Comments for Let's Get It Right! | Eastern NC Now

How much does Beaufort County Schools lose in state funding for every child they run off to charter schools, private schools, or schools in another county? I suspect those numbers can add up quickly. I suspect that there will be a racial / class disparity from this unwise action by the school board. The little children suffering the child abuse of these long bus rides every morning and evening will be the poor black children, while most of the rest of the students from Snowden head to charter or public school in Pamlico County. The main difference will be which families can arrange their own transportation to schools in Pamlico County.

Commented: Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 @ 10:52 am By: Concerned Taxpayer

Putting those young children on those long bus rides is child abuse that will hurt their education. I am appalled at those on the school board who ordered that. I also hear that Pamlico County schools have opened their arms to students from Snowden, and I suspect that is where many of the middle class students from Snowden will end up, taking their state funding with them.

Commented: Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 @ 7:08 am By: Victoria

Conservative Voter: The thing about being elected is that one never knows what will occur, i.e., the Covid epidemic, and the resultant insanity on how it was mishandled by elected officials.

At some point there is a high water mark that results in an impasse, where politicians or the public rebel and move in one assertive direction or another. Then there is yet another avenue ...

Elect smart, experienced Good citizens that question bureaucratic orthodoxy, not because that orthodoxy is in their way, but because some folks are better at figuring stuff out than others, the smarter electorate elected those smarter politicians, and not the other way around, and everyone wins.

And then there is my tried and true adage that I believe in to my core: Good governing is NOT rocket science.

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 1:32 pm By: Stan Deatherage

I hate to hear a grown man whine. It makes me real mad!

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 12:24 pm By: William Bonney

In a county, where local governments are pathetically weak, this post by Donald Shreve and the ensuing comment by Board Member Terry Williams, plainly signifies that the Beaufort County School Board may be the weakest link of them all, and that includes the pathetic city government of Washington.

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 9:43 am By: Richard Marvin Butkus

We don't live in Richland Township or Aurora, but it is not at all hard to see that what was done to their school was just plain wrong. It could happen to any of our schools with this superintendent and school board. The people of Beaufort County, all parts, deserve better. Maybe school board members should start representing the people instead of sucking up to the superintendant.

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 9:03 am By: Bubba

If Shreve cannot figure out that Cheeseman is a liberal, he might want to read Cheeseman's dissertation, when he got his degree during his tenure in Beaufort County and probably paid for by Beaufort County taxpayers. In it, Cheeseman promotes the Marxist (and also racist) concept of DEI. President Trump is trying to eliminate DEI. Where do you stand, Donald Shreve?

Then there is the sort of key people he brings in. Take his out of town school board attorney, who is chairman of the Durham County Democratic Party, and who Cheeseman convinced the board to hire. The Democrat Party is generally pretty liberal but their Durham County branch has always been one of the most hard left in the state.

Like many in the education industry, Cheeseman tries to hide his politics by registering as an Unaffiliated, but it is not hard to see what he is if you look.

One litmus test on education issues that has separated the wheat from the chaff for decades has been the consolidation versus neighborhood / community schools debate. Consolidation has always been the liberal position, and neighborhood / community schools the conservative position. Cheeseman is pushing the liberal / left position and has his bootlickers on the school board bowing down to him on it.

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 8:18 am By: Rino Hunter

A good start for the Beaufort County School Board to learn how to act as a real governing board is to first change:

1. Their incredibly awkward seating arrangements centered around ineffectual governing and poor communication of purpose to the People, for the People;

2. Abide by the Sunshine Law, and begin the conducting of the People's business in front of the People, in Open Session. There are only three justifications to meet in Closed Session - a. to discuss personnel issues about problem personnel, not policy; b. negotiate singular contracts, sensitive money issues, and once determined and ratified, report to the People openly; c. broad legal matters of attorney /client privilege where discussions are sensitive and must be protected until outcome established. Then these matters become the People's business;

3. Members of the School Board must make Open Session voting a priority; establish a continuity of governing by Open Session voting on initiatives to in-act better performance in managing the People's money by far better policy, and that means hammering out policy in public by the privilege of motions in Open Session.

These few, beginning suggestions, in my own thoughts and words, are just a start for a dysfunctional governing body to begin the process of becoming a real governing board.

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 7:55 am By: Stan Deatherage

LOL. "Independent" as in seven Cheeseman cheerleaders. Looks to me like we've got a school board made up of seven deckchairs and two independent thinkers.

Are we supposed to believe that Snowden School was supported by the BCS Central Office? Snowden didn't even have a custodian for much of the year. He was transferred to Chocowinity.

Hum. How to proceed. Gag on this campaign year tripe or sign the petition to Save Snowden. That's a pretty easy choice for a southside resident.

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 6:47 am By: Van Zant

My rep called me back. Not surprisingly, the School Board gave the Superintendent a contract extension and a perk package in this year when you guys closed an entire school. The vote was seven for the package and two against.

Commented: Sunday, June 29th, 2025 @ 10:26 pm By: Van Zant

Two things come to mind right off the bat:
1. If closing Snowden School was such a hard decision for you, why were you the one that initially made the motion to start the school closing procedure?
2. About those video-taped board meetings, I can't find any on the school site for 2025. I was looking this week-end cause I wanted to see how you guys voted on staff extensions and perk packages for upper staff this year. That's alright. I've gotten used to calling board members that respond to my questions, because even when the videos are up, they often times do not contain the results of votes made just after coming out of closed sessions.

Commented: Sunday, June 29th, 2025 @ 9:54 pm By: Van Zant