INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT - Dr. Michael Priddy

The following was just released by Bertie County Board of Education.

On Monday, January 29, 2007, the Bertie County Board of Education met in special session to meet with prospective candidates for the position of Interim Superintendent and unanimously selected Dr. Michael Priddy to serve in that capacity. Dr. Priddy’s first day with the Bertie County Schools will be on Thursday, February 1, 2007.























Dr. Priddy has an extensive background well-suited to the current needs of the Bertie County Schools. He served as Superintendent for the Pitt County Schools from 2000-2005. He also has 22 years of combined service with the three Guilford County school systems, where he served in numerous positions ranging from Associate Superintendent for Auxiliary Services, Associate Superintendent for Administrative Services, Personnel and Transportation, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Personnel, and Executive Director for Curriculum and Accountability.

Throughout his career, Dr. Priddy has reached out to schools and communities to build strong lines of communication and respect. Most recently, he was recognized by Governor Easley, the Pitt County Branch of the NAACP, and the Pitt County Black Ministers Association for his vision, his care and concern for children, and his successes with transforming high schools.

The Board is impressed with Dr. Priddy’s insights into the transitional period facing Bertie County as the Board searches for a new superintendent. Dr. Priddy stressed the importance of working together over the next few months to ensure the system continues to move forward.

Dr. Priddy observed that “this is a critical time for students, teachers, and citizens. Much progress has been made and important improvements are underway in the Bertie County Schools; they must be maintained and strengthened as we move through the next five months.”

The Board welcomes Dr. Priddy to the Bertie County Schools and looks forward to the contributions he will make to the system while he helps guide the district through this transitional period.

First Show Of 2007 Will Feature Three Artists

The first artists to be featured by the Bertie County Arts Council in 2007 will be Willie Caster, Phyllis Johnson and Jackie Mizelle. Mr. Caster is a native of Bertie County who now lives in Hyattsville, MD. Phylllis Johnson and Jackie Mizelle both live in Colerain.

The open house to show their art will be held February 4th, from 2 to 4 PM, at the BCAC Center at 124 South King Street. Food and drinks will be free and plentiful, along with the great art. Don't miss it.


Pottery by Willie Caster


Painting by Phyllis Johnson


Painting by Jackie Mizelle


For questions please contact BCAC at (252) 794-9402, or mail bertiearts@earthlink.net

Important Education Meeting In Raleigh

One of the most important groups we have come into contact with is "Parents for Educational Freedom". They have planned a meeting in Raleigh on March 6th, 2007 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM that is important for parents of children here in Bertie County.

The speaker at that meeting will be Dr. Howard Fuller, Chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options. He backs the kind of freedom for children and parents long opposed by education bureaucrats and teacher unions like the group that has controlled education in Bertie County until now.

Why do we need to care? North Carolina is only graduating 47% of its African-American males meaning a shocking 53% of our African-American males are dropping out of our K-12 public education system. They are dropping out because they know the system is failing to educate them. Public education is the foundation of a free democracy. We cannot continue to let our public education system deteriorate. This is simply unacceptable.

As stated above, Parents for Education Freedom is propounding the philosophy that must be adopted here in Bertie County. We need to start letting parents control their children's education. We need to start demanding that our curriculam challenge our children. We must not settle for less than excellence. That means we will not tolerate a continuance of our test scores going down. In many cases that means we have to exercize some tough love and say to children, "this will not be easy but you will put in the effort."

We are running out of time.

Supporters Praise Dr. Collins-Hart

by Cal Bryant - January 25th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

Colorful signs were numerous inside the Bertie County Board of Education meeting room here Tuesday night. All were in support of retaining the services of Bertie Schools Superintendent Dr. Nettie Collins-Hart. However, those cardboard messages failed to sway the majority of the school board as in a 3-2 vote, Dr. Collins-Hart’s contract was terminated.But before the fateful vote was cast, the overflow crowd, estimated at nearly 200 strong, held an “educational revival” as the superintendent’s numerous supporters made their feelings known.“We’re not here to raise hell; we’re here to save our superintendent,” said Emmitt Kimbrough who orchestrated an impromptu meeting while the school board, in closed session, debated Dr. Collins-Hart’s future for over one hour in a separate room.

