Proper dental care and routine trips to the dentist help to guarantee that children and adults not only have a healthy smile, but a healthy body as well. To help ensure that every child in Catawba County has access to dental care, Catawba County Public Health Dental Practice serves as a resource for children ages 4 to 17.

Bryan Blanton, who has steadily risen in positions of responsibility from paramedic to Training Officer to Manager of Emergency Medical Services, will now permanently supervise all of Catawba County's Emergency Services.

Cynthia Eades, a long-time resident of Catawba County who is currently serving as Human Resources Director in Iredell County and has ten years of experience in local government human resources, has been named Catawba County�s new Human Resources Director. She will begin her new duties with Catawba County on July 1, 2010.

Jeff Carpenter, who will begin new duties as Cooperative Extension Director on September 1, 2010, will oversee delivery of services to meet the Extension mission of sustaining agriculture and forestry, protecting the environment, maintaining viable communities, developing responsible youth and developing strong, healthy and safe families.

The final stages of the 2011 property revaluation process in Catawba County have begun with the presentation of the proposed 2011 Schedule of Values to the Board of Commissioners, and will continue into November, when property owners will receive notice of the new value of their property, and into December and early 2011 when the appeal process begins.

Brian Drum, one of the supervisors of the Catawba County 911 Communications Center, who has been called upon to increase his supervising duties over the past year and has a record of dedication to 911 dispatch that spans more than ten years, has been recognized by his peers in the North Carolina Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association (NC NENA) as Supervisor of the Year.

As it continues to note National Emergency Preparedness Month, Catawba County Emergency Services reminds citizens who have family members with special needs, and caregivers of those with special needs, that it�s very important to be prepared in advance to help those with special needs cope with an emergency or disastrous situation.

Lindsey Smith was recognized by the North Carolina Society for Public Health Education as a new health educator in North Carolina who has made outstanding contributions to the profession.

Residents and businesses affected by severe storms and tornado on Oct. 26 in Catawba County can apply for low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills announced today. Mills made the loans available in response to a letter from North Carolina Gov. Beverly E. Perdue on Nov. 12, requesting a disaster declaration by the SBA. The declaration covers Lincoln County and the adjacent counties of Burke, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell and Mecklenburg in North Carolina.

Between February 16 and 24, 2011, more than 2,500 students in Catawba County�s three public school systems received the 2010-11 flu vaccine due to a successful partnership between the schools and Catawba County Public Health. School nurses collected permission forms from parents and coordinated flu vaccine mini-clinics at 43 schools.

Family Builders, the adoption service of Catawba County Social Services, can now help adult adoptees, birth parents and their close relatives find each other. Not all counties in North Carolina offer this service, which is called Confidential Intermediary Services. Until recently all adoption records were sealed under North Carolina state law. In 2008, a new law took effect that allowed the release of certain records to adult adoptees and birth parents, if both parties agreed.

Three area mayors and several other local officials recently participated in Mayors for Meals in Catawba County. This event was sponsored by Catawba County Social Services� Senior Nutrition Programs, which operates Meals on Wheels, Seniors Morning Out and other senior nutrition programs serving more than 1,000 people.

At the spring North Carolina City & County Communicators Conference, held March 30-April 1, in Fayetteville, NC, Dave Hardin, Public Information Officer for Catawba County, received the prestigious Chris Coulson Memorial Award. The award is presented to a person whose character, career and service represents the highest standards and who excels in the practice of local government communications.

RealtyAnalytix Advisors, LLC announces the introduction of Catawba Industrial Commons, a multi-tenant industrial campus offering the most attractive, affordable and functional manufacturing, distribution and warehousing space in the Greater Catawba County region.

The company will locate a manufacturing operation in the Catawba Industrial Commons, creating 110 new jobs with an average wage of over $50,000 and investing $15 million over the next five years. It will provide specialized services for parts used in gas turbine engines produced by Siemens, GE, Alstom and Rolls-Royce.

Do you have any unwanted household products, such as paints, cleansers, solvents, antifreeze, batteries or used motor oils; or electronics like computer equipment, old radios, mobile phones, TVs, VCRs, calculators or copiers? Dispose of them properly, free of charge, on May 7th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The annual Foothills Regional Conference for Parent Educators will be held Friday, June 3 from 9:00am until 2:00pm at the Catawba County Cooperative Extension Center in Newton. The 2011 theme is Helping Families Do More with Less.

