The Murder of S. W. Snowden | Eastern North Carolina Now

The Murder of S. W. Snowden

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

If the Beaufort County School Board votes to close the S. W. Snowden School in Aurora, the soul of an institution of learning will be snuffed out of existence.  Draw a circle with a radius of 25 miles around the school and you will have one or the largest areas in North Carolina without primary and some secondary education.  This circle of darkness will immediately become very unattractive to residential and industrial development.

Murder requires premeditation, planning and the desire to obtain the death of the victim.   Premeditation means someone had to decide to close the school.  Never mind the reason or motive.  Someone had to decide to do the murder.  Planning is required to accomplish the deed.  A case has to be built that will convince enough of the right people to assist in the murder.  These accessories to murder have to have their desire whetted, will this murder benefit them?

Murder is a strong word, maybe it is manslaughter.  Manslaughter does not require the premeditated element.  It also does not require the intent to destroy or kill.  Death is still the product.  All of the items presented in the above paragraph are required for success.

Maybe it is neglect that killed S. W. Snowden.  A festering situation was ignored until it became a boil which poisoned the blood stream, causing toxic shock and death.  This kind of neglect is a criminal act.

Regardless of which of the above applies, the killing (closing) of the S. W. Snowden School is the moral equivalent of murder.  I use the word murder because the southeastern corner of Beaufort County is being deprived of the most important thing that is required for the opportunity for success and growth, that is a community fabric that comes from a school.

The charge of neglect is true and correct because the Big Cheese could not present even one thing either he or the School Board had done to try to save Snowden during budget hearings in May.  This does not mean that the other charges of moral murder or manslaughter do not also apply.

We are in an education age of consolidation.  We are told that we can save a lot of money by building larger (consolidated schools) and get a better education.  Only half of this statement is true.  The part that we can save a lot of money is true.  Since consolidation we have produced a lower and lower quality of student.  We have produced a more woke and socially knowledgeable student.  We teach new math which is not based on logic.  Students have to have their cell phone to do simple math.  We no longer teach cursive writing, so they cannot sign their names.  There are few textbooks, parents have no idea of what is being taught.  Sex identification has become more important.  Our national history, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence do not get adequate attention.  Critical Race Theory is taught.

A lot of newer people in the education system like consolidation simply because they have never been taught better.

The Superintendent of Education, the Big Cheese, clearly stated to the Board of County Commissioners during a budget session earlier this month that he did not close schools and was not closing S. W. Snowden.  The closing of schools is the job of the “elected” board of education.

The Superintendent says this after making the pitch to the Board of Education that closing Snowden will save money.  He is trying to wash Snowden’s blood off his hands.

I question whether or not the Superintendent knows anything about finance relating to the closing of Snowden.  I requested and was presented a savings of 1.76 million dollars to close Snowden.  This is bogus, false and misleading financial information.  One million seven hundred sixty thousand dollars is the total direct cost to operate Snowden for one year.  How can that be the savings when teachers, toilet paper and other supplies have to be provided wherever that student is located.  The Big Cheese takes a savings credit for the 1.44-million-dollar cost of teachers which is not paid by Beaufort County.  It is paid by the state of North Carolina.  We could be talking about a real savings of only as much as $200,000.

But the cash savings of $200,000 is not accurate because there is an additional cash cost of at least $150,000 to transport students from Aurora the 25 miles to Chocowinity.  Another unknown is the cost of providing space for students at Chocowinity.  A written report has not been provided by the Big Cheese.

Keeping S. W. Snowden open has a small increase in costs which is fully justified when one considers the benefits to quality of life and economic development in the vicinity of Aurora.

The public should be suspicious of any financial information based on this phony savings of 1.76 million dollars.  It is deeply disappointing that the County Manager reported the 1.76 million dollars as a savings in his budget report!!  But he did not reduce the school budget at all??

Some School Board members were told that closing Snowden would gain teachers in their local school but if Snowden stayed open, they would lose teachers.  This is a moronic pitch because the number of teachers are assigned by student population.

There remains the ethical problem with the two votes the school board wives, whose husbands are commissioners, have.  The two husbands are members of the “Gang of Four”.  The public should be suspicious when two Republicans join with two Democrats to control the Board of County Commissioners.  The “Gang of Four” voted to accept the fraudulent 1.76 million dollars in savings in closing Snowden.

School Board members should keep in mind that it is not their job to support the questionable actions of their Superintendent.  He works for them, not the other way around.

Perhaps this School Board will come to their senses and vote to keep Snowden open.