Newspapers / The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, … / Dec. 10, 1981, edition 1 / Page 1
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, THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY Vo4urm 17, No. USPS4M-0<0 Hertford, Ptrquiman* County, N.C., Thursday, DEC. 10, mi 20 CENTS Exam results show improvement at PCHS teats at Perquimans County High School ahowed that county student* continue to improve in reading and math ability, and in tact did far tetter than the atate average. County School Superintendent Pat HarreU released the figures to the county Board of Education at the ^ board's meeting Monday morning. The figures show a steady increase in the reading teat scores over the last four years. In addition, students have improved in some problem areaa sited by the test scores. construction Missing Mill Park will become a reality in late spring only if Gaither Builders of Raleigh presents the town I of Hertford and the City Manager with " a performance bond by this Thursday, reported Mayor Bill Cox at the town council meeting Monday night. Councilman Billy Winslow ex pressed concern over the absence of the bond as the next-lowest bid was over $20,000 above the Gaither figure, funds the town may not be able to provide. Snag delays town Gaither Builders won the shelter walkway-parking lot contract, the ?) largest expenditure of the project. The company also submitted the low bid on the landscaping. Edenton Construction Company presented a figure of 964.M2, $20,574 above the Gaither bid of $44,358. Holland Landscaping of Merry Hill presented a figure of $9,317 for the landscaping, compared to $5,326 submitted by Gaither. I Each bid accepted by the board must be backed by a 5 percent per formance bond to protect the town from default. Cox anticipated the Gaither bid is forthcoming. "I have no reason to believe otherwise until Thursday," Cox said. The park project has been in the planning stages for six years. At present, the town has cleared and filled the site, at a cost of $44,000. 0 When completed, the park will contain a picnic shelter, a pier, restrooms, and a parking lot, much needed recreational facilities in this county. The county Parks and Recreation Department will maintain the area. Chief Marshall Merritt and Captain Robert Morris of the Hertford Police Department informed the board of J) imminent state and federal regulations governing radar units. New radar equipment must be purchased in July 19(2 to comply with these new guidelines. All officers will be required to attend a training school before they are eligible to operate a radar unit. The board tabled further discussion pending the release of the new code. Shoppers take note Why shop anywhere else for Christmas? Hertford offers many op portunities for county Christmas shoppers to find just what they need for those people on their list. And during the Christmas season, Hertford stores will ex pand their hours for the con venience of their customers. Starting December ll, the majority of stores will remain open until ? p.m., according to the Perquimans County Chamber of Commerce. They will close at $ p.m. on Christmas Eve, and will he closed Christmas Day and New Year's Day. At Chamber noted toe ?* "There's been an increased interest in teaching the fundamental, basic skilte." said HarreU. "We've been taking a look at our language arts program to see what we were teaching and how we were teaching it." "We've been trying to teach practical skills in our schools. I think this is evidence of the hard work our teachers have been doing." The tests were given to 117 high school Junior and seniors in October. By state law, high school students mutt pass both the reading and math sections in order to graduate with a high school diploma . The figures, compiled by Paul Ward at the superintendent's office, show that significant increase in reading scores (or first-time test takers. In 1978, 86.2 percent of the students passed, while in 1M1 the number who passed jumped to 11.7 For the total test group, which in cluded students who had failed the test previously, the number who passed increased somewhat over the last four years, from 88.2 in 1978 to 87.7 in 1881. Math scores, usually better than reading for high school students generally, dropped somewhat (or county students this year. "I don't really know why that happened." said HarreU. "We've got to look at our math program a little more closely." For first time test takers, 14.6 percent passed in 1971, and tt.l passed in 1M1. But the number passing was higher last year, with 89.7 making a passing grade. For the total group tested, $4.6 passed in 1978, peaking in 1990 to 87.7 percent, and falling considerably this year to 84.2 percent. Of first time juniors taking the test. 92 percent topped the region and state scores in reading scores, 17 percent in math scores. In the problem areas indicated by the test scores, county students have shown some improvement. In the math test, the students im proved considerably in geometric ideas questions, getting 55 percent correct in 1979 and 60.9 in 1981. A big increase was noted in questions on determining areas, with students getting 39.9 percent correct in 1990 and 49.1 in 1991. Santa comes to town Santa Claus had his work cut out for him Sunday afternoon. After ap pearing in the Hertford Christmas Parade, he sat down in front of the courthouse and listened to the Christmas wishes of local children. According to Santa, allthechildren.all of these children admitted to being good this year. For more photos from the Christmas Parade, turn to page nine. Bigger is not better, school official says Bigger is not necessarily better. That goes for schools just as much as it does cars, babies and governments. That was the message given to the Perquimans County Board of Education by Bill Britt, director of the Northeast Begional Education Center. "We used to think that if we got bigger we can find a solution to our problems," Britt said. "But now we see that larger does not mean better." Britt spoke before the board during latf Monday's meeting. His theme was that small school systems also have something to offer students, and the systems ? like Perquimans County ? shouldn't let their sise be a liability. As bead of the Northeast Regional Education Center, an extension of the state school system. Britt consults with school superintendents in his region to Had better ways of teaching children. Having seen school systems across