Finding the Truth, Looking for “Sign”!!! COVID, Commissioners, Cleveland County Schools and CCC!!! Sickness and Death, Ignorance and Poverty are all upon us!!! Things are Worse than I ever thought!!! Report, analysis, gossip and “sign” by Robert A. Williams

If the phrase “looking for “sign”” is new to you, ask any deer hunter that you might know. All successful deer hunters these days “scout out” the territory they plan on hunting in for signs that deer frequent the area and where their normal “paths” are. The look for small saplings with “rub” marks on them where a buck deer rubs the “velvet” off his new set of antlers. Mature buck deer get a new set of antlers every year. The hunter looks for deer “droppings.” Feces one might say, most say “deer-shit,” which is not the same as “bull-shit” as one might hear from elected and appointed officials when they are covering up corruption and wasteful spending. Especially around election time.

The “sign” I am looking for, and have found, as related to the Cleveland County Commissioners, Cleveland County Schools Board of Education, the Health Department (COVID related) and the Cleveland Community College Board of Trustees is documents or reports that collaborate what these officials are saying is true or false, And if the reports indicate that the leadership is spewing “bull-shit,” just where the truth actually lies.

Also, I know the folks involved in all the cover-ups going on in the gor3enental agencies noted above are telling citizens not to believe anything I way. That I am lying about all the bad things I report that they are doing. I have come to believe that all these bad things that I have been reporting on for years are not as bad as I have portrayed them to be. The “sign” that I have been finding NOW indicates the situation is worse that I have ever reporting on before. MUCH WORSE!!!

COVID 19 — First, let’s look at the COVID situation as it inter-relates to local agencies.
As many of you readers already know, the “19” in COVID 19 did NOT come from the nineteenth version of COVID, but from the COVID super bug that came out of China in 2019. Now it is 2021 and the ninth months of 2021 at that. Now joined by the Delta Variant. All multiplied by the influx of outsiders coming to the American Legion World Series and the temporary opening of the Catawba Casino. I predict that the long-term legacy of the ALWS and Casino openings will eventually be “sickness and death” instead of “jobs and economic development.”

The Cleveland County Health Department, still “reeling” from the sex scandals and Federal Lawsuits (and payoffs) coming out of there, along with the so-called “early retirements” and resignations of folks at the highest levels, has caused delays in services and planning relating to the overall health of the residents of Cleveland County.

Examples of this are the delays in getting out the 2019 Health Department’s Cleveland County Annual Report way into 2020. This report’s Executive Summary admitted that the delays getting the report out was due, in large part, to the high level of turnover of the Health Department Leadership Team. I made mention of that report in previous articles and that Report has “disappeared” from the Cleveland County’s Website. Imagine that. County Manager Brian Epley’s work I suppose. However, I downloaded it. But that is not the subject of this article so I will address that separately in other articles.

Of more timely interest related to the clear and present danger of the COVID Delta Variant is the Health Departments Public Health Response in the event of a public health emergency or disaster. The following is presently stated on the County’s Website.

PLANNING, PARTNERSHIPS AND PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONSE
In the event of a public health emergency or disaster: 
The Cleveland County Public Health Center in coordination with local emergency management will open temporary clinic sites, also called a Point of Dispensing (POD). At a POD preventative medication and/or vaccine is given to people who are not yet sick.
There are four school locations in Cleveland County designated to open as a POD: Burns Middle School, Crest High School, Cleveland Community College and Kings Mountain Intermediate School. To access preventive medicine, you should report to the POD closest to your home.
In the event that a mass dispensing is deemed necessary by state and local officials, information about POD locations, dates and times will be made available through local media.

Although these are general terms, a major news report from just yesterday indicated that Rex Hospital in Raleigh (Wake County with about the same COVID numbers as Cleveland County) has run out of available beds and that “Surge Tents” were going to be brought in to provide shelter for emergency surgery, COVID treatment, etc.

What the report did NOT say was who provides and sets up such things as “Surge Tents” in an emergency?? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)??? Assisted by the National Guard???

And, since Cleveland County has the same COVID rates as Wake County and the Shelby Hospital, like REX Hospital is full (School Board member Rodney Fitch has come down with a bad case of COVID and was turned away from the Shelby Hospital because of a lack of space), it is high time that such as these “Surge Tents” and the National Guard to put them up be brought to Cleveland County also. Where are the Cleveland County Manager, Commissioners and Health Department on that? Are they even awake to the issues and potential actions???

Cleveland County Schools and the Health Department:

Last years Cleveland County Schools budget was around $155 Million. And the Schools were shut down for most of the year, although no teachers were laid off-just reassigned to COVID Planning. Which consisted of pushing papers around and around in a wild abandonment of reality. Mostly waste as teachers have no training, education and experience in planning for healthcare disasters. (Habit-assigning personnel unqualified for the task at hand-is widely accepted at CCS). This year’s CCS budget is $206 Million. A $51 Million increase. I estimate that $100 Million worth of “education value was wasted last year and this year will probably be the same. Or more.

