Here's a case of how newly elected officials are whipped into line | Eastern North Carolina Now

The backstory to this editorial can be viewed at:  Board of Education budget discussion goes off the rails, again.

Wait just a minute Mister Chairman, et. al.  Who elected you to tell another school board member who they can and cannot talk to?

You chastise other board members for doing exactly what you openly report you yourself did.  You made a point that the chairman cannot “speak for the board without the board’s explicit approval…” but then you detail how you talked to Legislators, DPI bureaucrats and who knows who else...a “firestorm” you called it.  You, Mr, Williams and others seem to be trying to censor “new board members.”  Their main sin was not toeing your lines.

The reality is you are criticizing three board members for doing exactly what you did!

Let the record show that a school board member does not shed his/her constitutional/natural rights when they become a school board member.  No, Mrs. Walker the voters did not elect any of these board members to get along with you or a majority of board members.  Nor do they need to have you review any “presentation” they make, publicly or privately.  They have as much right to express their ideas, beliefs, feelings or positions as you do, and that includes lobbying legislators.

The absurdity of this situation about which all this consternation was generated was in fact a moot issue.  Rep. Kidwell had already removed the amendment from HB 464.  Moreover, the amendment was not prescriptive or proscriptive.  It was only permissive.  It gave another option to the board for its consideration of the social studies curriculum it would eventually adopt.

This argument that “no individual board member speaks for the board…” is specious.  Most people understand that when they hear a school board member speak.  Board members should speak publicly about what they perceive is going on with the board, the school system and in their own minds.  That is what they are elected to do.  And certainly individual board members have a duty to communicate with legislators, other officials and the press.

But note, whether the amendment was adopted by the Legislature or not, that was not the issue these pharisaic board members chose to use meeting time to blast who knows who and for what.  What harm is there in the Legislature saying that the Hillsdale Curriculum can be a choice the board can choose or not?

This entire imbroglio smells to high heaven.  Mr. Allen asserts that the amendment created a “firestorm,” in his words.  He, and Mr. Williams, said they got lots of phone calls about the amendment.  If that is indeed true then it tells us there was an orchestrated “firestorm” created by someone and for a purpose.  We would like to know who that “someone” is and what their intent was.  Clearly the Hillsdale program is a real threat to someone. 

We don’t believe there was an organic firestorm.  We believe this entire imbroglio was an orchestrated campaign to whip these “new board members” in line.  We challenge Mr. Allen and Mr. Williams to name who called them.

Why do we not believe Mr. Allen's version?  Simply because as you see in the video their was NO evidence that the board members who spoke  were just learning about the "firestorm."  No questions from a single board member before they gave their spiel!  This certainly looks like a performance.  But for what purpose, you may ask?

We suspect we know who is most threatened by the Hillsdale curriculum.  We also suspect that the tip of the spear of this so-called firestorm resides right here in Beaufort County.  That’s as far as we will go right now except to say that we don’t believe the issue here is whether the board had already taken action or not. on the amendment.  No, there is much more to this than meets the eye at first glance.  But of this we are confident.  Wait and see and “ye shall know” the truth about who is behind this masquerade.

We call upon these board members who were contacted in this “firestorm” to come clean.  Tell us who called you and what was said.  The public needs to know which staff members were involved in this “firestorm” and what their motive was.  We are aware that there is already much speculation on “who, when and what.”

We know that the “amendment” was not something that would have ever received much attention in the Legislature, worded as it was.  We doubt such would have gotten more than two minutes of attention by anyone who mattered.  Who made the first call and to whom?  Tell us.

Was there an orchestrated attack on the Hillsdale program?  Watch the video and you decide.  

We commend Rep Kidwell for trying to help the Board of Education have a broader set of choices.  We would hope he would re-introduce the amendment to another piece of legislation, and this board should immediately adopt a formal resolution asking him to do so. 

We commend the “three new board members” and urge them to continue to not toe the line of these Pharisees.