Winston Salem/Forsyth Fog is Clearing | Eastern North Carolina Now

Winston Salem/Forsyth Fog is Clearing

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

The North Carolina State Auditor presented a report during the middle of August about the mishandling of funds and serious mismanagement by the Winston Salem/Forsyth School District. It seems the district is 46 million dollars in the hole and possibly as much as 70 million dollars. The Auditor started working on this in April of 2024.

There are indications the district has had accounting problems for several years, having not corrected several past deficiencies. Further evidence of the lack of management and oversight is shown by the late payments of income tax withholding. The two boards, the elected school board and the elected board of county commissioners, do not seem to be in control of the management of the school system. Thirteen million dollars in “fund balance” was used to cover salaries, bonuses and pay increases during 2024 without notice.

Money held in the fund balance (savings) requires specific approval to be used for anything. The question arises, “How can there be a fund balance when the system is already broke?” This is an indication the hired help at the School District is playing games with the money. It looks like they are moving money around so they can be sure they get their bonus and salary increase.

The Interim Superintendent has gone to great lengths to make the public believe there is no “misappropriation of funds or fraudulent behavior on the part of any member of its Finance Department or district leadership.” This whole issue is about misappropriation and fraud. Simply because the money did not go to individuals does not mean there is no misappropriation and fraud. It is a given that individuals with the School District made the decisions to violate the law (the School District Budget and the Forsyth County Budget Ordinance) when they directed the appropriation of funds.

The Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners tried to comfort the taxpayers by saying none of the money wound up in Swiss Bank accounts. These bureaucrats and elected officials miss the point entirely. It does not matter to the taxpayer whether the money was stolen by individuals or mismanaged by public employees. The expense is the same for the taxpayer. The criminal thief would go to prison. What happens to the inept elected official and government employee?

The misuse of funds seems be in keeping people on the payroll who are not needed, and the payment of salary increases and “bonuses”. These are self-serving issues. When the School District let go of more than 300 employees, the children were allowed to use school time and materials to make posters and to demonstrate demanding the discharged employees be rehired. School officials allowing this to happen demonstrate two things. The first is there is a permissive culture of deceit within the School District in allowing the misappropriation of funds and allowing students to defend the culprits. The second is a weak school culture that is not teaching students the basic elements of character. Students who are self-disciplined and taught the basics of behavior would not act this way. These students have no idea of the issues involved. Allowing these student demonstrations to stand without challenge clearly shows the school is not teaching critical thinking. Maybe it really is about jobs, pay increases and bonuses?

Those who are at fault are the top leaders of both the County Commissioners and the School Board along with the top dogs in the school system.  The elected school board members should be embarrassed to the point of presenting their resignations after they fire the appropriate school employees. Their defense is that nobody told me. Dummy, as an elected official, you are supposed to be smart enough to “ASK”.

The Board of County Commissioners are also at fault. Many school boards effectively bully weak county commissioners into believing they have nothing to do with the running of the schools. This is not true. The commissioners use police power to collect tax money and give it to the schools. Almost all other funding for schools passes through the hands of the board of county commissioners. Why is that? So the Board of County Commissioners can have oversight over the schools. There are many bureaucrats (the hired help) who vigorously argue that commissioners have nothing to do with schools. All the money for the building of the new Eastern Elementary School is approved and drawn down from the State Department of Public Instruction before it is paid to contractors by the Beaufort County Board of County Commissioners.

Could something like what happened in Forsyth County happen in Beaufort County? The answer is “yes”. There is no Beaufort County Commissioner who knows how solvent the school system is. The reason is the “Gang of Four” (Fake Frankie Waters, Randy Walker, Ed Booth and Jerry Langley) give the school system a lump sum of money and never ask what is being used for? Efforts to obtain information from the school system are regularly blocked by votes of the Gang of Four. They never ask for the school fund balance or to see the annual audit. Who is on the school audit committee? The school board does not examine the budget. They approve whatever the bureaucrats put in front of them. What about bonuses in Beaufort County Schools?

All public-school systems are steadily losing students for the same reasons. Discipline is weak, standards are low and the “WOKE” teachings or lack of teaching. We do not teach cursive writing, classical math, or accurate American history. We do teach critical race theory (CRT), diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and sexual orientation.

With taxes becoming oppressive, there is a need for business minded elected officials. It is more important than ever to remove underperforming elected officials.