Comments by Van Zant | Eastern NC Now

My rep called me back. Not surprisingly, the School Board gave the Superintendent a contract extension and a perk package in this year when you guys closed an entire school. The vote was seven for the package and two against.

Commented: Sunday, June 29th, 2025 @ 10:26 pm By: Van Zant

Our shrimpers have taken an important stand and set a great example for all of us trying to save our heritage. Thay said they would not take it anymore, and we all need to do that on EVERY important issue.

Commented: Sunday, June 29th, 2025 @ 11:53 am By: Van Zant

We could keep supporting the present-day majorities, if we like higher and higher taxes, school closings, free money that is not free, and deals made behind the scenes. Or we could go in a different direction. What have we got to lose?

Commented: Tuesday, June 24th, 2025 @ 11:44 am By: Van Zant

Sell out politicians like Phil Berger and all those that follow him are enemies of eastern counties need to be treated as such. The NCGOP continues to be out to lunch and should not expect our support. Think I'll write a check to Sam Page.

Commented: Friday, June 20th, 2025 @ 12:07 pm By: Van Zant

The good news is the corrupt electronic voting has run its course. The bad news is there are still plenty of barriers to block the will of respectable people. In the meantime, we are stuck with a NC Republican Party running incompetent state elections, protecting shady powerful politicians, and a credibility gap as wide as the Grand Canyon. That's the NCGOP.

The Democrats aren't off the hook. A party with supper delegates held in reserve to undermine the will of legitimate primary voters can't say anything about anything.

Neither organized Republicans nor organized Democrats can claim any part of any high road.

Commented: Friday, June 13th, 2025 @ 8:44 am By: Van Zant

I think it would be appropriate to add that while checking off the requirements of the statutes to follow the school closing procedure, many statutes were not adhered to or were used in a self-serving way just as stated in the article. It has been pointed out many times by one board member that particular aspects of the statutes have not been dealt with at all.

Commented: Sunday, June 8th, 2025 @ 8:43 am By: Van Zant

The distinction most people are upset about has nothing to do with "exploring the possibility of closing Snowden." The problem comes with entwining that exploratory process with a formal school closing procedure. The public would stand for a study or hearings. The public would not stand a "study" or mandatory hearings to be checked off as part of a school closing process. That's what I'm hearing from lots of people, and I think they are right.
Thanks Stan - For not being a weasel.

Commented: Saturday, June 7th, 2025 @ 6:18 am By: Van Zant

Stan: Ha, LMAO. Yeah, the Rs and Ds seem to mean very little. I suppose Randy Walker and Frankie Waters are opportunists that changed from D to R in order to get elected. I don't know what the deal is with the school board.

Previously, you mentioned what this says about the local GOP. No doubt they are a problem.

Commented: Wednesday, June 4th, 2025 @ 8:54 am By: Van Zant

NO SPINE. I hear it went like this:
Daniel Hudson (R) Made motion to close Snowden
Do not know 2nd (R)

Voted YES:
T.W. Allen (R)
Eltha Booth (D)
Gary Carlton (R)
Daniel Hudson (R)
Donald Shreve (R)
Carolyn Walker (R)

Voted NO:
Stacey Davis (R)
Charles Hickman (R)
Terry Williams (R)

Commented: Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025 @ 10:35 pm By: Van Zant

JS: I suspect you're on to something there.

Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 3:52 pm By: Van Zant

I do have concerns about the date, time and location issues around these hearings. I had a conversation with someone this morning about these details. He reminded me that the April 16th 'hearing' in Aurora started at 6pm, and working people were coming in even after six. In the meeting, the gymnasium was packed. Oddly this meeting was not with the Board of Education. It was with the Superintendent only.

The posted April 29th hearing at Chocowinity Primary School, the May 1st hearing at S.W. Snowden, and the May 5th hearing at Chocowinity Middle School were all cancelled.

The May 20th Board of Education meeting was rescheduled. Ironically, a prominent Aurora area citizen had changed his work travel schedule to be on the agenda for that meeting. The new date conflicted with the date he changed his schedule for. On the May 27th Board of Education meeting this persistent citizen did salvage a place on the agenda with a Zoom presentation from Texas.

The May 29th Board of Education meeting and 'hearing' at Southside High School was pretty well attended even though some working age Aurora people could not be there because of the time and place changes. I imagine the numerous cancellations were no help either. Even so, most if not all the crowd attending did not favor closing Snowden School. If some people did favor it, they were afraid to raise their hands. Additionally, the Board Chairman/Superintendent turned the microphones off on at least two of the speakers.

So, if the public thinks the BoE (Superintendent) hearing process is kind of skewed, perhaps they have legitimate reasons for coming to such a conclusion.

Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 11:23 am By: Van Zant

I attended the so-called 'hearing' at Southside High School last night. Congratulations Beaufort County School Board. They've joined the ranks of those, exposed on YouTube, fascist school boards that go on extended bickering personal rants, while turning off the microphones of people they do not want to hear. I can't remember if it was the board chairman or the board vice-chairman that tried to justify having the hearing outside Auroara by saying they already did one in Aurora. He forgot to mention that in the meeting in Aurora, the cowardly board was not facing the community. The Superintendent was handling that for them in Aurora. It really is shameful.

Commented: Friday, May 30th, 2025 @ 6:27 am By: Van Zant

After seeing the video of the BoE meeting on May 27th, I was very impressed by the presentations and passion from the speakers from Aurora. It would be heartless to pull the rug out from under those people now.

Commented: Thursday, May 29th, 2025 @ 11:07 am By: Van Zant

SD: Yeah, that's true. If that format does turn out to be the case, I would hope the public would ask specific board members some hard questions.

Commented: Wednesday, May 28th, 2025 @ 8:19 pm By: Van Zant

The movement to consolidate schools is not favored by most citizens. Most citizens lucky enough to have a community school want to preserve it. Moving schools out of small communities, like Aurora, may well be an inconvenience to some, but to working families or broken families it could be devastating. Yesterday it was high school consolidations, then John A. Wilkenson entirely. Next will be the community schools in Chocowinity. On and on. We've seen the ivory tower studies that look more like sales brochures and the newspaper editorials wanting to consolidate into one or two county schools. One step leads to another step. Eventually, this type of movement will affect all of us. Then what? All of us do not have the option of homeschooling or paying for private schools. We're paying for public schools now. Are consolidation plans like this really trying to serve the public?

Commented: Monday, May 26th, 2025 @ 6:42 am By: Van Zant

RL: You're right. Richland Township deserves better. Hood is right too. Wouldn't it have been so much better if the BCS Central office had given positive support to SWS rather than contributing to so much uncertainty for the future of Snowden. I think you call that self-fulfilled prophesy. That kind of thing is bad policy for Beaufort County. In the end Beaufort County families are the victims in all of this.

Commented: Friday, May 23rd, 2025 @ 8:24 am By: Van Zant

It is incredible hearing the rhetorical pronouncements coming out of these international organizations (UN 2030 Agenda, and annual World Economic Forum) after their meetings. Immediately, high level politicians start parroting the language and pushing the concepts. Then state and local leaders join in. Next thing you know bureaucrats are telling us where to go, where to live and where our children have to go to school and what they have to learn. When any one of us question any of this, we are subjected to condescension and derision. Locally, over the last several decades, think how many times very bad decisions have been made that we are having to live with, pay for, and our children are being stuck with. It's really difficult to see where the agendas, stupid bungling, and crooked dealings start and end. It's really easy to see how many of these policies are harming our communities.

Commented: Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 @ 1:19 pm By: Van Zant