School Board goes NON-transparent on Snowden closure | Eastern NC Now

Our school board has been very allergic to transparency on Cheeseman's scheme to close Snowden elementary.  At their public hearing held at Snowden, Cheeseman first tried to limit the audience to questions until one speaker pushed back and said she was going to make comments.  A normal public hearing always includes being able to make comments.

Then, the school board announced two public hearings at Chocowinity.  Those, however, got cancelled at the last minute.  They apparently did not care to hear what people had to say.  Who was involved in those cancellations is unknown. It could have been Cheeseman by himself or it could have included T.W. Allen or other board members.

According to reports from last evening's school board meeting,  Charles Hickman supported by some other board conservatives, tried a last effort at making the process more transparent.  He tried to move the final meeting and hearing back to Aurora, where Cheeseman originally promised it would be held, but then moved it. The liberal board majority voted that down.

Since Cheeseman had just put together his final plan on Snowden , Charles Hickman moved to delay the final meeting and vote on Snowden to be able to publish that plan where the public could read it and react to it.  That very fundamental bit of transparency was too much for the liberal majority on the school board and they voted that down, too.

Transparency is clearly NOT part of the Beaufort County School Board's operating procedure.  The way they operate is extremely shameful.  How do you spell R-A-I-L-R-O-A-D?