Editor’s Note: Folks, I started a single article regarding the April 8, 2019 school Board meeting but it started getting so long and complex that I have broken the April 8th happenings up into several Articles. This article is the third with several more e to come.
First, some background on this portion of the April 8, 2019 School Board meeting.
School Board member Danny Blanton, with almost six years of service on the CCS school board has become known as the “Champion” on the School Board for the taxpayers, citizens, parents and students alike. When someone has a problem with CCS, the board member they will likely call is Danny Blanton. And Danny returns phone calls, which the rest of the school board refuse to do unless you are a “somebody” in Cleveland County. Danny’s popularity has caused hostility among other school board members as Danny does what HE believes is right and not what he is told to do.
Over the past several years the CCS school board “majority” (everybody else besides Danny Blanton) has fell out of favor, for various and very good reasons described in previous articles, with the Cleveland County Commissioners. The Commissioners asked NC House Representative Tim Moore to take away the school board’s authority to nominate Board members to the Cleveland Community College Board of Trustees. Also, to make the School Board a partisan board to enhance the turnout necessary to make necessary changes to the school board. Yet the Commissioners; recognizing Danny Blanton’s qualifications, determination and dedication, appointed Danny Blanton to the Region C Work Force Development task force in order to find and identify problems and issues and develop fixes for those problems and issues. Also newly elected Commissioners Doug Bridges and Deb Hardin have started attending school board meetings. Except for the April 8, 2019 School Board meeting.
Editor’s Note: At the April 16, 2019 Commissioner’s meeting I asked Bridges and Hardin about missing the “joke” of a school board meeting on April 8th. Both quickly answered that there was a conflict and they were not able to attend. My sources say there was more to it than that.
Sources informed me that School Board Chairman Shearra Miller had previously called Commissioner Chairman Susan Allen telling Allen that Commissioners Bridges and Hardin attending school board meeting made her and the other school board members uncomfortable. So, Commissioner Chairman Susan Allen, knowing she could not just tell Bridges and Hardin what to do, in a planned scheme scheduled a County sponsored event at the same time and same day but at a different place than the school board meeting. Now that this truth has hit the light of day, us citizens expect the reappearance of Commissioners Bridges and Hardin at future School Board meetings, along with Commissioners Ronnie Whetstine, Johnny Hutchings AND Susan Allen. County Manager Brian Epley and Asst. County Manager Kerri Melton to boot. People are tired of this kind of “game playing” in county government and want it stopped. AND STOPPED NOW!!! That part Ain’t funny no more. Especially in a “dying county” with failing schools and a school board full of clowns that think everything is a joke.
Back to the story line:
One of the first things Danny Blanton was instrumental in doing in the Work Force Development area was to help coordinate CCS with Cleveland Community College for some badly needed work force development classes. The CCS classes would have to be taught at CCC because of a lack of facilities at CCS. This was to be a short-term fix for those high school students caught without a vocational training career path until CCS could develop that career path at the high schools.
Next, Danny Blanton discovered the CCS and CCC calendars did not match. The mis-match amounted to thirty days of training that would be lost for those high school students needing that vocational training that would be taught at CCC. A point CCS missed entirely. Or maybe they didn’t miss it. Maybe they just didn’t care enough to do anything except dumb down the classes and send the students on their way without proper training.
But again, Danny Blanton stepped up and led the way for the purpose of changing the state laws to allow “calendar flexibility” to allow a match between the CCS calendar with the CCC Calendar. After getting (begrudedly) a resolution in front of the school board to request a change in state law to allow Cleveland County (only) to synchronize the CCS and CCC schedules, Danny Blanton made the motion to the school board to approve the resolution. School Board member Phillip “Bully” Glover” seconded that motion, which was approved 9-0.
Then, Danny Blanton single-handedly took that resolution around Cleveland County and got just about every governmental entity to sign off in support of the resolution. Blanton then took the Resolution to Raleigh. The Bill passed overwhelmingly by a 100-10 vote in the NC House.
The NC Senate approval vote was all that was left to put this program in the bag. Which would have been a win for Danny Blanton’s efforts as well as a win for all those students who needed the vocational training at CCC in order to qualify for employment. A Win-Win for everybody. The Shelby Star ran a front-page article with Danny Blanton’s picture in regard to this big success.
But, it Ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
All those school board members who had been trying to shut down Danny Blanton for so long were totally jealous because of Blanton’s achievements. Which was basically a temporary fix for the school board’s long-time negligence. The school bo0ard majority then developed a devious plan of their own. A scheme to undermine Danny Blanton and, in turn, sabotage the future of a number of high school students. A devious, underhanded, cruel and most of all a secret scheme. Led by none other than two-faced Phillip “Bully” Glover. The very same Phillip Glover who had seconded the resolution motion in the first place.
