Comments by Van Zant | Eastern NC Now
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Obviously, an arbitrary decision to close Snowden was made, and then it was just a matter of checking off the lawful hearing requirements to get it done. Other than two or three board members, there was no one on the school board actually hearing the people. Most of them were just enduring the lawful process of closing the school after the despots had already made the decision.
Locally, the thing that has come out of this is that there is no local party acting as champions of the people, and not many individual board or commission members are giving the people anything other than lip service. I think we need to identify the ones that are listening and support them not worrying about party, race, or anything else. Maybe we need a local sub-party to counteract the established parties that are not listening to the people. I wonder how we could get that done.
Commented: Sunday, June 8th, 2025 @ 8:23 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on The Closing of S. W. Snowden Elementary School Appears to be a Done Deal Unless the School Board Grows a SpineThe 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
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Commented on The Closing of S. W. Snowden Elementary School Appears to be a Done Deal Unless the School Board Grows a SpineFor more enlightenment about the School Board, I looked up the vote on the motion on the TENTATIVE vote to close Snowden which was necessary in order to start the state process of closing Snowden School. Without this step there could not be final vote to close the school.
Donald Shreve (R) Made the motion to start the school closing process. Daniel Hudson (R) Seconded the motion to start the school closing process. Voted YES to start the process of closing Snowden School T.W. Allen (R) Eltha Booth (D) Gary Carlton (R) Daniel Hudson (R) Donald Shreve (R) Terry Williams (R) Caroly Walker (R) Voted NO to start the process of closing Snowden School Stacey Davis (R) Charles Hickman (R) This should make things a lot clearer about the workings of the School Board. Still, it makes me wonder why some did what they did in the way they did it. Why would some provide a little cover for others. Then again, maybe they are just stupid.
Commented: Thursday, June 5th, 2025 @ 8:11 pm
By: Van Zant
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Commented on The Closing of S. W. Snowden Elementary School Appears to be a Done Deal Unless the School Board Grows a SpineStan: 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
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Commented on The Closing of S. W. Snowden Elementary School Appears to be a Done Deal Unless the School Board Grows a SpineThis is the County Commission shoe (or should I say boot) that dropped on Snowden the night before.
Here's how the County Commission voted on the motion to appropriate &300,000 to save Snowden. Voted NO to save Snowden: Ed Booth (D) Jerry Langley (D) Randy Walker (R) Frankie Waters (R) Voted YES to save Snowden: Stan Deatherage (R) Tandy Dunn (R) Hood Richardson (R)
Commented: Wednesday, June 4th, 2025 @ 6:16 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on The Closing of S. W. Snowden Elementary School Appears to be a Done Deal Unless the School Board Grows a SpineNO 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
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CT: It's like the blind leading the blind.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 7:41 pm
By: Van Zant
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JS: I suspect you're on to something there.
Commented: Sunday, June 1st, 2025 @ 3:52 pm
By: Van Zant
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S.P.R.: You've made some very good points. Your take on the transportation report at the last regular school board meeting was spot on. The "report" did lack credibility. To me, it came over as an employee trying to please his boss with an advocacy speech and not as a legitimate report. Essentially, that is what it was.
The lack of legal counsel throughout all of this is another glaring deficiency. The school board continues to be ill served by legal counsel five or six counties away from our county. The one meeting before the public in Aurora with the very long sales pitch monologue by the superintendent while the school board was hiding in the crowd was truly an insult to the residents of the southeastern part of Beaufort County. Agreed, the Southside hearing was procedurally a huge improvement over the insulting excuse for a hearing at Snowden, although I was not impressed by the leadership turning the microphones off on speakers they did not want to hear while going on lengthy superficial bitch sessions themselves. Plenty of us did not appreciate any of that at our "hearing" where they did not seem to care about hearing from any of us beyond checking off another closing requirement on their checklist. A great amount of planning and strategy was put into making sure the school board did not have to face a Richland Township crowd the likes of what attended in Aurora. We can give the Superintendent credit for that strategy. We can also cite the Beaufort County School Board as a whole for the actual responsibility of letting our citizens be treated in such a disrespectful manner.
