Winners at Listening

After so many recent meetings have left people with the feeling that our education leaders did not care what the people want, last night's meeting with Melinda Eure and Dr. Collins-Hart proves they are Winners at Listening.

These two leaders directed a positive community meeting on education at the Windsor Community building on Monday night. The participants talked about educational challenges and dreams and left with a better understanding of both. Both leaders listened and responded openly to questions and comments from the audience.

Mrs. Eure started the meeting by acknowledging that the pending school closures was a big issue which she opposed and something we would cover before the night was through. However, she had other goals she needed input on for the future. Here is a summary of those goals.

Uniforms – Mrs. Eure has changed her position on school uniforms and believes it will help the education process. Research shows uniforms remove dress stereotyping, improve discipline, and make it easier to identify outsiders on the premises. Parents would buy the uniforms, which would cost less than most of the current clothing trends students aspire to keep up with.

Increased recruiting and maintenance of qualified teachers – Mrs. Eure and Dr. Collins- Hart both discussed the need and challenges of getting and keeping better teachers. Plans are underway to improve our image with prospective teachers from both Elizabeth City State University and East Carolina University. The school system is going to need the communities of Bertie County to help in this endeavor and Dr. Collins-Hart shared this area as one of her priorities for our system. A “community based” advisory board working under the Board of Education oversight, would be a great asset for this project.

Discipline – Mrs. Eure sees the high school as the area needing the most improvement in discipline and believes uniforms will help improved discipline. She commended Dr. Collins-Hart for her focus on discipline to date. Dr. Collins-Hart informed us on the task force work underway in this area. Improvements in this area seem likely based on the comments shared at the meeting.

Improved Vocational training – Mrs. Eure wants better training for many of our students who will not go on to college but will need a trade to make them productive citizens. She asked for interested parties to help with feasibility work on how this can be accomplished.

Improved SAT scores and increasing the number of college bound students – Mrs. Eure expressed her view that we should develop a program to increase the scores of our students taking the test and find ways to increase the number of students who see college as a possible alternative to ending their education after high school.

After covering these goal areas, the draft of the current 5 year strategic plan was shared with the audience. Dr. Collins-Hart informed everyone that the board of education would not vote on the plan until March and any input or suggestions should be sent to her attention.

Comments from the audience then moved to the school closings. The consensus of comments from the audience was that these closures would be detrimental to the students, against the citizen’s wishes, and based on a facility discrimination allegation that the Heery study proves does not exist. Challenges to the recent cost per student financial justification offered by the board were voiced by the audience. For example, it was pointed out that over $25,000 was included in the JP Law per student cost calculation and that this cost will go away after the sewer system was fixed.

Other challenges were presented but are too numerous to cover here. Mrs. Eure thanked the crowd for their support on keeping the schools open and confirmed she was absolutely against closing these schools. The final audience comments on the school closings was a request that everyone against school closing should call their county commissioner and ask they do a friend of the court brief to inform the federal court that the county wants to close the current desegregation case but not by closing schools.

The closing discussion of the evening was a heartfelt plea from one of our best teachers to remember that many honest hardworking professionals, who have committed no errors, are “under the microscope” because of what has happened. The plea was for us to move beyond our shortcomings so the educational community could regain a sense of respect and appreciation in the community. The crowd responded supportively to the comment but was reminded by a member of the audience that poor past leadership had allowed the problems to elevate to the current level. The public is not to blame for the publicity that all of us are working and living under right now. That blame lies squarely on the shoulders of some members of the Board of Education.

The superintendent pointed out that the system had been forced to overcorrect to some extent in order to regain the public trust and she thanked her staff for their support during a trying time. Mrs. Eure pointed out that we are moving back to a more balanced use of the “microscope” and while the board is more aware of financial controls, they feel improvements are in place to prevent any future problems. Any actions taken about past financial management miscues (previous administration) will be handled by the SBI who is the only remaining entity looking at past financial transactions.

The was a positive meeting and hopefully everyone left feeling like some progress had been made.

Seaton Fairless Answers Questions

Seaton Fairless, Chairman of the Bertie County Board of Education (BOE), held a public meeting in his district to answer questions of the local citizens about the BOE plans to close local schools. He was accompanied by the Superintendent of Bertie County Public Schools, Dr. Nettie Collins-Hart.

Colerain Community Center, Site For Board of Education Meeting

The meeting was typical of the two county wide meetings in the last few months. The Public comments clearly indicated disatisfaction with the plans to close community schools. Chairman Fairless presented his case for ignoring citizen input and driving forward with attempts to negotiate an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to close the schools. This negotiation is being done in secret and will be ordered by the Judge in the case when it is acceptable to ONLY the BOE and the DOJ.

When The Meeting Started There Was A Good Crowd That Swelled After Late Arrivals Made It Standing Room Only

This dichotomy of holding meetings for public input while forging ahead with plans cast in concrete was noted by local businessman Mike Perry in his comment summing up the meeting with, "The meeting was useless. They (the 3 member BOE majority) are unwilling to compromise. They did not want to hear what the citizens had to say."

Another comment to Chairman Fairless, was "You are elected by the public, you need to serve." His response was an explanation of why he felt that he had to ignore public wishes.

Dr. Nettie Collins-Hart (Superintendent, Public Schools) And Seaton Fairless (Chairman, Board Of Education)

The real concern is awareness that once the Judge ORDERS us to close the schools, even when it becomes obvious it damages our children, there will be almost no way to stop it. Even reversing it with an appeal will take years and costs millions that Bertie County may not have.

