In his budget proposal, Governor Cooper has allotted around $20 million in flexible funding for schools to hire additional instructional support personnel - teaching assistants, assistant principals, nurses, behavorial support staff and others. Area school district estimates:
Alexander County - $63,531
Avery County - $26,201
Burke County - $157,693
Caldwell County - $152,360
Catawba County - $210,996
Cleveland County - $190,605
Hickory City - $54,642
Lincoln County - $146,821
McDowell County - $79,722
Mitchell County - $23,830
Newton-Conover - $38,850
Watauga County - $57,644

A Lenoir man is sentenced to prison on drug charges. 41-year-old James Clifford Sharpe will serve five to seven years after pleading guilty to manufacturing methamphetamine. Reports state Caldwell officers received a tip in March 2016 that Sharpe was making meth a a Lenoir residence. Agents discovered various items associated with drug activity outside the residence, and additional evidence of the manufacture of meth inside the home. The SBI assisted in the investigation.

A Hickory man was given an active prison sentence of at least five years during Catawba County Superior Court on Monday. 25-year-old Nicholas Alexander Pittman pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and second-degree kidnapping and was sentenced to five to seven years in custody.

A Vale man was given an active prison term of 15 to 20 years after pleading guilty Friday in Catawba County Superior Court, to a sexual offense involving a child. 26-year-old Thomas Eugene Smith was sentenced following his plea to statutory rape of a 13-year-old by a defendant at least 6 years older than the victime. In addition, Smith will be required to register as a sex offender as a sex offender for life and enroll in satellite-based monitoring for life.