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Pender County Schools see hundreds of homeless students after Florence, a 400-percent increase

The county has gone from 16 homeless students at the beginning of the year to over 800 after Hurricane Florence.

A flooded neighborhood on Alexis Hales Road near the Black River in Currie, North Carolina, Wednesday, September 19, 2018. (Port City Daily photo | Mark Darrough)
A flooded neighborhood on Alexis Hales Road near the Black River in Currie, Pender County, five days after Hurricane Florence made landfall on the North Carolina coast. (Port City Daily photo | Mark Darrough)

BURGAW — Pender County Schools (PCS) Superintendent Steven Hill recently told top U.S. Department of Education (DOE) officials that public schools in the county have seen a 400-percent increase in its homeless student population since Hurricane Florence caused extensive flooding across the region.

During a conference call with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Mitchell Zais and nine other district superintendents from across eastern North Carolina, Hill announced that homeless students now make up 9 percent of the county’s total student population — up from 2 percent before Florence struck the region almost seven weeks ago.

“The percentage is astronomical … We have increased our McKinney–Vento numbers 50 times over,” PCS Director of Elementary Instructional Services Beth Metcalf said Wednesday morning, referring to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, a federal law providing money for homeless shelter programs. 

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“We are over 800 kids as of this morning and the number continues to grow — that’s nine percent of our student population,” Metcalf said. “We had 16 [homeless] kids at the start of the year.”

In addition to this figure, there are over 100 children — siblings of displaced students who are too young to attend school — to be accounted for, according to PCS spokeswoman Miranda Ferguson.

Regional leaders visit D.C.

Hill’s conference call occurred while Secretary Betsy DeVos was hosting a delegation of regional government leaders visiting Washington, including Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, Pender County Assistant Manager Chad McEwen, Surf City Mayor Doug Medlin, and New Bern Mayor Dana Outlaw.

The delegation made the rounds on Capitol Hill visiting North Carolina congressmen, federal agencies including FEMA, the DOE, and the White House.

During the call Hill advocated for DOE and Department of State funding. PCS has so far spent $8.5 million on cleaning mold and mildew within school buildings, and numerous books and other items that cannot be cleaned must be destroyed, according to Hill.

‘Everything is running off donations’

Although the DOE was supportive, officials said that specific federal funding earmarked for homeless schoolchildren is based on figures tallied at the beginning of 2018, according to Hill.

“We don’t get any extra money [now],” Hill said. “Everything is running off donations.”

More than 800 backpacks have been donated from corporate sponsors, including Amazon and Walmart, along with hundreds of shoes and coats, according to Hill.

“There’s not a homeless kid yet who’s gone without shoes, a coat, and a backpack. We’ve been able to provide for every one of them,” Hill said.

According to Hill, the U.S. Congress has not yet released funds “that we can work with,” but said the DOE “gave us a possible pot of money if we get to a point with the McKinney-Vento kids where we need additional funds to support them.”

Specifically, the DOE is looking toward several grant programs that would fall outside the limited scope of McKinney-Vento funding, Hill said.

Meanwhile, according to Hill, schools across North Carolina have “adopted” PCS schools and established fundraisers to provide for children lacking shelter and basic resources. PCS has also altered bus routes to pick up children currently living outside Pender County.


Mark Darrough can be reached at Mark@Localvoicemedia.com

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