This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Staff writer

Isle of Wight County Schools eliminated 21 positions, including 8 teachers, recently after receiving county funding $400,000 less than what it had requested.

The Isle of Wight County School Board unanimously approved its $55 million budget, and soon after teachers began receiving notices that they had been let go.

According to spokesperson Kenita Bowers, at the elementary level, staff was reduced by four teachers, four kindergarten aides and 1.5 clerical positions.

At the middle and high school level, four teachers and three clerical positions were eliminated.

There were 1.5 administrators reduced across all schools, and three position were reduced at central office.

A request for more detail on specific positions and at which schools the cuts were made was not answered by press time.

Bowers said the positions were eliminated because of “challenging economic times coupled with increased expenses in special education services, utilities, transportation and building maintenance.”

According to Bowers, the schools have more than 80 positions that are not paid for by the state’s Standards of Quality funding.

The schools relied on attrition and reduction in force regulations to reduce staffing numbers, she said.

Reduction in force, when applied to teaching positions, targets teachers with a provisional license or a special education conditional license.

From there, teachers are laid off based on job performance, disciplinary history and participation in programs aimed at improving performance.

At a recent Board of Supervisors work session, Christina Berta, school executive director of finance and budgeting, told the Board of Supervisors that anything less than $24.6 million in county funding would result in cuts to school personnel.

The supervisors approved a $24.2 million school contribution — $400,000 less than what was reportedly need to stave off lay offs — on May 23.

...(Subscribe!)

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

News editor

Isle of Wight Academy passed out diplomas Friday to 58 graduates — its largest class to date — including four valedictorians, one salutatorian and the most honor graduates ever.

“Everything about this class is the biggest,” said Joseph Whitley, assistant headmaster of the lower school and director of admission and development.

Valedictorian Erin Bertero gave out “notes” to her classmates that only they would understand, recalling drawing on each others arms, braiding hair, long talks, memories of sardines and riding the bus.

She ended her speech by quoting PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, who said, “It is not the critic that counts … the credit belongs to the man in the arena …”

Valedictorian Lindsey Cobble said she started at Isle of Wight Academy as a preschooler and “couldn’t wait to grow up.”

Coble said she would remember the family atmosphere of the school.

“Only at IWA can you find a cow field behind the soccer field and chickens in the courtyard.”

Valedictorian Shelbie Dashiell asked her classmates, “What is your purpose?”

The job of deciding that is left up to you, she said. ...(Subscribe!)

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Staff writer

After Isle of Wight County Schools Superintendent Katrise Perera announced her desire to leave the county and became a finalist for a superintendent position in Florida, some people remain uncertain whether she has officially resigned.

She has not.

In a May 17 press release, Perera announced “her intentions to pursue leadership opportunities outside of Isle of Wight County Schools” — but not her resignation.

Some media outlets reported it as such.

At the end of a May 24 School Board meeting, Perera reiterated that she had not resigned, saying that she had three years left of a four-year contract.

Perera has become one of five finalists in a superintendent search in St. Lucie County, Fla.

After the meeting, Newport representative Kent Hildebrand said the board members haven’t formally met to discuss Perera’s possible resignation, but have talked about it individually.

“(There’s a) consensus among the Board about what to do but until that time, we can’t speak to it,” he said.

If she chooses to leave, the conditions of her resignation are unclear. When Perera came to the division in June 2011, she signed a two-year contract that allowed her to voluntarily resign, providing she give 30 days notice.

After the resignation, all salary and benefits were to cease.

Perera’s contract would have expired June 30 this year, but the School Board unanimously approved a four-year contract in May 2012.

With that contract, the terms changed.

Nowhere in the contract does it say that Perera must give notice if she resigns.

In fact, it does not address voluntary resignation at all.

Rather, it speaks solely to the Board’s options. ...(Subscribe!)

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

News editor

A Carrollton minister announced he will run for the Newport Supervisor seat — either if and when Buzz Bailey is removed or two years from now when the seat is up for election.

Pastor William McCarty of Healing Waters Worship Center in Carrollton has called for Bailey’s resignation and also signed the petition for his removal.

Bailey came under fire recently due to comments he made at a May Board of Supervisors budget work session about Confederate money and the south rising again.

