You can change this | Eastern North Carolina Now

The Beaufort County school board was confronted by speakers against the very liberal
SAVVIS social studies curriculum for grades six through 12 at its February 21, 2023
meeting.

Parents, ministers, concerned citizens and local government officials were on hand to
witness how this superintendent and the local board would decide on a very liberal
curriculum.

There was not adequate seating for the public and no attempt was made to bring in chairs.  As result, many stood around the back of the room and others sat on the floor along the side.

A new sound system, after a year of urging, has been installed. Apparently, the board was not told how to use it because part of the time the mics were on and part of the times they were off. As result, most of the comments were hard to hear. Video recording has been requested by the public for about a year. We understand that they have the equipment but cannot afford to pay someone to operate the camera. That will be considered in next year’s budget we are told. But we can find volunteers to operate the camera. Another excuse to keep the public in the dark on what is happening in our school system?

After public comments and a presentation scheduled for the meeting by Buzz Cayton and Adam O’Neal, the board began to try and defend their position. Don Shreve was very vocal opposing the SAVVIS program and finally vice-chairman Terry Williams got on board to say that he would not vote for this curriculum.
We understand that we may lose six teachers because there is not money to pay them.
However, this new social studies curriculum will cost $450,000. I could not understand
how that works. It might be recalled that the school system received a boatload of money last year as a result of pandemic funding. This much is clear: The amount of money being spent all total has grown each year while the number of students has declined. Thus the per pupil expenditures have gone up significantly…much more than has teachers salaries or student performance on basic reading and math scores. To put it another way, we are paying more and getting less each year. But one thing is not reducing: That is the amountof money spent outside the classroom for administrative, supervisory and non-classroom expenditures.
Mac Hodges, the longest serving member of the board, made no comment at all.

It goes without saying that they should be concentrating on basic learning for reading
writing and arithmetic.
Below is information from a flyer that was passed out during the meeting showing

our schools graded by the state Department of instruction.
YOU CAN CHANGE THIS
BY CONTACTING YOUR LOCAL
DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER
North Carolina STATE DPI STATISTICS On
Our Beaufort County NC Schools
School Name School Performance Grade
Beaufort County Early College High School ……………….. A …..95
Chocowinity Primary ………. ………………………………………. B …..77
Bath Elementary ………………………………………………………. C …..66
Northside High ………………………………………………………….. C ……63
Southside High ……………………………………………………………C ……69
Eastern Elementary …………………………………………………… D ……46
Chocowinity Middle ………………………………………………….. D ……50
John C. Tayloe Elementary ………………………………………… D ……46
John Small Elementary ……………………………………………… D …… 42
Northeast Elementary ………………………………………………. D ……48
P. S. Jones Middle ………………………………………………………D ……45
S. W. Snowden …………………………………………………………. D …… 40
Washington High ……………………………………………………… D …… 53
These are the DPI school scores from the 2021 – 2022 school year
Please note that the ‘D’ score range is 40 – 54. Any score below 40 is an ‘F’. There are five
scores less than 47 and one of those is 40.
We do not need more woke and gay rights along with racial division being promoted in our
schools. We need to return to basic education. Our public schools are failing us.