Folks, the story is getting out and about that the NEW School Board Majority is finally bringing to fruition auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools. Of course, that is a flat-out lie and a deception of epic proportions. All done in secret for partisan political purposes. Certainly not for the best education for our children.
So, let’s really start at the start and work our way forward. This story begins in January, 1865. Before the end of the Civil War. The 13th Amendment was passed by the US House on January 31, 1865 and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. The Confederate States that had succeeded from the Union were required to ratify the 13th Amendment as a condition of them being allowed representation in the Federal Government. But, don’t believe me. Look it up for yourselves.
The 14th Amendment was ratified on July 8, 1868, one of the Reconstructions Amendments. The 14th Amendment guaranteed (supposedly) equal protection under the law for all citizens.
However, various states adopted state laws that allowed blacks to be segregated from whites as long as the black population had equal facilities. This became known as the “Separate but equal Doctrine.” Note that all county schools were segregated in Cleveland County until 1967 when Burns and Crest High Schools were built. Lots had happened from 1868 until 1967. So, let’s backup a little.
“Separate but equal” was pretty much the way it was until 1896 when the Plessy v. Ferguson US Supreme Court Decision came in. This case came about when Homer Ferguson was arrested for sitting in the “white section” of a railroad coach in Louisiana. Plesssy, who was light-skinned enough to have passed for white, was an activist who was a part of a group looking to challenge the “Separate but Equal” Doctrine in the US Supreme Court. So, Plessy deliberately sat in the White Section of a railroad Coach and then declared himself to be of color.
Plessy was arrested and his case went all the way to the US Supreme Court. But Plessy and his activist group were highly disappointed when the US Supreme Court Ruling declared that “separate facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they (the facilities) were ‘equal.’” Thus making “segregation” the law of the land. This marked the legal authority for all the “Jim Crow” laws that were to follow for over half a century.
Of course, we all know by now that “facilities” for blacks, especially schools, were never equal. That realization came to me in the 1968 Elections. I had gone to segregated school and graduated from Burns-at Fallston in 1965. I was a Junior at North Carolina State University majoring in Nuclear Engineering. I registered to vote in March of 1968 when I turned 21. Which was the law back then.
O n Election Day in 1968 I went to vote at the Fallston Precinct. The person in line in front of me was a young black man, maybe a year or two older than me, that I knew. When he was handed his ballot by the Poll worker, who I also knew, the black man asked for some help marking his ballot. He couldn’t read. I was standing there hearing the talk thinking, here I am, a product of segregated white schools and attending NC State and this black person almost my age attended segregated black schools and couldn’t read. But that is not the end of this story.
The older white man, the Poll worker, pointed to one spot on the ballot and said, “Here is where you mark Straight Democrat.” Young black man tried to ask a few questions and once again the older white man pole worker, this time in a loud voice, with his head tilted way back so he could look down his nose at the taller black man, said “RIGHT HERE IS WHERE YOU MARK STRAIGHT DEMOCRAT!!!. The young man took the ballot and went on. I have no idea whether or not he voted straight democrat. What I do know to be 100% true is that I took my ballot, and although I had registered as a Democrat, I did NOT vote for a single Democrat on that ballot. Even for those that were running unopposed. Something I continue to do till this very day.
Again, lets back up a bit and finally get back to the point.
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education US Supreme Court decision ruled that the Separate but Equal Doctrine was Unconstitutional because there was incontrovertible proof that the separate facilities that were supposed to be equal were anything but equal. Schools had to be unsegregated. Integrated. And that was that.
But, “that was that” was not coming soon. Various states and various school districts, Including North Carolina and Cleveland County Schools, tried all kinds of tricks to avoid and delay integrating schools. North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford even threatened to shut down public education in NC. Cleveland County Schools said they had to build new schools before they could comply with the Supreme Court Ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Remember folks, this was before School Merger. There were three school Districts in Cleveland County, Shelby City Schools, Kings Mountain City Schools and Cleveland County Schools. Shelby did their thing. Kings Mountain did their thing and Cleveland County Schools did their thing. This fact will soon become very important regarding the Auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools.
Now, I am going to narrow the discussion to how Burns and Crest High Schools came about without auditoriums and swimming pools.
First of all, the school board for the original Cleveland County Schools were cheap and school funding was taken directly from the Cleveland County taxes. There was NO School Tax at that time. Another very important point. Schools without auditoriums and swimming pools were cheaper to build.