Last night’s news also reported that the Public Schools of Union County (PSUC) School Board recognized that Schools were supposed to educate children and the Health Department was supposed to take care of the county’s public health issues. And, the School Board voted to discontinue doing Health Department work and stick to educating children. Are the Union County School Board members geniuses or what?

In regard to that last thought, I would mention that I have embedded the notion several time in previous articles and statements that the Cleveland County Health Department be the lead in RECOMMENDING to the School Board the actions that should be taken regarding COVID in terms of the CCS educational operations. I still say that. No matter if the Health Department is still “reeling” over their scandals or what. Grow up or get out I would say.

Now we have travelled from the relatively minor issues to the major issue of our times. The failing education system of our children. From kindergarten through high school and all the way to Cleveland Community College, I am talking about what appears to be a total collapse of CCS as well as Cleveland Community College. A financial collapse too.

The School Board and the CCC Board of Trustees:
‘It goes like this:

For years I have attended School Board meetings and reported on the many, many scandals. The School P-Card fraud and cover-up scandal, teachers having sex with students and cover-up scandals, the Math Academy flim-flam, Communities in Schools sex-capades, the American Legion World Series-Title IX scandal. School Board scandals and cover-ups on a routine basis.

Then the sex scandals involving very high-level people on top of the alleged dumbing down of dual-enroll classes by Cleveland Community College and the CCC Board of Trustees coverups and conflicts of interest got my attention.

Then the years of back and forth. The School Board, then the CCC Board of trustees. Back and forth, back and forth. With a mix of the American Legion World Series and the commissioners secretly kicking in over $5 million scandals and shenanigans thrown into the mix for the “Hell” of it.

All these seemingly infinite pieces of a puzzle of corruption swirling around and around. The City of Shelby’s bad stuff mixed in too. The discrimination. The retaliation. All the lies and the corruption from every direction. It’s enough to make your head “swim.”

Then, the School Board meeting on Monday, September 13th, 2021 and Cleveland Community College Board of Trustees meeting the very next day brought some important things into sharp focus. The Educational System in Cleveland County, already known to be broken and failing, is about to collapse financially.

It goes like this.

I had already heard and seen information that the CCC dual enrollment programs were being dumbed-down so more high school students could qualify for the program. I had already heard and seen information that up to half of Cleveland Community College’s total enrollment was comprised of high school students in the dual enrollment program or were in CCC to pick up that part of their expected education that CCS had NOT provided them before they graduated from CCS. I had already seen so many empty classrooms at CCC to wonder why they were building a “New” Advanced Technology Center which mainly consists of even more classrooms that will end up being empty when finished.

So, when I received my notice of the September 13th 2021 School Board meeting and saw the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between CCS and CCC on the agenda, I smelled a RAT. A very big and stinking RAT. I opened the MOU and studied it closely. It was all about funding from Cleveland County Schools being funneled to Cleveland Community College for even more students. But that even more students were less educated than I would have thought. And the numbers of students involved in what the MOU called successes was surprisingly low. I immediately developed a plan to check out what is going on.

My plan was simple. In a previous walkthrough I personally conducted during lunchtime at the July CCC BoT meeting, while the BoTs were chowing down on their catered meal, I took a self-guided tour all around Cleveland Community College. On that tour, I was mostly alone. I wondered “where the heck are all the students??” As I pondered that thought, I realized it was lunchtime and in the middle of July. Perhaps I should not have expected to see many students.

Now, it was the middle of September and CCC is in full-swing. It was in the smack- dab middle of the first quarter and CCC should have been packed with students. So, my plan was to come way early to the CCC BoT Board Meeting, but not to go to the Board meeting. But to re-trace my July steps through the CCC Campus mid-morning, no lunchtime lull, and make an all out attempt to look for students. And that was exactly what I did.

When I arrived at CCC, I parked in the Student parking lot behind the school. Between the main buildings and the Fairgrounds. There were a moderate number of vehicles, but plenty of spaces were available. I noticed that some cars in the parking lot had CCC parking permit stickers, but large numbers did not have those stickers. I attribute some of that to the construction workers who were working on the Advanced Technology Center. There were a lot of cars with Permanent State Tags on them and law enforcement vehicles parked near the “Paksoy Building.”

Then I began my tour of the CCC Campus, starting in the main building, the Jack Hunt Building.

I went down one corridor and then another. Up one floor and down the other floor. The Classroom doors mostly all had small windows, probably required by Fire Codes intended to help protect human habitability. Many of the classrooms had their lights off. Many of those classrooms had their lights on, but nobody was inside. Occasionally I would see a big classroom with mostly empty seats and a teacher up front. In one corridor I could look down into what appeared to be an electrical controls lab. Only three students and one teacher. It was like that all through all the buildings I walked through. As it became lunchtime, the student’s cafeteria/Lunchroom only had two students inside. The Faculty Lounge in the Paksoy Building was entirely empty.

