The Trump Hating, Dirty Politicking, rule breaking, lying and rumor mongering Cleveland County Rogue Republicans; Dennis Bailey, Kevin Whisnant, Wes Westmoreland, David Allen, Robert “Luke” Queen, Ron Humphries, Pam Keller, Guy Smith and others–the ones who lied, schemed and conspired to defeat School Board Member Dr. Danny Blanton and Candidate Ronnie Grigg in the 2022 Republican Primary Elections, to no avail, are at it again. And just as sneaky and just as corrupt in the 2022 School Board General Election this November as they were in the 2022 School Board Primary Elections. But this time these bums have enlisted CCS Superintendent Stephen Fisher to help them do their dirty and dastardly deeds. At the expense of our school children!!!
Most every expert in educational matters, as well as just about all non-experts agree that children that are hungry in school do not learn nearly as well as those children that are NOT hungry. That is why there are so many programs now to feed children in school nutritious meals at lunch time and often for breakfast too. Many Cleveland County students qualify for Free Meals. Some CCS schools have such high rates of poverty amongst students that ALL students at that school qualify for those Free Meals.
We ALL should be proud that our overall abundance of food can be shared with those children who live in that kind of poverty situations such that often times those free meals at school are their only meals of the day. We ALL should also be MAD as Hell that the FOOD served at CCS Schools has reached such a low quality that those hungry students as well as all the other students often will NOT eat the SLOP that is now being fed to them.
Note: Let’s make sure we understand what SLOP means,
Some city readers may be thinking, Robert A, What does slop mean?
Robert A says “Farmers feed their pigs slop, a messy, wet mix of various table scraps and leftovers—and when they do, they say they “slop the hogs”. A derogatory way to talk about food that doesn’t look very tasty is to call it slop. If a hungry child won’t eat the food they are served, Robert A calls it slop!”
Robert A also says there is more to this article than that little terminology tidbit. We will NOW get to the problems CCS has been having with their food services for many years now. And mostly all these problems can be traced directly to the former CCS Child Nutritionist who left CCS recently under questionable circumstances. And the 10+ years of CCS cover-up leading up to her seemingly untimely (before retirement) departure from CCS.
Robert A remembers, around 10 years ago, CCS was involved with a major scandal regarding widespread misuse and (potential fraud) of school P-Cards (Credit Cards). Robert A submitted a Public Information request and received a computer disc from CCS with tons of information regarding P-Card receipts that was all jumbled up on the disc. Making it seemingly impossible to decipher. But, Robert A, with some good help, cracked the code on the CCS disc and began finding suspicious charges from almost every person (over 200) that had been issued a CCS P-Card.
The CCS Child Nutritionist’s charges were the most extensive and the most suspicious. Cases upon cases of chewing gum, cookies, crackers, energy drinks and such were charged on the CCS P-Card by the Child Nutritionist. None of which should have been fed to children at school. Two charges for around $200 each were for personal massages at the expensive “Spa” at the exclusive Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. Many, many $1,000 charges at the Shelby Country Club in Shelby for meals for multiple persons. So many charges for groceries and expensive cuts of beef at Walmart made during and right after working hours that seemed to be the fixings two for supper at home. And, other such suspicious charges.
Also, the high publicity of this P-Card scandal caught the eye of the NC State Auditor who reviewed some of the charges, found possible criminal misuse of the CCS P-Cards and referred the mater to the State Bureau of Investigation. The SBI investigated and returned a recommendation to the Cleveland County District Attorney’s Office of their findings. Then, according to trusted sources, the District Attorney’s Office sent ADA Rick Shaffer to the Depot Restaurant in Lattimore to meet with the then CCS Superintendent Bruce Boyles and allegedly a Democrat School Board Member. Allegedly ADA Shaffer warned Supt. Boyles that the SBI Report had “the goods” on high level CCS employees, but NO prosecutions of anyone would occur if Supt Boyles would resign from the Superintendent position at CCS. Then Supt. Boyles announced his immediate “resignation” from CCS that was quickly modified to “retirement.” Then, within days, former CCS Superintendent Dr. Bruce Boyles was back at work at Gardner-Webb University as a Professor. No one at CCS was ever prosecuted for anything related to fraud or misuse of CCS P-Cards.
