Education

The Shelby County Board of Education honored Shelby County's newest National Board Certified teachers at last Thursday's meeting.

Seven teachers joined Shelby County's ranks with the new certification. The new National Board teachers are: Elizabeth Bland - Clear Creek Elementary; Rebekah Meredith - Painted Stone Elementary; Angela Chambers, April Manning, Jenna Richardson and Anita White - Simpsonville Elementary; and Sarah Smith - Southside Elementary.

Don't worry, the SCHS rocket didn't blast off Tuesday, although it did take a trip through town.

The rocket, which is actually an authentic Air Force rocket, was lifted off its stand at the school by a crane and placed onto a flat bed truck and taken to a local body shop to be repainted. As befitting its status as a community icon, the rocket was escorted by sheriff's deputies from Rocket Lane to Hi Tech Body Shop on Henry Clay Street.

By Tuesday afternoon, 786 children from kindergarten through fifth grade in Shelby County had received the H1N1 vaccination through their schools.

These school-wide vaccinations were provided by the North Central District Health Department and administered by local nurses and paramedics. Parents had to return a signed consent form last week to individual schools.

When East Middle School teacher Debbie Meredith lost her hair and started wearing hats in school, none of her students said a word.

For a while, neither did she.

“No teachers told the kids because we didn’t know if she would,” fellow teacher Suzanne Guelda said.

Then somewhere around the second week of this school year, Meredith told her seventh-grade students what she was going through.

Diagnosed with breast cancer last year, she was being treated with chemotherapy.