Comments | Eastern NC Now

John, the reason private schools and/or charter schools can provide an education at a lower cost per student is because they do not have the same regulations. They do not have to provide free lunch like Beaufort County Public schools do. Their teachers also do not need to be certified, which is scary. I know many students who came out of PCA to go into college having to take college prep courses because they were not prepared by the private school to enter into college. Is that all, no. But I know many. Also, I would argue that private schools are at a higher cost per student. They pay 10,000+ in tuition, have to pay for books, pay for lunch, pay for transportation, and then the school has fundraisers that you have to raise a certain amount or pay out of pocket more. Also, you have to commit to volunteer your time to work for them for events or pay your way out of volunteering. It is all a money racket.

Commented: Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025 @ 4:05 pm By: BCCitizen

Smart Comment Steve, and you are right about how this sorry business was conducted by the hamfisted school board of Beaufort County, who cannot seem to get into any lane where smart decisions exist.

Also Steve, you referenced districts being important for board members operating with cognitive blinders, when simple decisions could be made more effortlessly otherwise if a board member represented more than the concerns of one district.

This is why I will NEVER support districts for a county commissioner here in Beaufort County. It is hard enough for some of the commissioners I have served with to think through simple decisions, where the added boxed thought of districts would make their decisions even more tenuously considered.

Commented: Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025 @ 2:46 pm By: Stan Deatherage

First, let me acknowledge that the roles of County Commissioners and School Board Members are not easy. When done well, these positions require dedication, thoughtful decision-making, and hard work. Thank you to all who serve and help keep the county functioning as smoothly as possible.

That said, there is a quadrant of this county, the third largest of six townships and the fourth most populated, that is the source of the most local income and tax revenue and includes multiple communities and an incorporated town, that is now functioning worse from the decision of the School Board. This area and its school district are now destabilized. The elementary school and the people it served were not considered important enough for elected officials to explore reasonable alternatives before removing the school from an entire township community.

Consolidation has been ongoing for over a century. For the first 50 years, and during the 60s and 70s desegregation, it made sense. But as it has become more centralized, it increasingly fails to serve the unique needs of local elementary aged children, especially in remote communities like Aurora when viewed through the lens of child well being. Despite the education and experience among Board Members, the emphasis was less on children than on balancing the county’s overall education budget at the expense of one of its most underserved and remote school populations. Instead of lobbying for more resources to meet the actual needs, the Board chose to close the least visible school.

We’re hearing from families now forced to relocate, change jobs, or cancel their plans to move into the area. Others, who just moved here before the closure decision, are scrambling to figure out how to manage their children’s schooling and their family’s stability. Busing small children for long hours each day should have been reason enough to reconsider. But the impact goes beyond logistics; this decision is dismantling a community one family at a time.

Had proper impact studies been conducted, as required by state policy, the Board would have likely seen this coming. But for most Board members, this isn’t your district, and these aren’t your families being affected. While I don’t believe the decision was made with malice, I do believe that if this were your children, your school, and your community on the line, you and others would have made a different choice.

Commented: Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025 @ 2:31 pm By: Steve Bonner

And this is the government that America's first two Non Patriot Presidents Obama and Biden propped up for so many years, allowing these state sponsored terrorists the ability to kill thousands of American soldiers and diplomats, while plotting to destroy our entire nation by the designs of their nuclear ambitions, now "obliterated."

Commented: Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025 @ 10:54 am By: Stan Deatherage

Mitch McConnell has been a Biden "Republican" and before that an Obama "Republican". We do not need any more of his ilk. He has been a lot like Tillis. WE should all be sending Nate Morris some campaign checks. Morris will be a REAL Republican.

Commented: Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 @ 8:43 pm By: Rino Hunter

This Supreme Court Ruling is part of the beginning of delegitimizing Planned Parenthood as an Abortion-Mill-Feel-Good-Story for Leftists, and could also eventually be a component in ending the corrupt exchange of the Public's money from congress; to Planned Parenthood; and back into the pockets of Democratic Socialist politicians; a purely fraudulent exercise.

Commented: Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 @ 4:45 pm By: Stan Deatherage

Maybe Florida could loan some of those alligators to Texas for the Rio Grande river. In spite of crooked Democrat judges, traitorous Democrat mayors and governors, and similar support given to the foreign invaders, President Trump is winning the battle to beat back this foreign invasion.

Commented: Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 @ 2:49 pm By: borderhawk

Concerned Taxpayer | Van Zant: This is the problem with the School Board here in Beaufort County: They do not think important issues through, not in the least bit, which leaves this current board in a constant state of bewilderment when it comes to most decisions, especially when it concerns "thinking outside of the box."

When I spoke to the crowd at S.W. Snowden, and the school board members who were mixed within the crowd in a rather inconspicuous manner, I stressed in an off-the-cuff manner of a rather off-the-cuff idea (one which I came up with , right on the spot) of the county buying back (at market value) Snowden and marketing to those who would develop a charter school or a private school right there in Aurora.

Since coming up with that idea of what to do with all surplus school buildings here in Beaufort County - there will be two more surplus buildings here in the City of Washington soon - I would argue that we take my plan for S.W. Snowden to entice competitive education resources to consider at all surplussed public school buildings, here in beaufort County, for the development of a charter school or a private school right there in all of Beaufort County.

Commented: Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 @ 1:06 pm By: Stan Deatherage

It's also being reported that a significant amount of BC students will be going to the Charter School in Arapahoe - even more than before. It remains to be seen how many BC parents will choose to go to public school in Bayboro. I know several that are thinking in that direction.

Commented: Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 @ 8:12 am By: Van Zant

It was reported that many of the families with students in Snowden are looking forward to the new arrangements after the closure. I’m sure it is not ideal for them but they seem positive about it.

On a side the note:
The Top Lie of the Decade:

“Our milkshake machine is down at the moment”

I mean give me a break, if they ain’t gonna make it, just take it off the menu already!

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 9:16 pm By: MW

As a patriot and a journalist /publisher, there is nothing more disgusting than a Non Patriot, Non Journalist Propagandist posing as if they have any worth as humankind.

Commented: Monday, June 30th, 2025 @ 6:10 pm By: Stan Deatherage