PEOPLE: Jimmy Poole, Aidan Berkey, etal.
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Jimmy Poole is retiring – again. Mr. Poole this week finished up a term as interim principal at Davidson International Baccalaureate Middle School, on South Street.
Mr. Poole took up the job temporarily in January, when longtime principal Louise Jones became principal at Hopewell High School. He had been the longtime chief at North Mecklenburg High, and also is well known in town for his days as an undergraduate football star at Davidson College.
Davidson IB Middle School’s new principal is Jo Karney, who had been principal at Blythe Elementary in Huntersville.
BERKEY OFF TO RALEIGH
Aidan Berkey (right), a seventh grader at Woodlawn School, makes his third trip to the state finals of the National Geography Bee on March 30. Berkey, the son of Vivien Dietz and Jonathan Berkey of Davidson, qualified for the state contest by winning Woodlawn’s own geography bee, then taking a written test.
Two years ago, Aidan tied for fifth statewide. He also went to the state finals as a fourth-grader at Davidson Elementary School before that. He attributes his success to a combination of “instinct, and luck. Luck is everything,” he said.
It also helps that his favorite activities - do you really want us to tell everyone this Aidan? - are “reading, and looking at maps.”
The top 100 students in the state, judged by their scores on that test, will make the trip to Raleigh. Besides being the second trip for Aidan, it’s also the fourth year in a row a Woodlawn student has qualified for the state competition, according to Woodlawn School director Dwayne Bowman.
State champions will go on to the national finals in Washington, D.C. on May 22.
OSBORNE IN THE NEWS
Last month, we told you in this column that one of our favorite young performers in the area, Charles Osborne, had been tapped for the lead role in Northwest School of the Arts’ production of “Les Miserables.”
In Thursday’s Charlotte Observer, theater critic Julie York Coppens delivered a nice profile of Charles, who lives in Huntersville and has appeared on stage in Davidson often in recent years.
Charles told Ms. Coppens: “I want to be a Broadway star.” It’s worth a read.
NEW STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Davidson College’s Student Government Association (SGA) got new officers before last week’s Spring Break. Senior Christopher Burton took over as SGA president, after a year as vice president. Junior H. Davis Greene is the incoming vice president.
Outgoing president Mac Skelton swore in the two students on Feb. 22.
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