Beaufort County is currently making plans to build a new elementary school to replace Eastern Elementary and John Cotton Tayloe. The proposal is to use state lottery proceeds (approximately $40 million with a $10 million local “match”) to finance a new facility on the current Eastern campus to house grades Pre-k through fourth grades (or some facilely thereof). That school will be the largest primary/elementary school in the county and one of the largest in the state. The important thing is that it would continue the “unitary” attendance in Washington, (i.e. all students in a given grade attend the same school). This means that the Washington Attendance Area would have, in effect “cross-town busing” for grades Pre-k through high school. It is instructive to understand why this grade configuration exists and why it was adopted when the city and county school administrative units were merged.
The design of the student attendance areas in a merged school system happened for two reasons. First, it meant that Washington students would not be bused outside of the original Washington Administrative District and it was deemed to be the most likely way to gain approval of a merged unit from the U. S. Justice Department. Justice Department approval was necessary because of an existing desegregation order issued by Federal Judge John Larkins.
The merger of Washington City Schools and Beaufort County Schools required that the Justice Department approve that consolidation. In negotiations with Justice Department officials it was determined that DOJ/Office of Civil Rights would approve leaving the Washington Attendance Area intact because it would not significantly change the desegregation plan.
The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners contracted with the East Carolina Rural Education Institute to work with a group of citizens to design the merged system. A Merger Committee was appointed that had representatives from the two school boards. Since Washington’s board had more members than the County board it was the Commissioners’ decision to appoint an equal number of city and county members to the Merger Committee. Thus, Washington had more representation than the population (citizen and/or students) of the County outside of the City Administration Unit. To satiate concerns from county members of the Merger Committee it was agreed that the Merged System would not change the student assignment patterns until several years after merger. This recommendation of the Merger Planning Committee to the two boards and Commissioners to keep student assignment static for several years was approved by all four boards (the Merger Planning Committee, the Washington City Schools Board, the County Board of Education (which governed the territory outside the Washington Administrative Unit) and the Board of Commissioners.
The “grandfathering” also solved a problem presented by the supplemental tax that had historically given the City unit more money per student than the County, even though the county had more students. Of course, Washington wanted to keep the supplemental tax but feared that shifting students from the city into the county would reduce that tax. Whether that fear was realistic evaporated with the provision inserted into the Merger Legislation (by the Merger Planning Committee) that Washington was “held harmless” in the new merged unit in that the per pupil allotments of the previous systems could not be reduced in the Merged system. The Board of Commissioners favored this, with a majority of commissioners favoring “equalization” of per pupil spending for several years after the merged unit was operational. For example, and a “big issue” for the city, was to keep teacher/administrative and coaching salary supplements from being reduced in the merged unit. The Board of Commissioners were unanimous in agreeing to this “hold harmless” provision in order to get the two units merged. The “hold harmless” saved the merger. Had it not been for this the City Board would not have agreed to merger, even those that actually favored it otherwise. But this “equalization” concept meant that the city unit could not afford to lose students to the county (Bath and Chocowinity) if it meant losing the supplemental tax proceeds.
So the simple way to put it is that Washington was held harmless and the county LEA was eventually brought up to “equalization.” That is what made the merger deal work. Washington would keep it’s supplemental tax proceeds until the Commissioners “equalized up” the county unit rather than Washington lose revenue for the loss of students. The Rural Education Institute (REI) did a study that showed that the growth in Bath and particularly Chocowinity would bring in enough money to equalize both administrative units within a few years after merger. In fact, this happened sooner than was projected.
The final Big Issue was facilities. Washington had, overall, better facilities than the County. A bond issue was passed soon after merger that allocated the larger share of the proceeds to the City Unit and this is how P. S. Jones and John Small were built. The greatest needs in the County were in Aurora and Belhaven. REI’s Facilities Study projected that the growth would be in the Chocowinity Attendance Area. Thus, Southside High School was added to the list. Based on this the bond issue passed. Interestingly, it passed in the county but not in Washington. It passed in Chocowinity/Southside because that area was “promised” a new middle school and expansion of Chocowinity Primary or a new elementary school (in the "second round" of facilities funding.
What actually happened was that Chocowinity lost the old Rosenwald building on the “high school” campus that became a middle school when Southside opened. This left (to this day) overcrowding at Chocowinity Primary and Chocowinity Middle School not being replaced. Anthony Parker, the County Superintendent, spoke to the Chocowinity Middle School PTA and said the School Board would build a new middle school in Chocowinity in the very next round of funding.
To this day that promise has not been kept.
So, in summary, the reason we now have the situation with the unitary attendance area in Washington, and thus the crosstown busing, is that the Washington Attendance Area was “shortchanged” on the John Cotton Tayloe closing without a new elementary school on the west side of Washington and Chocowinity has the most overcrowded and inadequate facilities in the merged system.
As a footnote, the way I know all this is that I was the Director of the ECU Rural Education Institute which did the planning and facilitating of the Merger Planning Committee, the Interim Merged Board and to some extent the Merged Board. We wrote the merger legislation for the General Assembly and the Voting Rights Preclearance of the Merged System. As Paul Harvey used to say, “and now, you know the rest of the story.”
A point of personal privilege here: If this fifty million dollars is spent to replace the existing Eastern facility, what the net effect will be is that the potential benefits of merger will be lost, or at least delayed for another twenty-thirty years (three generations of students).
