The assertions of Donna White

I haven’t covered the Johnston County School Board in our paper for some time. I had heard that the partisan bickering had gotten bad. Last Tuesday I saw it first hand. It was embarrassing.
Mrs. Donna White of Clayton, who serves on the school board, naturally felt compelled to assert the case of her neighbors who were opposed to the three-tier bussing plan that had been proposed for the Clayton area schools. Moving a start and ending time of school up or back 15 minutes is clearly an inconvenience, particularly with school set to start in just a few weeks.
In this society many people believe if they don’t like something, if they will complain long enough and hard enough, it will change. Mrs. White apparently believed that she could change this. While she got the TV cameras to the school board meeting, and got a few parents there, the designated parent to speak for the group didn’t make it. That may have been an omen.
Mrs. White asserted that the school board was violating their rules to push through this change. The board’s attorney assured her they could legally do this.
Mrs. White asserted this change was being put into effect without being thought through. The administration assured her they were only doing this in response to their budget being recently cut, and if the budget had not been cut, they would not be doing this.
Mrs. White asserted that the Clayton area was being unfairly singled out. The administration responded that they felt they could successfully implement the change in the Clayton area in the short time before school started, but lacked the time to make the change in other areas of the county. They plan to make similar changes next year in other areas.
Two other board members tried to offer alternatives to implementing the plan. Larry Strickland asked the board to consider borrowing the money from their own reserves, and Butler Holt asked the board to “borrow” busses from the state. The administration answered both of those suggestions would not effectively cut their spending and give the schools a balanced budget.
The three voted against implementing the changes in Clayton, and while I disagreed with their votes, I don’t have a problem with their voicing the complaints of those parents and even voting against in protest. I have a big problem with Mr. Strickland and Mrs. White not stopping there.
Mr. Strickland, who changed his party registration some time back from Democrat to Republican, is clearly staking his territory as a Republican on this non-partisan board. He consistently defends the Republican-controlled county commissioners as his friends, and condemns the school board and the administration as the enemies of the taxpayers.
Mrs. White goes even further. To make her points, she many times attacked the administration. She said the superintendent of schools lied to her. As they responded to her accusations and points, she would ignore their points as if they were not true. Seemingly she continued to insist, don’t confuse me with facts, my mind’s made up.
There is a natural tension between the school board and the county commissioners. The schools should be pushing for everything they believe they can justify in advocating for education in the county. The county commissioners are charged with keeping the interests of the schools in balance with the other needs of the county. There will often be disagreements.
Mr. Strickland is neglecting his responsibilities to education by consistently attacking the school board and administration. His job is not to make the county commissioners’ case every time there is a controversial issue before the school board. He’s more interested in feathering his own bed than doing the best for the students and staff in Johnston County Schools.
Perhaps this is a bit idealistic, but I would hope that every school board member is proud of the administration and staff of our schools and working to make them better. That doesn’t happen when you consistently attack them. I know that there are many fine people who work in Johnston County Schools, and I believe we have significantly raised the level of excellence in education in the 25 years I have been here. I am proud of our schools.
If Mrs. White is not proud of our schools and administration, and she has substantive reasons for not feeling that way, she needs to bring charges. Anyone who has a suggestion if convinced it might improve the schools should bring it forth. If Mrs. White or anyone else has substantive proof that the superintendent of schools is a liar, or there is a school employee not representing the schools well, they should try to run them out of office. I’ll certainly back her if there is more to it than just the superintendent not agreeing with her.
If her tactics are to make false accusations and to destroy the integrity of the leaders of our schools to justify her own purposes, she ought to be ashamed.
She accused the schools of unfairly singling out her area for a punitive system of bussing. I categorically deny that, based upon what I saw and heard at the school board meeting. Still, if I had been sitting on that board with her flagrant disregard for the integrity of the school system and her irresponsible representation of those parents, I would have been tempted. I’d have a hard time listening to her in the future.
She may be staking her ground as a parent not to be tangled with, but she didn’t win any friends outside Clayton or anyone who is truly concerned about education in the county. She needs to change her ways or get out.