John Davis of Community Schools SOS explained before the meeting that Bertie County citizens must move quickly to do everything that can be done to make sure this ruling never takes place. Almost our last chance is if the County Commissioners can file information in the case under Amicus Curiae, a phrase that according to William Rehnquist "... literally means 'friend of the court' -- someone who is not a party to the litigation, but who believes that the court's decision may affect its interest."

Bertie County citizens most assuredly will have our interests affected if this is not stopped.

Cecelia Anne Hill Is BCAC Artist Of The Month

WINDSOR - Cecelia Anne Hill is coming home to Windsor for a visit and bringing some of her much-desired art for Bertie County to enjoy. Hill has been chosen Bertie County Arts Council’s featured artist for February. An open house is planned Thursday, February 2, from 4-6 PM at the Arts Center, 124 South King Street. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The artist’s work will remain on display until the end of February and the public is invited to visit BCAC Monday-Friday from 10 AM until 2 PM The Arts Council has 53 vendors selling their work through the Gallery.

The View Of An Old Farm House Behind A Beautiful Field Is typical Of Cecelia Anne Hill's Rural Scenes

Hill was born in Norfolk, VA, while her father, the late Dr. Cola Castellow, was serving with the U.S. Navy. The family moved frequently and came home to Windsor to stay when she was four years old. "I feel fortunate to have grown up in Windsor. Everyone was very gracious to the young people and I had a lot of friends," Hill said. "There were outstanding teachers in the school system and I look back with great appreciation for that."

The artist attended Salem College in Winston Salem and left North Carolina to work one year as an assistant in a New York City chemistry laboratory. "I loved New York, still do. For some reason, everyone was most kind and helpful to me," she said.

After one year, Hill entered nursing school at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Richmond, VA, which included six months training at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, in obstetrics and pediatrics. After graduation, she worked in pediatrics at several hospitals. The artist lived in Charlottesville, VA, during her first marriage and raised three children. She later began working at Kings Daughters Hospital in Norfolk and remarried.

"Being very impressed with Barclay Sheaks’ work in art, I was lucky to be accepted in some of his classes. It was most helpful. My art talent blossomed under his instruction," Hill said.
The instruction was undeniably good because now Hill’s awards and winnings stretch back across three decades.

She has been called a "realistic painter whose work is characterized by touches of surrealism". The majority of her work features rural settings, but she also has painted scenes in Turkey, Spain and other countries. Her resume includes exhibitions at Virginia Beach Art Show; NC Art Museum; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA; Chrysler Museum’s Irene Leach Invitational Art Show; Salem College; Madison Square Garden Art Show in New York; Virginia Wesleyan College; Fine Art Show at Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville; Solo Art Show at the University Club in Washington, DC; a painting selected by the Department of the State Art-in-Embassies Program for the permanent collection at the U. S. Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal; New England Fine Art Institute in Boston, MA; and many shows in Manteo and Nags Head on the Outer Banks.

Her patrons include Philip Morris USA in Richmond, VA; United Virginia Bank, Richmond; Wachovia Bank and Trust and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem; television and movie personality Andy Griffith; Senator Marc Basnight of Manteo; and Senator Joseph Canada of Virginia.

Planners at Bertie County Arts Council consider it a real coup to have this former Windsor resident return for a show and invite her many friends and fans to the open house. For more information about this or any other activity at BCAC, please call 794-9402 or email bertiearts@earthlink.net.


Story and Photos by Jeanette White

Innsbrook Update At Rotary Club

Jack Powell had a great guest speaker for last week's Rotary Meeting. Chris Catron of Innsbrook Golfing and Boating Community, the development out at the east end of Bertie County by Salmon Creek and the Albemarle Sound.

Chris showed us the latest map of sales, and was very happy with the results. He spoke of how much prices had increased due to the popularity of the facility, that has not even been completed yet. Visually, anyone who drives out there will be amazed at the spectacular renovations to what was already an extremely beautiful site.

Innsbrook Map Shows Sales Of Lots Are Ahead Of Schedule

The golf course continues to shape up, and they are only half way through moving dirt. They are moving 2 million yards of dirt total, and they have just finished the first million yards. Chris also talked about the next phases of the development, and the fantastic econonmic engine it is expected to be for our area. As Bertie County developes, perhaps over time we will no longer have to have a tax rate that is 85% higher than other counties in North Carolina.

This development is spectacular, and should be the master plan for all other county developers to follow!

Jack Powell Introduces Guest Speaker Chris Catron, Broker For Innsbrook, To Rotary

A personal thank you to Bobby Ware and Chris Catron for bringing this facility to our county.



Click Here or on the title above for the latest pictures and article from Innsbrook site.

Click Here for the original pictures and article on the Innsbrook development.

BCPS Needs ‘Accountability’

by Cal Bryant - January 25th, 2006 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

The recent news of the low fund balance ($25,178) reported in an audit of the Bertie County Public Schools (BCPS) financial records has sparked a response from Bertie County government.

“It’s a simple matter of properly spending the money you are budgeted,” Zee Lamb, Bertie County Manager, said. “They (Bertie Board of Education) are placing the blame on state cutbacks, but school systems across the state are suffering the same fate.”

Lamb said the Bertie Board of Commissioners are using every means available to provide additional funds for public schools, but there’s only so much money to go around in a county where the tax rate is high and the tax base is low.

“We have to ask our citizens to shoulder a tax burden that is nearly 85 percent higher than the 10 wealthiest counties in the state,” Lamb noted.

The County Manager is correct. Mr. Lamb also pointed out "“They (BCPS) are only showing a portion of the picture. To better understand what’s going on, you need to see the entire picture.” To get a better understanding of the entire picture, and a list of all of the other money that the BCPS receives to spend on the students click on the title above to read Cal's entire article.

I just do not understand how we can continue to be in the top 25% in spending and the bottom 10% in results, and no one from BCPS seems embarrassed!

