Local

Five local schools were recently awarded prize money for winning either the Palmetto Gold or Palmetto Silver award this year for academic excellence.

Buford High, Clinton Elementary and Indian Land High schools earned Gold awards, and Discovery School and Erwin Elementary earned Silver awards.

The S.C. Education Oversight Committee developed the award criteria based on the absolute and improvements ratings that are given to each school on the state's 2007 report cards.

With a huge photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the backdrop, Delaney Gardner shared her own dream for change.

Gardner, a third-grader at Discovery School, hopes for the day when there will be a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Her grandmother has the disease, and Gardner doesn't want anyone else to experience what she has to - having a loved one who can't remember your name.

"It makes me feel sad for her not to know much," said Gardner, who wants to study medicine to help find a cure for the disease.

Lori Foster stood beside her Honda Accord on Friday afternoon near the intersection of Main and Spring streets hoping the man she collided with was OK.

About 1:30 p.m., Foster and Antonio McGriff, who was riding a mo-ped, wrecked at that intersection.

Foster was preparing to turn left from Springs Street to Main Street. McGriff was coming from the opposite direction and was heading straight, according to Lancaster police.

Foster failed to yield to McGriff. The two collided, McGriff flew off the mo-ped and ended up underneath the Honda.

Guidelines about how surveillance is to be used in local schools and who has access to it will soon be much clearer.

The Lancaster County school board unanimously passed first reading of a policy Tuesday night that explains how surveillance equipment will be used inside the schools.

"I consider it something we need to provide to ensure safety for the students," board member Mary Etta Taylor said. "I see it as protection for the students."