APR I 7
Power squadron on third year
Rage 4
Pirates spring pastVVilliamston
Rage?
Hunter safety team tops state
Rage 12
P11/C5
PERQUIMANS COUNTY LIBRARv
^0 W ACADEMY ST
HERTFORD, NC 27944-1306
Apir277 2005
Vol. 73, No. 17 Hertford, North Carolina 27944
HiKi-FORD, NC 27944-1306
x^RQuiiYi/c 4S
Weekly
Ihidition
cancelled
for 2005
Old Timer’s
games should
return next
spring
ERIN RICKERT
Though several resi
dents are hopeful for its
return, Perquimans
County’s annual Old
Timers baseball game, a
Mother’s Day weekend tra
dition for more than 20
years, will take the season
off this year.
“I hate it is not happen
ing,” said Helen Hunter,
wife of former New York
Yankees pitcher and the
event’s creator Jimmy
“Catfish” Hunter. “It’s just
been a great time of fellow
ship together, but we’ve
been blessed to have it this
long.”
In early March the
Athletic Boosters, who have
hosted the game for years,
were forced to discontinue
their involvement with the
event.
Susan Cox, Perquimans
County Schools athletic
director, cited lack of man
power as the main reason
the boosters gave it up but
also said other reasons she
could not mention factored
into the decision.
Two longtime partici
pants in the game, Tommie
Dale and Edgar Roberson,
would later offer to take
charge of the event —
though not in time to coor
dinate everything for the
May game.
Not since 1981 when the
hall of fame player, Helen
and the members of thel963
state championship team
started the event, have ball
players young and old not
taken time out to partici
pate in the Old Timers
Game to raise money to
purchase equipment for use
in school athletics.
This year’s game would
have marked 24 years cur
rent Perquimans County
High School ball players
and former ball players, out
of the game for 15 years or
more, were together in com
petition.
Yet even though the
game will not take place
this year, the tradition is
expected to return in 2006.
Roberson, a member of
Bear Swamp Beech Springs
Ruritan Club, and Dale, a
member of the Parksville
Ruritan Club are currently
working to elect members
in both clubs for a commit
tee whose sole job would be
to organize the Old Timers
Game.
“I just didn’t want to see
it die,” Roberson said. “It’s
a legacy. We want to keep it
going.”
Traditionally, a game
between the varsity base
ball team and former ball
players takes place — the
only game at the event for
the first seven years.
The event later grew to
include games between the
former players and mem
bers of the junior varsity
baseball team as well as the
softbaU team.
Continued on page 7
Warren remembered
Erin Rickert
Shakim Rolon Warren’s smile
could light up a room. Now it’s only
a memory in the pictures that pep
per shirts, necklaces and pins worn
by hundreds of his classmates,
friends and family.
The youngest of five boys,
Shakim was a talented athlete with
a sense of humor that made him
hard not to like.
“You could not find one person
that did not like Shakim,” said his
brother Travis Warren. “He was spe
cial and he will be missed.”
Saturday, more than a week after
his shooting, thel7 year-old was laid
to rest after a service in the
Perquimans County High School
gymnasium.
During the service several speak
ers shared fond memories including
his girlfriend of .close to a year,
Jaleesa Privott, who read a poem she
had written that talked of their rela
tionship and the future they had
dreamt about together.
In attendance were more than 500
friends and family who paid tribute
to the Hertford teenager who had a
profound love for basketball.
Fellow varsity ball players Kelvin
Linton and Kwabena Skinner, who
had played baU with- Shakim since
middle school, said the star point
guard was someone the team could
always count on in a pinch.
“He was a great leader,” Linton
said. “The floor general. \^enever
we needed that shot at the end he got
it. It was all about basketball.”
The Friday after Shakim’s death
April 14, the AAU basketball team
Shakim was to travel with attended
an away game in Concord, near
Charlotte — a game Shakim was
looking forward to playing in.
Though Skinner said each game
was dedicated to their fallen team
Continued on page 10
Spring visit
PHOTO BY ERIN RICKERT
Virginia Beach natives Margaret Lowrance and Kimberly Voight take a rest from sight seeing during a Fun Tour
Thursday. Accompanying the two in period clothing are Newbold-White House Site Manager Sarah Parr and
Hertford Mayor Sid Eley.
