The recent and sudden announcement that Dr. Chris Blanton, controversial Principal at Burns High School, had accepted a Principal position at Watauga High School and would soon be leaving Burns. This was cause for CCS Board Member and re-election candidate Danny Blanton and Board candidate Kevin Whisnamt to put together and make the arrangements to hold a Town Hall type get together at the Fallston Baptist Church Fellowship Hall Sunday evening at 6:30 May 7, 2017 to gather community input on the replacement principal at Burns prior to the regularly scheduled school board meeting tonight at 6:pm.
This Town Hall is totally in compliance with the official goals of the Cleveland County Board of Education to “Provide opportunities for the school board, the schools, and the community to establish and build strong relationships.” Unfortunately School Board Chairman Phillip “Bully” Glover and members Shearra Miller, Richard Hooker, Roger Harris Jeff Jones, Rev. Donnie Thurman, Jr., Kathy Falls and Jo Boggs saw fit not to attend. This is especially regretful as Jo Boggs lives within walking distance and was elected in part because she lives in the Burns High School district.
These school board no-shows were not missed as the Town Hall went on well without them. It is believed they did not attend, in part, because they did not want to hear Board member Danny Blanton read a Letter of Commendation regarding a Civil Air Patrol member and Kings Mountain High School Student who has a 4.5 Grade Point Average as well as an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy at the age of 15. Yet, this student was given an unexcused absence from CCS for participating in an official emergency rescue mission to the Kinston, NC area following Hurricane Matthew while other CCS CAP members at other CCS schools received excused absences. These no-shows voted to ban the letter from being read to them at the April 24, 2017 school board meeting. I received a copy of that letter and it sill be included at the end of this article.
The Town Hall itself was very interesting as everyone participated. The discussions were lively to say the least. Many subjects and examples of the foolishness at Burns High School as well as in the Central Offices were discussed. Several things were obvious. The Principal-ship of “King” Chris Blanton was a reign of terror at Burns and caused a terrible loss of veteran teachers who were responsible for very high ratings for Burns prior to Principal Blanton’s arrival. That teachers were afraid to speak out. And, Burns High School is on the verge of failure if a “good” principal is not selected. That “good ” Principal for Burns High School was identified by consensus as Mickey Morehead, Principal at Burns Middle School.
Many other things were discussed that I want to check out as they represent significant problems and a lack of consistency within the CCS system as well as possibly being criminal in nature.
The Letter of Commendation follows. Please be sure to read it in detail.
[gview file=”http://citizensforgoodgovernment.org/online/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Letter-of-Commendation.pdf”]