Race For The Finish Line

Friend of the Court – Saves Our Schools

Windsor, North Carolina, 1/23/2006 – The citizens of Bertie County and three renegade members of the Board of Education are deadlocked in a race to a March 1 finish line in federal court. The winner will determine the fate of the three best performing elementary schools in Bertie County. Three members of the Board of Education would like to close these schools against the majority wishes of the county citizens and two members of the board.

The citizens pulled even in the race last Thursday as they announced they had collected 2,221 petition signatures in only a two week period. A citizen’s trip to victory lane is going to depend on making the judge aware of significant information he should know but will not, if his "education" is left up to the Board of Education and Department of Justice lawyers. The surest way to inform the judge just how badly the desires of the citizens are being overrun is for the Commissioners of Bertie County to sponsor a friend of the court brief to the federal court hearing the case. Since a ruling can be expected by March 1st or sooner we need to move as fast as possible to make the friends of the court brief happen.

A friend of the court brief is a third party, not involved in the lawsuit, who hires a lawyer to provide significant information to the court that could impact the outcome of the case. The third party files the brief because they do not believe the court will see the missing data in any other way. Last Thursday night, Bertie citizens at the SOS meeting learned the best friend of the court they could hope for, is none other than the Bertie County Commissioners. They have the financial ability to assume this role and they would have strong credibility in the courts eyes. All SOS members and all citizens are asked to contact their County Commissioner and urge them to call a special meeting to approve allowing the county attorney to file a friend of the court brief on behalf of the children and citizens of Bertie County. Time is of the essence.

Only two public meetings have been held since the board publicly announced their renewed intentions to close these schools as a way to (according to the BOE) "end" a 38 year old desegregation case. One meeting (one hour) was called by the Board of Education and the second meeting (two hours) was agreed to by the Board of Education after significant prodding by the County Commissioners. At both meetings, 100% of the public comments were against closing the schools. Without a friend of the court brief, the judge may never know adequate public debate has NOT been allowed and that with additional time the county citizens can prove through petition just how badly the majority wishes are being ignored.

In addition, the friend of the court lawyer can share with the Judge the SOS team findings that refute many of the claims made by the Board of Education and Department of Justice lawyers. An example of important information the Board of Education attorneys should be pointing out to the court and are not, is the conflict between the recent Heery report and the August 2004 report by the Department of Justice desegregation consultant. The DOJ consultant in the 8/2004 report told the court that the historically black school at JP Law was in much poorer shape than the historically white school in Askewville. In fact, the DOJ consultant touted the great condition of the Askewville facility. This was the Department of Justice’s proof that Bertie County had discriminated. However, the independent Heery study tells us that Askewville is in worse shape than JP Law. This disproves the Department of Justice allegations about Bertie County discriminating.

In fact, both schools are in acceptable condition and with ongoing maintenance have many teaching years ahead of them. Why has the attorney for the Bertie Board of Education not pointed this out to the court? Why do they allow us to look guilty when we are not? Today, there is no longer a dual school system being operated in Bertie County. We should be granted unitary status now. Additional information supportive of our innocence can be provided to the court by a friend of the court legal representative and we can save our community schools.


Press Release by Community Schools SOS

Dr. Collins-Hart Relies On Mis-Information

In the press conference of last Thursday, the most significant quote came from Superintendent Dr. Collins-Hart. The quote, as reported in film of Dr. Collins-Hart on WITN TV, was "The per pupil amount from the county has remained the same . . . however with a reduction in State funds and a reduction in ADM and increasing costs . . . the same amount does not buy us the same services for students." This is false. The County Commissioners have increased the county contribution each of the last 5 years.

I can only assume someone from the BOE bookkeeping department fed Dr. Collins-Hart this completely erroneous information. Certainly someone with Dr. Collins-Hart's credentials would not have made such a totally erroneous statement if she had herself looked at the information on the county's contributions. I don't understand how the education adminstration can possibly not notice that the per student amount went up as much as it did.

Here are the correct numbers as provided by the county:
In school year 1999-2000 - the per student amount was $469.90
In school year 2004-2005 - the per student amount was $619.15

The per student amount clearly went up. Clearly $619.15 is NOT "the same amount" as $469.90. It is an increase of 31%.

Since there has been a clear 31% increase over the last 5 years, and is increasing again in the current year, why would someone tell Dr. Collins-Hart it had not increased? Who would have told her such a thing? What consequence will there be for this person for so egregiously misleading the Superintendent and letting her embarrass herself on local TV? Perhaps we should even ask why is it that Dr. Collins-Hart has not looked at the numbers herself?

The whole purpose of the press conference the other day was to chastise the press for what the 3 member Board of Education (BOE) majority and the Superintendent claims was the press failing to accurately report what was said on earlier occasions. I certainly hope the Superintendent will agree that my quote of hers above was an accurate report and that her statement was false. What I can't understand is how her large staff could allow her to make such a mistake?

Is it possible they were too busy keeping out of the press conference anyone who listens carefully to what she and the 3 member BOE majority have to say so that their inaccuracies will not be challenged (This is not criticism of the other press present, as they were clearly being chastised too)? What are you going to do about this Dr. Collins-Hart? Do you deny that your statement is false?

At least a couple of other questions come to mind. Did the staff keep Morris Rascoe, Assistant County Manager out of the press conference specifically to keep this statement from being challenged? Did the Superintendent or the BOE Chairman know that Morris was being excluded?

DOJ School Report Based On False Data

We finally received a copy of the (now almost infamous) Department of Justice (DOJ) report (titled Desegregation Planning Analysis of the Bertie County School District) which has caused our county so much grief. It does not say what many have attributed to it, and it says a great number of things that are not true. It is reasonable to say the report proves the DOJ lawyers do not care about Bertie County students, either black or white.