I think it is informative to note the people quoted in this article and who packed the meeting the other night. Every one of them is in favor of the central administration education bureaucracy movement. They are all a part of the education establishment, and problem, of our nation. For 40 years our education system has failed our students.

This group is pro big school, anti free enterprise, anti free choice, supports the central administration bureaucracy and its track record is horrible. If you want to find out about the true reformers in American education (including supporting real education for our poor black students) you should listen to people like Bill Cosby. He has a PHD in education, has given more money (in both raw dollars and a larger percentage of his money) to the black community than anyone in America and for over a year he has castigated people like Dr. Collins-Hart and the people quoted in this article.

Another voice in favor of programs that will actually help our children? Thomas Sowell, noted conservative intellectual, who has written several best selling books on how to fix the problems of education of our children. For two years I have tried repeatedly to discuss his recommendations with people from this group and their lack of understanding is emphasized by the fact that to a person, not one even knew who Thomas Sowell was when I started. Most of them still don't. How can you claim to be an expert on education when you are that ignorant of the intellectual leaders of the people criticizing your failures?

The people giving voice here (Gary Cordon, Pearline Bunch, Seaton Fairless, Emmitt Kimbrough along with Dr. Al Thompson, Tim Bazemore and John Smith) are representatives and advocates of the American education establishment of the last two generations. They ignore the recent financial irregularities in our county and in many cases were the people who created the irregularities. They do not represent progress but represent the status quo. They also ignore the constantly dropping test scores. Their agenda is not helping our children. Their agenda is to fatten the pocketbooks of a few while perpetuating the ongoing failure of education in America and in Bertie County.

They are certainly not the voice of our county's people but the voice of an extremist group with a self serving agenda that has failed our children. Why is there not a single quote from someone who opposes that bureaucracy based vision?

Board Of Education Votes Superintendent Out

The Bertie County Board of Education has voted to end the reign of Dr. Nettie Collins-Hart over our school system. Though her support this night was vocal and angry, there still has not been any reasonable explanation of what she has accomplished versus actions her supporters say she has taken. They can point to lots of actions she has taken, and there are of course a number of actions she has taken that her supporters don't mention, but the list never includes accomplishments indicating our children are getting a better education. At some point just taking actions that will "some day" improve our children's education, but have not yet, is simply not enough.

What are some of her actions her supporters don't mention?

She closed down two of our elementary schools, requiring that many children be bussed many miles to other schools. There is little question that though it was ordered by Judge Terrence Boyle, if Dr. Collins-Hart had not orchestrated the strategy to close the schools, they would have had a great chance of staying open. What has this really accomplished?

In the middle of tonight's attempt by her supporters to rev up support for Dr. Collins-Hart's continued employment, one of the parents from Merry Hill silenced the crowd when she asked, "where were you when we were trying to keep our school open?"

There is also little doubt that Dr. Collins-Hart was responsible for closing down an evening basketball program that kept many of our children off the streets and out of a drug culture. Some unfortunately succombed when Collins-Hart reversed the previous exemption the program had been granted and shut it down. This is just one small example of many actions that suggested indifference to what was best for our children when it conflicted with her penchant for bureacracy.

It is not true that Dr. Collins-Hart was ever short of money, though she proclaimed that the money she was given was "woefully inadequate" (her words). She had more money per child than 75% of the school systems in the state. Despite this money, and a raise in county funds that was the largest in Bertie County's history, Dr. Collins-Hart castigated the County Commisioners at almost every opportunity.

Rumors abounded that she even participated in an attempt to unseat some of the Commissioners that she opposed. No Superintendent should ever involve themselves in politics. They should especially not involve themselves in politics and then fail. We do live in a democracy. She openly appeared to oppose some of the members of the Board of Education. No matter how vocal her supporters, the Board of Education was elected by the people and they do have a right to believe that the people who voted for them should have a voice in how our education system is run. Many stories abound that suggest Dr. Collins-Hart simply demanded the right to reign over our school system as she saw fit. This included such actions as charges of nepotism in the selection of employees, an action that usually follows success in politics.

