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!!!