In talking about a side issue, the report has some interesting facts that acknowledge Askewville Elementary was 43% black before the latest redrawing of the lines, which have now made it 58% black. The report says "To some extent this makes the non-black elementary school look better (43% Black) than its zone would reflect (31% Black)." This sentence proves the DOJ is really haggling over minutiae and always has been. The huge public debate that accompanied the threat to close the Askewville School in order to attain a 15% increase in black attendance was acrimonious and accusatory. Now that we have redrawn the lines, no one is suggesting we go back.

However we are now being forced into another debate where the Board of Education attorney claims that the Department of Justice is still not satisfied with that percentage. How can any rational person argue that the black students in Merry Hill must lose their school so that the black majority of students in Askewville's Elementary school can attend a school with 13% more blacks in it? That is the claimed goal of the closure of these two schools. Over an opinion that Askewville is not “black enough” even after a change they and the court approved, the DOJ is supposedly still demanding the closing of J.P. Law.

The DOJ report touts the consolidation argument "Nationally it is recognized that a good size for elementary schools is not less that about 350 students." This is an arrogant statement that is totally refuted by most modern educators. Though there is still a component of the education establishment that touts the large school mantra, these are the people who have led the disaster in public education over the last 60 years. No one who truly cares about educating our children still promotes this argument. So why is it being used by the Department of Justice to pressure Bertie County to consolidate? Could it have more do to with their desires than the interests of Bertie County?

The DOJ report goes on "J.P. Law has a similar enrollment capacity (referring to Askewville), and under no conditions should that building be renovated, both due to its condition and due to diminishing returns when the building is so small and the cost per student is so large." What an unsubstantiated bunch of non-sense. This is exactly the problem when you allow some attorneys in Washington to use the power of the federal courts to play games with people’s lives. J.P. Law is in excellent shape. It has been maintained quite well. When the sanitary system is fixed, which will cost a fraction of what the DOJ and Heery reports have claimed, it will be as good as any school in the county, for at least another generation.

There is an old adage that no two experts ever agree on anything. The Heery Report of the BOE refutes the argument that Askewville has a school in great condition, and Merry Hill’s J.P. Law is so bad that “under no conditions should that building be renovated.” Heery rates Askewville and Aulander as worse than J.P. Law! Thus the statement in the DOJ report, "However, when the two buildings - J.P. Law with an 86% black zone and Askewville with a 69% non-black zone are taken together, the strong disparity in facilities condition does reflect unequal treatment of black students and should be remedied from a facilities equity view" is simply not true. The DOJ claims one building is in bad shape and the other is in good shape and uses this to “prove” Bertie County is discriminating because it serves their purpose, not because it is true. Heery says it is not true. It proves that the DOJ will twist facts and promote arguable opinions as facts to get what they want. Why did our BOE allow them to make such an easily refutable argument? Why has the BOE not taken the Heery report and made the DOJ acknowledge their main argument is wrong?

Even still, the Department of Justice never recommends a new school. Their own expert recommends that we use Southwestern as the new elementary school for the county. "The scheduling for implementing the plan should be taken in the context of construction of the new consolidated middle school, which frees up a middle school to make this plan work." That means that the implication of the Board of Education that a new school was the desire of the Department of Justice was always in error.

A real dichotomy is created by a statement of the lawyers for the DOJ as compared to the words of the DOJ report (most lawyers involved in desegregation cases support the words in the report on this issue). The report says, "..it is incumbent upon all school districts to work towards unitary status with respect to all issues of equity for black students."

The reality is that every school in our county is now black majority and our elementary school facilities are in excellent shape. We are running a system that in no way directs discrimination against any black student. Could the insistence of continued oversight have more to do with the statement by the lawyers that they DO NOT REPRESENT black students of Bertie County, but REPRESENT the United States Government’s interests?

They have no right to control our schools to prohibit what they feel MIGHT result in some school in the future not having an “adequate” percentage of black students, as measured by the DOJ fascination with minutiae. All recent Supreme Court rulings have denied this as a goal that can keep a desegregation case open. Bertie County deserves Unitary Status NOW. It is being denied, and the black majority of students in both Merry Hill and Askewville will be damaged, at the insistence of lawyers who clearly do not understand their own commitments.

Does BOE Have A "Nixonian Enemies List"?

Yesterday afternoon the Board of Education (BOE) held a press conference. While they had lots of room they excluded anyone that they deemed were not "press" from their conference. It would appear that Superintendent Dr. Collins-Hart and Chairman Seaton Fairless think that they deserve the same level of power accorded the President of the United States. With a clear security need in that position, press certification is reasonable. What is the purpose for denying press "certification" to local organizations that cover school board events? An enemies list? The Bertie County Patriot was denied entry to the event, even though no "certification" was required for any of the other press at the event.

We are proud to be in good company though, as the Assistant County Manager, Morris Rascoe, was also excluded. When I spoke with him, Morris said that he attempted 3 times to gain admittance.

On the first occassion, Dr. Collins-Hart's administrative assistant, Ms. Thompson, told him he did not qualify for admittance, even though it is his job to attend these functions for the County Commissioners.

After leaving to speak with the County Attorney, who informed him he had a legal right to attend the press release, Morris returned. He was informed that the opinion of the County Attorney did not change their position and once again excluded.

Morris left, but returned one last time to attempt to gain entry and specifically talk with the Superintendent or the Chairman. He was told that the press conference had started and that the individual would not interrupt the press conference to ask if Dr. Collins-Hart or Seaton Fairless would speak with him.

Why is the BOE afraid of the County Commissioners?

