What in the World is (Not) Going on with the 2018 School Bond?
Guest post by Alice Wellborn: a history, how you can attend the meetings where the decisions are made, and what she will be looking for next
I’m happy to welcome Alice Wellborn, today’s guest writer. She is a former Transylvania County School Board member and current chair of the Transylvania County Democratic Women.
Alice closely follows the school bond situation in our county, and has spoken at School Board and Commissioners meetings on behalf of the students, teachers, school staff, parents, and the majority of our county citizens who voted for the School Bond in 2018.
At the end of her post, I’ll add information about how to attend these meetings or to watch them online. The next School Board meeting is this Monday, July 18, at 6:30 PM.
I hope you will enjoy the historic county school system photos that I’ve added to Alice’s comments. We’ve come a long way. It’s time now to follow the will of the people, and continue our progress!
School Bond Projects Have Not Moved Forward
Guest Post by Alice Wellborn
Commissioners’ Vote Moves School Bond Forward was the headline in the Transylvania Times on June 23. But their vote did not, in fact, move anything forward except more confusion and delay.
This issue began at the joint meeting between the school board and the commissioners on January 31, 2022. The school board selected new design options for the bond projects because the dramatic rise in building costs put the bids for the original designs over budget. The commissioners had to sign off on the new architectural contracts in order for work to proceed because the contracts included payments over more than one budget year. The school board asked for a timely response.
The commissioners have now held the bond projects hostage for 5 months. (Recall that the only other time the commissioners had to sign contracts for the bond projects was in January 2019; it took them 4 months to sign.) On Monday night, they presented their ransom note to the school board. The commissioners’ demands are three-fold.
First, the school board must give the commissioners (or their designee) the power to review and approve all project contracts for construction and renovation.
Note that the current Interlocal Agreement, an agreement that must be amended to meet the commissioners’ demands, states that “The County irrevocably appoints the Board as its sole agent to carry out all phases of any construction or renovations for the project undertaken pursuant to this Agreement.” Last time I looked, “irrevocable” means “final – not able to be changed.”
Second, the school board must “affirm and represent” that “the allocated funds and forecasted Option 1, along with presently budgeted yearly maintenance funds, are in the best interest of the students of Transylvania County and are sufficient to provide for a system of free public schools in Transylvania County.”
This harkens back to state law G.S. 115C-431(a), which says that a school board can initiate a dispute resolution process with the county if “the amount of money appropriated to the local current expense fund, or the capital outlay fund, or both, by the board of county commissioners is not sufficient to support a system of free public schools…” Clearly, the commissioners want to deny the school board the opportunity to initiate a dispute resolution process.
The question of responsibility for failed maintenance and repairs is most easily answered by charting the difference between the yearly capital request submitted by the school board and the actual amount funded by the county commissioners. The commissioners have underfunded school board requests for maintenance funds by more than 12.2 million dollars over 19 years. Don’t complain about leaking roofs when you have just denied a request to replace those roofs!
Third, the school board must make all construction documents available to the county within 5 business days. To fail to do so would be a violation of the proposed new agreement.
The document outlining the commissioners’ demands was read out twice during Monday’s meeting, once by the county manager and once by the board chair. Both times the document was read so quickly and unclearly that the audience in the commissioners’ chambers, which included the Superintendent of Schools, the Assistant Superintendent, the Director of Business Services, and the members of the school board, could not understand what was being read and had no idea what the commissioners were voting on. They were not provided with a written copy.
During the 5 months in which the commissioners have delayed acting on the school board’s request, they have discussed the matter in multiple closed session meetings, based on a claim of attorney-client privilege.
North Carolina’s open meetings law states that closed sessions can only be held in certain circumstances, including attorney-client privilege. But that section also states that “General policy matters may not be discussed in a closed session and nothing herein shall be construed to permit a public body to close a meeting that otherwise would be open merely because an attorney employed or retained by the public body is a participant”.
It doesn’t take an attorney to smell a rat! The commissioners, county manager, and county attorney appear to have discussed school board business several times in very questionable closed meetings.
The commissioners’ Code of Ethics talks about integrity, trust, and behaving with respect towards others. It talks about avoiding impropriety in the exercise of their official duties. The code ends with this: “Board members should conduct the affairs of the board in an open and public manner. They should comply with all applicable laws governing open meetings and public records, recognizing that doing so is an important way to be worthy of the public’s trust. They should remember when they meet that they are conducting the public’s business…” An “environment of transparency and candor is to be maintained at all times in the County government.”
A worthy goal. Let’s see it happen.
A Special Note:
Here’s what Alice will be looking for at Monday’s School Board meeting:
For the July 18th meeting, I'll be very interested in hearing any public comments at the beginning of the meeting (Wiener and Dalton often make public comment, but not nearly as often as they used to) and the Superintendent's Updates at the end of the meeting. That's when you find out what's going on!
I'll also be interested in the new accountability options for Davidson River School and the Budget Updates.
The school board may go into closed session to discuss the demands the commissioners have made as a condition for moving the bond projects forward. They will go into closed session for that because there are several legal implications.
You can get on the list to receive information about meetings and the agendas. For the School Board, email Jenny Hunter (jhunter@tcsnc.org) and for the commissioners, email Trish Hogan (trisha.hogan@transylvaniacounty.org).
All my thanks to Alice Wellborn for this important post. It’s vital that we support our Democratic School Board candidates this year at the polls. They are incumbent Marty Griffin, and Paul Cooper.
Spread the word, support them, and vote for them.
So very grateful for you and Alice. What would our communities do without your dedications?
Alice … thank you for your consistency in following this and other school issues. I trust your experience and observations. THANK YOU. Deda, a good link to issues we wonder about; thank you too.