Tonight, there was a surreal experience. While the Board of Education was in closed session, Dr. Collins-Hart's supporters took over the Board Room and conducted a private pep rally for her. Those present who were not supporters were ignored or intimidated if they suggested that this public forum was not appropriate for a private pep rally. They were told that disagreement with them was racism. This is another legacy of Dr. Collins-Harts tenure. Vitriolic attacks have been launched on anyone who disagrees with her. The vote tonight saw some of her supporters screaming and cursing people as they left the room. This is another legacy that our county can do without.

In the end though all the anger was to no avail. The continued failure in their test scores indicates clearly that our education system is still failing our children. Dr. Collins-Hart cannot avoid her responsibility for that failure. She was the Superintendent during the continued drop in scores. There are a lot of people who care about seeing our children get a good education. 3 of them voted tonight to replace this Superintendent with someone who will make that a priority. That is what this vote really means.

Bertie School Board Terminates Superintendent’s Contract

by Cal Bryant - January 23rd, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

WINDSOR - In an emotionally-charged meeting here Tuesday night, one that took an ugly twist at the end, the Bertie County Board of Education voted to terminate the contract of Superintendent Dr. Nettie Collins-Hart.

The majority decision, which came at the end of a 66 minute closed session to discuss personnel, was a slim one as board chairman Ricky Freeman joined colleagues Melinda Eure and Alton Parker in terminating Dr. Collins-Hart.

Board members Gloria Lee and Michael Bracy voted in favor of retaining the superintendent.

One of the most interesting quotes in this article by Cal Bryant is Mike Bracy's comment, "What I have really learned is that until we get rid of political agendas this school system will not move forward."

"When asked what those agendas were and to whom are they attributed, Bracy made no comment" Cal wrote.

At least one concern I have is the implication that anyone who disagrees with Dr. Collins-Hart has a political agenda, but that her supporters don't. That is simply not credible.

I think the character of some of her supporters can be inferred by the fact that screaming and cursing was their solution to the vote not going their way. This was what her supporters did at the end of the meeting in addition to what Cal reports was clear intimidation of the Board members, intimidation that required the sheriff's deputies to intervene.

Read the article. It is very informative.

Give Top Teachers A Bonus

Little Rock rewards teachers; unions resist.

by Daniel Henninger - January 19th, 2007 - The Wall Street Journal (opinionjournal.com)

Is there a bigger scandal in America than the low state of [U.S. public] schools? Oprah Winfrey, utterly frustrated with the problem, last month discussed the $40 million she has spent building the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls--in South Africa. Ms. Winfrey said South African students want to learn, but in U.S. schools, "the sense that you need to learn just isn't there." Where'd it go?

There are multiple-choice answers to that question, and most of them are right. Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York offered one answer in his State of the City speech Wednesday: The desire to learn disappeared down the bottomless well of centralized public-school bureaucracies. Mayor Bloomberg proposed greatly increased autonomy for school principals--one irrefutably proven answer to making a school better. He also wants teachers to prove they deserve tenure, an idea so obvious that it probably has no chance.

One measure of the tenure decision for New York City teachers would be their students' test scores. News accounts said the city teachers' union is "certain to fight" linking test scores to tenure. This, too, is among the multitude of correct answers for why students have no incentive to learn in [public] schools.

Public school bureaucracies and teachers unions are the major reason public schools in America are constantly getting worse, not better. Creating another bureacracy at the federal level with "No child left behind" has not fixed the problem, though there have been a few isolated success stories. Unless and until parents demand that schools stop experimenting with "new" education concepts and start teaching their children using the basics that have always worked, things will continue to get worse.