Beginning July 1, 2011, computer equipment and televisions will be banned from disposal in North Carolina landfills, under a law passed last year by the General Assembly. Catawba County will provide four one-day electronics recycling collection events in fiscal year 2011-2012, free of charge. All residents of Catawba County will have access to these electronics recycling events, including those who live in the cities and towns in the county.

Furniture manufacturer Lee Industries, Inc. plans to expand their manufacturing capabilities in Catawba County by extensively redeveloping and renovating the former Conover Chair facility in Conover, N.C. and adding 75 new employees beginning in late 2011. The company will be hiring cutters, sewers, spring-up associates, inside and outside upholsterers, shipping personnel, support staff and more. The average employee wage is expected to be $41,045, nearly $7,000 more than the average pay for workers living in Catawba County.

Area youth participating in the NC Cooperative Extension�s 4-H program helped children at Catawba County Public Health plant vegetable seeds. The activity was one of a series of visits by local North Carolina Cooperative Extension staff and volunteers to Public Health�s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) clinic designed to encourage WIC families to grow and eat fresh vegetables.

The Catawba County Sheriff�s Office, in conjunction with The Cognitive Connection and The Foothills Coalition, is sponsoring an Operation Pill Stoppers program that now provides fixed locations for citizens to properly dispose of their unused and unwanted medications.

�Catawba Communities,� a monthly show which will feature information about programs and services provided by local governments, school systems and associated agencies across Catawba County, will premiere on Charter Communications� Government Channel (Channel 3) on Tuesday, August 23, 2011, at 8:00 p.m.

Vaccines will be administered on a first-come, first-serve basis, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., or until the supply is depleted on September 21, World Rabies Day, thanks to 250 vaccines provided by the World Rabies Organization and Pfizer Animal Health.

More than 120 people recently attended the seventh annual Foothills Regional Conference for Early Childhood Educators in Statesville. This year�s conference theme, "You Make a Powerful Difference", explored the difference that early childhood educators make in the lives of young children.

The United States Environmental Planning Agency (USEPA) has announced that Catawba County will be classified as �attainment� from its current �nonattainment� designation for Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) on December 19, 2011. PM 2.5 (fine particle pollution) refers to tiny particles of droplets in the air that are two and one half microns or less in width. Two and one half microns is about thirty times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Colonel Michael W. Gilchrist, Commander of the Highway Patrol, presented the awards to EMT Paramedic and Crew Chief Brad Harris and EMT Paramedic Eric Jones for their role in pulling a person from a burning vehicle.

The expansion will more than double clinic space. It will allow the clinic to provide routine dental services, such as cleanings, fillings, sealants, and extractions, to an additional 1,500 children and young adults. During the renovation, the current dental practice will remain open and operate under current hours

Catawba County has won the Government Innovation Grant Award (GIGA), from the UNC School of Government, the Local Government Federal Credit Union, and the North Carolina Local Government Information Systems Association, for its innovative use of Quick Response (QR) Codes on building permits issued in the county. The County was recognized for implementation of a Building Permit QR Codes system, which provides building contractors and inspectors with up-to-the-minute job site and inspection information, at their fingertips, in the field.

The Catawba County Building Services Division has built a web page with links to the new code.

Alexander, Burke, Caldwell and Catawba County students in the 4th or 5th grades submitted posters related to the theme �Severe Weather Awareness� and illustrated an example of a natural hazard that affects North Carolina. One poster from each county and one overall winner from all entries were chosen as the winners of the Unifour Area Severe Weather Awareness Week Poster Contest. The winners were announced during Severe Weather Awareness Week with surprise presentations at each winner�s school.

Enhancements include an auto-fill feature, the ability to search on a business or landmark name, and links to both Google and Bing maps.

A delegation of high school students representing the Catawba County Youth Council and 4-H attended NC Citizenship Focus, which was held in Raleigh, where more than 200 youth and adults representing over 75 counties exchanged ideas, gained knowledge and learned through hands on experiences about the different levels and branches of government.

Catawba County Attorney Debra Bechtel has been named County Attorney of the Year by the North Carolina County Association of County Attorneys. Bechtel was recognized for her service to Catawba County and for her service to the association and local governments across the state.

New State food rules recently put in place are expected to enforce safe food handling and reduce transmission of food-borne illness.