We will have a report tomorrow that details what we have learned about the latest press release from the BOE. The BOE can't believe that excluding the Bertie County Patriot from a press conference will keep our readers from learning the details of their arguments, can they?

[ROTFL]

[The above ROTFL is a blogging expression for "rolling on the floor laughing". Please understand, I consider the actions of the BOE to be unacceptable, but aren't they pitiful too?]

As a perfect footnote to the arrogant denial of first amendment rights to our readers documented above, the BOE sent Brent Todd to the Community Schools SOS meeting Thursday night. This meeting was held for those who wish to stop the BOE from closing our schools. You just know that Brent Todd does not share that goal. So why was he there? The BOE sent him to videotape the meeting. Is that so they could review the videotape and find others to add to their enemies list? Now that is not funny.

Community Schools SOS Press Release

Points To Keep In Mind

Windsor, North Carolina, 1/19/2006 – The opposition to closing our community schools remains strong in spite of the Board of Education’s newest story. After first telling us that the school closings were required by the Department of Justice, and then that they resulted from poor conditions in our facilities, we now discover from the federal study that the idea of building a new school is totally the fabrication of the Board of Education. The newest story explaining that plan is that closing the schools will save large amounts of money. They have yet to tell us how much, even in approximate amounts, nor how they would use those savings to teach our children. Saving money is the story that will be spread in their pess conference and the 5 local meetings in the next couple of weeks. Keep in mind, the Board of Education keeps changing their story as the public rejects their previous opinions.

It is well documented by experts who do not buy into the school consolidation myth, that increased community and transportation costs more than offset the hypothetical savings of school consolidation. In addition this ignores the poorer test scores that consolidated schools produce when compared to community schools.

Here are a couple of questions that the Board of Education should have to answer.

Why does the “Desegregation Planning and Analysis of the Bertie County School District” report done for the Department of Justice (DOJ) conflict with Brent Todd’s (Public Information Officer – Bertie County Schools) article of 11/16/2005? In the article Brent infers that the court wants to close the schools, something that has been said verbally by members of the Board of Education as well. As it turns out the Department of Justice report actually said “. . . . Askewville Elementary, a building in quite good condition . . .” and said nothing about the Aulander facility. It is clear that the DOJ report also does not believe a new school is needed, because we have too many schools already. The exact quote of the DOJ report is “there is a reduced need for school buildings that very much needs to be realized by the school board”.

Why is the Board of Education claiming we are not in “the red”? We have been overspending our revenues each year of late and the reserve fund balance has been tapped for approximately $500,000 a year to make up the shortfall. They argue that as long as we have a fund balance, they have not mismanaged the expenditure versus revenues balance and it doesn’t make them in “the red”. That is a view that assigns a very technical definition to the phrase. The Board of Education has done little to reduce the exorbitant central administration overhead, which should be done before taking actions that impact our children. Our managers have been slow to react to falling revenues and we have not lived within our means.

Business After Hours

Joblink located at 1001 South King Street in Windsor will be hosting “Business After Hours” on Thursday, January, 19, 2005 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Come out and see what is happening at the Joblink Center.

School Board Plans District Meetings

by Cal Bryant - January 16th, 2006 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

Bertie School Board members have been under a microscope since April of last year when a study, ordered by the Bertie Board of Commissioners and conducted by MGT of America, found several problem areas within the school system, including mis-use of credit cards by school administrators, an overabundance of county-owned vehicles and questionable cell phone usage.

{snip}

Meanwhile, a request made to the Bertie County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a closer look into the credit card usage has been forwarded to the North Carolina SBI for further investigation.

This to me is the most important information in Cal's article about the new school board plans. It is consistent with the argument that our school board has failed to teach our children (our system is in the bottom 10% in student achievement) and has wasted money on a massive scale (our BOE spends money at a rate that puts us in the top 20% in North Carolina counties) for these unacceptable results. The money wasted is criminal in some instances and shows a lack of concern by some of the BOE in others. No one has yet been held accountable for anything.

As one parent pointed out, the school board has shown they cannot manage small schools (just look at our results). However they have repeatedly argued that school consolidation is the way to solve our problems. Business has never used this rationale. If a manager fails at a small venture, business does not put them in charge of a larger and more complicated enterprise as a solution for their failure. Why are we doing this with our schools? (Check out www.smallerschools.org for the right answer)

At these public hearings you will be given a lot of financial data by the BOE and their new Superintendent to justify their plans . . . . but you cannot depend on it. The BOE still does not accept that they allowed the disasters documented in the MGT audit. "It was not our fault," they claim. They then insist that losing 348 sudents in recent years is the problem. However they reject the argument that this is "bright flight" due to the fact that they are doing a poor job of educating our kids. They wish to spend millions on more faciltities when they have lost huge numbers of students. Why does fewer students not mean they have all the facilities that they need? (Yet teachers complain they do not provide text books for the students in the facilities they have.)

Let them have their way and we will continue to waste money and fail to educate our children. Let them have their way and Bertie County will continue to lose population and lose business opportunities. The single largest handicap to growth in our county is our school system.

There are 3 members of this BOE that are not focusing on teaching our kids but focusing on grand plans for new facilities to divert attention from actions of the past. Their own so called "desgregation" plan as sent to the Department of Justice and the Judge is based on the argument that someone in Bertie County is still discriminating and resisting desegregation. However they refuse to say who that is. They want the Judge to order them to close schools and build a new one. We need to attend these meetings and insist on accountability for their failures, not excuses.

The hearings (all to be from 6 PM to 8 PM) as announced in the article are as follows:

Monday, January 23rd in Indian Woods (Missionary Baptist Church Family Life Center) Gloria Lee's meeting.

