NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The newly elected conservative majority took their oath of office to serve on the New Hanover County Schools Board of Education Tuesday night.
Running on a message of parental rights, district accountability and shifting curriculum away from social-emotional learning, newcomers Pat Bradford, Melissa Mason and Josie Barnhart secured board seats, along with incumbent Pete Wildeboer, during last month’s general election. The members will serve four-year terms.
READ MORE: NHC school board overtaken by red tide, recount not ruled out
The meeting was delayed more than 30 minutes due to a lockdown at Holly Shelter Middle School. The New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office determined the 911 call triggering the lockdown was another hoax, not even a week after fake “swatting” calls shut down schools across the East Coast.
Turnout was high for the first meeting of the new school board, including multiple local and state representatives. Republican commissioners Deb Hays and LeAnn Pierce, along with state House Rep. Ted Davis, presented a united front at the meeting. Newly elected chair of the board of commissioners Bill Rivenbark was also in attendance.
No representative stayed beyond the elections of board leadership.
Incoming board members could select the judge for their swearing-in ceremony. Wildeboer chose Shelly Holt, Barnhart chose Frank Jones, Mason chose Julius Corpening and Bradford chose Phyllis Gorham, the judge presiding over the school board’s case to delay the Michael Kelly case.
Pete Wildeboer, who has served on the board since 2020, was elected chair by a unanimous vote. Audience members gave him a standing ovation as he took his place at the dais, unseating previous chair Stephanie Kraybill.
Despite her Republican Party affiliation, Kraybill has been criticized by members of the GOP, leading to her censure in March for not “aligning with Republican values.” She told Port City Daily earlier in week she was not interested in retaining her leadership position.
When Wildeboer asked for vice-chair nominations, two people spoke up: Democrat Stephanie Walker in favor of Barnhart and Barnhart in favor of Bradford. Chair Wildeboer determined Barnhart spoke first — voting occurs in order of nomination — and thus the board took a vote on Bradford. The businesswoman and Wrightsville Beach Magazine publisher received four votes from Barnhart, Mason, Wildeboer and Hugh McManus. Wildeboer called the vote before asking for opposing votes.
Before exiting the dais, outgoing board members Judy Justice, Nelson Beaulieu and Stefanie Adams were given a chance to make a farewell statement.
Many members of the crowd showed out for Justice, some standing in support after her speech and using their public comment to thank her. Justice thanked the public and staff for their support of quality education and reflected on her term.
“Always put what is best for students and staff at the center of your decisions,” she said. “When something is wrong, do not ignore it or make excuses. That has not been done properly, honestly, since I’ve been on the board.”
Beaulieu spoke about lessons he learned along the way.
“You will let people down,” he said. “If you’re doing this job right, you’re going to let down half the people all the time.”
Stefanie Adams issued a reminder for new board members to represent all constituents.
“I would like to remind you that 49% of this population did not vote for you,” Adams said.
The Republicans beat out four Democratic challengers by obtaining 52% of the votes tallied in the 2022 election.
Adams went on to thank her family, most notably her husband who she said “helped [her] rise above the ignorance — and there was a lot of it.”
Bickering between board members was kept to a minimum Tuesday. With the new group getting their bearings, members were frequently corrected on parliamentary procedure, mostly by Kraybill. When Wildeboer put the vice chair nomination to a vote, he asked for a roll call; Kraybill clarified he was asking for a vote, not a roll call.
One of vice chair Bradford’s first actions was an attempt to amend the agenda, but she did not address on what topics. After a reminder from the crowd and the school district’s attorney the move would require a two-thirds vote rather than a simple majority, the motion failed 4-3. Kraybill, Walker and McManus dissented.
Bradford returned PCD’s request for comment after publication. She said she wanted to reopen the agenda for any board member to add an item. Her items would have included a discussion on academic accountability and increasing literacy, along with increasing communication between the school board and community.
Throughout the rest of the evening, the board voted in unison on budget and policy issues, school improvement plans and a grant for the early childhood education Head Start program. Barnhart made a motion to send three policies — “School Calendar and Time for Learning,” “Counseling Program,” and “Surveys of Students” — back to the policy committee.
Barnhart said she found inconsistencies with the North Carolina Department of Instruction’s guidelines in the policy language and had concerns about surveying students due to the district’s controversial past polling.
The policy committee’s membership will not be determined until the board’s retreat in the next month.
One issue emerged as a major obstacle the group plans to tackle — the district’s traditional calendar for the 2023-2024 school year. Chief Academic Officer Patrice Faison presented the board with two calendar options at the calendar committee’s behest, which was presented in October as well.
“I need for us to vote and approve a calendar,” Faison said during the meeting. The district’s other calendars for the year-round and pre-K schools, are dependent on the traditional calendar.
However, the board believed neither option would be best for students. One calendar did not end the first semester until after winter break, which would require students to take exams a break from instruction. The other schedule violates state law by placing the start date on Aug. 21, when the state requires school to start on the Monday closest to Aug. 26.
Districts are required to be in school a certain number of days and provide teachers with enough workdays. Each traditional school within the district must follow the same schedule.
The inflexibility of the law has caused frustration during calendar discussions. The board decided to reconsider the 2022-2023 school year’s calendar to examine if the semesters could split at winter break. Yet, the brought forth the discussion after the year had already begun and the calendar had been voted on. The ultimate decision was that layout was infeasible.
Parents, teachers and students have shown support for ending the first term before Christmas break so students retain information for exams and the schedule syncs with dual-enrolled students’ schedules. Community and board members have expressed desire for more flexibility, especially in light of schedule fluidity allowed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bradford suggested the district fill out the state’s calendar waiver, which allows for different start dates due to frequent weather events and emergency situations. The district has not met those requirements; it would have to miss eight days or more each school year for four school years over the last 10 years to be eligible.
Faison mentioned there was a third calendar discussed by the calendar committee, but it did not choose to present that option to the board. She noted the third calendar’s semesters were off balance by 20 instructional days.
When the calendar committee met on Oct. 19, 2022, members marked their top two calendars with sticky notes. Those options were submitted to the board, with the law-breaking calendar preferred. (A video of the meeting is available NHCS’s YouTube.)
Some current board members favored a December term-ending calendar; Bradford and Barnhart advocated for the board to speak with state representatives about changing the law.
“Our kids and our staff are worth fighting for, and we need to do that through the right channels,” Barnhart said.
McManus joined her in the effort to fight for the best student options.
“We do not advocate for ourselves here enough, nor do we defend ourselves,” he said.
Kraybill advocated against violating state guidelines.
“What message are we sending?” she asked.
Bradford questioned what a governing body should do when the law doesn’t serve the people.
“What happens when it’s a bad law?” Bradford asked. “It takes me back to the Tea Party in Boston, and it’s not that extreme, but we have 24,000 students that are going to be affected by this, so it’s a huge decision.”
Kraybill reminded the board the issue would only affect high school students, not all 24,000 students in New Hanover County Schools.
New Hanover County Schools would not be the only district to break the law with next year’s calendar; districts across the state are considering the change, including Rutherford and Henderson counties.
Henderson County Schools plans to start two weeks earlier than the required date of Aug. 28 in order to give students more instructional time and mirror college calendars. Rutherford County started school early this year.
So far, no county has faced consequences for unlawful calendars, according to BlueRidgeNow. Allison Schafer, general counsel to the North Carolina Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction, told the news outlet there is no policy outlining sanctions the state can take against a school district for violating calendar guidelines.
Walker remarked the district does not have to deliver their calendars to the state until April, so there is still time to evaluate all the options.
The board voted unanimously to postpone the topic to the Jan. 10 meeting.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com
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