By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
Beaufort County Schools welcomed 25 freshly minted teachers into its ranks Wednesday as some 1,000 public-school employees gathered at Washington High School to mark the start of the 2010-2011 school year for many of them.
The event is a tradition that signals the return of most of the system’s teachers and other personnel following the summer break. 
It also was the first BCS opening-day event for Superintendent Don Phipps, who joined the Beaufort County school system last December.
Phipps told the crowd that he felt like a football coach who joined the team late in the season.
“I got to meet the players before the new year,” he said.
As in past years, some employees carried noisemakers and wore special T-shirts to distinguish schools from one another during the annual roll-call of schools led by Phipps.
He said the buzzword for the new school year is “teamwork.”
Most of the 7,000 Beaufort County school students will return to the classroom Wednesday.
Students and teachers at Beaufort County Early College High School, based at Beaufort County Community College, returned to the classroom earlier this month
The new teachers received two rounds of applause from the assembled school personnel when they were recognized by Robert Belcher, chairman of the Beaufort County Board of Education.
Belcher remarked on the pep-rally-like atmosphere, saying, “There’s always excitement and anticipation on the first day of school. We’ll look at you 180 days from now and see you as fresh as you are today.”
William C. Harrison, chairman of the State Board of Education, echoed Belcher’s remarks by challenging public-school personnel to keep students excited and engaged in their school work. He was keynote speaker for the event.
Harrison, a former Cumberland County Schools superintendent, was appointed to the state Board of Education in 2009 by Gov. Beverly Perdue.
Harrison said that 5-year-old children are excited about their first day of kindergarten, but students in the ninth grade are less so.
“What happens to them over time that causes them to disengage,” he said. “It makes me think we need to change our approach by creating places where kids want to be.”
He challenged teachers and other school personnel to create “great classrooms” by establishing a safe climate in which students can learn, setting forth clear goals and objectives every day, actively involving students in meaningful and rigorous classroom work and providing students with immediate and specific feedback.
“The job gets tougher every year. The stakes get higher every year. The challenges get greater every year,” he said. “But remember, whatever role you play, you’re a role model for our students.”
Harrison was the subject of much attention in 2009 after Perdue asked the State Board of Education to create the dual position of board chairman and chief executive officer of the Department of Public Instruction. She wanted Harrison to hold the powerful job. That action left June Atkinson, elected in 2008 to her second term as superintendent of public instruction, an “ambassador” for education, in the governor’s word. It took a court ruling to return Atkinson to power.
The school board, at a meeting before the gathering, unanimously approved an agreement that would allow the Washington Youth Football League to use the field adjacent to Eastern Elementary School in conjunction with La Amistad, a youth soccer league.