Commented: Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 9:46 pm
By: Van Zant
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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
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Commented on Cheeseman Named Superintendent Of The Year Really?Don't get lost in the BS. Despite all the self-aggrandizing on his personal relations campaign, the Cheeseman record speaks for itself. The people that live here will be left with the mess.
Commented: Friday, May 30th, 2025 @ 6:33 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on School Board goes NON-transparent on Snowden closureI 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
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Commented on School Board goes NON-transparent on Snowden closureCV: A lot of people I speak with are concerned about the hearing process. The two Washington schools to be closed have had no hearings. I've heard they may have them after the fact. That's wrong too. With Snowden the hearing process is sort of being done but in a very strange manner - shoddily done at the last minute. It's leaving a very bad taste and rightly so.
SD: You're right. Predictably, the local ruling coalition is getting set to lay all the blame for these fiascos in the making to be the fault of their chosen boogieman. People need to be paying close attention.
Commented: Thursday, May 29th, 2025 @ 3:06 pm
By: Van Zant
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Commented on School Board goes NON-transparent on Snowden closureAfter 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
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Commented on Financial Incompetence, Gang of FourSpeaking of kayfabe, I could swear I was hearing a Gordon Solie commentary during that commission meeting. Also, I do think the Snowden deal is done. Why else would the county manager incorporate that, so far officially undone, event in his proposed budget. Mind you, the backroom deal was done long ago between the School Super and County Commission Chairman. The only thing remaining to find out is if the School Board has any spine. So far it has consistently been 7 to 2 in favor of jello.
Commented: Thursday, May 29th, 2025 @ 6:54 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on School Board goes NON-transparent on Snowden closureSD: 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
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Commented on School Board goes NON-transparent on Snowden closureIf I'm hearing this right the next 'hearing' is going to be more like a three-minute comment session directed at the board - more control freak stuff. I think at this point, and most likely afterwards too, this process is going to be ripe for legal action. Need to get in serious lawyer shopping mode.
Commented: Wednesday, May 28th, 2025 @ 5:23 pm
By: Van Zant
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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
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RH: I agree, but I seriously doubt this particular board is going to add any responsibilities. They seem to like the easy path.
Commented: Friday, May 23rd, 2025 @ 8:32 am
By: Van Zant
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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
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Commented on Financial Incompetence, Gang of FourThe costs, and in this case continuing costs, of consolidation could pay for keeping existing schools open. When consolidation is the goal what's happening now is kind of like killing two birds with one stone. Seems to me the county is getting snookered and the vast majority of our boards and commissions are in la la land or worse.
Commented: Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 @ 7:42 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on Financial Incompetence, Gang of FourIt 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
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Commented on Biden-Hur tape dropsThe question for me is, who was the president during the Biden term?
Commented: Sunday, May 18th, 2025 @ 9:30 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on Looks Like Another School Flim-FlamI reviewed the public comments of that May 5th commission meeting and Travis Martin from Blounts Creek made lots of sense in his reasoning for keeping Snowden School open. It's too bad that four commissioners and seven school board members just don't want to know.
Commented: Tuesday, May 13th, 2025 @ 10:51 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on Looks Like Another School Flim-FlamI just got around to watching the May 5th Beaufort County Commission meeting. There was an interesting motion made in that meeting. "Make a motion to ask the school superintendent for the difference in cost or cost savings in closing S.W. Snowden school in Aurora as opposed to the cost or cost savings in keeping the school open."
The vote was Richardson, Dunn, and Deatherage - Yes. Booth, Langley, Waters, and Walker - No. My question is, why would board members NOT want to know that, in order to make a good decision? The answer is, they have already decided, but based on what? Commissioner Booth highlighted the sentiment when he said, I've done all I'm going to do for Aurora. All of Beaufort County should be concerned about what is being proposed for the people in the Aurora area of Beaufort County.
