Why even bother with electing a school board?
It’s a problem we see with so many elected or appointed, alleged “watchdog” boards. Folks who win elections — or appointments — to boards pledging to be the eyes and ears of the taxpayers eventually become rubber-stamps for the bureaucrats they’re supposed to be watching. The VIPs can still be fawned over as “councilman” or “commissioner” at cocktail parties while leaving all of the research, discussion, and fact-finding to the government employees. *THAT is a whole lot easier.*
I’m sure some version of this is happening in all 100 of North Carolina’s counties. On the community college board of trustees, the various city councils and county boards of commissioners, and the board of education.
We in Moore County thought we were making some headway against this affliction after the 2022 election. It appeared that we had replaced a 5-2 liberal majority on our county school board with a 6-1 conservative majority. Gone, we thought, were the days when our elected watchdogs simply blessed everything the superintendent and his army of edu-crats fed them. Surely, years of tough questions and tons of scrutiny were ahead.
Two years later, that 6-1 conservative majority has morphed into a 5-2 liberal majority under the full-control of the superintendent and a doddering, back-stabbing board chairman. You can watch a typical school board meeting and you predict how any vote is going to go. If the superintendent expresses his support, and the doddering chairman does too, you can count on a 6-1 vote for whatever the superintendent wants. The only scrutiny and /or tough questions that exist come from board member David Hensley — who, by the way, is on the ballot for reelection this year. Hensley is the only one on that board keeping his commitment to the voter and taxpayers.
If you watch a meeting, you’ll see that David Hensley is the only person on the school board who clearly understands the issues being discussed. The rest of them appear befuddled, dazed and confused — waiting for a clue from the doddering chairman or the superintendent on how to vote.
Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about. At the August 12 school board meeting, the superintendent and his team were trying to push through a contract with Public Impact to consult on the implementation of something called Advanced Teaching Roles. David Hensley spoke up — seeking to table a vote on the contract. He argued that it had only been discussed at a committee meeting featuring the superintendent, the doddering chairman, and two of the chairman’s cronies. Hensley said he was concerned with Public Impact’s focus on DEI — a variation on Marxism that focuses intensely on race and gender and alleged oppression by white males.
Hensley proposed tabling the contract for one month to give board members time to seek public input on the plan.
Superintendent Tim Locklair spoke up in defense of Public Impact — swearing that he and his team will not allow DEI to be spread as part of this program.
( This is reminiscent of what has happened at Sandhills Community College. The college’s DEI office has undergone a name change, but still appears to be preaching the same “gospel” it did when it was called DEI. DEI foe Carol Swain – who spoke at Sandhill Classical Christian School Thursday night — said DEI is becoming more and more controversial as people learn what it is about. She said government bodies and companies are attempting a “Trojan Horse” maneuver in response — sneaking it in looking like something harmless. )
As Hensley pitched his tabling proposal, you could see the rubber-stamps on the board itching to deliver to him another 6-1 defeat. *Hensley BAD. Government employees, always right.*
Board vice-chairman Shannon Davis spoke first — calling herself a DEI foe but being completely trusting of Locklair and his team to manage Public Impact and their work without allowing DEI to creep in. (Begin watching the video from the 3:15:00 mark to 3:23:00 to get a load of what low-information folks in-charge looks like.). Board member Ken Benway compares Hensley’s motion to table the contract for a month in order to seek more public input to the school system cutting all ties with Sandhills Community College.
The vote on Hensley’s motion to table failed 5-2, with board member Pauline Bruno joining Hensley on the losing side.
What started off two years ago as a tremendous opportunity for conservative reform has collapsed into a childish vendetta by doddering Bob Levy and his low-information cabal — cheered on by the government employees at the county schools’ central office. Jealousy aimed at the smart kid in the room is choking off what had been so promising.
Allowing left-wing government employees to run amok and unchecked is bad for our children and even worse for our community. These people who ran for office pledging to be watchdogs, but then rolled over to show their tummies and be submissive to the superintendent and his crew, should be ashamed. They have failed in their roles as watchdogs working on behalf of their friends, families and neighbors.
In the Levy era, things are worse in public schools government than they were at any time during the Grimesey era. They are worse than what we voted out in 2022. David Hensley is the only incumbent on the November ballot who deserves reelection. He’s the only one who has done what he told the voters he would do.
Moore County? I thought you were talking about MY county. Our school board majority says things like “we need to trust the experts” before they slam their rubber stamps down. and sneer at the members daring to vote otherwise and do their own research.
At election time many of the Repubs talk conservative then on the job they join their Dem friends after their perfunctory statement about supporting the staff, supporting the students, and watching the dollars – not. Then they go play big shot at those out-of- town NC School Board Association events and cash their extra income checks. It’s quite the ritual. And let’s not forget my local Repub party: They actually complain about those few board members actually working. Why? “They are disrupting everything” they say. I ask, like what? They can’t seem to answer that. I think they mean the system. Specifically, I mean the con game on the public.
I remember decades ago, the late Florida State Senator Dick Deeb (R-Pinellas) commenting on this problem at a meeting of the county chapter of the Florida Conservative Union, saying that “too many school board members fail to comprehend that the superintendant is their employee, not their boss.”
We need conservative school board candidates across the state and across the country who have backbone as well as principle, and who will put these arrogant and power hungry bureaucrats in their place. They are part and parcel of the liberal education establishment that parents are not happy with.
Senator Deeb had an interesting solution to the superintendant problem. He introduced a local bill in the Florida Senate to make the superintendant of the Pinellas County Schools an elected position by the voters of Pinellas County, and it passed the Senate. In the House, when it got to committee, a number of state reps thought it would be a great idea for their counties, too, and tacked on a bunch more counties. That put the liberal education establishment into high gear to defeat it, and they managed to stop it in the House. That was in the mid-1970s, and it seems little has changed with this problem.
The parents and taxpayers in any county do not need milquetoast school board members who dance on bureaucrat puppet strings like Moore County clearly has an excess of.