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"News from Next Door”
Children’s holiday art, 4-5
DECEMBER 18, 2013 - DECEMBER 24, 2013 50 cents
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Teacher turnover in Per
quimans County is lower
than most school districts
in North Carolina, but still
two thirds of the 15 who left
last year didn’t retire, but
instead left for a teaching
position elsewhere.
The numbers were part of
a report released this month
by the N.C. Department
of Public Education to the
state board. The report will
in turn be presented to the
N.C. Genei^ Assembly.
Perquimans had 10 teach
ers leave in 2012-13 yet
stayed in education. Three
retired with full benefits
or left for health or family
reasons, one left for some
other personal reasons and
one was either dismissed
or didn’t have their contract
renewed.
“It is disheartening
that classroom
teachers haven’t
seen pay raises for a
number of years.’’
Brenda Lassiter
School spokeswoman
Statewide turnover rates
ranged from a liigh of 35
percent in Northampton
County Schools to a low of
7.3 percent in Surry County
Schools. The Perquimans
rate was 12.7 percent.
With the exception of
Pasquotank County, all of
the school districts in the Al
bemarle area had turnover
rates that were less than the
state average of 14.3 per
cent. Camden had the low
est at 9.7 percent followed
by Currituck at 11.7 percent,
Chowan at 14.1 percent and
Pasquotank at 17.3 percent.
The report covers the pe
riod from 2012-13.
Brenda Lassiter, a spokes
person for the Perquimans
school system, said two of
the teachers that left last
year but remained in educa
tion went to work in Virginia
where salaries are higher.
“It is disheartening that
classroom teachers haven’t
seen pay raises for a num
ber of years,” Lassiter said.
“They (educators) are work
ing diligently to advance to
administrative positions or
secure advanced education
degrees for higher salaries.”
Teacher turnover isn’t a
new development, the state
report shows, but there are
some disturbing trends. 'The
report called the increase in
the turnover rate from 2011-
12 rate of 12.1 percent “sig
nificant”
Also almost half of the
teachers had career status
in the latest year. That com-
See TURNOVER, 2
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
Hertford lineman Craig Matthews instaiis one of the new banners on Market Street eariier this month.
Colorful banners seen downtown
BY PETER WILLIAMS .
News Editor
It Started with an idea and five
months later, that idea turned into
reality.
A trio of Perquimans County wom
en designed and created 10 holiday
banners for Historic Hertford, Inc. to
grace the light poles downtown.
Judy Cudworth tells the story.
“We were at a meeting at the
beautification committee and -LaUian
Holman said she thought we needed
some banners for the holidays. So
we hauled out a catalog and looked
through it but wow, they were like
$70 a piece and I knew we needed 10
See BANNERS, 11
Judy
Cudworth,
Annis
Murphy and
Anne Carper
pose in front
of one of the
banners on
Grubb Street.
The three
voiunteered
their time to
create the
banners.
Lane
earns
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
North Carolina’s larg
est specialty medical asso
ciation honored Dr. Robert
Lane as its 2013 Family Phy
sician of the Year during a
meeting earlier this month
in Asheville.
“It’s humbling to get such
an award when you’re stand
ing in front of 750 other doc
tors,” Lane said last week.
As the
North Caro
lina winner.
Lane will be
eligible for
the nation
al award by
the Ameri
can Acade-
LANE my of Fam
ily Physicians, a group with
110,000 members.
Lane operates Coastal
Carolina Family Practice
in Hertford. He’s practiced
medicine for more than 40
years and worked in the
area since 1973 when he
moved to Edenton.
Lane, who will turn 72 in
February, has no plans of
retiring. However since the
addition of a second doc
tor to die practice, he does
plan to scale back a litde.
But he’s not ready to end a
career he adores.
“During my 40Bplus years
in practice, I have been for
tunate to do something I
truly love,” Lane said at the
awards ceremony. “All these
years of caring for families
and taking care of our com
munity have made my life
and my practice of medicine
complete.”
L^e says he er\joys prac
ticing a wide variety of med
icine. It was the lure of do
ing just that that drew him
to area back in 1973 and it is
what keeps him going.
“I was really looking for a
place to do a little of every
thing,” he said.
'The hospital in Edenton,
which was built a few years
before he arrived, offered
that.
Lane started working
in Hertford fulltime in the
1980s. Chowan Hospital
had been rotating doctors in
and out through a Hertford
office, but Lane said “that
wasn’t working” so he vol
unteered to work in Hert
ford full time.
He operated out of an
office on Market Street for
years and then moved to the
current facility on Church
Street. While the building
is owned by Chowan Hos
pital, the medical practice
belongs to Lane.
He quit delivering babies
in 1985 and has served the
See DR. LANE, 11
Perquimans leaders worried about future of extension
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The N.C. Extension Ser
vice is a vital part of Per
quimans County and local
leaders attended a meeting
last week to express that to
state officials looking to cut
89076 47144
back.
Perquimans County Man
ager Frank Heath, Com
missioner Matt Peeler and
others attended a listening
session in Roper. The event
was the 12th in a series and
the last of the listening tours
around the state.
Perquimans County
extension director Lewis
Smith is retiring at the end
of this month after 33 years
in the program. 'There are
no immediate plans to re
RETIREMENT CELEBRATION
There will be a retirement celebration for Lewis W. Smith Jr., in
honor of 33 years of service to the extension service today. A float
ing reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Perquimans County
Jlecreation Center.
place him.
Heath doesn’t like it and
says so.
“We wanted them to
know that this (agriculture)
is the number one industry
we have,” Heath said last
week.
Heath is arguing that
extension should keep the
Perquimans County exten
sion positions filled. He
said the extension service is
vital to providing unbiased
information to local farm
ers and without it, the local
economy could suffer.
But many counties are
facing cutbacks, the group
was told at the meeting at
the Vernon James Exten
sion Center.
Joe Zublena, state exten
sion director, said there has
been a $13.7 million budget
cut for extension in the past
four years. The current bud
get is $52 million. Of that,
$39 million comes from the
state, $11 million from the
federal government and $2
million from other sources.
Zublena said since 2000,
90 county positions have
been permanently lost.
Smith said he knows of four
slots in the Bertie County
extension office that haven’t
been filled. Smith himself
has been filling in as the
interim director in Pasquo
tank County for nearly three
See EXTENSION, 2