Tuesday, January 24th in Colerain (Community Building) Seaton Fairless' meeting.

Monday, January 30th in Windsor (Community Building) Melinda Eure's meeting.

Tuesday, January 31st in Lewiston (Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church) Gary Cordon's meeting.

Thursday, February 2nd in Merry Hill (Oxley Hill Baptist Church) Rickey Freeman's meeting.


If you care about our children or the business future of our county, I hope you will be there.

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Gates County Historical Society Produces "Life Goes On"

The annual Gates County Historical Society theatrical production started rehearsals last week. Following up on the success of last year's production of "Miracle on 34th Street", an ambitious undertaking for our Inner Banks area, Edith Seiling of the Gates County Historical Society is once again bringing our area an impressive theatrical event. This year's event is Life Goes On, written by Pamlico County Superior Court Judge James E. Ragan. Dr. Joyce Elliott Brown is directing the play for the Historical Society.

Edith Seiling (Producer), Joyce Elliott Brown (Director), Peggy Lefler (Production Manager) And Earl Spence (Bailiff Melvin Reid With His Back To The Camera)

Life Goes On is a comedy, and will be presented live in the "Godwin Courtroom" of the Old Gates County Courthouse for the purpose of raising funds for renovations to the Old Gates County Courthouse. Life Goes On was written by Judge Ragan during periods he was staying at an Ahoskie Motel while serving on a trial in our area.

Sam Tackett And Mike Lefler (Harriet And Judge George Smith)

Life Goes On opens with Judge George Smith talking with his friends Dr. Herb Witherspoon and Roger Norris about the trio’s recent financial loss in a failed “get-rich-quick” scheme. The scheme is a perpetual preservation system (a new embalming technique that lets you preserve the deceased) and is a good idea with strong research to prove its success (at least with animals); however, the person hired to promote the system ran off with the money.

Bob Bryan And Rene Winslow (Roger And Nellie Norris)

Judge Smith invested his and his wife’s entire life savings in the system, and now he is worried that something will happen to him before his survivor’s benefits vest. As fate would have it, that is just what happens--Judge Smith dies 30 days before his survivor benefits vest, and the judge’s wife Harriet is left penniless.

Garrett Maroney And Peggy Temple (Dr. Herb And Ann Witherspoon)

Thus ensues the harried conspiracy to cover up the judge’s death. Herb and Roger enlist the help of the judge’s office staff—Tillie, the judge’s court reporter; Bee, the judge’s secretary, and Melvin Reid, the Judge’s bailiff—to make everyone think that George is alive, but suffered a stroke and cannot speak.

Mike Lefler And Earl Spence (Judge George Smith And Bailiff Melvin Reid)

What transpires during the course of the conspiracy will have audiences holding their sides from laughing so hard. At the first reading of Life Goes On, the comedy had the cast laughing at the story, even as they were reading their lines. It is a delightful play that finds comedy in the vagaries of our court system and it's judges!

Many of our local star actors are once again participating, and rehearsal ended with all lining up for a picture to document the occasion.




First Night Rehearsal!

The hilarious cast consists of Bob Bryan as Roger Norris, Robin Hollowell as Tillie, Mike Lefler as Judge George Smith, Garrett Maroney as Herb Witherspoon, Dee-Dee Oakey as Bee, Earl Spence as Bailiff Melvin Reid, Dean Stephens as Judge Hacker, Sam Tackett as Harriett Smith, Peggy Temple as Ann Witherspoon, and Rene Winslow as Nellie Norris.

Robin Hollowell (Tillie) And Sam Tackett (Harriet Smith - Judge George Smith's Wife)

The production dates are Friday and Saturday nights, January 27th and 28th at 8:00 PM, Sunday January 29th at 2:30 PM , the following week on Saturday February 4th at 8:00 PM, and Sunday February 5th at 2:30 PM. Please put it on your calendar and be sure to attend.

Shelbie Palermo (Lawyer Ward), Dee Dee Oakey (Bee), Robin Hollowell (Tillie) And Donna Eckart (Lawyer Stallings)

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased from any cast member, historical society member, and the Gates County Library. You will love it.

Walter Smith (Reporter), Robin Hollowell (Tillie) And Damien Spence (Reporter)

Board Of Elections Selects Voting System

The Bertie County Board Of Elections has selected a new Voting System. This change is mandated by the State of North Carolina since the State is changing our rules and invalidating the system that had been previously selected by the county. Though the action by the State of North Carolina forces us to make a new voting system selection, it also allows us the opportunity to go in a much better direction for the future.

Carol Woodard, Shirley Davenport, Carroll Britt And Emma Johnson (Bertie County Elections Board)

Problems with the totally computer based systems (their lack of any kind of manually researchable audit trail) has had many leading computer experts insisting that a manual audit trail (that could validate the vote totals) had to be made a part of the systems. This was difficult to retrofit to the totally computer based systems (such as the ones we previously bought for Bertie County). It is also true that computer systems only have a useful life of 3 to 5 years and our system was already getting dated. Changing at this point thus works out well for the county.

Tammy Gaskins Demonstrates iVotronic System

The new vendor selected for Bertie County has included the manual verification process as an integral feature of their new system. Designed around this better concept from the start, it makes for a more secure system and is predicted to reduce overall costs at the same time. The design does not use the punch card method that was discovered to be so seriously flawed in the 2000 elections down in Florida, but uses a superior technology called optical character recognition (or OCR).

Voter Booth For Manually Marking A Ballot

Tammy Gaskins of Printelect (marketer of the iVotronic System) gave a demo of the new system selected, to all of the precinct personnel who will have to operate it in our upcoming elections. One of the nicer features was a special computer terminal that assists the blind, older voters and handicapped in marking their own ballot without depending on someone else. It permites the blind to mark their ballot using a headset wtih audible controls. Those with limited sight can enhace the ballot by enlarging the letters as much as is needed to read it. It even permits them to write in candidates.

