A. R. Dees became principal
in the fall of 1928. Pioneering in transportation for Negro students in Halifax County, he led the parents in the different
communities surrounding the school in combining forces and in buying and fashioning four T-Model buses in order to get the
high school further enlarged and standardized. They paid the bus drivers, bought gas and oil, paid for mechanical up-keep,
and operated buses for two years before the state took over.
During Mr. Dees' administration
the high school enrollment was raised to one hundred and seventeen pupils. Three teachers were added to the faculty, basketball
teams were organized. In 1931, Eastman became a four-year standard "A" high school.