Looks Like Another School Flim-Flam | Eastern NC Now

Looks Like Another School Flim-Flam

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

During my 28 years as a commissioner, it has always been difficult to get accurate, timely and meaningful information from the Beaufort County School Board.  The numbers usually do not work and are manipulated to make whatever case the School Superintendent needs at that moment.  Notice that I said Superintendent, not the School Board.  My reason for this is that the School Board is clueless about what is actually going on with the schools.  The majority believe it is their duty to back up whatever the Superintendent says.  They are great Kool-Aid drinkers.

The School Board and their minions use personal and emotional attacks on anyone who dares challenge them.  That is how the last school building project went from about a 32-million-dollar budget to more than 40 million dollars.  An eight million dollar overrun that was funded without question by the equally as inept County Commissioners.  This gave us present school buildings which are only half full.  I am afraid we are headed for the same kind of situation.

We are in another emotional decision-making situation concerning the closing of the S. W. Snowden

School at Aurora.  I made a request from Beaufort County Schools for the savings to be had in the closing of Snowden.  I got a listing of savings of almost two million dollars.  Sounds good. The problem is it is 100 percent false.  The Big Cheese actually sent the cost of operating the school.  There are no savings in shutting down the school.  Almost all of those costs are transferred to wherever the student goes.  For example, he claims 1.4 million dollars in teacher savings.  This is false, teachers are paid by the state, not the county, based on enrollment.  Our savings are in Beaufort County tax money which is about 20 percent of the total cost of educating the student.  If every dime of Beaufort County tax money were saved the maximum savings would be less than $400,000.

In closing Snowden, there will be increased costs, which he did not mention.  These are for transportation to haul 100 students from Aurora to Chocowinity.  My low estimate for increased transportation (fuel, drivers, capital for buses, insurance, etc) is $150,000 per year.  

The Big Cheese has not provided any information about the impact of 100 additional students in the Chocowinity Schools.  Parents should be concerned about overcrowding.

I believe the Dynamic Duo consisting of the Big Cheese and Fake Frankie Waters plans to use the overcrowding of the Chocowintiy Schools to push for building a consolidated school on the south side of the river.  Fake Frankie talked about it being centrally located in his newspaper article.  This means the school would be built about ten miles from “everyone”, the Town of Chocowinity, and Aurora.  This means hauling students from Chocowinity about ten miles out of town to the new school.

The vote by the Gang of Four to remain ignorant of the facts fits well into making the decision to close Snowden based on ignorance.  Presenting truthful facts would destroy the idea of closing Snowden.  If no one has the truth, the decision can be based on emotion and what the Big Cheese thinks.

The Town of Chocowinity, parents, and the taxpaying public should be concerned about shutting down their schools and building consolidated schools.  The terrible reputation of our education system has been caused by consolidated schools.  Discipline and education standards are low because of the vast faceless bureaucracy that goes with large schools.  The Chocowinity schools are small enough to be effectively managed.  They are located near a population center, so they are accessible to parents.  None of this will happen if the schools are consolidated and moved even 5 miles away.

Citizens should be aware that the flim-flam to consolidate John Cotton Tayloe and Eastern Elementary involved both the Big Cheese and Fake Frankie Waters representing to grant officials in Raleigh that they were acting on the wishes of their School Board and County Commissioners.  None of the required reports were written, nor were the required public meetings held.  Reports that were prepared for other things were presented to Raleigh officials and represented as being for the grant that was being applied for.  Fake Frankie Waters admitted in a public meeting that he had worked on the grant for two years before the Board of Commissioners knew about it.  He further stated that he kept what he did a secret because there would be opposition.  Is this ethical?

Is lobbying for another grant going on now?  Fake Frankie has admitted that he is involved in county business that commissioners should know about but flatly refuses to make the information available to the full board in open session.  This comes up during the ethics part at each Board of Commissioners meeting.

Fake Frankie has an obligation to be honest with every member of the Board and the public. His unethical behavior is backed up by the rest of the Gang of Four (Jerry Langley, Ed Booth and Randy Walker).  Then there is the very unethical practice of the two wives and husbands voting in lock step with Waters and Cheeseman.  They are Ed and Eltha Booth, Carolyn and Randy Walker.

There are several laws having to do with open and honest government.  It was secrecy and power plays that caused the failures of the Obama-Biden government.  Secrecy and power plays sooner or later lead to some very serious criminal activities.  Citizens should demand open and honest government and replace those who are unethical.  Ethical is another word for honesty.

We do not need to lose these three neighborhood schools to a consolidated factory education system.