The Institute for Conservation Leadership has chosen to honor the Catawba-Wateree Relicensing Coalition for their exemplary collaboration to accomplish outstanding environmental protection. The Coalition is being recognized for collaborative work that is creative, visionary, and highly effective and that their respective coalition members could not have achieved by acting alone

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., headquartered in Union NJ, has chosen to locate one of its data center facilities in Claremont, Catawba County. The company will locate the data center in the 48,000 square foot Center Point shell building in the Claremont International Business Park on Kelly Drive. Bed Bath & Beyond�s investment is expected to equal or exceed $36,800,000 and the new facility will create a minimum of 7 new jobs by the end of 2018.

Catawba County Assistant Planning Director, Mary George, has been named 2012 Outstanding Contributor to Agriculture by the Hickory Kiwanis Club

The Catawba County Library System has received two awards from the North Carolina Public Library Directors� Association. Library Director Karen Foss was on hand to accept honors for the new Conover Branch facility and Battle of the Books programming presented at the NCPLDA annual awards banquet December 6 in Winston-Salem.

Suzanne M. White, who has managed comprehensive library programs, services and personnel at two full service library branches in Rowan County for more than seven years, and has had a successful career in library services spanning more than twenty years, has been named Catawba County�s new Library Director. White succeeds Karen Foss, who will retire on February 1, 2013, after serving as the County�s Library Director since July 1999.

The Catawba County Board of Commissioners took action at its meeting on February 4, 2013, to dedicate the entrance area of the Catawba County Justice Center in honor of retired Sheriff L. David Huffman and his 32 years of services to the county, including four as a county commissioner and 28 as Sheriff.

Lori A. Mathes was appointed by the Catawba County Board of Commissioners as the County�s new Tax Collector, based upon staff�s recommendation, at the Board�s meeting on February 18, 2013. Mathes served as Chief Financial Officer for Mental Health Partners of Hickory for eight years, responsible for overseeing the agency�s expenditures and revenues, its accounting policies and procedures.

A new State law will soon shift collection of motor vehicle taxes from counties to the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles.

Catawba County will mail data verification, income and expense request, to property owners as 2015 revluation process continues on May 17, 2013. Owners are requested to verify the information found on the data verification sheet, provide pertinent additional information and make any necessary corrections, and return the form to the revaluation office. http://www.catawbacountync.gov/events/revalmailer13.asp

Catawba County Home Health is empowering older adults to lower their risk of falling through a new service called Smart Moves.

Many Catawba County residents will be able to recycle more items beginning November 4.

Budget Office wins national award, for producing budget document judged easy to read and understand, for 25th straight year

Charter Communications' Government Channel for Catawba County will move from Channel 3 to Channel 192 effective January 28, 2014.

Catawba County Board of Elections appoints Amanda Duncan as new Director of Elections to succeed retiring Larry Brewer.

; Credit: /Ryan Raphael for NPR

To say Leah Juelke is an award-winning teacher is a bit of an understatement. She was a top 10 finalist for the Global Teacher Prize in 2020; she was North Dakota's Teacher of the Year in 2018; and she was awarded an NEA Foundation award for teaching excellence in 2019.

But Juelke, who teaches high school English learners in Fargo, N.D., says nothing prepared her for teaching during the pandemic.

"The level of stress is exponentially higher. It's like nothing I've experienced before."

It's a sentiment NPR heard from teachers across the country. After a year of uncertainty, long hours and juggling personal and work responsibilities, many told NPR they had reached a breaking point.

Heidi Crumrine, a high school English teacher in Concord, N.H., says this has been the most challenging year she's ever encountered in her two decades of teaching.

"And I say [that] as someone who started her first day of teaching on 9/11 in the Bronx in New York City."

Teaching is one of the most stressful occupations in the U.S., tied only with nurses, a 2013 Gallup poll found. Jennifer Greif Green, an education professor at Boston University, says the additional stress teachers are reporting during the pandemic is worrying because it doesn't only affect educators — it also affects students.

"The mental health and well-being of teachers can have a really important impact on the mental health and well-being of the children who they're spending most of their days with," Green explains. "Having teachers feel safe and supported in their school environments is essential to students learning and being successful."

Lisa Sanetti, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut, says, "Chronically stressed teachers are just less effective in the classroom."

All that stress can also lead to burnout, which leads to teachers leaving the profession, Sanetti says. "And we have a huge teacher turnover problem in our country."

Districts are trying to help — with yoga classes, counseling sessions and webinars on mental health. Some teachers have organized trivia nights or online happy hours where colleagues can just vent. Teachers told NPR they force themselves to take breaks and go for a bike ride or call a friend. Some have started therapy.

But most of the educators NPR spoke with say they're so exhausted, that even self-care feels like one additional thing to do.

