The Perquimans NAACP is calling on the county Board of Education to honor what it says is a six-year-old commitment to name without conditions the high school’s new athletic track for the first woman and first African American ever to chair the county Board of Commissioners.
In a May 4th open letter to Perquimans County residents, the local NAACP chapter said the school board voted unanimously in April 2018 to name the athletic track at the Perquimans County High School Athletic Complex, once it was built, in honor of the late M. Shirley Wiggins, who besides being a Winfall native and county commissioner, was also a U.S. Navy nurse who rose to the rank of captain prior to her retirement.
While the school board still supports naming the track for Wiggins, the NAACP points out the board is now adding conditions to the naming, conditions that weren’t stated when the original decision to honor Wiggins was made. The new conditions include raising $50,000 to help pay for both a storage building at the athletic complex and signage for the track.
The NAACP describes the new conditions for naming the track after Wiggins “unacceptable” and “duplicitous.”
“It is unacceptable that the (school) Board devised new conditions before honoring their unanimous vote to name the track, made back in April 2018, which did not include any conditions,” the NAACP’s letter reads. “This duplicitous behavior differs from what we expect or want from our Perquimans County Board of Education.”
School board explains position
The NAACP’s open letter is a response to an April 10th letter from Perquimans Board of Education Chairman Russell Lassiter to Debbie Jean Parker, chairwoman of the Perquimans NAACP, explaining the school board’s decision. Lassiter’s letter followed a presentation by Parker and the NAACP to the school board about the track’s naming on March 25.
In his letter, Lassiter said the school board “remains unanimously supportive” of naming the new track for Wiggins. However, the board has to weigh “several considerations” that make naming and dedicating the track in Wiggins’ honor “not as easy as it may seem,” he said.
Lassiter’s letter suggests that when it comes to naming facilities at the high school athletic complex, the school board is bound by a policy decision it made more than a decade ago. He notes that on Oct. 24, 2011, Charles Ward, then chairman of the Perquimans County High School Athletic Complex Fundraising Committee, proposed that naming rights for the high school’s athletic complex and its component parts be awarded for a minimum contribution of $100,000 either by an individual or corporation.
School officials then outlined 12 large components of the athletic complex project and proposed “gift requirements” for awarding naming rights for each one. The proposal required a minimum $200,000 donation to place the name of an individual, group or company on a field or facility; limited the naming of a particular component to three donors; awarded naming rights on a first come, first served basis; and gave the school board the right to refuse naming rights to donors who didn’t meet the board’s “moral or ethical mission.”
Lassiter’s letter states that after receiving input from its attorney and making several revisions, the school board voted unanimously on Nov. 28, 2011, to adopt a policy for naming specific buildings or portions of the new athletic complex. The new policy didn’t appear in the district’s policy manual, however, because it “apparently was not provided to (the district’s) usual policy provider,” Lassiter said.
Lassiter said “that may happen occasionally” with policies “not initially prepared by our policy service.” Even so, the policy was on the books and available from the board’s clerk if someone wanted a copy, he said.
“It remains in full force and effect and has since the Board approved it in 2011,” Lassiter’s letter states.
Lassiter said parts of the athletic complex were constructed with donations and gifts over the years, “many of which were given pursuant to the naming policy.”
Board OKs track’s naming
The first time the school board was asked to consider naming the athletic track for Wiggins was on March 26, 2018, when Judie Hoffler, at the time a member of the Athletic Design Committee, showed up at a school board meeting and made the request, citing the late community leader’s advocacy for children.
Lassiter said Hoffler acknowledged that the football field at the athletic complex had been named for Ward because of the monetary donation he and his family had made, and that the complex itself had been named for Dr. William Nixon because he had donated the land for it. She also acknowledged, according to Lassiter, that supporters of naming the track for Wiggins “realize this cannot be done without money, so they plan to assist through fundraisers and donations.”
The school board voted unanimously at its April 23, 2018, meeting to name the future track the M. Shirley Wiggins Track, Lassiter said. He acknowledged the board “did not consider or comply with the policy it had adopted in November 2011” when it took the vote.
Lassiter said the board was relying on Hoffler’s statement that “fundraising would be conducted to make the track a reality.”
“At the time, it seemed that the track would never materialize without such fundraising efforts,” he said.
COVID funding pays for track
But less than a year later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and to help public schools meet some of the challenges caused by the public health crisis, the federal government began funneling millions of dollars to public schools. According to Lassiter, Perquimans County Schools Superintendent Tanya Turner “wisely saw” that the district could use some of its federal dollars to build the new track, and she worked to make the project happen.
While the federal government agreed to allow Perquimans to use COVID-19 funds to build the track, it restricted the funds’ use, Lassiter said. One key restriction was that the school can’t use the track project for fundraising purposes, he said.
Lassiter said the school board and its attorneys have discussed “ways to work through these restrictions and still name the track for Ms. Wiggins,” who, he added, “seems clearly to be deserving of some recognition.” One avenue might be to change the board’s naming rights policy, he said. At the same time, the board needs to tread carefully, he said.
“The board also must be careful it does not alienate any of its other past, current or future supporters by creating a double standard between how financial contributions are required to secure naming rights for some but not others,” he said.
Conditions set for track’s naming
Lassiter’s letter to the NAACP notes that the school board’s 2018 vote to name the track for Wiggins did not set a date for when her name would actually be displayed at the facility; nor did it “preclude fundraising for other components” at the athletic complex, including a “much-needed” storage building and signage.
“Therefore, the Board (has) decided that a fundraising target of $50,000 must be met to provide for the storage building at the Athletic Complex and the signage to be erected for the track,” Lassiter’s letter reads.
Lassiter said school officials “are confident” Parker and the NAACP can raise the $50,000 to help the schools complete the athletic complex and “provide the recognition that we all agree is so well-deserved.”
Once the $50,000 has been raised, the school board will then determine “how to demonstrate the name of the track” and other unnamed components of the complex, “and when to dedicate the track formally in the name of M. Shirley Wiggins,” he said.
In its open letter to Perquimans residents, the NAACP notes that the school board’s unanimous vote to name the track for Wiggins in April 2018 did not mention other parts of the complex or any conditions like raising $50,000. The NAACP said it found both “unethical and alarming.”
“The Board needs to stop these divisive demands and follow their original decision ... especially since from April 2018 to March 2024 there had not been any Board action reflecting any change in their decision to move forward with naming the track in honor of” Wiggins, the letter reads. “The community must decide whether the Board’s actions demonstrate honest, ethical, and transparent behaviors.”
The letter points out Lassiter’s own admission that the school board didn’t follow its own 2011 naming policy when it voted in 2018 to name the track for Wiggins. The letter accuses the school board of blaming its non-compliance with the naming policy on the fact it hadn’t been published in the district’s policy manual.
But the NAACP’s letter claims that at least two current school board members were on the board in 2018 and were aware of the 2011 policy but didn’t include it in the vote to name the track for Wiggins. An NAACP official identified the two board members as Lassiter and Arlene Yates.
The letter also notes that four of the current board’s six members — Leary Winslow, Anne White, Lassiter and Yates — voted to name the track for Wiggins in 2018 without any preconditions.
The letter urges the school board to honor its 2018 vote.
“It is not too late to do what is right,” the letter states. “Keep your word, and let’s move forward as a community, demonstrating unity, commitment, and integrity.”
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