More Proof of the Brilliant Incompetence of Beaufort County Leadership | Eastern North Carolina Now

More Proof of the Brilliant Incompetence of Beaufort County Leadership

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

More than 60 percent of the citizens of the United States are aware that blind trust of our Federal Government can, over a long period of time, lead to an entitled bureaucratic, elitist class of elected officials and the abandonment of the Christian ethics this Nation was founded on.  Witness the results of the 2024 presidential elections.  

Not everyone is aware the same attitudes that led to the weaponization of the FBI, Department of Justice and for that matter almost the entire federal government are present in local governments.  In particular, almost all parts of Beaufort County Government have some of it.  If we have it in Beaufort County there is a very good chance you have it in your county.  The corruption of local governments is directly tied to the Federal Government and the money it pays for local bureaucrat loyalty.  

The education system has been particularly vulnerable to corruption because of a lack of public interest, oversight and weak school boards.  The education system is not alone, there is the health system and any part of government that receives federal grants.

The Community College has hired lawyers to defend against the deporting of illegals and started a LGBTQ+ Club.

The quality of education has gone downhill rapidly.  This is why the Beaufort County School System has been losing about 250 students per year.  The Numerix LLC 2022-23 Membership Forecast Report shows these students are not disappearing from Beaufort County, they are moving to all of the alternative methods of education available.  Conclusion, the public school system is failing.

I made a request at the February Beaufort County Commissioners’ meeting for the required report to justify the use of grant funds and the closing of the two schools as is required by G. S. 115C-546.11(d) and 115C-72.  What I received answered none of my questions and proved the Beaufort County School Board has followed none of the law.

The first sentence in General Statute 115C-546.11(d) says “The Department of Public instruction shall review projected enrollment to evaluate the reasonableness of a project’s size and scope.”  Requests made to the Department of Education have not produced such an evaluation.  Information from the Department of Public Instruction indicates that they do not have and have never produced such a report.  The Beaufort County School System did not provide such a report.  They did provide the Numerix report referred to in an above paragraph.  This report addresses the Beaufort County School System attendance as a whole and does not address the closing of any particular school or the consolidation of any set of schools.  The summary of the report is that attendance will continue to decline and the best to hope for is for the student population to be static.

To make the lack of an attendance study worse, there is information that the new school building will be over capacity within 3 or 4 years.  We are building something we do not need that will cost us more money in the future.

About 90 percent of all school buildings in Beaufort County are under used.  We have some buildings that are half, yes half full.  We do not need more buildings; we need more students.  We need for the quality of education as presented by the Beaufort County School system to improve so students will return to the schools.

General Statute 115C-72(1) says “In any question involving the closing or consolidation  of any public school, the local board of education of the school, administrative unit in which such school is located shall cause a thorough study of such school to be made, having in mind primarily the welfare of the students to be affected by a proposed closing or consolidation and including in such study, among other factors, geographic conditions, anticipated increase or decrease in school enrollment, the inconvenience or hardship that might result in the pupils to be affected by such closing or consolidation, the cost of providing additional school facilities in the event of such closing or consolidation, and such other factors as the board shall consider germane.  Before the entry of any such order of closing or consolidation, the local board of education shall provide for a public hearing in regard to such proposed closing or consolidation, at which hearing the public shall be afforded an opportunity to express their views.  Upon the basis of the study so made and after such hearing said board may, in the exercise its discretion, approve the closing or consolidation proposed.”

To this law the Big Cheese makes the following statement by email “The Board of Education anticipates holding the public hearing(s) on the closing of Eastern ES and John Cotton Tayloe ES at a date in the future.”

This violates the law and the spirit of the law.  What he is saying is that we are going to accept this money, build the new school and then decide whether or not we did the right thing.  None of the required studies has been done nor has the public been involved in this process.  Is this behavior arrogant, stupid, inconsiderate, disenfranchising the public, administrative usurpation of the public interest, incompetence, or the heavy-handed imposition of California liberalism?  The parents, the quality of education, nor the law matter anymore.  

All of this cannot be laid on the Big Cheese, although he deserves it.  The incompetence and malfeasance of the School Board and the Board of County Commissioners are huge factors.

Fake Frankie Waters, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, made the statement during the February Commissioners meeting that he had worked on getting this grant for more than one- and one-half years without the knowledge of the Board of County Commissioners.  Fake Frankie also says he can speak for the Board without a vote of the Board or presenting the issue to the Board in an open and public meeting.  This is pure corruption.

This is made worse with the two commissioners in the Gang of Four whose wives are on the School Board.  They all vote in lock step with each other.  If not illegal, this is a serious ethics violation.  In addition, most of these elected School Board Members and Commissioners’ votes are heavily influenced by the County and School Board staffs.  Many elected officials cannot think for themselves.  All of this is why the law is not being followed.

The good news is we only need one additional conservative and law respecting member on each board to make a huge difference.  The bad news is it will take two more years to get that done.