The CCS Child Nutritionist stayed at CCS and Dr. Stephen Fisher became the Superintendent at CCS and NO disciplinary actions of any kind were ever taken regarding the misuse of CCS P-Cards.
There were other source reports to Robert A and others (perhaps including then School Board Candidate Robert Queen) about the CCS Child Nutritionist making unwise purchases of various equipment, supposedly for CCS purposes, that were never delivered to CCS. That the CCS Child Nutritionist began to let CCS food preparation go downhill.
During the COVID pandemic, when schools were closed down, the CCS meal preparation dropped from 14,000 meals per day to around 2,000 meals per day that were sent out into the county for non-CCS purposes or were simply thrown away. The CCS Child Nutritionist, clearly not having to spend so much money on food, managed to spend all the budgeted school meal money as well as all the CCS reserve food money. Robert A says that he doesn’t understand, from any CCS School Board Meeting information, where any of that money ended up.
Then, the CCS Child Nutritionist began to make broad determinations that CCS food preparation equipment was “beyond its useful life” and declared surplus. And sold on Gov.Deals for almost nothing. Commercial Ovens, Refrigerators, Pots, pans, commercial mixers, grinders, slicers, etc. costing tens of thousands of dollars, some with lifetime warranties, per school were sold cheap. Reports have it that the Child Nutritionist established a commercial quality kitchen at her own home from the best of the equipment she had declared surplus from CCS.
Now, there is doubt that any CCS Lunchroom can cook any food for their students. All the food served at CCS is prepared somewhere else, trucked in and heated up. Food that is often hot on the outside but cold on the inside. Sugar filled processed food, chips and drinks that a REAL Child Nutritionist would NEVER serve growing children. This is the “slop quality” food that even the hungry children attending CCS refuse to eat that has become the scandal that has just recently been discovered and reported. By parents and others to the School Board as well as School Board Candidates.
School Board member Dr. Danny Blanton (PhD in Common Sense) was the first to raise the alarm years ago about the P-Cards, other scandals and the decline in the quality of food in CCS Cafeterias on a regular basis at School Board Meetings. But, to no avail. As the 2022 Elections, especially the dirty dealings of the Rogue Republicans during the 2022 School Board Republican Primary Election, began to bring this “slop for food” issue to the forefront, School Board Candidate Ronnie Grigg began to energetically seek solutions to the food problems at CCS.
Then Superintendent Stephen Fisher, possibly to divert public attention away from the “slop,” told the School Board that the food problems were actually from the Government’s “Free Lunch Program.” That Federal reimbursements for the Free Lunches had to be properly accounted for. Or the Federal Government would NOT reimburse CCS for the “Slop” that they were serving. Apparently to Fisher and the Rogue Republicans, everything is about the cash flow into CCS and never the best interest of the children.
At a recent School Board Meeting, Candidate Ronnie Grigg, during Citizens Participation, handed information to all the School Board members inviting them to participate in a field trip to the Greeneville County, SC School District to learn from their Child Nutritionist about how he had, by all accounts, successfully balanced the food quality issue with the Federal Reimbursement issue. A real win-win situation. Hip, Hip Hurray!!! For CCS School Board Candidate Ronnie Grigg for being proactive and using his common sense. Another PhD award goes to Dr. Ronnie Grigg for his common sense. Dr. Danny Blanton and Dr. Ronnie Grigg are about to rescue CCS from itself. Right!!! Right???
Not yet anyway. Corruption runs deep at CCS and amongst the Rogue Republican.