Washington’s youngest students will have to endure more busing than is necessary in a PreK-5 system and Chocowinity will have its growth curtailed by overcrowding at Chocowinity Primary and the poorest facility in the county at Chocowinity Middle School in spite of the fact that Washington would not have the facilities now used by P. S. Jones and John Small if Chocowinity had not provided the votes to pass the Thirty Million Dollars bond issue.
I would argue that the ultimate loss for Beaufort County will be the loss of the ability to attract growth spilling over from Pitt County into the US 264 corridor. Put another way, Beaufort County is on the cusp of losing one of the greatest assets it could ever have (the ability to draw students from the spillover from Pitt County). It will make it much more difficult to attract students/growth from Pitt County if parents know their youngest students will be bussed across town to the Eastern Elementary campus.
Building that mega-school is not about what's best for education in Beaufort County. I tis about what looks best for Cheeseman's resume for when he tries to move up to a higher paying job at a bigger school system. Cheeseman was not about to do any professional studies that would send the money elsewhere in the system, nor was he going to allow input from the peasants (public) that might also derail his resume enhancement. He did not even bring legal counsel into the process, which led to that fiasco about the 4 acres. It was ALL about Cheeseman and his resume, not about edcuation in our county.
Unfortunately, Cheeseman has had a pack of rubber stamps in the majority on the school board who just sat back and said "yes, boss". On top of that was the corrupt arrangement of two school board members with husbands on the county commission. It was a confict of interest and completely unethical for them to vote on any of these matters. |
It is absolutely absurd that the county would spend 50 million dollars without a Long Range Facility Plan that includes various alternatives the board could consider, including revisions in the student assignment patterns...such as PreK-5 neighborhood schools in Washington. Such planning should/would include the impact of the proposed Interstate connector from the Greenville By-pass (read ECU medical district) and the new Fred Smith proposed subdivision. What we are getting from Cheeseman is a planning model that is 50 years out of date NOW. The people have spoken...there is a new majority on the School Board but still three members control the planning. Actually two members, one of whom is not elected (superintendent). That is absurd. A solid Long Range Plan would save more than it cost. At a minimum the Board should debate the utility of mega elementary schools that depend on cross-town busing. More absudity! Where is the new majority on the School Board?
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Van Zant: Big Bob represents the cognitive heart of the Non Patriot Left, also known as the Non Reasoning Left, and in that purpose, he is a perfect foil for the rest of our readership that actually possess real functional knowledge balanced against Big Bob's clichéd Leftist pronouncements.
Regardless of whether any of his rhetoric makes any sense to my logical mind; however, the Non Patriot Left does exist, and we do welcome all opinions, of a non slanderous nature, here on ENCNOW.com. |
It seems that what is happening now is part of an established process of poor planning and broken promises.
In all of this, Chocowinity Primary School still does not have a 5th grade on campus. The CPS 5th grade is located on the Chocowinity Middle School campus. Has anywhere else in North Carolina done this? Also, around County/City merger time the greatest needs in the County were identified as Belhaven and Aurora. I never quite understood how the answer to that was losing John A. Wilkenson. Maybe there are things I don't know about that one, but it makes me wonder. At the time I wasn't very negative about the Chocowinity / Aurora High School consolidation. I've had second thoughts since then. When this was going on, assurances were given to Aurora area residents not to worry, because younger children would not be subjected to having to travel increased distances. Nowadays it appears that promise is off the table too. Consequently, I'm for having a time out on everything until we've had a detailed study done resulting in a coherent plan for Beaufort County. This hodgepodge planning seems to be headed for nowhere good. P.S.- I can't see where any of this Beaufort County business has anything to do with Tula [Tulsa] Oklahoma in 1921. |
Never heard of the Corwin amemdment to the US Constitution?
I was over 50 when I firar heard of it. It was passed by the northern-controlled US Congress by supermajority in March 1861, submitted to the states for ratification, and endorsed by Lincoln in his first inaugural address. It gives the lie to the argument that the north entered the War Between the States to free the slaves because if the Corwin Amendment had been ratified by the states, it would have enshrined slavery in the US Constitution where it could not have been abolished from the federal level. Wonder why our pro-northern history books have covered that up even before they became woke? |
Well, Bobbie, I think it would help race relations if they would teach about the minority soldiers and sailors who served in the Confederate army. That is something that woke history wants to hide.
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Never heard of the Tula Massacre?
I was almost 50 when I learned about it. I asked myself, how could I get through post graduate studies in American schools and never learn about it? |
In Beaufort County there seems to be more effort put into how to get lottery and any other funding they can get their hands on in order to consolidate and less effort put into planning for actual needs. I see transportation crisis on the horizon with this locked in thinking.
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Shockingly, no thread on black history this February;
So I choose a post about the schools as my best option: The Tulsa Massacre www.reuters.com(Reuters)%20%2D%20Tulsa,compensation%20for%20victims%20have%20failed. |
Good point Delma on the cross town bussing conundrum; however, this new school building craze due to all this "Free Money" for schools in areas where there are declining student populations is quite the phenomenon to behold, and may not very well yield an abundance of good common sense.
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CV - Who fought in what army is a moot point.
Slaves can't consent.