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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Actions deplete
Aces’ wrestling
ranks Page 8A
Read Letters
to Santa
Pages IB-1 OB
Schools
to seek
| Race to
1 Top funds
| ■•••■- r
I By Rebecca Bunch
Staff" Writer
During a special meet
ing Thursday the Edenton
- Chowan Board of Education
voted unanimously to join
other school systems in the
state by seeking funds associ
ated with the federal “Race to
the Top” initiative.
Thurs
day’s im
pr om ptu
meeting was
necessary so
the school
district
could beat
the Jan. 5
deadline for
application
submissions. To be consid
ered for the federal funding,
the school board is required
to submit a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) to the
state with the signatures of
Superintendent Allan Smith,
Ricky Browder, board chair
man, and Beth Gagnon, lo
cal chapter president of the
North Carolina Association
of Educators.
As of Thursday, Gagnon
had not yet heard from her
Smith
See RACE on Page 2A
County to
reap Rural
Center
grants
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
Chowan County and the
town of Edenton stand to ben
efit from a series of grants,
courtesy of the North Caro
lina Rural Center.
The Rural Center an
nounced Thursday that the
agency will award $5 mil
lion among 34 grants spread
across the state, part of an
effort to create jobs and im
prove community develop
ment in rural areas. Another
initiative behind the grant
is to provide access to clean
water or upgrade wastewater
systems.
“It’s part of an ongoing
effort to improve the rural
counties in North Carolina,”
said Garnet Bass, director
of communications for the
center. “The purpose of the
grants is to create jobs in ar
eas that have been hit hard
economically."
Grant proceeds were made
possible by appropriations of
the N.C. General Assembly
and voter-approved bonds.
The Rural Center’s board of
See GRANT on Page 3A
©2009 The Chowan Herald
| All Rights Reserved
f
BRETT A. CLARK/THE DAILY ADVANCE
Top: Boys dressed as
shepherds sit around a fire
as participants in
the “Angels and the
Shepherds" Christmas
scene at Center Hill Baptist
Church’s panorama called
“The Greatest Gift, Sunday.
BRETT A CLARK/THE DAILY ADVAET
Right: This scene is titled “Je
sus and the Children,” one of
several scenes in Center Hill
Baptist Church’s panorama
held Sunday at the church.
Ex-con; Inmates need 2nd chance
Whitehurst hopes to open halfway homes
By DIANA MAZZELLA
The Daily Advance
¥¥Then an inmate is released from Pasquotank
«J\f Correctional institution, he leaves with a
W ¥ set of clothes, an in-state bus ticket and $50.
That’s not a lot to try and start a new life with,
particularly when you’re at the bottom of the hire
list and the world is much changed from when you
were first locked up.
Darren Whitehurst knows first hand just how
hard it is to start over after spending time in prison.
A former college baseball player, Whitehurst spent
10 years incarcerated for drug-related offenses after
getting hooked on crack cocaine.
While in prison, Whitehurst earned a degree in
counseling from East Carolina University. Today,
he’s a car salesman at Toyota of Elizabeth City, a
minister at Saunders Grove Missionary Baptist
Church and owns his own lawn-care business.
Whitehurst, 42, is far from the typical former
See WHITEHURST on Page 2A
JUSTIN FALLS/THE DAILY ADVANCE
Darren Whitehurst, associate pastor of Saunders Grove Missionary Baptist Church,
seen in this photo Monday, Dec. 14, is helping to start halfway houses in Martin
and Chowan counties for former prison inmates.
Schools net dropout prevention grants
Edenton-Chowan
receives third grant.
By Kristin Pitts
Staff Writer
Local school districts that
fall below the state’s average
graduation rate have been
awarded grants that area
superintendents hope will
deter at-risk students from
dropping out.
The Edenton-Chowan and
Perquimans school districts
both received $175,000 grants
from the North Carolina
Committee on Dropout Pre
vention.
The Elizabeth City-Pasquo
tank Public Schools received
$65,000.
On average, North Caro
lina schools graduate 71.7
percent of their students,
according to the North Caro
lina Department of Public
Instruction’s Web site. Eden
ton-Chowan, Elizabeth City
Pasquotank and Perquimans
all fell below that rate for the
2008-09 academic year.
According to DPI, Edenton
Chowan’s graduation rate
was 70.6 percent, Elizabeth
City-Pasquotank’s was 69.3
percent and Perquimans’
was 64.4 percent.
Although this January
will mark the first year that
Elizabeth City-Pasquotank
will benefit from the grant,
this will be Edenton-Chow
an’s third dropout preven
tion grant, and Perquimans’
second.
Edenton-Chowan Super- *
intendent Allan Smith and
Perquimans Superintendent
See DROPOUT on Page 3A
Town could
see more
tourism
funding
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor .
Much of Edenton’s future
tourism funding likely rests
with collaborative partner
ships.
Secretary Linda A. Carlisle, .
N.C. Department of Cultural
Resources, delivered the mes
sage Thursday during her
first visit to Edenton, part of
her commitment to tour the
state’s 27 historic districts.
Part of her marketing' ob
jective is to grow tourism op
portunities so visitors “stay
longer, spend more.”
“I’m very excited about put
, ting some of those stimulus
dollars to work here in Eden
ton,” Carlisle said.
Town and county officials
on hand at the Historic Eden
ton Visitor Center to greet
Carlisle welcomed her news,
“We have limited resources
for marketing and a tremen
dous amount of assets,” said
Mayor Roland Vaughan.
Carlisle told the group
that she has been laying the
groundwork for partnerships
that will prove beneficial to
the area.
“I’m not at all happy if all
we can do is open the doors in
the morning and then lock up
at night,” Carlisle said.
Edenton’s Roanoke River
Lighthouse is one project
that received funding from
the work of a partnership.
By partnering with the state
Department of Transporta
tion, organizers were able
to relocate the lighthouse to
Colonial Park where the 18th
century structure will under
go restoration. So far, $600,000
has been secured for the first
phase of the restoration ef
fort. Plans include a second
phase as well with another
$600,000 that has yet to be
secured.
See FUNDING on Page 3A
CHOWAN HERALD PHOTO BY RITCHIE E. STARNES
Linda A. Carlisle, secretary of the
N.C. Department of Cultural Re
sources (left), joins Madison Phil
lips, historian and volunteer, on
the porch of the Roanoke River
Lighthouse. Phillips took Carlisle
on a tour of the 18th cehtury
structure during her first visit to >
Edenton, Thursday.
"Com* Join U*A* We Celebrate
L.. i % Qw Lord** Birth" \ Ti
\, ST. PAUL’S, 101 W. CHURCH ST. ?
Father Thomas M. Rickenbaker, Rector
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
'* (' V invites you to their ‘ / >
CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES
* 5:30 PM CHILDREN’S SERVICE
10:30 PM SPECIAL CHRISTMAS MUSIC
11:00 PM CANDLELIGHT COMMUNION
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