Comments for The May 29th School Board Meeting on the Closing of S. W. Snowden | Eastern NC Now
Browse all Comments for The May 29th School Board Meeting on the Closing of S. W. Snowden...
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John Valley: THe Beaufort County Commissioners are no different than the school board; plenty of "Kayfabe" in the back room for the Center /Left - Left Coalition, brought forward as policy.
Commented: Monday, June 2nd, 2025 @ 3:14 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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SD: You would be correct, sir. The school board, with the exception of a very small handful, ain't worth five cents.
There's no oversight or accountability....just a bunch of Mickey Mouse kayfabe and autocracy. It's pure lunacy and the people need to wake up real fast. Snowden is both a test run and a coverup.....don't forget that, folks. They're using the children as pawns
Commented: Monday, June 2nd, 2025 @ 2:23 pm
By: John Valley
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CT: It's like the blind leading the blind.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 7:41 pm
By: Van Zant
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John: I might have to agree with you and Van Zant: For BCS, one stupid move begets another stupid move, then begets another stupid move.
When the Superintendent tried explaining it away, as if there was a pot of money earmarked for really stupid moves by bureaucrats, I became understandably incredulous. It has been nearly four months since I have requested a copy of that infamous Title Search of the Phantom 4 acres, if after-the-fact. I have yet to receive this written opinion of title.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 5:15 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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JS: I suspect you're on to something there.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 3:52 pm
By: Van Zant
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Stan, I cannot imagine any lawyer being that incompetent. It is more plausible that Beaufort County Schools central office staff just winged it on their own without legal advice and made that $500,000 blunder. Then they respond to that hole in their budget by trying to close Snowden to compensate.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 3:44 pm
By: John Steed
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John Steed: Well, that fixtured out-of-town Democratic Socialist lawyer, along with Superintendent Cheeseman, and the inept Center/Left - Left Coalition in the majority of Beaufort County Board of County Commissioners cost Beaufort County's taxpayers 500,000.00 needlessly out of what I consider gross stupidity.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 3:33 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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John: So, "Kayfabe" is the backroom deal also for politicians, where the politicians and their associative bureaucrats, mislead the public by a variety of measures, and since they have the majority, the common perception among those that are not up on what is real tends to trend with the majority vote, simply, because people get stuff, while the unsuspecting taxpayers eventually gets hit with the full bill.
Yeah, there is much "Kayfabe" originating with, and by the Beaufort County Commission's Center/Left - Left Coalition, and their associative bureaucrats. I can only imagine what is occurring with the Beaufort County school board, and their associative bureaucrats.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 3:25 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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Kayfabe.....you'll never see these "public meetings" the same way again once you learn how to read body language and people
youtube.com
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 12:56 pm
By: John Valley
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That out of town lawyer Cheeseman got hired as school board attorney is chairman of the Durham County Democratic Party, one of the most "woke" party units in the state. Cheeseman had brought him in as school board attorney in the previous county he was superintendent as well. He seems to function more as the superintendent's attorney than the board's attorney.
The only visible things Cheeseman seems to use him for are: 1) backing up Cheeseman's election interference in school board elections as he did twice in the 2024 election, and 2) backing up Cheeseman on kowtowing to the liberal DPI on curriculum He seems to be missing in action on the things that we need an active and engaged school board attorney for.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 2:01 pm
By: John Steed
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VZ: The lack of legal counsel by the school board at public hearings is bad enough, but ever worse is the apparent lack of legal counsel in their multi-million dollar school construction project in Washington. If legal counsel had been involved they would not have had that half million dollar blunder on not owning 4 acres of the school site.
Now, they are dealing with a construction company with a long history of cost overruns and do not have legal counsel involved in their meetings with them. I dread to think how much that might eventually cost us. Heck, they even leave the one local county commissioner with engineering and contract experience on major projects, Hood Richardson out of the loop. Instead, they send in Frankie Waters, whose business experience consists of running Tri-County Telephone during the time it was run into the ground and had to be sold off. This is not going to end well for taxpayers. They had Cheesburger play real estate appraiser on their "fix" on the 4 acre fiasco. Is he playing lawyer, too? He is not qualified for either.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 11:39 am
By: Concerned Taxpayer
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Van Zant: There will be some mighty angry residents of Richland Township when this is all over, and their children are stuck on a bus for hours a day. Board member Charles Hickman, representing Richland Township, has work tirelessly, but he is just one vote against the many that have been sucked into this BCS /BC Gov. shell game.
What stupid mess this has become; one stupidity following another; following another; what a way to govern and educate children?
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 10:39 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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S.P.R.: You've made some very good points. Your take on the transportation report at the last regular school board meeting was spot on. The "report" did lack credibility. To me, it came over as an employee trying to please his boss with an advocacy speech and not as a legitimate report. Essentially, that is what it was.