Touch Screen Station For Marking Paper Ballot (For Blind And Handicaped)

The general consensus is (within the limitations of what you can discover in any demo) the system appeared to be a good selection and worked the way it was designed to work. It is much simpler and easily understood.

Precinct Managers And Workers Practice Voting With iVotronic System

As noted above, a superior design feature of the system is the return to a physical ballot to assure voting integrity. Below are the front and back of the ballot form that is used for the new system.

Front Of Sample ballot

Rear Of Sample Ballot

The ballot vault is where you place the ballot after you have made your selection. You do this by sliding the ballot into a slot on the top of the machine. The system is smart enough that it does not matter which end you put in or whether it is face up or face down.



Ballot Vault With Computerized Ballot Verifier On Top

The optical character reader (OCR) and computer system verifies your ballot for you, and makes sure that you know if there are any overvotes or undervotes. Once you are satisfied with your ballot, you confirm the ballot and it is deposited into the vote bin. The vote bin is sealed and cannot be tampered with.

A grant has been secured that will pay for most of the new system cost making it fairly inexpensive for us to change to the new system.

News-Herald Covers School Closure Plans Online

Both the Community Schools SOS group and the Bertie County Board of Education made the News-Herald print and online versions yesterday. A picture of Community Schools SOS leader Kelvin Outlaw dominated the front page of the print version and the top of their home page on the Internet.

The lead article online was about the Community Schools SOS meeting of January 5th. It is titled "Bertie group begins effort to keep schools open".

The third article down was about the Bertie County Board of Education receiving verbal approval from the Department of Justice to close J.P. Law and Askewville Elementary Schools. It is titled "Schools closure receives verbal okay".

The battle is joined. The Board of Education does not believe that public opposition to their plans matters. It clearly does not matter to the 3 BOE members who are ramming this forward. It is also clear that these closures are not the desire of the Department of Justice, but someone in the Bertie County BOE, since it is not the DOJ that is racing to try and get the Judges approval before he hears about civic opposition. That is the action of the BOE and their attorney alone.

The citizens of Bertie County need to remember that.

School Consolidation Made Worse

During the Monday Board of Education meeting the Superintendent, Dr. Collins-Hart, made a proposal to the board of how they could make use of the schools that they wanted to close to save money. Certainly the first question you have to ask is if they don't close the schools to save money, but still operate them, how can we expect to see any savings from the Elementary school closings that have caused so much anger in the county already?

The proposal however goes from curious to bizarre when you find out what they want to do with Askewville. The proposal is to make Askewville a CENTRAL consolidated school for all PRE-SCHOOL children in the county. Yes, that is right. The proposal is to make nearly every 4 and 5 year old in the county wait for busses early in the morning to be bussed to a single school as far from their parents as the school administrators can place them.

Have the people in our school central administration not been listening to the parents of this county? There were certainly more than enough parents who complained that the previous consolidation efforts were opposed based on opposition to making young children (and their parents) get up early enough to wait for a bus that would take them far away from the parents. Now it isn't just the parents of Askewville, Aulander and Merry Hill whose lives and children will be treated this way. It is the parents and children of every part of our county that will be affected and the drives for many will be longer than the drives that were opposed in the existing ongoing dispute. Roxobel, Colerain, Windsor, out towards San Souci even are being asked to consider bussing their children to Askewville.

Is this what we want Bertie County?

I oppose these consolidations. They DO NOT serve our chilren or our classroom teachers who are the heart of real education. They only serve the education bureaucrats in the central school administration. The rest of America is abandoning the concept of school consolidation. It was tried all across America and has been deemed a failure. Current efforts all across America are being focused on returning to the successful education system that existed prior to all these educrat experiments with our children.

If you have any doubts, check out the information that you find on this web site, www.smallerschools.org It will make you a believer.

Why are we still trying to consolidate when that has been deemed a failure?

June Adams - January Artist Of The Month

The Bertie County Arts Council held an Open House to honor January Artist of the Month, June Adams this afternoon. The get together was, as usual, well attended.

The Entrance Was Crowded As People Started To Arrive

June Adams of Colerain is a native of Kansas who spent a good part of her life in Arizona. Life in the mid-west is reflected in many of her paintings. Most people who see her work find it hard to believe Ms. Adams didn't begin painting until she was 40 years old. After her five children were grown, she went to Garden City Commu­nity College in Kansas to study art. She also had classes at Scottsdale School of Art in Scottsdale, AZ, as well as in Texas and Colorado.

Everyone Seemed Impressed With June's Pictures

"I had some really good instructors," Ms. Adams says.

The belief that her instructors were good must be true since she learned well enough to later teach classes at the community college. Ms. Adams paints in watercolors, oils and also paints on silk. She had some of all her mediums for the open house today. The artist has done a lot of still-life, but said if she had to choose one subject as a favorite to paint, it would be landscapes.

The Large Crowd Overflowed Into The Refreshment Area

Her work has been sold in the mid-west and on both the east and west coast. She has had com­missions across the country and had shows in Phoenix and Mesa, AZ, Kansas and Texas. Her favorite painting is one of an aspen forest in Colorado. People here say the painting looks like birch trees found in this area, but since she hasn't seen local birch trees with a full coat of leaves, she isn't sure. She paints every day for two or three hours in a studio with northern light, which is important to her.

