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By Melissa Hall
KERNERSVILLE JOURNAL REPORTER

East Forsyth Middle dedicated; principal gets flags, the keys

KERNERSVILLE - School officials and community leaders dedicated East Forsyth Middle School in Kernersville on Monday. More than 700 people, including students, attended.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, a former educator from Watauga County, told the group that coming to such a dedication "is the best part of my job."

Foxx encouraged the students to work hard and said that they have endless opportunities in life.

East Forsyth is the third middle school to open in the Kernersville area since 1998, when Kernersville and Southeast Middle Schools opened.

Foxx presented Dossie Poteat, the principal at East Forsyth, with a copy of George Washington's Rules of Civility. As a young schoolboy, Washington copied by hand the 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.

Representatives from American Legion Post 5352 in Kernersville presented Poteat with U.S. and N.C. flags.

Perry Peterson, the architect who designed the school, said that A.L. "Buddy" Collins, a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, told him that he wanted a room in the school big enough for the entire student body to assemble.

The building has a "gymtorium," which is a combination gym and auditorium.

Poteat accepted the keys to the school from Foxx.

He said that the staff and teachers finally got into the building July 11, about six weeks before the school year began. Poteat credited his staff with getting the building ready for students when they started Aug. 25.

He said he constantly tells people, "I have a wonderful staff."

The N.C. Department of Transportation, the town of Kernersville and the school system built the road that the school is on. It intersects with Old Hollow Road beside Cash Elementary School and goes to West Mountain Street.

The road was named for Richard E. Bagley, a Kernersville resident and former member of the school board.

Collins said that Bagley was the chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee when Kernersville and Southeast Middle Schools were built. Bagley said he was proud and humbled to have the road named for him.

The school cost almost $10 million dollars to build. It has a student capacity of 760. School officials said that there are about 720 students enrolled.

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