the state, Britt has his own preference in types el sehools. A graduate of a arniU school himself, he knows what kind of school fcel like his daughter te "People don't believe me when I tell them thia, but I would rather have my Martha in Perquimans High School than Cary High School (a much larger "She'll anybody at % Cary- She'll never get to know her teacher*. She'll never get to know her principal. She won't be able to learn from people. "As you get bigger, you lose something. I think that is something that we do&'t consider as much as we shoflW." T Britt sited several advantages to small schools. Along with having the personal contact that he believes is necessary far learning, they also have lower discipline problems. "You might think you have a discipline problem, but you don't." he said. "John may get into a fight with Joe, but John and Joe have been fighting tor years. That's not a discipline iirnMnm " proDicm Small schools don't have the van dalism either. "It would cost you more to print out the forms (van dalism reports) than it would to repair the vandalism." Concerning teaehing in small schools, Britt noted that it is no longer true that a elass has to have 29 or JO students In order tor it to worth the coot of hiring a teacher. With computers and video displays, teachers can play a different role. "We have to change an thinking a boot what school is and the function of teachers," be said. 80 fires* ss the day when teachers subject, but giving background and individual help to students in various subjects, the students receiving most of their learning from computers. When this idea was first brought to people's attention some ten years ago, the price of such a computer system was about $1 million, Britt said. Now it's about $15,000. With the im provement in cost and performance of computers, "we can now do a lot of things we couldn't do before, and still remain cost-effective." he said. These advantages make the school consolidations of past years no longer necessary, and even unproductive, , Britt believes. "Smaller school systems think they have problems they don't have," Britt said. "And if we spend a lot of time and resources addressing problems we don't have, we don't have the time and resources for the problems we do have." For stolen goods charge Court rules in favor . I _ ' I of Harvey brothers Judge J.R. Parker presided over la*t Wednesday, Dec. 2. seasion of District Court and heard the following cases. George Harvey was found not guilty of receiving stolen goods and Probable Cause waa not found In a second receiving stolen goods charge. Proboble Cause waa found in the ease of Prod Julian Harvey, charged with aasault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflecting serious injury. No Probable Cauae was found in three counts of receiving stolen goods. Mel via Ray White pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of breaking and entering and larceny as well as Injury to personal property and was given a minimum sentence of IS months and a maximum of II months in the Department of Corrections, suspended for three yaars. White was told to pay a fine of $250 and the cost of court, to make POO (Comttomd cm i) But students lost ground on questions concerning installments, bills, receipts and credit cards, get ting 57.5 correct in 19M and 4S.7 correct in 1961. A smaller decrease was found in questions concerning utility bills, students getting 62.3 percent of the questions right, down from 67.1 last year. Students showed a huge jump in some reading skills though. Questions concerning comparing and con trasting information increased from 50 percent in 1979 to 76.2 percent in 1981. Tests show county hits good water Results from test wells dug for Phase II of the county's water program indicate that the county has been very fortunate in the site picked for the new wells. The results were presented to the county Board of Commissioners at their Monday meeting by represen tatives of Rivers & Associates, the county's contractor for the project. Those figures indicate that the water on that site will not only be a good quality, but the quantity was also high. Three test wells were dug on the Old County Home property in Winfall, which will be the site of the wells for the project. According .to Ron Sessoms, representative of Rivers & Associates. "The tests came out much better than we expected." Sessoms added that because of the quality of the water, the county can expect a "much lower" expense for treatment of the water. On the four quality factors that cause the greatest treatment expense ? iron content, hardness, flouride content and salt content ? the test wells showed the water to be either as good as expected or much better, Sessoms said. For example, salt content ? a major problem for water sources in Perquimans County ? was 68 to 100 parts per million. Sessoms said the state maximum is 250 parts per million, and he had expected the tests to show about 150 parts per million. Iron content was also much lower than expected, Sessoms said. This was good news because "one of the major costs in the other treatment plant (in Bethel) is treating the high iron content," Sessoms said. Sessoms said that the quality of the water was mostly luck. "We in the dark about it until we drill the test wells," he said. Rivers & Associates has filed ap plications to all but one of the federal and state agencies which must grant approval before Jhe project can be started. The one exception, the state Division of Health Services, could not be filed until the results of the test wells came in. Once approval is granted from those agencies, the project must then be approved by the Farm Home Administration. If all goes as planned, and there are delays or changes to be made in the plans, the county will begin to accept bids for the project in February In other action, the board unanimously re-elected Joe Nowell as chairman of the board. Nowell was the only nominee for the spot. The board elected Welly White vice chairman of the board, after nominating both White and Marshall Caddy. The board re-elected Jeanne White clerk of the board. r This week The Pirate basketball teams sweep past Camden. See page 10. Weather Partly cloudy and cold thnmgh Saturday. Highs is the Ms and lows In the opp?rMBtolewMs.
The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
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Dec. 10, 1981, edition 1
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