In a contentious and corrupted process, the Cleveland County Board of Education-the School Board, awarded the old North Shelby School to Mt. Calvary Baptist Church-Pastored by Rev. Dr. Lamont Littlejohn for a bid price well under appraised value. State Law mandated that an auction process was required since the Cleveland County Commissioners did not choose to purchase the property and the property was adjudged by the School Board as surplus real property and no longer needed for educational purposes. This was despite the efforts by School Board Member Danny Blanton’s efforts to use the property for vocational training. Mr. Blanton had also been appointed to the Region C Workforce Development Task Force to help assist in raising the skill levels of the Cleveland County Workforce. Long recognized as a major deficiency in the Cleveland County’s high paying manufacturing economic development employment “jobs” efforts. Such efforts generating a lot of hot air by the Commissioners, Cleveland County Schools and Cleveland Community College, but with no tangible or even discernable results-except for spending lots of taxpayer dollars on grants that provided no results and had no accountability.
Some believe, including myself, that the awarding of the old North Shelby School to Rev. Littlejohn’s Church was a political payoff for Littlejohn’s help in turning out voters from the black community to re-elect the incumbent Democrats (Shearra Miller, Richard Hooker and Roger Harris) to the School Board in the 2020 Election.
Today I received a copy of a communications from Rev. Dante Murphy to the Cleveland County Schools Superintendent Dr. Stephen Fisher and School Board Member Coleman Hunt that announced that Mt. Calvary Baptist Church was in “statutory default” (failure to pay up within the legal time frame) on their auction bid for the Old North Shelby School. That, by law, the bidding process had to start over again and that Rev. Murphy was submitting a new bid for the old North Shelby School. The correspondence also included a copy of a certified check for the statutory required deposit on his official bid. Everything was legally signed, sealed and delivered to CCS-Supt Fisher and School Board Member Coleman Hunt.
Rev. Murphy sent this message to me regarding his bid presentation:
Mr. Robert Williams,
I want to forward this information to you in case the Cleveland County Schools refuses to accept my bid. Mr. (Coleman) Hunt seems knowledgeable about the matters in that public records indicate he has done business with Mr. Calvary regarding real property. Evidently, he must have been cleared by CCS attorneys to cast a vote in the land sale to Mt. Calvary. Since it appears that there has been a statutory default, all of this information may not matter.
Rev. Dante’ Murphy
Also, In Rev. Murphy’s communications with me, he stated, in part, that:
Robert,
If this deal goes through, I would like to continue my efforts to start a charter school for minorities or some type of vocation school for students to learn various life skills.
Let me know if you have any information that might help.
Rev. Dante’ Murphy
Well, I say Rev. Murphy is off to a very good start. He is willing to accept advice as well as show total transparency. And I do have some information and suggestions.
1.All of Cleveland County needs to solicit support from Speaker of the House Tim Moore, Rep Kelly Hastings and State Senator Ted Alexander to initiate a “voucher” type school funding law such that Private Schools, Charter Schools, Church Schools and the like can receive an equal payment from all educational funding sources to pay those alternate schools at the same rate as what public schools are paid. This “competition” for funding that will allow high performing schools to expand and prosper. Low performing schools to dry up and blow away.
2.Rev. Murphy and partners should research the type of school organization that is available such that they can run the old North Shelby School in such a way that is most appropriate for the education of students instead of running the schools in such a was as to provide friends and family members of the School Board high paying jobs with little to no pertinent training and no experience. I will name names at a later date.
3.Start with high school students and go heavy on vocational and leadership course work along with standard basic educational classes. This way the skilled worker availability can be improved almost immediately. And work down to the lower grades over time. Instead of the other way around. This way the teaching curricula can also be improved for the lower grades too as the students work their way up through the grades. No “Common Core” for anything.
4.Focus on providing a sound basic education opportunity for all student. Besides being the law, this is common sense. Common sense should always prevail in all discussion and planning functions regarding the education of our future generation of leaders, workers and movers and shakers.
5.Set very high standards to begin with and move up from there.
6.Require and provide transparency and accountability for everything involved.
7.Find a name for the new school. I suggest “High Performance Learning Academy.”
8.Select a board with members from the business community. Require the Board to select a Superintendent/Headmaster from the financial and management community and Principals and teachers from the Educational community. That way the direction and control of the School (and perhaps schools) are always pointed toward the “True North” of the community’s overall best interest. Instead of some kind of tax and spend liberal “socialist agenda.”
9.Contract out, using competitive bid processes, such things as Human Resources, Grounds and equipment maintenance and everything else as possible to provide the associated cost savings toward the core educational process that would be the top and only priority of school and future schools. This method would retard the tendency to build bureaucracies, favoritism and nepotism such as exists at CCS.
10.In conjunction with item 9 above, contract out School Resource Officers/Security Officers from the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff is an elected official who is ultimately responsible directly to the voters and citizens of Cleveland County, which would provide an additional check and balance to the operations of the school(s) in a cost effective and dedicated education as top priority school enterprise.
More later on detailed suggestions.
The proposed use for the old North Shelby School that Rev. Murphy envisions seems to be exactly what all of Cleveland County Schools ought to be doing, but for political and corrupt reasons do not do. Putting the old North Shelby School back into commission as a vital part of the economic recovery of what is officially described as a “dying Cleveland County” is certainly a good use for what CCS says is “surplus and not useable for educational purposes.”
I urge the Cleveland County Commissioners to change their minds about the old North Shelby School property and take the property over and lease it to Rev. Murphy and partners for $1 per year. That way CCS and School Board Member Coleman Hunt could not end up unloading a valuable property to some insider wheeler and dealer with corruption on their minds. Or political payoffs. If the Commissioners can do this for the Cleveland County Fair Association, they can do it for the children of Cleveland County.
Folks, that is my report on Rev. Dante Murphy’s bid on the old North Shelby School and my 2 cents worth of suggestions on what to do with it. Call your favorite Commissioner and School Board member and demand that they do what is right for the Children and future of Cleveland County!!!
Stay tuned. You will be notified on what happens next. But don’t believe me, just wait and see.