Comments for Beaufort County School Board, Pomp and Ceremony | Eastern NC Now

Tell me about this "Common Ground" thing Leftist Bob?

Because Leftist Bob, you write in clichés, but I DO NOT think in clichés, so your communications, for me, are not translatable, so do tell me about "Common Ground," but without your constant clichéd chattering.

Commented: Tuesday, January 28th, 2025 @ 1:27 am By: Stan Deatherage

Little Bobbie still does not get it. This plan was concocted in the back room by Cheeseman and his cronies, and designed more to benefit his resume than benefit the students of Beaufort County. Other school board members were largely kept in the dark as was the public. There were no public hearings or public participation in what was needed. Cheeseman and his cronies not only cut other school board members out of the process, but also excluded the public. This was government in the backroom at its worst. And operating this way they screwed up royally on that 4 acre tract.

To fix that blunder, they did another rotten backroom deal that ripped off county taxpayers for a half million dollars. There was more backroom politics by another power clique on the county commission that excluded those not in the clique from participation. Instead of trading land the county had no use for at the old P.S. Jones School, which would have cost the county nothing, they threw away a quarter million of county taxpayer money and a quarter million of tax money controlled by the school board. One wonders what the hidden agenda of the shawdowy power cliques were on that one. It clearly bodes ill for the taxpayers.

Our Beaufort County deep state is as devious and sinister as the one at the national level, and it depends on weak elected officials who allow themselves to be manipulated by bureaucrats.

Commented: Monday, January 27th, 2025 @ 8:30 pm By: Concerned Taxpayer

Little Bobbie does not get it. The waste of half a million dollars of taxpayer money on this 4 acre boondoggle should be a HUGE concern to all taxpayers and voters. That is real money in a counry our size.

In government, the best pay for elected officials to collborate is to openly discuss issues among themselves. That does not happen on either the school board or county commision because of little power cliques which want to control things and not let any elected official outside of their clique have any meaningful input. Both power cliques are heavily influenced if not outright controlled by bureaucrats, the school superintendant and county manager. Those bureaucrats are supposed to carry out policy, not make it. We seem to have our own little mini "deep state" right here in Beaufort County.

Commented: Monday, January 27th, 2025 @ 5:19 pm By: Concerned Taxpayer

I think the MAGA coalition is more concerned with optics than making the best choices. By their own admission, they do not collaborate or compromise. Since they are not in charge, none of this can be any good.
Instead of offering to help and make improvements, they prefer to burn down any idea that does not come from them

Commented: Monday, January 27th, 2025 @ 4:41 pm By: Big Bob

Stan, I cannot imagine an attorney tasked with representation on a project such as this doing his job in a superficial way. The risk to his law license would be too great. It would be interesting to see the terms of his contract. Most attorneys for local government bodies are obligated to be present for meetings of those bodies, but in this case apparently this school board attorney is not. The question is how and when is he brought in on matters? I look at the invompetence of whoever is deciding when to call him in apparently failing to do so on this school construction project. Of course, being way off in Durham, that would add to the cost of having him truly engage on the project and that might be why they failed to do so. This is an example of the old British saying of being "penny wise and pound foolish".

Commented: Monday, January 27th, 2025 @ 2:53 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Cheeseman is a control freak which is why he sits up there like he is an elected policy maker, which he is not. Look at other local government bodies like the city council and county commission. Their hired help bureaucrats like their city manager and county manager are NOT up there with the elected officials. They are seated on the side or down in front at a lower level. Cheeseman sit right in the center of the elected officials and even has his secretary on one side and the nominal board chairman on the other. He sits in a position superior to most of the elected board members. That is Cheeseman's ego. He regards himself as the boss, not the employee, and too many of our board members meekly put up with that. Disgusting.

Commented: Monday, January 27th, 2025 @ 1:26 pm By: Rino Hunter

Maybe if the Durham based attorney would have been less concerned with Stacey Davis's use of a publicly funded logo for her signs, and more concerned with a simple title search on the tract of land, where the Beaufort County Schools are building a hugely overpriced school building on the lowest point of the lot, an additional $500,000.00 of the public's treasure would NOT have been wasted in such a will-nilly manner - www.beaufortcountynow.com

Commented: Monday, January 27th, 2025 @ 11:38 am By: Stan Deatherage

I just did a quick read of this article before starting on a full day. As someone that follows the meetings on the school videos this is dead on the money. Perfect title, too.

Commented: Monday, January 27th, 2025 @ 11:02 am By: Van Zant