"The reality is, when you're living it, you're just trying to get to the end of the day successfully and try again tomorrow," Crumrine says.

"It feels like we're building the plane while we're flying it"

In March 2020, when schools moved online, teachers across the U.S. had to completely reimagine their approach to education, often with no training or time to prepare. For many, it was a rough transition.

Teachers told NPR they've spent the past year experimenting with different methods of online and hybrid teaching, while also providing tech support for their students and families. Many say they routinely work 12-hour days and on weekends, yet struggle to form relationships with children virtually. Answering emails can take two hours a day.

Rashon Briggs, who teaches high school special education in Los Angeles, spent a lot of time worrying about his students during remote learning (his district only recently started offering in-person options). "One of the biggest challenges is knowing that the kids were not getting the same level of service that they were getting in person," he says.

Teachers in districts that opened earlier for in-person learning say they have additional responsibilities now, such as sanitizing desks between classes, making sure children follow school safety protocols and keeping track of students who have had to quarantine.

"I have a calendar and it says who's quarantined, who is cleared to return on what day, who was absent," explains Rosamund Looney, who teaches first grade in Jefferson Parish, La. "Then I follow up with those families to see: 'Are you OK?' So there's just so much space taken up by that monitoring."

Looney also worries about her students' learning. Everyone in her district has to wear masks in class, which she says she completely agrees with. But those masks mean she can't see her first graders' mouths as they learn phonics.

"You are watching your teacher sound out words and then figuring out how to do that. And it's really hard for me to gauge what they are and aren't able to say." She says she's especially concerned about students who are more at risk of falling behind academically, like English learners.

In New Hampshire, Crumrine says quarantines and positive cases among school staff have led to a constant shifting between fully online and hybrid classes. The fluctuations have been exhausting for her. "We started the year remote. Then we went back to school in October, then we were remote again in November, December. We went back to hybrid [in early February]," she says. New Hampshire's governor has now ordered all schools reopen for full-time, in-person classes by this week.

"It feels like we're building the plane while we're flying it and the destination keeps changing on us," Crumrine says.

Balancing work and home life

In addition to worrying about their students, many teachers are also concerned about their own children. Crumrine, whose husband is also a teacher, has three children and says she feels pulled by competing demands.

"I feel this sense of guilt that I'm not a good enough teacher for my students and I'm not a good mother for my own kids. It just feels like a constant wave of never feeling like I can do what I know I'm good at."

Juelke, in North Dakota, is a single mom with a 9- and 3-year-old. "I'm juggling the children and making sure my daughter is in her class and my 3-year-old is entertained. And that is definitely taking a toll."

Many teachers say they are eating and drinking more, and exercising and sleeping less.

Briggs, in L.A., says his sleeping patterns are completely off. "Being awake all hours of the night, going to bed at 2, 3 a.m., drinking coffee late at night and try to finish work so I can be more prepared the next day."

He's stressed, in part, because there are no clear work-life boundaries anymore. "When you're waking up in the same space that you're on Zoom, that you're grading papers, that you're watching Netflix, those lines are blurred very easily."

Others say they're not as active at home, and they're eating more junk food and putting on weight. The tight schedules means they don't always move between classes, or even remember to drink water.

"There are a lot of dehydrated teachers out there," says Looney.

Many, like Juelke, say they miss having personal time. "That time where I could sit in the car and drive to work and just kind of relax a little, or my prep time at school alone. That's gone now. And so I feel like my mental health has struggled in that way."

She says even though it breaks her heart, she's started looking for another profession.

Leonda Archer, a middle school math teacher in Arlington, Va., says she's usually a very upbeat person, but the pandemic — coupled with the racial turmoil in the country — has taken a toll. She's African American, and says reports of Black men and women being killed by police makes her fear for her husband's safety.

"There were some points of lowness that I hadn't experienced before. There are some days where I feel like it's hard to keep going."

Archer says she has had difficulty sleeping, and doesn't have an appetite. "And right when I get into a groove, another traumatic experience happens."

Briggs says it was hard not being able to process events like George Floyd's death and the Black Lives Matter protests with his colleagues. In the past, those conversations informed what he would say in the classroom to help his own students make sense of the news.

"The teachers were not able to talk to each other about 'How do you talk about this? How do you present that?' " he says. "There was a lack of ability for us to communicate a message about social justice and rights and the wrongs."

Crumrine says she misses the social aspect of being with her students, and other teachers. "We're not eating lunch together. We're not popping into each other's classrooms. We're all in our little silos."

