SANFORD — The coronavirus pandemic shuttered North Carolina schools last spring and has left students and teachers scrambling to catch up this fall.

After another victim of COVID-19 — the Lee County Education Foundation’s annual “Head of Class” award — was canceled, the organization decided to pivot, and with a generous gift from another local foundation, create a way to help each of Lee County’s public schools during an unprecedented time of need.

The result: the Education Foundation has increased its annual $50,000 Head of Class gift to $75,000, and with a $75,000 match from the Worthy Lands Trust — the foundation created by the late Ernest and Ruby McSwain of Sanford — is giving the principals of each of Lee County’s 17 schools funds to use specifically in response to the pandemic.

Each school will receive a cash donation from the foundations’ joint effort in amounts ranging from $2,000 to $11,800.

OCTOBER 31, 2019 — Allison Cooper lives and breathes Deep River Elementary.

For Cooper, a teaching assistant and bus driver at Deep River, the day begins at 6:20 a.m. with her bus route. Then she's on to her classroom where she goes over her notes before helping Mrs. Coggins divide the class into reading groups. Before long, it's time for lunch, and she needs to help guide 200 kids coming into and out of the cafeteria. Then it's back to the classroom for a couple hours, and then she's back on the bus. Her day ends around 3:30 p.m.

“We work hard here,” Cooper explained. “Everybody puts in a huge effort to teach our kids, and we care about them a lot.”

Joyce Williams is another person for whom Deep River means the world. As the school's head custodian, Williams is responsible for many of the things most people take for granted – always providing a good first impression by making sure the school's entryway is clean, for example, and keeping up with things like water fountains and bathrooms.

“Deep River is special to me because we're like a family here,” Williams said. “It's not just about the teachers, it's about the cafeteria workers, the custodians, the teachers, everyone. If one of us sees a child running down the hall or something, we're able to treat them just like a teacher would.” 

NOVEMBER 13, 2018 — Andrea Sloan was so disappointed in her school's end of year test scores in 2016 that she questioned whether Lee County Schools had made a mistake in hiring her to be the principal at Tramway Elementary.

“We had great year, we were plugging right along. Then the end of the year came and went. Everyone worked very hard,” Sloan told a gathering of students and educators on Tuesday morning at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center in Sanford. “But when proficiency and growth numbers came in, we were not satisfied. In fact, I would say I was devastated. Our overall proficiency had dropped. Our letter grade dropped. We didn't meet growth by a long shot. And it hurt. But not for long.”

Sloan, a former district Assistant Principal of the Year went on to describe to the gathering the many steps she and her administration at Tramway took to right the ship. And those steps worked, because Tuesday's gathering was in honor of Sloan, her faculty and her student body at Tramway Elementary, which was named the winner of this year's Head of Class award.

“I truly believe that we had and still have the talent on our campus in terms of staff and students to meet our goals every year,” Sloan continued. “We just had to structure our school for our teacher experts to let their leadership show through.”