Ms. Adams' Favorite Painting

She is married to George Truett Ad­ams from Bertie County. He is brother to siblings that include Ben, Frank and Jack Adams and is son of the late Solomon and Fannie Adams. Truett was a B-24 pilot in World War II, and was stationed near a little town where she lived in the mid-west. The first time he saw the young woman, he knew it was the person he wanted to marry. She was younger and not really interested in marriage at that time, but they dated just four times before she was convinced. Now a few months shy of 60 years later, friends say this is a couple who really love each other and built a good marriage.

Truett brought his still young bride back to Bertie County to live just a few months ago. Now she is trying to understand the local fascination with knowing everyone's family and ancestors.

To show Ms. Adams talent, here are a selection of some of her paintings displayed at the open house.

I think you will have to agree, June Adams is very talented!

If you would like to discuss her art with her June can be contacted at (252) 345-2001, or you can contact the Bertie County Arts Council at (252) 794 - 9402. You can also email the council at bertiearts@earthlink.net

Innsbrook Update

The "Innsbrook Golf and Boating Community" continues to become reality. A dream of Bobby Ware, the developer, many in our community could not believe that the dramatic verbal descriptions he gave us would ever become real. All you have to do to become a believer is to drop by the construction site and see the amazing transformation.

Innsbrook's New Lakes Are Attracting Mass Bird Formations, Both Seagulls And Swans

An already beautiful area is being improved with hills and lakes done so well that they look as natural as the Albemarle Sound, Salmon Creek and Black Walnut Swamp that border the new facility.

This Is The New Lake By The Entry, Almost Deep Enough, Already Deep Enough The Backhoes Are Almost Invisible

The Sweeping Hills Of The Golf Course Are Starting To Look Finished

Roads Are Being Created Among The Hills

Hills And Lakes Are Everywhere

Seagulls Or Swans Were Everywhere On The Property, Attracted By The Lakes

To see some of the other beautiful landscapes of this great new addition to Bertie County, check out our original article from last November by clicking here or on the "Innsbrook Update" title above.

The New Sign Looks Great

This new facility should be the model for all developers in Bertie County. It is magnificent. Welcome to the jewel of the Inner banks!

Community Schools SOS Asks Federal Court To "Allow Time"

Windsor, North Carolina, 1/5/2006 – Almost 200 Bertie citizens met Thursday night, under the auspices of a new group, Community Schools - SOS, hoping to make the federal court aware of the time needed to overcome a renegade Board of Education’s wishes to close the 3 best performing elementary schools in the county. Public pleadings to keep these community schools open were overwhelming at two recent public meetings. The County Commissioners are also on record that funds can be provided for the facility upgrades needed.

In spite of the citizen’s desires to keep the community schools open, by a vote of 3-2, the Board is recommending to the Department of Justice the schools be closed as a way to end a 37 year old desegregation case. However getting Unitary Status to end the case is once again pushed off to the future and is not actually part of the current decision being negotiated with the Department of Justice.

Two keynote speakers motivated tonight's group on the worthiness of their fight against the Board of Education and the Department of Justice.

Joe Avery spoke on how Johnson County successfully sued their board of education to stop unacceptable practices of failing students who had passing grades and firing their best educators for trivial reasons by the Board of Education members. Mr. Avery is the former Education Chairman of the NAACP in Johnston County, President of Falcon Systems and Co-Chairman of the Educate Our Children Foundation.

Lindalyn Kakadelis also spoke on keeping the focus on educational achievement as a reason for saving the schools. Bertie does poorly compared to other school systems on achievement testing and the loss of the 3 best performing schools will be a loss for the county in many ways. Mrs. Kakadelis shared how important parental involvement is to any successful challenge of a Board of Education that is not listening to the citizens. It was a key element of the successful fight to get Unitary Status in Charlotte-Mecklenberg when Ms. Kakadelis was on the Board of Education for that school district. Ms. Kakadelis is currently head of the NC Education Alliance. This organization works to improve education in the United States through community, parent, and governmental involvement in improving our educational system.

The organizational focus of the meeting was how the citizens could make their desires known to the federal court, which will ultimately have to allow the recommended school closings. At present it is doubtful that either the Board of Education lawyers or the Department of Justice lawyers will make the court aware of how much the citizens and Bertie County Commissioners want to close the desegregation case without losing their community schools.

The court is in an unfair position since it may make a decision without knowing the true desires of Bertie citizens. To communicate with the court, about 100 volunteers will collect petition signatures from Bertie registered voters to show the degree to which the Board of Education is ignoring the wishes of the majority of the citizens. In addition, these volunteers are working with a large number of African American parents who are writing the Department of Justice asking them to not close the three community elementary schools in question.

The citizens are hopeful the court will hear of our dilemma and allow us the time to collect these signatures. It may take until May to accomplish this task. The group is also exploring how to fund a lawsuit to represent the desires of the citizens, since 3 of the elected Board of Education members refuse to do so.

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS!

The next scheduled meeting is Thursday January 19th at 6PM at the Council of Aging Building in Windsor.

If you would like to help with this effort, please email one of the following members of the Community Schools - SOS group with imformation on how to contact you.

John Davis
Kelvin Outlaw
Dean Stephens
Mike Williams

School Pictures - J.P. Law, Aulander, Askewville

As a follow-up to the last meeting of the Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education, we have taken pictures of the three schools that the BOE wishes to close. For the benefit of Bertie County citizens who do not have the time to visit the 3 schools in question, we have arranged to take pictures at the 3 schools and some are displayed here for you to judge for yourself the condition of these schools.

At the meeting on January 19th at the Senior Citizens we will have a video production showing ALL the pictures of the 3 schools. Come to that meeting if you wish to save our schools.

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As noted above, at the meeting on January 19th at the Senior Citizens we will have a video production showing ALL the pictures of the 3 schools.

Come to that meeting if you wish to save our schools.