The lack of legal counsel throughout all of this is another glaring deficiency. The school board continues to be ill served by legal counsel five or six counties away from our county. The one meeting before the public in Aurora with the very long sales pitch monologue by the superintendent while the school board was hiding in the crowd was truly an insult to the residents of the southeastern part of Beaufort County. Agreed, the Southside hearing was procedurally a huge improvement over the insulting excuse for a hearing at Snowden, although I was not impressed by the leadership turning the microphones off on speakers they did not want to hear while going on lengthy superficial bitch sessions themselves. Plenty of us did not appreciate any of that at our "hearing" where they did not seem to care about hearing from any of us beyond checking off another closing requirement on their checklist. A great amount of planning and strategy was put into making sure the school board did not have to face a Richland Township crowd the likes of what attended in Aurora. We can give the Superintendent credit for that strategy. We can also cite the Beaufort County School Board as a whole for the actual responsibility of letting our citizens be treated in such a disrespectful manner.
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 9:46 pm
By: Van Zant
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RINO Hunter: As an elected official for 25 years, I have made this profound observation, and it is ongoing: Some elected public officials deeply rely on the Bureaucrat Class to make any decision, ergo, the bureaucrats end up running the People's government.
For true Conservatives, this is a weird concept of futility in governing, but for Democratic Socialists and RINOs, who are elected, it is their way henceforward through their public avocation.
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 3:34 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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The question is how many school board members are capable of thinking for themselves and of representing the constituents instead of being yes-men or yes-women for Cheeseman? It is clear that all of the cancellations and changes were done deliberately to try to push the public out of this as much as possible. Absolutely shameful.
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 2:53 pm
By: Rino Hunter
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Van Zant, the Southside hearing was procedurally a huge improvement over the travesty of a hearing held at Snowden. When I served as a political appointee in the Jim Martin administration, I had a lot of experience with public hearings held by boards and commissions under the NC Department of Health and Human Services, where I served as the General Counsel. I would monitor public hearings of boards like the NC Social Services Commission, the NC Child Day Care Commission, and the NC Mental Health Commission for the department. I never saw anything like the circus at Snowden.
First, there was a lengthy advocacy speech by the superintendent before it was opened to the public. That was very inappropriate. Second, the superintendent tried to limit the public to questions rather than comments, until one speaker pushed back on that and went on with comments. That was inappropriate in the extreme to try to limit the public to questions. I have also never seen the people who are supposed to be listening to the comments to decide their course of action, the policymakers, hiding in the crowd instead of out front facing the public. That was inappropriate as well. All of those aspects were corrected for the hearing at Southside. The other real oddity was the lack of legal counsel. When I was in the Marin administration, if I had a schedule conflict for one of these board or commission public hearings, I sent another attorney from my staff. Maybe when you have a school board attorney who is halfway across the state, it makes it logistically difficult to have him on hand, but that is just one more reason why it is better to have a local attorney representing the school board. They are more available for critical public hearings like this, as well as for things like riding herd on a massive school construction project. Also, the report at the regular school board meeting on transportation lacked credibility because it was delivered as an advocacy speech rather than straight facts. When someone goes all over the landscape to try to justify something it raises real questions as to why. When that "report" started with ride times at district high schools and went on at length before ever getting to the subject at hand, it destroyed credibility.
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 1:54 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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I do have concerns about the date, time and location issues around these hearings. I had a conversation with someone this morning about these details. He reminded me that the April 16th 'hearing' in Aurora started at 6pm, and working people were coming in even after six. In the meeting, the gymnasium was packed. Oddly this meeting was not with the Board of Education. It was with the Superintendent only.
The posted April 29th hearing at Chocowinity Primary School, the May 1st hearing at S.W. Snowden, and the May 5th hearing at Chocowinity Middle School were all cancelled. The May 20th Board of Education meeting was rescheduled. Ironically, a prominent Aurora area citizen had changed his work travel schedule to be on the agenda for that meeting. The new date conflicted with the date he changed his schedule for. On the May 27th Board of Education meeting this persistent citizen did salvage a place on the agenda with a Zoom presentation from Texas. The May 29th Board of Education meeting and 'hearing' at Southside High School was pretty well attended even though some working age Aurora people could not be there because of the time and place changes. I imagine the numerous cancellations were no help either. Even so, most if not all the crowd attending did not favor closing Snowden School. If some people did favor it, they were afraid to raise their hands. Additionally, the Board Chairman/Superintendent turned the microphones off on at least two of the speakers. So, if the public thinks the BoE (Superintendent) hearing process is kind of skewed, perhaps they have legitimate reasons for coming to such a conclusion.
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 11:23 am
By: Van Zant
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What politician would be so mean-spirited to put little children, 5,6,and 7 years old on these long bus rides? That will damage their education and it is unconscionable. That may not be a problem for high school age children, but anyone who has had young children knows how harmful that would be. Do these politicians just not care?
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 9:03 am
By: Victoria
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I would have loved to be there, but, I had an Equalization and Review meeting as a Beaufort County Commissioner, so the venerable commissioner, Hood Richardson, had my full proxy in voice.
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 8:27 am
By: Stan Deatherage
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School board members will be spitting in the face of their constituents if they rubber stamp Cheeseman's self-serving agenda on closing Snowden. The children of Beaufort County matter a heck of a lot more than Cheeseman's stinking resume for his next job.
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 7:48 am
By: John Steed
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How can Jerry Langley, Ed Booth, and Eltha Booth vote to turn their back on these kids in Richland Township? I grew up down there close to Cox's Crossroads, and we did not treat folks that way when I was young. Those children should not be victims of poor judgment.
Commented: Friday, May 30th, 2025 @ 10:14 pm
By: Buzz Cayton
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