Frances Parks, vice chairwoman of the Duplin County Board of Commissioners, addresses pleads with the school board to OK a joint meeting between the boards to ‘pick up the broken pieces’ that exists between them.(Photo by Billy Todd)
Elected officials, as well as representatives from two of Duplin’s largest employers, spoke to the board, and several members of the Citizens for the Children and the Checkbook, voiced their opinions as well.
The consensus — dismiss requirements of the lawsuit against county commissioners and find a way to work together.
Despite the outcry from the public, when a vote was taken, it was 4-2 against a motiion by Jennings Outlaw, seconded by Hubert Bowden, to dismiss the requirements of the court’s decision on the lawsuit against the county commissioners.
Members Reginald Kenan, Willie Gillespie, Emily Manning and Chuck Farrior voted against the motino.
The first to address the board during the public comment time was Frances Parks, vice chairwoman of the Duplin County Board of Commissioners. “I am here to beg and plead.” she stressed, urging the school board to agree to a joint meeting with her board.
“I believe it is so important for these two boards to come together. Our intention is not to change your mind, but we have two goals, No. 1, I feel it’s important that you understand the financial situation our county, your county, my county, their county (referring to the citizens present), is in. And, No. 2, if this meeting happens, I am hoping and praying that we can pick up the broken pieces together and move ahead.”
Parks stated that she did not see anything negative that could come from such a meeting, and believed positive things could be accomplished for citizens and the children if both boards find a commong ground.
“We can’t continue like we are going,” she attested.
Mike Bliss from Goldsboro Milling and Butterball LLC, and Kraig Westerbeek, representing Murphy-Brown, also both spoke school board members, stressing the devastation a supplemental tax would cause to businesses such as theirs.
Commissioners have said they might have to levy such a tax if they are forced to pay the $4.8 million required by the lawsuit.
Both representatives shared that the long-term increase in taxation would only serve to put additional stress on their businesses in higher taxes, not only on the business but on the growers and suppliers for their businesses.
The past few years, Bliss and Westerbeek said, have truly been a struggle and more taxes would only serve to negatively impact the economic situation further in Duplin County.
Karen Scalf, with the CCC, shared that her group believed the school board had been misinformed by people who wanted to control them and have things done the way they wanted. “We don’t trust the information you have been given. Before you approve a budget that has been revised twice, please make yourselves informed. Listen to the citizens and hear what they are saying.”
Scalf urged them to listen to the voters’ demand for a local person to be selected as the new superintendent and for the dismissal of the lawsuit settlement. Her sentiments were echoed by many of the others who addressed the board.
Dexter Edwards, president of the Duplin County Farm Bureau, spoke of the impact on the farmers that the additional supplemental tax would pose. He shared that the additional tax would be detrimental to many of the farmers in the agriculturally-based county. He, too, requested the lawsuit be dismissed.
Addressing the successes of the 2008-09 school year, based on the statistics that showed improvement in student achievement across the board, Alice Scott explained said the board apparently did not need the additional funds to educate the children in Duplin County.
Scott commended the instructional staff for achieving student educational progress without those additional funds. “The key to students’ educational performance are qualified teachers, adequate instructional materials, and parental support. I, as others have done, request that you work diligently to work together in the best interest of the students of this county.”
Warsaw mayor Win Batten said it was because of the lack of trust exhibited from the public towards Duplin County Schools that citizens voted in a quarter-cent sales tax for the county yet voted down a similar increase in the sales tax for the purpose of helping education.
To contact Billy Todd, call 910-592-8137 ext. 117 or e-mail siobits@heartlandpublications.com.
Surprise, surprise! The commissioners now want to make nice. What was it that General William Westmoreland said about hearts and minds?