Secondly, Burns and Crest High Schools were going to be integrated. In the mid 19-sixties Cleveland County had no experience with integration. TV News showed race problems all across the country and the Cleveland County School Board didn’t know what was about to happen if black and white students were suddenly thrown together, say, in an auditorium. Or a swimming pool. So, the answer was simple. Leave off swimming pools and auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools. So, that is what happened. Also, most county black schools, even the new ones that had been built in an effort to stave off integration, were sold off cheap to “insiders.” A corruption camouflaged by tones of racism. The narrative given was no white person would want their kids to go to a previously “black” school. In Cleveland County, there is always a narrative. A big lie to cover up the corruption. One might argue that most “racism” in Cleveland County is actually the product of corruption, not an overt act of racism. Chew on that thought for a while. I don’t think you can prove me wrong about that.
So, the unmerged Cleveland County Schools rocks along for a few years. Shelby and Kings Mountain High Schools have or will build swimming pools and auditoriums, often with Cleveland County tax dollar support. The County Schools integration problems don’t turn out to be as bad as expected. The unmerged County School Board decides they want auditoriums and swimming pools at Burns and Crest High Schools, just like everybody else. But the County Commissioners won’t spring for the additional costs like the Cites of Shelby and Kings Mountain did. Costs that often fell on “County” taxpayers too.
Finally, the unmerged county school supporters decide to go for a special school tax to bring in the bucks to provide facilities equal to Shelby and Kings Mountain Schools. They push for a tax referendum and finally get it passed. Up to 15 cents per hundred-dollar property valuation. The unmerged County School Board settles for a 10 cent per hundred rate to start with. To see how it goes in saving up construction funds for auditoriums and swimming pools.
But there is trouble in Paradise. Down at Shelby High School a black male student with several felony convictions and prison time for armed robbery is elected as Student Body President at Shelby High School. The self-proclaimed Shelby Country Club “Blue-Bloods” (all white) hit the ceiling. Something has to happen because THEY say it has to happen. And, it does. In the traditional Cleveland County corrupt way of doing things.
At this point, some might say that “There he goes again! That Robert A. Williams is making this up. That there is noting in the Shelby Star about this.” I would reply that they are right about one thing. I could NOT find one thing in the Shelby Star’s archives, although I remember it being the talk of the town. However, I did find two articles that I am attaching at the bottom of this article. One from the Orlando Sentinel and one from the Voice of America, of all places. Plenty of evidence that this is a fact. And also, plenty of evidence that the Shelby Star has scrubbed their records of this embarrassing happening in the City of “Peasant Living.” Read the two articles at the end of this piece. They are only a sideline to the thrust of this article, so I will stop here about the details of this incident. It is, however, not the end of effect of this happening.
The continuing and nasty controversy over the high ration of black students (who, according to the narrative) elected the convicted black felon to President of the Shelby High School Student Body caused the “Executive Round-Table,” a secret group of white “Executives” around town with an MO similar to a financial Ku Klux Klan, sprang into action. They composed a letter to the Cleveland County Commissioners demanding that the three school districts within Cleveland County be merged into one big district. Obviously for the purpose of busing black students out of Shelby High School and busing white students into Shelby High School to reduce the ration of black students at SHS. However, the narrative was “this would allow the reduction of duplicated positions among the three school districts and save money overall.” (Cleveland County is just full of lies.)
The Executive Roundtable’s letter to the Commissioners started the School Merger “ball” rolling. Actually, it was a done deal from the start. Only the City of Kings Mountain’s school board caused a problem. They sued the County. And lost. Then KM packed the merged School District Elections with Kings Mountain candidates and turned out big time to elect a majority on the merged Cleveland County Schools Board of Education. This lasted until the 2020 Elections stopped that run of corruption. (Only to start another it seems.)
But, the “Devil” is always in the details. The School Tax that the original Cleveland County School Board got passed, the tax whose purpose was to raise money to build auditoriums and swimming pools at Burns and Crest High Schools got twisted up into the merger. First, the School Tax got raised to 15 cents per hundred dollars valuation and all the money from all the districts got mixed into one big pot. And Kings Mountain and Shelby were in control of that one big pot. Out the window went plans to build auditoriums and swimming pools at Burns and Crest High Schools. And the rural dummies in Cleveland County were too stupid to do anything about it. Also, since the School Tax was now funding all schools, the Cities of Shelby and Kings Mountain taxes, overall, went down while taxes for county residents’ taxes went up. This was around 20years ago. Most people have forgotten about this hoodoo of county residents and their children.
Since the merger of the School Districts there was some “talk” about building Auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools. (Never any “talk” about including swimming pools that would actually equalize the facilities at all four high schools.) This talk was always around school board election time, beginning with the 2013 Elections. The talk was just that, talk. Most of the voters in the County stayed home and the majority of the Shelby-Kings Mountain tax and spend incumbents won re-election. Their kids already had swimming pools and auditoriums. And the county taxpayers were helping pay their bills.
It was the same for several more elections. Talk about auditoriums, tell what a good job they were doing and us dummies kept on re-electing them. Or, by staying home for the lack of ”our” candidates running for the school board.
