Superintendent
252.426.5741
In Perquimans County Schools, we believe and practice our motto - #EveryChildEveryChanceEveryDay. Our ultimate goal is to provide every child the opportunity to graduate from high school prepared to make their individual dream a reality. We are proud of our school system and the many opportunities we provide our students!
Our staff and students have continued to exceed expectations before, during, and after the pandemic. I want to share with you some of our school district’s accomplishments during the 2022-2023 school year.
We are extremely proud of our highly qualified staff. Since 2017, Perquimans County Schools have proudly had a State Principal of the Year, two Regional Teachers of the Year, three Regional Principals of the Year, a two-time CTE Regional Administrator of the Year, a school nutrition state president, and a National Distinguished Elementary Principal of the Year. Our district continues to be recognized by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards as a National Board Accomplished District for our high percentage of National Board Certified teachers. We are also fully staffed PreK-8 and all of our high school classes are being taught by Highly Qualified teachers.
Academically, our students are excelling. Students at Perquimans Central School exceeded the state proficiency rate in Kindergarten through second grade! In 2022-2023, we exceeded the regional averages in 15 out of 18 tested areas. This year, we improved our proficiency to even higher rates in 11 areas. Our school system continues to have no low-performing schools.
We embrace the Portrait of a Graduate competencies and are preparing our students for post-secondary pathways as soon as they enter our school system. Our graduation rate last year was 89.1%. The graduating class of 2023 was awarded over 1.2 million dollars in scholarships from local, state, and institutional levels. These students submitted a total of 321 college applications and received 266 acceptance letters. That is an 83% acceptance rate! 71% of our students were college, trade, or technical school bound, 23% were career bound, 2% were military bound, and 3% were undecided. Our goal is for 100% of our students to be prepared for the next step in their lives once they graduate.
We are proud to provide our students with 1:1 technology through Chromebooks that are issued to each student K-12. Teaching students how to be responsible digital consumers helps prepare them to be competitive in a global economy. We also provide families without internet access a hotspot to help bridge the digital divide.
We know and realize that extra-curricular activities are an important part of a child’s educational experience. For that reason, our school system offers a robust extra-curricular program. Students have the opportunity to participate in many high quality competitive sports at the middle and high school including football, volleyball, cross country, cheerleading, soccer, baseball, softball, track and field, swimming, golf, and basketball. Last year our girls’ volleyball team were state runners up. Two years prior, our baseball team was back-to-back state champions. Volleyball, softball, girls’ basketball, girls’ track, and men’s soccer were all conference champions with great runs in the state play-offs.
In addition to athletics, we also have a flourishing cultural arts program K-12 including band, visual arts, drama and music. We have an outstanding theater, marching band, concert band, and winter guard. Our Marching Pirates had the highest scoring performance received from any NCHSAA Division 1A school in the state for the second consecutive year and won many band competitions. The Winter Guard team ended the season as Gold Medalists in the Regional A2 division at the Championships held at the Hampton Coliseum.
Students are able to participate in a variety of clubs and extracurricular activities at both the middle and high school. We are proud to be recognized as a National Beta Club School of Distinction. Students have a wide variety of career exploration opportunities and pathways through our Career and Technical Education Program (CTE). Our CTE pathways offer students the opportunity to learn about agriculture through an animal science lab, horticulture, hydroponics, and agricultural mechanics. Students can also explore skilled trades such as construction and advanced manufacturing through our partnership with the College of the Albemarle. The Health Science and Family and Consumer Science courses develop a pipeline of talent for jobs in these high-demand, high-skilled careers. Finally, students have the opportunity to enter the workforce as a firefighter through our Fire Tech courses offered at our high school.
None of this happened by chance. This happened because of the intentional and purposeful focus of our Perquimans County Schools staff, the hard work of our students, and the support of our parents and community.
When I came to Perquimans County Schools in 2019, we adopted the motto of every child every chance every day. We have continued this motto because it has been embraced by our school system, parents, community, and is part of our mission. It embodies what we all should be about as educators. Each one of us is a servant leader and our “why” is obviously our students.
We are excited about the 2023-2024 school year and the opportunities it brings us to serve #EveryChildEveryChanceEveryDay! Follow me on Facebook and Twitter.