On Tuesday, December 2nd, the Hyde County Board of Education held its monthly meeting on Ocracoke at 2pm at the Ocracoke Community Center. It was one of two school board meetings held on Ocracoke this year, held at a time of day when most people who work/go to school are working/going to school.

It was business as usual at the school board meeting, with the customary agenda of reports, discussions, and action items. But at the beginning of the meeting, during the public comment period, the school board heard from six Ocracoke residents who had come to speak. The gist of their comments was: dear school board members, please don't ask for a raise. 

Leslie Lanier, Cathy Scarborough, Debbie Leonard, and Kelley Shinn spoke as parents/taxpayers who are shocked/disappointed/angry that the school board would consider adding to their own stipends when Ocracoke School lost their art program and two teacher aide positions this school year. "Morally wrong" was the way Kelley phrased it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will add that I spoke as well, both as a newspaper reporter and as a parent. As a reporter, my comment was that Hyde County Schools needs to update their website so that school board meeting minutes are posted in a timely fashion. As of December 2nd, the most recent minutes available online were from the August meeting. 

David Tweedie spoke as president of Ocracoke Alive, a non-profit that is working to raise $8000 to provide art education at Ocracoke School from January – June. He said he would like to see extra money go to support that program instead of increasing the board members' pay.

David also mentioned that the National School Board Association website states that 75% of small-district school board receive no salary. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. 

None of the school board members replied to any of the public comments or showed any outward signs of having heard. 

Giving themselves a raise is not up to them; the Hyde County commissioners will decide that, possibly as early as their January 5th meeting. If you would like to let the commissioners know how you feel, you can find their contact information here. 

Contact information for the school board members is here.

I couldn't stay for the entire school board meeting (other duties called), but I did get to hear the presentation by Jim Merrick, the architect who is drafting up the renovation of the old fire hall into usable space for Ocracoke School students. As there were no existing plans of the building, Merrick had to begin by drawing them, then creating new plans with the proposed changes. The goal is for the school to use the downstairs as a wood shop and for WOVV (Ocracoke's community radio station) to occupy the 2nd floor and for everything to be up to code and safe for students. I was pretty interested in the future of the space, certainly much more so than the school board member who was nodding off during the presentation. (I couldn't make that up if I tried.) 

Jenny Scarborough hasn't written for these pages in a while, but it's time we heard from her: "Hey. Meetings are boring. That person is clearly not being paid enough to stay awake," she commented. 

UPDATE: 12/5/14: I talked to John Fletcher last night about school board raise and he said, "I can understand a slight increase or a per diem for those that have to travel, but they are doing this to serve the community, not for the money."

John added that he had no idea what being county commissioner paid when he ran for office. He says he takes the money because it pays his travel expenses to Swan Quarter and for his cell phone, but he'd be willing to take a cut in pay to help Hyde County Schools get the money they need.

"I'm not against spending money on education – spend it on supplies. I'm just against more spending on administration," he said.

As for our particular school administration, interested parties might want to read this article about Hyde County Schools superintendent Dr. Randolph Latimore. 

Please refer to the original article below (posted 12/2/14) so that this all makes sense.

At the December 1st meeting of the Hyde County Board of Commissioners, one agenda item was listed as: "Board of Education: Request Raise for Board Members."

The item was introduced by county manager Bill Rich, who spoke in lieu of Hyde County Schools superintendent Randolph Latimore. No official action was taken – it was tabled until January, when Latimore and Hyde County Schools finance officer Ken Chilcoat could attend and explain the need for the raise and whence the money will come.

But Bill did provide some interesting information:

At their current rate of pay, the school board members each receive $42 per meeting, except for the chairperson, who receives $50 per meeting. 

The five Board of Education members would like to be paid the same as the Hyde County Commissioners: $353 a month per member; the chairperson makes $400 a month. 

According to the Hyde County Schools website, the school board will meet 14 times during the fiscal year (there are extra meetings in September and April.) Allow me do the math: Assuming they are paid for all 14 meetings, that would come to a total of $588 per the four regular board members, plus $700 for the chair. That's a grand total of $3,052 for the year. 

If they were to get the raises they're requesting, each of the four regular board members would receive $4,236 a year, and the chairperson would rake in $4,800. Grand total = $21,744. Subtract the $3,052 and you get $18,692. Note: this math has been corrected, as I originally computed $353 times 14 meetings, but it should have been $353 times 12 months. I'm not a numbers person, and it's still a big raise. And enough money to do something – anything – helpful to Hyde County students.

The Hyde County Board of Education is asking for a $18,692 raise. 

They have the funds, Bill Rich reported. The money has already been allocated to them by the county, and not yet spent; they need only the commissioners' approval to spend it on themselves. 

They will not get that approval from Ocracoke's representative commissioner John Fletcher. 

"You will not get one penny from me," he told Latimore (who arrived late, but he had a good excuse: the Swan Quarter ferry!)

"I am opposed to spending more on the administration," John said firmly. "When there's extra money it needs to go to teachers and students, not the administration."

The Hyde County Board of Education (Chairman Thomas Whitaker, David Tolson, Randy Etheridge, Aleta Cox, and Myra Chandler) decided earlier this year to de-fund the art program at Ocracoke School. Art education for Ocracoke kids will soon be provided by a non-profit organization, Ocracoke Alive, which is fundraising to pay the artists and art educators. 

This same school board voted not to contribute any funds to the Ocracoke Community Park, although they don't seem to mind taking credit for it anyway. (See this story about Ocracoke School's "first on-campus athletic field.") The park and ballfield project is under the auspices of the non-profit Ocracoke Youth Center, which has received grants and donations to help them build their "field of dreams."

So, to summarize (not that I want to editorialize or anything), we have two non-profits (run completely by volunteers) that are stepping up to provide educational and athletic opportunities to Ocracoke School kids without any help from a school board that apparently has a surplus $20K that they think should go into their own pockets. I would like to know how they explain that this use of the money best serves Hyde County students. 

2pm today at the Community Center: see you there!