That was followed by a series of racist and off-color emails that surfaced about First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama. The emails were forwarded to a number of people by School Board member Herb DeGroft and Bailey, including county employees.

Despite calls for his resignation, Bailey has refused to do so, and McCarty was critical of that decision.

“When there’s no accountability it casts a shadow on our community and causes a lot of confusion,” he said.

A group of Carrollton residents are currently circulating a petition to have Bailey removed.

The final decision on whether he is removed or not, however, rests with a circuit court judge.

McCarty has long been interested in running for the Newport District seat and only refrained from doing so two years ago because there were already three candidates vying for the seat.

“I care about our community and want to serve them … I will definitely bring a different perspective,” he said. “Whether it’s sooner or later, I plan on running for that seat.”

...(Subscribe!)

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

News editor

A petition to remove Hardy District School Board representative Herb DeGroft is being circulated by members of the Isle of Wight NAACP.

The group is seeking at least 205 signatures from registered voters in the Hardy District and wants to have the petitions completed by July 1.

At the same time, a group of Newport District residents are circulating a petition to remove Newport District Supervisor Buzz Bailey.

So far, both men have refused to resign, although DeGroft announced that he would withdraw his candidacy for the School Board seat, which is up for election in November.

Two candidates have announced they would run for the seat — Tina Hill and Alvin Wilson. While the School Board voted 4-1 for DeGroft to resign, the Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors defeated a motion for Bailey’s removal with a 3-2 vote.

The wording of DeGroft’s removal petition is similar to that of Bailey’s, and accuses him of “neglect of duty, misuse of office and/incompetence in the performance of his duties …”

The petition goes on to state, “He has jeopardized the School Board’s current and future ability to attract students to Isle of Wight County Public Schools. Mr. DeGroft’s actions have created a hostile work environment for Isle of Wight County School Board employees. He has impaired Isle of Wight County School Board efforts to attract qualified women and minority work candidates and adversely affected the retention of the same.”

The issue arose during a May supervisor budget work session when Bailey expressed frustration with the county’s lack of money and repeated requests by departments for more funding by asking why Isle of Wight couldn’t print its own money like the federal government.

He then said, “Save your Confederate money. The south will rise again.”

That was followed by a series of emails that surfaced and that included a photo of bare-chested tribal women with spears, stating it was First Lady Michelle Obama’s high school reunion.

Another showed President Barack Obama on a tricycle and followed by a tank.

The emails were forwarded to a number of people by DeGroft and Bailey, including county employees.

The NAACP tried to encourage Bailey and DeGroft to bow out gracefully, but now this will open up the board to investigation, said NAACP President Dottie Harris at a meeting Monday. ...(Subscribe!)

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Staff writer

Hardy District School Board representative Herb DeGroft will not seek reelection this fall. DeGroft withdrew his petition for candidacy Monday.

In his letter to Isle of Wight County Registrar Lisa Betterton, DeGroft wrote, “With the certification of two very good quality citizens, Tina Hill and Alvin Wilson, Hardy Election District citizens will be well represented by either of these fine citizens come 1 January 2014.”

Hill, a nursing supervisor and wife of Smithfield High School Band director Aaron Hill, and Wilson, a business owner and longtime educator in Isle of Wight and Surry counties, Franklin and Hertford County, N.C., announced their candidacies last week.

DeGroft said he talked with his wife Mary Ellen, and decided not to run because two other qualified candidates had stepped forward. Both candidates will “bring a lot to the job,” said DeGroft.

DeGroft cited Hill’s nursing background as her strengths, and Wilson’s service in education as his.

He recommended that Wilson vote not as an assistant superintendent (a role he filled at Surry County Schools), but as a business owner.

When asked how much the criticism over his forwarding of several off-color emails had to do with his decision, DeGroft said he didn’t want the issue to resurface in the fall.

“Why put people through an election time with something that will be old news that doesn’t need to be resurrected?” he said. “We don’t need to raise its specter again when we really need to concentrate on who will be a good representative for the Hardy District.”

The Isle of Wight School Board asked DeGroft to resign his seat, but he has declined to do so.

With his decision not to run in this fall, his term will end Dec. 31.

The election for Hardy District School Board member will be held Nov. 5. (Subscribe!)