NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The New Hanover County Board of Education is gearing up to potentially censure David Perry, a board member who left during a meeting in anger earlier this month. If the censure is followed through on, it would be the third disciplinary action against Perry, who joined the board in 2024.
Chair Pete Wildeboer brought up the issue at Tuesday’s agenda review meeting. Vice Chair Melissa Mason then made a motion to schedule a censure hearing within the next two weeks to discuss Perry’s actions on Sept. 1.
After a brief discussion from the board and Perry’s request for clarity on specific allegations against him, the motion passed 6-1, with Perry dissenting. The hearing has been scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 9.
READ MORE: School board member ditches meeting over pay raises
Perry asked Mason to expand on what he did wrong at the meeting and what policies he violated.
“Are you bringing specific allegations and charges that could be written down so that we’re not becoming in this meeting on vagaries?” he said.
He also pointed out a new school board could be elected on Nov. 4 and suggested the current board defer the hearing until then. No one obliged.
Perry has been close to censure twice before, but in both incidents was only removed from committee assignments instead of formally censured.
In August 2025, the board voted to remove Perry from his committee assignments for four months following accusations that he violated closed-session confidentiality. Then in August 2026 he was accused of violating the code of ethics for making disparaging remarks about other board members on his social media. He was removed from committee assignments again for three months.
Mason later said Perry again violated policy 2120, the code of ethics for board members, but did not elaborate further.
Perry exited the September board meeting after his request to discuss board raises — approved in this year’s budget — was rejected. Perry contended the board should have taken a separate vote on the raises, particularly after budgeting for a 3% increase and the state came back with a 7.8% average increase.
Perry’s motion to add the discussion to the agenda failed to gain a second and died. When Perry expressed frustration about not being able to explain his stance, Chair Wildeboer called him out of order. Perry then called Wildeboer out of order before standing up to leave.
“I find myself excused for the evening because I’m not going to be dealing with people who don’t even follow their own rules,” Perry said.
It is unclear whether Perry was referring to Robert’s Rules of Order, which outlines how government meetings should be run, or rules regarding the raises, though it appears Wildeboer nor the board broke either. Robert’s Rules of Order states a board member should make a motion and receive a second before explanation and debate can begin. NHCS also followed its procedures regarding board raises.
Perry did not return for the remainder of the meeting.
Port City Daily covered Perry’s actions after the meeting, but the board member did not respond to Port City Daily’s inquiry until two days after publication.
In emailed comments, he defended his actions and Facebook posts made after the incident:
“As noted in the post, NC RSA 115C-38 clearly indicates that the Board of Commissioners alone has the power to adjust school board member compensation. The school board can make a request for such a raise but can’t do so on its own. We haven’t made such a request, and the Board of Commissioners (as far as I know) has not voted to increase the 3% raise we requested in the original budget by another 4.8%.
My goal in trying to get this item added to the agenda was two-fold. First, I did want to discuss the fairness of us getting such a large percentage raise when our very important, classified employees only got a 3% raise. However, I knew I would get outvoted on the rate, but I wanted to be heard and for our board to be transparent to the public about it. And secondly, short of lowering the raise back down to 3%, I wanted our board to follow the legal process and not just give ourselves a raise that only the Commissioners can grant us legally.”
He also said he was “in the process” of returning his entire raise to the district’s coffers, an offer Superintendent Chris Barnes made to all board members promising confidentiality.
“I intend to have it redirected to aid our EC Teacher Aides, who surely don’t make enough, and deserve a far bigger raise than we do as school board members.”
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