School Board member, running for re-election, says he would raise taxes to bring in more revenue for Cleveland County Schools. All the while Mr. Harris has taken off-as we speak-on a boondoggle trip to Raleigh. Training trips that Harris, according to reliable sources, that Harris frequently takes because he has children that live in the Raleigh area.
My source did not know exactly what the travel costs to Raleigh are or the cost of the training in Raleigh. My source did know that the same training can be gotten on-line at home for $10.
My source also stated that school board candidate Richard Hooker is the record holder for training trips around the country. Mr. Hooker is also said to often not show up for the training, but goes sightseeing. Richard Hooker also advocates raising taxes for more school revenue.
Candidate Shearra Miller was also reported to go on many training trips at taxpayer expense. But not quite as much as Richard Hooker.
As a taxpayer my preference is for school board members to take their training online, just like the kids at Cleveland County Schools have to do. And cut the training budget accordingly. Same training but lower costs.
Folks, this article is also a Public Records Request Submittal to Cleveland County Schools:
In accordance with the Freedom Of Information Act and North Carolina Public Records Law, the following request for documents and records is submitted:
1. Please provide for inspection all travel, food and lodging expense reports and invoices for training for School Board members Roger Harris, Shearra Miller and Richard Hooker for the past 5 (five) years.
In the meantime, the five, and only these five, as marked below, have publicly stated that they would not raise taxes to bring in more revenue for CCS. Note that Samantha Davis stated at the Cleveland Community College that she would not raise taxes especially because so much “wasteful spending” was going on. Robert Queen said that he could not imagine for any reason for raising taxes for CCS. All the others that are marked also stated they would refuse to raise taxes of any kind to raise revenue for CCS. Apparently, they all think that CCS can live with the $155 Million CCS now gets. That is over $10,000 per student. Lots of savings can be had out of a $155 Million Budget. All the ones NOT marked below said they would raise taxes without specifying what they would spend the extra money on.
