THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702090064
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: POPLAR BRANCH LENGTH: 152 lines
Fannie Newbern was last on the telephone list when votes were being gathered for Currituck County Public Schools' Principal of the Year.
``Whoever needs a vote, give 'em mine,'' Newbern told the woman caller, expecting to break a deadlock or establish a majority among seven candidates.
Little did Newbern know her vote made it a unanimous decision - for her.
The 54-year-old principal of Dr. W.T. Griggs Elementary School in Poplar Branch has been named the county's Wachovia Principal of the Year twice before, in 1988 and 1992.
But this year's award is different because it's likely to be her last.
The woman who has been an educational force for generations of Currituck residents is retiring.
``It's a nice way to go out,'' Newbern said of the honor. ``Better than being kicked out.''
Her official date of departure will be Jan. 1, 1998. She reconsidered leaving at the end of this school year after her longtime secretary, Faye Harrell, also announced her retirement on July 1.
``I think it'll make for a smoother transition here if I stay on a little longer,'' Newbern said last week during an interview in her office.
In that office, where the door is always open (except during conferences), are display cases and walls flanked with recognitions from years past.
In one corner is a huge bulletin board overloaded with dozens of snapshots and school pictures of students new and old. School memorabilia is tacked up there too, barely noticeable behind routine schoolwork proudly passed on by a few pupils.
Competing for space are several thank you letters, like an aging note from a kindergartner that reads: ``I LUV U MZ. NOWBRN/I CEN RIT/I DO GUD N SCHWL.''
``I tell people that's one of my smartest students,'' Newbern says, staring fondly at the yellowing letter.
By the time she makes her exit, Newbern will have spent 32 years in education - all but three of them in Currituck County.
Some will remember the Powells Point native as an inspiration, particularly to Currituck County teachers who were once Newbern's students before she became a principal 16 years ago.
Among her proteges is Martha McCall, who has been teaching at Griggs for a decade and currently works with gifted children in various grades.
Newbern taught McCall in both the fifth and sixth grades.
``It's hard to describe in words what a good leader she is,'' said McCall. ``You just don't run across that kind of quality leader very easily in education.''
Among the traits that McCall said she, and others on the staff, appreciate in their leader is Newbern's decisiveness.
``In my opinion, she is such a good problem-solver. She simplifies the problem while others can complicate the issues,'' McCall said.
Anyone familiar with Newbern also knows that the woman will speak her mind, no matter the audience.
``I say exactly what I think needs to be said - wherever it needs to be said,'' Newbern said with an air of defiance, not defensiveness.
``I think I've gained a certain amount of respect because of that. I'm fighting for the kids, and that makes the difference. I'm not fighting for me.''
Both present and past school system administrators have supported her efforts to improve educational opportunities in lower Currituck, Newbern said.
They've also enabled Newbern to remain principal at the school she graduated from in 1960.
``She runs a tight ship and has high expectations of staff and students. But underneath that forceful demeanor there's a heart of gold,'' said the schools' superintendent, Ronnie Capps.
``She does a lot of things for people privately that no one else knows about, whether it's emotional support or financial support,'' he said.
``Over a 25-year career as a school administrator, she's the best principal I've ever seen.''
That may be one reason Griggs Elementary has historically had the lowest teacher turnover in Currituck County. Newbern said some years there's virtually no change in staff.
But for all of her admirers, Newbern also has her critics. The tough-minded principal knows this.
``I could write you a list of people who would like to shoot me,'' she confessed.
But these days, the only thing being leveled at Newbern is praise.
She stood at the helm when Griggs Elementary's facility doubled in size several years ago, thus removing mobile units that had become a mainstay.
She also won local support for the A+ Schools program, now midway through a four-year pilot program.
That program, now being tried in 25 sites across North Carolina, integrates the arts into every academic subject in an effort to improve student retention.
``I've always had a real fondness for the arts and know that it's a real good experience for the kids to use it,'' she said.
Newbern also helped a committee draft a long-term technology plan that will put computers in all Currituck County classrooms.
Newbern took easily to being an educator, perhaps because she grew up with a teacher for a mother and a father who once served on the school board.
Born in lower Currituck, Fannie - that's her given name - was the third of seven children born to Verdie and W.N. Newbern.
All three daughters followed in their mother's footsteps and earned teaching degrees. Fannie's is from what is now East Carolina University.
Sister Sarah N. Griffin is now a substitute teacher. And the other sister, Janice N. Haskett, is a librarian.
Fannie's brother, Norman, was the sheriff of Currituck County before he decided to retire two years ago. Lindley Newbern runs the family farm. And Tommy has a land development business on the Outer Banks.
Their father died of a heart attack in 1965, a year after Fannie began teaching. Their mother taught off and on for 45 years and was still a teacher at Griggs when Fannie became principal. Verdie Newbern is now 82.
Newbern has plenty of nieces and nephews, but no children of her own. She's never married.
When asked why she's remained single all these years, she replied: ``Don't know. I guess I never met the right person that I wanted to live with.''
After earning a degree in primary education in 1964, Newbern went to work at Thalia Elementary School in Virginia Beach.
Three years later, she came home and taught fifth grade at Griggs. She worked awhile at Knapp Junior High before coming back to Griggs and eventually began filling in during the principal's absence.
In 1981, she was offered the principal's job.
She accepted it, she said, ``with one condition: that if I don't like it I can go back to my same room and same grade.
``I guess I had a good year.''
Newbern hopes to have many good years ahead of her. She plans to spend her retirement traveling, among other pursuits.
Some trips likely will be back to Griggs Elementary School, which Newbern said has changed greatly since she first taught there.
``Currently, we're asked to solve problems that are not education problems but society problems,'' Newbern said. ``A lot of children now come to school having witnessed abuse to their mother or to themselves.
``Their concern isn't `Am I going to read today?' It's `Am I going to be safe?' ''
But there are those who firmly believe that communities like Aydlett, Poplar Branch and Grandy are a better place because of Newbern's part in them.
Anyone in lower Currituck can walk into Griggs Elementary and immediately feel welcome - and many do.
They come to attend a town meeting, or to drop off an ancient ``Whispering Poplars'' annual found in someone's attic.
Newbern has made sure that folks know that she might be the figurehead, but this is their school.
And that, Capps said, is probably what his colleague will best be remembered for.
``She recognizes that community is very important to the school and that, in a day and age when we are losing our sense of community in very many ways, she is able to make the school central to the community.
``In a sense, the school serves as a glue to hold the community together in the southern part of the county.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Drew C. Wilson/The Virginian-Pilot
Fannie Newbern, an outspoken presence in the schools for 30 years,
says, ``I'm fighting for the kids, and that makes the difference.''