Now comes the 2020 Elections. Thanks to Tim Moore the School Board elections are now partisan and held during regular election years. It was also President Trump’s reelection year and the turnout was going to be huge. And it was. And a New School Board Majority was elected by a huge majority. That is history now.
Where was all the talk about auditoriums during the 2020 Elections. We all knew the old school board majority were desperate to get reelected. Especially Shearra Miller, Richard Hooker and Roger Harris. If any one of them had gotten reelected, the OLD school board majority held. Why were they not talking about auditoriums? This will take some serious evaluation and research. And who does that better than MOI? (Moi is French for “me.”)
And, now for the answer. An answer that is obvious since the NEW School Board Majority has informally announced through their mouth piece, the Shelby Star, that they are fixing to spend $28 million on brand new auditoriums on schools that are over 50 years old and Cleveland County Schools as well as the Commissioners are broke. New school board chairman Robert “Baby Jesus” Queen (a new nickname-by popular demand) says. they have a $15 Million government grant and CCS will pay the rest.
One thing is totally sure, “Baby Jesus” Queen’s school board majority has been in office for only 55 days. Fourteen of those days were over the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays. Add another day for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s Holiday. Add another 16 days for weekends, and you have at lease 31 days that absolutely nothing could have been done to ask for, justify and receive a $15 million State Grant in the remaining 24 days spread over 2+ months. In the middle of the COVID Pandemic.
There is NO WAY that the NEW School Board Majority could pull off a $15 Million government grant for new auditoriums for Burns and Crest High Schools in this short a time frame. Impossible would be a better word.
Only one thing was possible. The OLD School Board Majority, feeling the heat of their 122 combined years of a continuously declining Cleveland County Schools as well as the major competition from Republicans, themselves applied for the grant. Hoping it would come through in time (before the 2020 Elections) and they could make their brags tell all the old lies and get reelected. But the Grant, coming through when it did and the NEW School Board Majority having to keep it under wraps for long enough that nobody would figure out what actually happened was too big for me to figure out what happened.
So, Williams, what did actually happen??? Only one thing is possible, says I. Speaker of the House Tim Moore, as well as Representative Kelly Hastings and Senator Ted Alexander held up the Grant long enough for the Republicans to get elected and take all the credit for new auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools. A well-deserved political dirty trick that took out five old-time Democrats on the School Board. Well deserved and about time, I would say. But still, a political dirty trick just the same.
But now, reality has to sink in for Robert “Baby Jesus” Queen and his new school board majority. There are major financial problems at CCS that may make them look like fools.
Let’s go there for a moment.
1. We are still in a pandemic with schools closed and social distancing enforced. No telling how long this pandemic will last. But, if the new auditoriums were in existence at this very moment, the auditoriums could NOT be used. Making them useless.
2. Only building auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools still leaves Burns and Crest High Schools’ facilities inferior to Shelby and Kings Mountain High Schools.
3. All four of Cleveland County’s High Schools are over 50+years old and there are still NO strategic plans to renovate or replace any of them. Or any of the other 25 schools for that matter.
4. Also, Shelby and Kings Mountain High School’s sports facilities are much better than at Burns and Crest High Schools.
5. There are no mechanisms for public input in the design and specifications for the new Auditoriums supposedly for Burns and Crest High Schools.
6. There no useful planned purposes for the auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools. Just build them and maybe somebody can figure out what to do with them.
7. Just building auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools will preserve the inequity of facilities for at least 40 more years.
8. New buildings constructed by Cleveland County, such as the New North Shelby School project, the LeGrand Center, the Cleveland County Health Center and Shelby Middle School have all gone over budget by 40-60%. Making the likely cost of the new auditoriums $28-$32 million. Where will the additional $8-$12 million come from?
9. Testimony at the February 5th 2021 “secret” School the Board Operations Committee Meeting indicated CCS has major financial shortcomings in the present Capitol Projects list. How will funding be raised to keep the other aging schools and facilities at CCS in a good and safe state of repair?
10. The 2020-2021 Budget Resolution passed by the School Board on January 25, 2021 had no provisions for the Minimum $5 million in CCS funds for construction of the Auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools, much less the $8-$12 million in likely cost overruns. Where will this additional funding come from?
Folks, other than the Shelby Star publishing of the CCS Press Release regarding auditoriums for Burns and Crest High Schools, no legal school board vote to actually build those auditoriums has occurred. Or to even accept that $15 million Grant mentioned in the Shelby Star article. Is this any way for a $160 Million per year operation like CCS to do business??? The correct answer is not NO. But Hell NO. New School Board Majority included.
Folks, be sure to read these two articles about the black convicted felon getting elected to the Shelby High School Student Body President.
SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS -- FROM PRISON TO STUDENT PRESIDENCY - Orlando Sentinel
From Juvenile Felon to Student President _ Voice of America - English