NC General Statutes ignored by NC DPI, Beaufort County Commissioners, and Beaufort County School Board? | Eastern North Carolina Now

By:  Ray Leary

The Citizens for Better Government of Beaufort County made two public records requests, one in August and another in September 2024, both to the NC Department of Public Instruction.

One was for the evaluation document on the reasonableness of the new school to be constructed in Washington, NC. A reasonableness assessment is to be performed prior to the issuance of NC Lottery Grants for public schools in North Carolina. This evaluation is required by NC general statute 115C-546.11 (d).

§ 115C 546.11 (d) The Department of Public Instruction shall review projected enrollment to evaluate the reasonableness of a project's size and scope.

In an email from Holly West-Pauley, Public Information Specialist, Office of Communications and Information Services, NC Department of Public Instruction, I received several files related to the grant, however there was no document that revealed the existence of the reasonableness study prior to the issuance of the $42 million grant to Beaufort County. Please note that this is a matching grant requiring $10 million match from Beaufort County. This was agreed on by a majority of the Beaufort County Commissioners. The local funds were allocated from the general fund balance.

Thus, the first question becomes:  Is this proposed new school legal?

The next request was to ask for confirmation of the receipt of the performance evaluation of the Beaufort County NC school superintendent. This evaluation is required by NCGS 115C-333(f)2. The statute reads as follows.

115C-333 (f)2

Local Board Evaluation of Certain Superintendents. - Each year the local board of education shall evaluate the superintendent employed by the local school administrative unit and report to the State Board the results of that evaluation if during that year the State Board designated as low-performing:

(2) Two or more schools in a local school administrative unit that has no more than 20 schools.

Beaufort County schools had eight of 14 schools designated as low performing for the 22-23 school year. By statute, these performance scores should have triggered a performance review of the superintendent by the school board. The performance review was to be sent to the NC DPI. The request to DPI was for confirmation of the receipt of the performance assessment, not the assessment document.

Blair Rhoades, Communications Director, Office of Communications and Information Services, Division of Chief of Staff, NC DPI responded October 14, 2024. The response is as follows.

Hi Ray,

Thank you for reaching out.

Unfortunately, neither the State Board of Education nor DPI are in possession of a document that is responsive to your request below. I apologize that I cannot be of more help.

Thank you,

Blair Rhoades

Two Beaufort County schools are to be consolidated with the new K-3 school; Eastern Elementary and John Cotton Tayloe. The current occupancy of these schools is 67% and 77% respectively according to the table in a report entitled 2022-23 Beaufort County Schools Membership Forecast. Michael Miller, Numerix, LLC performed this analysis.

Furthermore, the forecast for both schools in 2032 indicates both schools at less than 90% occupancy. The projection for 2032 for the new K-3 school is projected to have an occupancy rate of 96% when the combined forecast for both schools is included.

If these data are correct, it means that the proposed new school will be overbuilt for the projected occupancy rate for the next 4 years. For the years 2029-2032, the school will be virtually at capacity. The trends in the forecast indicates that after 2032, the school will be at maximum occupancy or overcrowded. Due to the site limitations, expansion will be difficult, if not impossible.

There is no mention of NC DPI commissioning this report and no indication of anything in this report related to the suitability or reasonableness of the new school size, attendance grade selection, traffic issues, bussing patterns within the county, or site selection as required by the general statutes to receive this grant.

Where is the accountability for these entities ignoring the laws of North Carolina?

At the start of the September regular school board meeting, superintendent Dr. Matthew Cheeseman played a video from WNCT-TV on September 12, 2024. This video was an interview by a reporter from WNCT wherein Dr. Cheeseman announced that Beaufort County schools was no longer designated as a low performing school district. The improvements noted by Dr. Cheeseman were mostly in growth scores, while six schools continue with student proficiency scores with a ‘D’ rating. A ‘D’ score is represented numerically as 40-54.

https://www.wnct.com/video/beaufort-county-schools-celebrating-student-performance-achievements/10037960/