Richmond County Schools had fewer reportable crimes, suspensions per student and dropout rates than the state average or any of its neighboring county school systems in the 2008-09 school year, school officials were told Tuesday.

RCS Director of Testing and Accountability Steve Lear presented the information to the Richmond County Board of Education Tuesday night. It was included in the consolidated report of the North Carolina Department of Instruction released this month.

Lear told the board the county schools had the lowest rate of reportable acts of any school system of comparable size except Duplin County Schools. He then showed RCS dropout statistics from the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years side-by-side.

The rate fell from nearly five percent to 3.28 in 2008-09, reflecting about a 33 percent reduction. The 2008-09 figure was also below the state average of 4.27.

“Not only was our dropout rate for the 2008-09 school year below the state average, and all of the school systems in our region, but there was also significant improvement from the 2007-08 to the 2008-09 school years,” Lear said. “So those are two encouraging trends that we see.”

School board member Ed Ormsby asked if the way drop outs are counted had been changed to account for the statistical improvement, and was told it had not.

“This is a great, significant drop,” Vice Chair Tom McInnis said, remembering that four years ago there were more than 200 dropouts while last year there were only 79.

He went on to ask whether students are given an exit interview when they do decide to drop out to determine why they made the choice.

“It’s some of the same reasons that we’ve always seen,” RCS Superintendent Dr. George Norris said. “One of the holes I see in our dropout prevention is pregnancy ... and we still have some kids who leave when they realize they’re not going to pass or graduate.”

Norris also said the school system has been able to bring some students back into the school system to attend the Richmond County Transitional School or Leak Street High School since it underwent realignment.

“We’ve had a lot more success in our smaller settings,” he said, referring to the number of students per class.

The school board also unanimously approved a Parent-Teacher Organization proposal to make the official school uniform colors of East Rockingham Elementary School royal blue, gold and white Tuesday night.

The recommendation was made by a joint committee of the parents of Rohanen Primary School and Cordova Elementary, and presented by RCS Director of Elementary Instruction Debbie Wrenn.

“The major factor for choosing these colors is because economically it would be less of a hardship on the parents buying uniforms since two of the colors are currently used at both schools,” Wrenn said.

Also approved was a plan to accept entries for the school mascot, and let children and parents vote on which they like best.

The deadline to submit entries is May 10, and the new mascot will be announced at the school’s first open house next year.

In other business:

The board tabled a roofing report that says more than $1 million in roof replacements are needed.

Norris said the roofing consultants the schools work with will be asked to prioritize the work and return another report.

The four sites in need of repairs are Hamlet Middle, Rohanen Primary, Leak Street High and West Rockingham Elementary School.

The Hamlet Middle project is by far the largest, with more than $700,000 worth of work.

The board unanimously approved the high bid of $50,000 entered by Gene Driggers to purchase the Grant House property beside West Rockingham Elementary.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.