AS I walked along in the ground floor of the Paksoy Building, I came across two HVAC technicians with their HVAC refrigerant pressure gages and a step ladder getting ready to remove a ceiling tile. I casually asked them what were they up to and they told me they were doing some maintenance. I asked them if there were any high intensity ultraviolet light installed anywhere at CCC. They both knew exactly what I was talking about. High intensity ultraviolet lights installed in air ducts to disinfect the air passing through to kill COVID, Flu and other infectious pathogens. They both were familiar with the technology and available equipment, stated that they thought this technology would be useful against the COVID pandemic, but, unfortunately, none were installed anywhere at CCC. I didn’t say anything to them about Danny Blanton’s comment at the School Board meeting the night before about hearing of a device that could be installed within HVAC ducts and kill COVID, flu and other virus, mold and other germs. Of course, I knew exactly what device Danny Blanton was talking about. High Intensity Ultra Violet light emitters. No other Board member at the CCS Board meeting was interested and apparently the hierarchy at CCC won’t take suggestions from their own people. So, there we are with that. Tons of money wasted by flunky Board Members who refuse to allow those that know what they are doing to speak.

The bottom line from my tour at Cleveland Community College was that there are significant shortages of students who are paying their tuitions and fees. CCS, Luke Queen, apparently at the suggestions of fellow CCC BoT members Wes “Taliban Dan” Westmoreland, Dennis “Beetle” Bailey, Lamont Littlejohn and others have conjured up a way to send some CCS money to CCC to hide and perhaps partly stem the tide of a total financial collapse at Cleveland Community College.

And, that is not all.

During my tour of CCC, I made a trip to the School Library. I was checking for anything related to the Critical Race Theory being taught there. Since I do have a library card for the CCC library, I made a large effort to check out all that I could about what was being taught at CCC related to CRT.

So, I logged on to one of the student computers. I interrupted no student as NONE of the Computers were in use by anybody except me. I found that when I punched up “Critical Race Theory” under the heading of “Opposing Viewpoints,” the computer showed 100 plus links that I could pull up right there on the spot. Since I did not like the small monitor, the small print and the cursor that moved faster that I could keep track of it, I did not pull up any of them. I did learn that I could access much of the CCC documents from my home computer. Which I will do soon.

But the telling event of all this tour of CCC was when I was about to leave the Library, I wanted to take a look at their newspapers, Including the Shelby Star and the Charlotte Observer. This is something I always do when I visit Cleveland Community College for any reason.

The only thing was, I could not find the rack where these newspapers are usually kept. I looked all around to no avail. I did notice though that some things had been moved around, Perhaps the newspaper rack had also been moved.

So, I went on down to a desk about the middle of the library and asked where they had moved the newspaper rack to. The lady pointed to a newspaper rack that did not contain the Star or the Observer and was stuck mostly out of sight. The lady went on to say that the Shelby Star had quit delivering newspapers to the College and so had the Charlotte Observer. I found that statement incredulous as the Shelby Star was so broke that they would make sure that any subscriber that paid for a subscription would get a paper delivered to them.

I did not argue the point with the lady as she just worked there. And would likely be punished if anybody at CCC knew that someone was talking to me. We all had masks on so, she probably would not recognize me if she ever saw me again. I know I would not recognize her.

But, me being me. I had to check out this lack of delivery of the Shelby Star and the Charlotte observer. So, the very next day I travelled to the Public Library in Lawndale and sat there beside the newspaper racks. Every Shelby Star issue for the last week was there on the shelf and so were the Charlotte Observers.

Therefore, I had to conclude that the Shelby Star and the Charlotte Observer will, in fact, deliver to every subscriber that pays for their subscription. I also had to conclude that the Cleveland Community College had not paid their subscriptions and the delivery had stopped.

What appeared obvious to me was that the COVID pandemic on top of government mandates had cut down CCC revenue to the point that CCC had cut their subscriptions to the Shelby Star and to the Charlotte Observer. They were spending Millions of Dollars on an Advanced Technology Building full of classrooms that ere not needed to start with. They had $Millions that Tim Moore had secured for them from the General Assembly for a building they did not need. And instead of slowing down the Construction of the ATC and the associated spending, they would cut out such things as newspapers for their library. And since the many empty classrooms they already have, they apparently have a problem with too many teachers.

And nowhere in any BoT meetings has it been let known anything about how many students it takes to keep CCC going. A secret that I have not been able to get anybody to talk about. When I file public records requests, CCC ignores them in defiance to North Carolina law.

What appears certain is that CCC is broke financially and morally too. They show all the signs of financial collapse. If not today, then in the morning. With Robert “Luke” Queen running the School Board, no wonder the other CCC Board of Trustee members worked so hard to keep Luke Queen on the BoTs

Folks, I am not happy to have to report such dire straights of CCC and CCS. Nobody in our Cleveland County Education system will tell us how bad they have failed our students during this past year. One has to conclude that more than half (Probably 60%) of CCS Graduating students in this past year have failed their tests as being proficient at the ninth-grade level in Reading, Writing and the ability to do math. Other county schools report that black students are at least two years behind white students because of the COVID and the way schools have handled the COVID. (Nobody will say anything about why all the close the gap programs have failed for so long. Before COVID.) Basically we, all of us, are screwed because WE have not seen to it that our children were properly educated.

I hope all y’all enjoy the football games tonight!!!