and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to a cybersecurity incident impacting student and teacher data across their global client base. This incident extended beyond North Carolina to include school systems across our country and around the world. PowerSchool is a student information system (SIS) that has been in use in North Carolina since 2013.

On December 28, 2024, PowerSchool became aware of a cybersecurity incident that began on December 19, 2024, involving unauthorized access to student and teacher data. According to PowerSchool, the data breach occurred when the credentials of a PowerSchool contract employee were compromised and used to view data from North Carolina's public schools. NCDPI has responded to our inquiry and has confirmed that student and teacher data from our district and others was accessed by an unauthorized party. PowerSchool has shared that "... the threat has been contained and that the compromised data was not shared in any way and has been destroyed." PowerSchool is working with law enforcement to monitor the dark web for any data exposure.

There is nothing NCDPI, LCPS or any of the school systems across North Carolina could have done to prevent this incident, as neither we, nor DPI, have access to where the breach occurred. Protecting student and teacher data continues to be a top priority for the NC Department of Public Instruction and for our school system.  We will provide updates when any new information becomes available.