Rogue Republican Dennis Bailey allegedly is sitting at home watching this School Board meeting (as usual), electronically “hooked” to CCS School Board Chairman Luke Queen. When Bailey sees his Pal in Corruption, Robert “Luke” Queen losing control of the situation, Bailey quickly sends Luke a text message instructing Queen to immediately call CCS Superintendent Stephen Fisher to the Podium to refute Dr. Grigg and Dr. Blanton’s idea of travelling to Greeneville, SC to see what they do regarding their food services, child nutrition and Federal Reimbursement. Bailey’s electronic connection with Queen during school board meetings has been “discovered” for a while, but kept quiet until the proper moment to expose their corrupt conspiracy. And NOW they are exposed.
Luke calls Fisher to the Podium like a good little boy and turns the discussion over to Fisher, who was NOT up to the task. Fisher goes into his fast-talking mode, stupidly saying that “what they do in the Greeneville County SC School District doesn’t matter. They are in South Carolina and we are in North Carolina. This is Federal Law, so what they do doesn’t matter to us.”
Robert A is sitting right there in the front row wondering if Supt. Fisher has lost his mind// Sure, Greeneville, SC is in South Carolina and Cleveland County is in North Carolina. But both are in the United States of America and Federal Law applies equally in all 50 States. Basic stuff that a every school superintendent in America should immediately recognize as being not only true, but the law of the land. Robert A figures Supt. Fisher’s fast mouth has just overloaded his slow mind and will tell this story soon enough. Like now!
But, Fisher’s fatally flawed logic was good enough for Luke Queen, Ron Humphries, Joel Shores, Greg Taylor, Rodney Fitch and the other Rogue Republicans. They saw no need to go to Greeneville for any such learning session. Ignorance is Bliss for that crowd.
But, NOT for Dr. Ronnie Grigg and Dr. Danny Blanton. They plan to recruit a few others and make that important trip. Perhaps Robert A will also volunteer, if there is enough room in the vehicle or vehicles.
But folks, the corruption runs deep at CCS and with the Rogue Republicans. The Rogues don’t want anybody going anywhere and learning anything that will undermine their authority. Word has gotten back to Robert A that Superintendent Fisher, probably at Dennis Bailey’s and Luke Queen’s direction, has called ahead to the Greeneville County School District Superintendent, bypassing the Child Nutritionist, bad-mouthing Drs. Blanton and Grigg, to such an extent that the Greeneville County School Supt. doesn’t want to get involved with anybody else’s political conflict with their school board. And what is telling about this is the Greeneville County school superintendent has now stated, through HIS Nutritionist, that he wants CCS Superintendent Fisher to send a written message to the Greenville County Schools Superintendent to provide CCS Supt. Fisher’s permission for CCS School Board Member Dr. Danny Blanton to attend this learning session at Greeneville County Schools. Such stupidity surely has risen due to Fisher and Queen’s efforts to spoil the trip for Blanton, Grigg and others to GCS to carry back first-hand information on how others solve problems. So, the lid can be held down on good ideas being passed along to CCS. Ideas that belong to Dr. Ronnie Grigg and Dr. Danny Blanton. Ideas that the Rogue Republicans do NOT want the voters in the 2022 Elections to know about.
Folks, remember the NC State Motto? Esse Quam Verderi. “To Be rather than to seem!”
The Rogue Republicans and CCS Superintendent Stephen Fisher want to change that “To seem rather than to Be”
Think about that when YOU are marking your 2022 Ballot for the Cleveland County School Board. Mark YOUR ballot for Danny Blanton and Ronnie Grigg ONLY. That will be Yours and my way of symbolically “flipping the Bird” to the Rogue Republicans. Also VOTE NO to the Sales Tax increase referendum. Flip two “Birds” to the lying tax and spend nitwit Rogue Republicans. All at the same time. YOU will be glad that you did!!!
Also, Stay tuned for Robert A’s discussion on how HE would handle the Rogue School Board Republicans if HE were elected a Cleveland County Commissioner in 2024. Robert A believes most Cleveland County citizens would approve of such common sense, innovative and economical actions.