Parents of stone age children were able to teach their children. Frontier parents were able to teach their children. Back in the 60s we were able to totally ravamp education and create a focus on science and technology overnight. Sputnik happened on October 4th, 1957. We changed our education system, trained a generation of scientists, and went to the moon in only slightly over a decade.

ONE DECADE.

Education has been successful for thousands of years, until unions and bureacracies got in the way. For 40 years our children have fallen farther and farther behind as these education bureaucrats try new and supposedly better ways to teach with unions leading the cheering section for the attempts. In every case it creates higher paying jobs for some central bureaucrat and does nothing to teach our children.

When are we going to stop letting these bureacracies and unions destroy education?

Ed Jones Is To Be Our New Senator

Ed Jones of Halifax County was selected as our new State Senator to be appointed by Governor Easley. [See article below for the new Representative for our area.]

The Democratic Party was granted the power to fill the two open seats for State Senator for District 4 and State Representative for District 5. The executive committees for the two districts met in Windsor this afternoon to elect the new office holders on behalf of the citizens of their respective Districts.

Don Davis, Mayor of Snow Hill and Democratic Chairman for the local Districts presided over the activities per the rules provided for the succession process. The first position to be filled was North Carolina State Senator for District 4. Pictured below are the members representing the seven counties that comprise the District, Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Northampton and Perquimans.



Pictured above are Executive Committee members Angel, Williford, Badger, Wadsworth, Langston, Wester And Brown.

Pictured above are Executive Committee members Manning, Hardy, Spruill, Taylor, Reid And Miller-White

These 13 Members [one member was absent] selected Ed Jones of Halifax County on the first ballot.




Ed Jones then spoke to the group, thanking them for their support and pledging to serve the citizens of the seven counties effectively.

Jack Williford and Bertha Angel are the Bertie County Members of the 4th North Carolina Senate District Executive Committee.

Ann Mobley Is To Be Our New Representative

After The Senate Election was completed, the 5th North Carolina State Representative Executive Committee was called into Session. Pictured below are the members representing the four counties that comprise the District, Bertie, Gates, Hertford and Perquimans.




Pictured above are Executive Committee members Hamilton, Rawls, Cole and Gordon.




Pictured above are Executive Committee members Riddick, Thompson, Langston And Wester.

The large crowd, pictured below, was treated to a tense process. It took four rounds of voting before a winner was selected. The process involved voting, eliminating the candidate with the least votes, and voting again. Final winner was Ann Mobley from Hertford County.





Below, Don Davis, Chairman for the District congratulates Ann Mobley on her selection.

Charles Smith Takes Oath As New County Commissioner

Charles Smith Is Sworn In As County Commissioner
With His Wife And Family Surrounding Him -
Oath Administered By Belinda White - Registrar Of Deeds

Latest Education Crisis

It is unreasonable to argue that our Bertie County school children are getting a decent education. Bertie County used to be in the middle in test scores. Not a great place to be, but still reasonable. However that was many years ago.

In recent years our children, at least the children attending public schools in Bertie County, score in the bottom 10% state wide, a horrible slippage. That is not because our children cannot do much better. It is because our education leadership is wasting their time on other issues besides what they need to do to improve our children's education. They can no longer avoid the recognition they are failing.

Nowhere in America has it been proven that children learn better in fancy schools. Really bad facilities are one thing. There have been situations where some schools could not keep toilets working or keep the heat on. That has not been a problem here in Bertie County though.

Our Central Administration Education Bureaucrats have still found it necessary to close perfectly good schools, wasting huge amounts of time and energy over the fight about their closure. We also are building a fancy new middle school and our school administation wants to build a new elementary school, and a new high school, equally overpriced. This has nothing to do with teaching children. It has to do with other political agendas.

Bertie County is in the top 25% of systems based on money spent per child in the state of North Carolina. That is right. Bertie County is in the top 25% in money spent. The top 10% of schools in this state are dominated by school systems that spend significantly less than Bertie County spends. They also are dominated by locations that have significantly greater costs of living than here in Bertie County which should hurt them in keeping up with us on a per dollar basis. Why then are we, with our greater money and lower cost of living, in the bottom 10% in student achievement?