School board approves principal changes
ERIN RICKERT
The School Board voted
unanimously Monday
evening to accept the super
intendent’s recommenda
tions to reassign two school
administrators after the
resignation of Perquimans
County High School’s prin
cipal last week.
The decision will move
Perquimans Middle School
Principal Melvin Hawkins
to the high school and
Jamie Liverman, the assis
tant principal of the middle
school, to that school’s
principal position effective
July 1.
“I am excited about Dr.
Wells decisions,” Hawkins
said. “I am excited that he
noticed that there are good
and capable school leaders
in this system and that he
did not have to look outside
to find something that was
already here.”
The reassignment comes
after PCHS Principal Hans
Lassiter submitted his let
ter of resignation last
Tuesday to take a similar
position at Southern Lee
High School in Sanford
near Raleigh.
Hans Lassiter
“I am proud of the
opportunity that has come
before him [Lassiter],” said
Perquimans County
Schools Superintendent Dr.
Kenneth W. WeUs. “He has
served us well.”
Lee County school offi
cials approached Lassiter
and urged him to apply for
the position at a Closing the
Achievement Gap confer
ence held April 4-6 in
Greensboro where he was
one of the keynote speak
ers.
Lassiter declined, but
when he returned to school
April 7 there was a message
from a Lee County School
official urging him again to
Melvin Hawkins
apply for the position.
“Reluctantly I finally
sent them my informa
tion,” Lassiter said. “And as
they say, the rest is history.”
Twelve days, three panel
and two telephone inter
views later, Lassiter was
chosen out of more than 71
candidates to head the new
facility when it opens
August 2005.
The facility, built in
response to an overcrowd
ing problem in Lee
County’s 14-school system,
will accommodate 1,400 stu
dents.
“This was a tough deci
sion,” Lassiter said. “Not
too long ago I remember
Jamie Liverman
when I could not get a
chance. These folks gave
me that chance.”
During the two years
Lassiter was principal at
PCHS, 89 of the 107 gradu
ates in last year's class
went on to attend two or
four year colleges.
Student proficiency on
end-of-year tests also
increased from 71.2 per
cent to 75.5 percent during
the 2004-05 academic year.
Lassiter’s also received
several honors that include
both the 2004 and 2005
Triple “S” School Award
and the Rex Whittington
Community Educator of
Continued on page 7
Growth
will force
schools to
deny pre-k
applicants
ERIN RICKERT
Due to growing numbers
of kindergarten and pre
kindergarten students in
the area, the Perquimans
County School system is
now facing a registration
dilemma that will mean
denial of service to nearly a
third of pre-kindergarten
students that have regis
tered for the 2005-06 acade
mic year.
“We will not be able to
provide pre-kindergarten
services as we have in years
past,” said Perquimans
County Schools
Superintendent Dr.
Kenneth W. Wells. “We may
have as many as 30 students
we will not be able to serve.
We just can’t afford to oper
ate under the level we have
in the past.”
WeUs said records from
two years ago show this
year’s registration is
already up nearly 60 stu
dents and climbing.
As of Monday afternoon,
79 children had registered
for the 72 slots Perquimans
Central School is able to
offer pre-kindergarten stu
dents. This is in addition to
several other transfers and
students of school staff
already on a waiting list.
Though registration wiU
only remain open until
Friday, Wells said the
school system could see as
many as 40 more students
register late or apply as
transfers during the sum
mer months.
“This is the largest
dilemma we are facing for
next year,” Wells said.
“Bigger even than the con
struction.”
Wells said by law the
school system is required to
provide students who meet
age requirements with
kindergarten services, but
they are not required to
provide the community
with pre-kindergarten ser
vices.
As a result. Wells said
pre-kindergarten services
would suffer to provide the
extra section needed to
accommodate the 126
Continued on page 10
Weekend
Weather
Thursday
High: 72
Low: 52
Partly Cloudy
Friday
High: 71
Low: 58
Isolated T'storms
Saturday
High: 78
Low: 58
Isolated T'storms