Supt. Cheeseman sandbags CRT presentation to county school board | Eastern North Carolina Now

A standing room only crowd, most wearing anti-CRT stickers, descended on the Beaufort County Board of Education meeting August 24, only to be told they were not allowed to discuss one of the two topics that brought them there.  Superintendent Matthew Cheeseman cited a technicality to prevent discussion of Critical Race Theory, but neglected to mention that he himself had pulled a fast one to allow that technicality to be exploited.

Cheeseman cited a provision, not always enforced, that to speak in the public comments section, an item had to already be on the agenda or contact had to be made with the superintendent to get it placed on the agenda.  What he did not tell those present was that the Citizens for Better Government had scheduled a meeting with Cheeseman prior to the School Board Meeting to talk with him about addressing CRT at that very school board meeting, and after scheduling the meeting, Cheeseman arbitrarily cancelled it.  When the CBG tried to reschedule the meeting, Cheeseman's office said he was not available for a meeting until after today's school board meeting.

Was Cheeseman ducking the CBG to avoid a discussion of CRT?  It certainly looks that way.  If he had genuine scheduling conflicts, the telephone contact  from CBG itself would have triggered action by a responsive public official to put the item on the agenda. The CBG had told Cheeseman's office by telephone what they wanted to discuss.  It raises questions about what else Cheeseman may be doing to thwart efforts to ban CRT in Beaufort County.

Several other serious questions arise.  Our school board should be open to citizen comments and not throw up technicalities to not listen to citizens who have concerns about school policies.  The school board should be more fully open to free speech like the county commission is.  Another concern is that we seem to have a weak school board that is too willing to give too much power to a bureaucrat to stifle free speech.  Not a peep was heard from an elected board member about Cheeseman cutting off the anti-CRT speakers.  The lack of a sound system in the large school board meeting room also seems to indicate that the board does not particularly want verbal interaction with the public.

Those who signed up to speak against the face mask policy for students were allowed to speak, and some good points were made such as the cloth masks used by most being at best useless in stopping spread of disease and at worst harmful.  The N95 masks that could make a difference are not required, and also hard to find.  Fortunately for those speakers, the school board already had to mask policy on the agenda, so there was no way they could be denied the opportunity to speak.