Someone is accountable. Our Superintendent feels she needs more money. She spends much of her energy fighting for more money and criticizing our county for not spending more, rather than trying to figure out how these other county systems keep beating her results badly with less money than she has in geographic areas with higher costs. Her budget presentation contained a misrpresentation of her budget needs including a million dollar error that she simply ignores to this date. How can this be good management?

Some in this county feel she is failing our children and appears unwilling to focus on teaching our children better. From what I have seen I can agree with that assessment. I am sick of hearing how it takes more money. Our Superintendent, Dr. Nettie Collins-Hart is not doing a good job measured by the only standard that counts to me; What kind of education are the children getting? We need someone to start focusing on improving education for our kids. Since she doesn't seem to be willing to put her focus there, I feel it is time for change.

A proposal to ask for her resignation has been answered by an attempt by some to have the State BOE, NC DPI or Judge Manning in Raleigh take over our system under Dr. Collins-Hart's control. This means we in Bertie County will have no say in how our children are educated. Why is democracy being subverted in this fashion? We elected our Board of Education. How dare the State educators or a non-elected Judge tell Bertie County what to do? Those who believe in democracy need to contact their Board of Education representative and assure them of our support.

Interference of this type is outrageous. If you agree, we also need to tell the Governor "Please do not interfere, or let the State Board of Education or NC DPI interfere, with our local personnel matters". You can do this at the following link which permits easy communication with Governor Easley:

http://www.governor.state.nc.us/Contact.asp

If the Governor hears from enough of us, surely he will ask the State BOE to leave this local issue in the hands of the elected local officials.

Superintendent's Contract In Doubt

by Cal Bryant - January 10th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

WINDSOR - What is the current status of the employment contract agreed upon by Bertie County Public Schools and Superintendent Dr. Nettie Collins-Hart?

That’s a question currently without a definitive answer.

Yesterday (Wednesday), the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald learned through several sources that the Bertie School Board had discussed an issue calling for the Superintendent’s resignation, but had yet to reach a majority decision.

This article by Cal has some useful information about the education crisis that is causing all the rumors in Bertie County. I hope this brings to a head the serious problems our schools currently face. The "everythings is fine, Dr. Collins-Hart is going a great job" story put out by her supporters cannot pass the stink test. Everything is not fine in Bertie County's schools. Dr. Collins-Hart seems unwilling to even acknowledge how poorly our education system is performing.

By itself that head in the sand defensiveness is unrealistic and unacceptable.

Charles Smith Selected New County Commissioner

At yesterday's County Commissioner's meeting Charles Smith was unanimously selected to fulfill the seat left open with our loss of J. Jasper Bazemore earlier this year.

New Commissioner Charles Smith Congratulated By Ric Harrell, Chairman

It was announced that per the rules, Mr. Charles Smith would be sworn in to his new office at the next County Commissioner meeting, 7:00 PM on January 16th, 2007

The Year Of The Democrat

by Lucas Roebuck - January 4th, 2007 - Northwest Arkansas Times

The reality of the Republican’s November destruction will hit hard this week as Democrats officially start exercising the power voters handed to them in the election.

[snip]

Although guiding voices come and go as the currents, ebbs, and tides of history bring the right voice for the right moment, I believe these five individuals — more than anyone else — represent the voices that will build the foundation for a new conservative movement in this new year.

This is an interesting article that lists two bloggers, a politician, a writer and a TV show personality as the five most influential conservative voices of our times. (I'll let you read the article to get Mr. Roebuck's list.) However it leaves off a couple I would have included. I don't know how anyone leaves Thomas Sowell off as one of the top five conservative voices. I put him as number one. Or Mark Steyn who I list as number two. However the list is a significant recognition of four people who are current powers in the conservative movement. The fifth is a populist and including him in a list of powerful conservatives is a real stretch. He may be powerful, but he is no conservative.

It is a good read as much as anything for the explanation of who these five are and what they bring to the table.