Comments | Eastern NC Now

With personal politics aside, again, my biggest takeaway from all of this is that if we've had the money to start the process of renovation and improving the human element within our schools.....why in the holy hell hasn't the money been signed off on by anyone?

That perplexes me greatly as a common sense thinker.

It would be a hell of a lot more cost efficient, especially on the tax payer, if you invested money in necessary projects...to get more money for more projects pertaining to school renovations & improvement. An army moves on its stomach. If you don't feed it, it doesn't move.

Community public charter schools would work in rural Beaufort County regions and be very successful...if the money was behind it but nobody from either side seems to find common ground on that. Martin County has the edge on Western Beaufort County and that can't be gotten back.

Bear Grass Charter School is up there with Chocowinity Primary and Bath Elementary. They are great models of human element.

Commented: Sunday, May 25th, 2025 @ 12:17 pm By: John Valley

The problem is that we have too many school board members who are Cheeseman's poodles They don't think for themselves. They are not doing their jobs for the people of Beaufort County when they just rubberstamp whatever Cheeseman wants. Cheeseman is just out to build his resume for his next job, and he clearly wants to have "school consolidation" on that resume. School board members who go along with that are just idiots.

As far as improving education outcomes, it is curriculum that matters more than buildings, and Cheeseman and his poodles have been blocking reform there, too.

Commented: Sunday, May 25th, 2025 @ 10:00 am By: Conservative Voter

Ceres: I also saw the video from the budget workshop and, like yourself, found several performances to be very embarrassing, angering and reminiscent of low budget B-movie acting.

The recurring motif of this meeting, that some didn't seem to understand for reasons known/unknown, was: "We're losing more students than we're taking in and this trend hasn't just started."

In all honesty, Mr. Randy (Walker) made the most sense out of anybody and really hit the nail on the head when he talked about "improving the human element within the school system".

Building two mega-schools or trying to plunder the western side of rural BoCo isn't going to solve the problem; you've got two sides avoiding the main issue that implicates a group in the middle...that's playing both sides. It's like a Monty Python skit on acid, it's stupifying.

To lower taxes, existing structures should be brought up to code and expanded upon. They need to be brought from 1967 to 2025. The human element needs light.

Commented: Sunday, May 25th, 2025 @ 9:13 am By: John Valley

Whatley, like Tillis would be certain to be a tax and spend Republican. Indeed, with his background as a paid mouthpiece for special interests, Whatley may even be worse.

Tillis' key assistance to Biden's big spending spree should never be forgotten or forgiven. Along with other Biden Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Tillis voted to let Biden's big spending fake "Infrastructure" bill pass through the normal process. That was bad enough in and of itself, but it set up something even worse. It preserved the "reconciliation" slot that year for Biden to pass the outrageous Green New Deal disguised as the "inflation Reduction Act."

Tillis has disqualified himself from consideration by fiscal conservatives because of his fingerprints all over Biden's big spending spree. Whatley would probably be even worse. Surely the NCGOP has somebody we can rally around and get excited about for 2026, but this badly flawed pair are NOT it.

This Don Brown, however, sounds interesting. I would like to learn more about him.

Commented: Saturday, May 24th, 2025 @ 2:57 pm By: Concerned Taxpayer

Tillis has been horrible on immigration issues due to his being a flunky for special interests. Whatley has even stronger ties to special interests. He is just as objectionable as Tillis. We should avoid either of these clowns.

Commented: Saturday, May 24th, 2025 @ 10:06 am By: borderhawk

No thank you. Whatley would just be another Tillis. They are joined at the hip. We can do A LOT better.

Commented: Saturday, May 24th, 2025 @ 7:43 am By: Rino Hunter

This vote on Snowden will tell us who the genuine conservatives are and who the poseurs are. I wish our state had recall elections to be able to remove some of the Cheeseman poodles from office.

Commented: Friday, May 23rd, 2025 @ 1:24 pm By: Concerned Taxpayer

The Left needs to understand that they do NOT have a lock on what is art.

A prime example of such is your comedians are NO longer funny.

Commented: Friday, May 23rd, 2025 @ 1:14 pm By: Stan Deatherage

It is curious that the 2 major British newspapers linked above stress the BLM background of the terrorist assassin of these Israeli diplomats, but I have not seen the US MSM media even mention that aspect.

Commented: Friday, May 23rd, 2025 @ 9:05 am By: Steven P. Rader

RL: You're right. Richland Township deserves better. Hood is right too. Wouldn't it have been so much better if the BCS Central office had given positive support to SWS rather than contributing to so much uncertainty for the future of Snowden. I think you call that self-fulfilled prophesy. That kind of thing is bad policy for Beaufort County. In the end Beaufort County families are the victims in all of this.

Commented: Friday, May 23rd, 2025 @ 8:24 am By: Van Zant

Dr. Cheeseman made it very clear at the Monday, May 19, 2025 meeting of the Beaufort County commissioners budget meeting that HE would not be closing the S. W. Snowden school in Beaufort County. He clearly stated if the school was closed it would be the responsibility of the elected school board members. It is also very clear that closing Snowden is his preference and he will encourage the elected members to consent to his desires. Dr. Cheeseman and the staff that works at his pleasure are responsible for assigning teachers and teacher assistants to each school. Should a school board member not bend to his wishes, he can reassign key personnel from one school to another district school requiring longer travel time for teachers.
Hood is correct. If there is a constant rumbling that the Snowden is slated for for closure, it is natural for parents to select other options for their children's educational options when available.
Aurora and the Richlands community deserve better.

Commented: Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 @ 7:12 pm By: Ray Leary

Every since Nutrien crossed the street and found more ore, the continuation of the destruction of aurora continues. Only building with ay taxes going to it is the school, post office, and liqour store. The town isn't good enough for a bank, grocery store, drs office, and now any school, but there's a person in that liqour store everyday selling shot bottles of liqour to the community. The county wants aurora to be gone and if I was a resident of that town I'd be heartbroken. No taxes are going towards helping them. Its a travesty.

Commented: Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 @ 4:05 pm By: FuturePresidentOfBoco