The school reopening divide

Teachers told NPR they feel a growing chasm in their communities: Parents want schools to open, but teachers first want to make sure it's safe. Many feel they are not being included in these conversations, and their concerns aren't being taken seriously.

Crumrine says it's been devastating hearing elected officials and parents criticize teachers, insisting that schools need to open, even though teachers are concerned about their own health. She says some community members acted like online classes meant teachers weren't working at all. In fact, she says, they were working harder than ever. "It just makes it feel so much worse when you read these horrible things that people say about us or these assumptions that they make about what we are or are not doing."

She says many states, including her own, didn't prioritize vaccines for teachers, which to her revealed just "how deep that lack of value of educators is."

Sarahi Monterrey, who teaches English learners in Waukesha, Wisc., says she's felt a "huge divide" in the community. "It almost seems like us against them." She was in a Zoom school board meeting where parents and students were present, and a teacher testified that her husband had COVID-19. "And a parent in the room said, 'Who cares?' And I was blown away. Just blown away."

In Virginia, Archer says, at the beginning of the pandemic, "We were seen as angels. Like, 'Oh my God, I've been home with my child for two months, how do teachers do it?' And now the narrative has totally flip-flopped."

She says she also misses "the vibe of school, the energy, all of that. But I don't want people to be sick."

Archer works 12-hour days, and says people need to remember that teachers are people too. "Our profession is a nurturing one, but we also are humans that need to be poured into. We need to be nurtured, too."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Students carry sack lunches at Elk Ridge Elementary School in Buckley, Wash. On Monday, USDA unveiled a new program that would feed millions of children over the summer, when many schools are closed.; Credit: Ted S. Warren/AP

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new effort Monday to feed millions of children this summer, when free school meals traditionally reach just a small minority of the kids who rely on them the rest of the year. The move expands what's known as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, or P-EBT, program into the summer months, and USDA estimates it will reach more than 30 million children.

"If children and children's learning and children's health is a priority for us in this country, then we need to fund our priorities," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a Monday interview with NPR's All Things Considered. "I think it's an important day."

P-EBT takes the value of the meals kids aren't getting at school, about $6.82 per child per weekday, according to USDA, and puts it onto a debit card that families can use at the grocery store. Households already enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (once known as food stamps) can have the value placed directly onto their SNAP debit card.

Children are eligible for the new P-EBT summer expansion if they are eligible to receive free or low-cost meals during the school year. Children younger than 6 can also qualify if they live in a household that currently receives SNAP benefits. According to USDA, eligible families can expect to receive roughly $375 per child to help them through this summer.

"Families are still in crisis as a result of the pandemic and providing Pandemic EBT benefits this summer will help reduce childhood hunger and support good nutrition," said Crystal FitzSimons at the Food Research & Action Center, or FRAC.

P-EBT began in March 2020 as an emergency move to reach children whose schools had closed in response to the pandemic; it was extended as part of the American Rescue Plan, the massive COVID-19 relief package that President Biden signed this past March.

The summer months have traditionally been hard on children who depend on free or low-cost school meals. According to FRAC, in July 2019, just 1 in 7 children who ate at little or no cost during the school year was getting a subsidized school lunch at the height of summer.

Currently, at least 37 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have been approved by USDA to provide P-EBT since the program's inception. On Monday, Secretary Tom Vilsack told All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly that he's been on the phone with governors working to expand adoption.

"When I took this job, I think only 12 states were currently enrolled ... and we're continuing to get states in every day," Vilsack said. As for why some states hadn't yet signed on, he said, "I think the guidance that we were providing to states was a little bit murky ... There's no confusion about the simple plan here for the summer. Mom and Dad get a card. They are able to go to the grocery store. They now have more resources to be able to feed their family."

Monday's announcement is just the latest move by USDA to fight child hunger. The agency recently issued waivers that will allow school districts to offer free school meals to all children in the 2021-2022 school year. Schools will also be allowed to pack meals in bulk and deliver them to students still learning at home. The Biden administration also recently pushed a $1.1 billion monthly increase in SNAP benefits through September 2021.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey, which has offered regular snapshots of families' wellbeing during the pandemic, food insecurity in the U.S. has been declining in recent months. As of the period from March 17-29, nearly 23% of households with children reported experiencing some food insecurity, down from a pandemic high of 31.4% in December 2020.

"Food insecurity rates are finally starting to come down," said Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. A host of federal programs to fight hunger and put money in the pockets of low-income Americans are "putting substantial downward pressure on food insecurity rates. It's a whole new world," Bauer said.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.