Commented: Monday, May 12th, 2025 @ 8:56 pm
By: Van Zant
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Some NC Republican districts are "extending and clarifying" their censures of Thom Tillis. If the NCGOP does not deal with the Tillis problem, we will be doomed in the next senate election.
Commented: Thursday, May 8th, 2025 @ 8:59 am
By: Van Zant
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SD: I'm not in disagreement. If we ever get the opportunity for heavy industry, we should take advantage of it. My recollecting about a previous local economy based on mostly locally owned primary sector industries and the locally owned service sector industries supporting them is just something that I consider more-healthy than what we have now.
Seems to me we have much less regular folks having opportunities for their own endeavors in primary sector activities. I suppose we still have secondary sector activities, but it is not what I consider broad based or even what could be considered strong. We continue to have service sector activities. The sector that is way out of whack locally is the quaternary sector, in my humble opinion. It has to be disappointing for you to see so many fellow governmental decision makers tooting their economic development horns and spending the public's hard-earned money while actually doing stupid things that block economic development. I'm often left wondering if it is only stupidity or something more.
Commented: Thursday, May 8th, 2025 @ 8:52 am
By: Van Zant
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SD: It surely seems like we need DOGE in Beaufort County. The school consolidation process, the money sunk into empty industrial parks, the loss of our hospitals, non-beneficial transportation decisions, very real but dormant fraud cases dragging on for years - this is a string of disasters.
Beaufort County was way better off years ago as a farming, fishing, light industry, service sector county with vibrant small communities. We've replaced all that with Wal-Mart, Dollar General, fast food, and small community ghost towns. If this is progress, I want no more of it.
Commented: Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 @ 9:06 am
By: Van Zant
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The School Board and the Superintendent could have competed in a positive way and averted this very bad situation we have now. Instead, they operated in a way that created doubt and uncertainty within the community while the actual Snowden staff toiled away bravely working against the odds. Most people in southeastern Beaufort County believe this has all been done on purpose in order to justify abandoning this quadrant of the county and to hasten the school consolidation schemes that have been hatched in crooked backrooms and diabolical ivory towers. The community school in Aurora that serves Richland Township should be a rallying point for all of Beaufort County. This might be our last chance to stop this harmful trend in our part of the world.
Commented: Tuesday, May 6th, 2025 @ 10:22 pm
By: Van Zant
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Big Brother is alive and well in Wake County, North Carolina.
Commented: Saturday, May 3rd, 2025 @ 9:50 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on The Importance of Being PresentIt appears the Special Called Board of Education Meeting for Thursday, May 1 at 6:00 PM at S.W. Snowden School in Aurora has been cancelled for now. If and when it is rescheduled it will probably be on short notice. People need to continue paying attention.
Commented: Tuesday, April 29th, 2025 @ 8:32 am
By: Van Zant
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W: Consolidation of the Beaufort County School System and the Washington City School System happened back in the 1990s. That bird has flown. I agree with you on the subject of hiring leadership. Why do we so often pass over well-educated local people in favor of outsiders that have no understanding of our area? More times than not these hires will be elsewhere on another step on their career path when the consequences of their actions here must be dealt with by us.
Commented: Sunday, April 27th, 2025 @ 9:17 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on Opinion: Closing S.W. Snowden Is WrongI wonder why the video of the April 15th School Board meeting is still not up. If it happens to be posted before next week, people better check the audio. Remember the meeting when the Aurora pastors spoke and the audio was erased for their part of it?
Commented: Thursday, April 24th, 2025 @ 8:39 am
By: Van Zant
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Commented on The tail wags the dog at Snowden hearing in AuroraI think you have definitely hit on something here. I read in the paper where Superintendent Cheeseman is quoted as saying Beaufort County Schools will host community forums on the closure of S.W. Snowden Elementary. At the forum last night, Board Member Hickman read the NC General statute that said the local board of education must provide the public hearings in these situations. That is an important distinction. It certainly does seem like the tail is wagging the dog.
Commented: Thursday, April 17th, 2025 @ 11:30 am
By: Van Zant
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