Mayor Dick Sears was not the only Mayor elected in Holly Springs. Holly Ridge Elementary held its own Mayoral elections at the end of Nov. in Mrs. Chapri Jordan’s second grade classs. Mayor Sears visited with the second graders and spoke with the children about the responsibilities as Mayor of Holly Springs. The children were excited about all the impending changes that will develop within their community and were given the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the Mayor’s Presentation.

The unit began with an enjoyable story entitled, LaRue for Mayor, by Mark Teague. This integration of Social Studies, Language Arts, technology, and math made this a fun and successful venture for Mrs. Jordan’s second graders. Students learned to create persuasive paragraphs and typed the information to make a word processing document for their “formal” requests, tallied the final votes of the elections and graphed results of the election. As part of the curriculum, students learned about the make up of the community and its community helpers. Through this unit students were able to go through campaigning and the election process, the candidates prepared their own campaign speeches and slogans. They shared campaign memorabilia with their classmates as well and held a mock election where the second graders were able to vote for the candidate of their choice.

As a highlight of this event, Mayor Sears returned to congratulate the newly elected Class Mayor, Abby Baize, and Class Council Members, Johni-Amber Mitchell, Samantha Oleschuk, and Ty Smith. The students were presented with special honorary certificates and Abby was given a special medal of honor by Mayor Sears.