Haywood County Schools’ stock just keep rising. This year the school system was ranked sixth out of 115 school districts in the state following the release of testing data. This is compared to its seventh place ranking the year prior and 10th place ranking just a few years ago. 

This year both Jackson and Swain counties received state grants of $52 million to build new middle schools. For Jackson County, this will be the first traditional middle school the county has ever had and will serve middle grade students in place of the four K-8 schools that do so now. 

Jackson Community School — Jackson County’s alternative learning center — is the most expensive school in the district per pupil, and now the Board of Education is considering whether it should invest more money into the aging building or relocate the small student population into a larger school. 

Haywood Community  College’s Department of Arts, Sciences and Natural Resources and the  North Carolina  Wildlife Resources Commission  will offer two opportunities for hunter safety courses in Spring 2025.

Friends and alumni contributed more than $6 million to Western Carolina University during the 2024 GivingTuesday initiative, nearly quadrupling the previous record set last year and setting the stage for a corresponding challenge gift that would unlock significant additional funding for WCU athletics facilities renovations. 

On Jan. 11, 2025 at 10 a.m., North Carolina will have a new governor for the first time in eight years — and what an eight years it’s been.

As a young boy, maybe 10 or 11 years old, Thom Brooks set foot onto Southwestern Community College’s campus in Sylva for the first time. 

His mother, Rhonda Brooks, worked full-time and had enrolled in some evening classes to better her life. Not only did young Thom have a front-row seat to his mother’s life-changing journey, he also got to participate in a class activity. 

Walking across the same stage on which they’ll one day receive their college degrees, seventh graders from Jackson, Macon and Swain Counties were inducted into the New Century Scholars program on Thursday, Nov. 7, in Myers Auditorium on Southwestern Community College’s Jackson Campus in Sylva. 

The Haywood County Board of Education is considering a change to its policy that governs transfers by student athletes between Pisgah and Tuscola, and with board members in disagreement on the issue, the board is welcoming public input. 

Lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly voted last week to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto and pass a mini budget bill that includes $463 million in funding for the Opportunity Scholarship Grant Program that provides voucher money for families with students attending private schools.