Burke school board wants your input

When SACS CASI put Burke County's high schools on probationary accreditation, the council's No. 1 concern was that the school board allowed "little or no public input" into proposed policies.
Some school board members intend to start fixing that problem ASAP, beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday in Heritage Middle School.
After a formal ceremony to swear in new board member Catherine Thomas and returning board members Sam Wilkinson and Buddy Armour, they and new board member Susan Stroup — plus any other current board members in attendance — will open their ears to the public. There will be an open microphone where anyone may speak.
Stroup said she hopes the board members hear lots of positive suggestions for moving the school district forward.
"We want to offer the stakeholders time to express their visions, goals and plans for the county's future," she said. "We want to let as many folks come and speak as possible. We'll listen to anything they want to speak on, but we'd like to keep folks focused on moving toward the future — how we all move forward now — and what they'd like the vision for the schools to be."
There will be no sign-up in advance, but there probably will be a sign-up sheet at the door. Stroup said there's no time limit and the board members won't cut off anyone in mid-speech, but she suggested people try to keep their remarks to about three minutes. Afterwards, and in days to come, she said people with more-detailed ideas can talk with board members individually or send them longer, more-complete presentations.
During their election campaign this past fall, Wilkinson, Stroup, Armour and Thomas — yclept "SWAT Team" from the letters of their last names — hosted frequent town hall-style meetings to hear voters' concerns about the school board, individual facilities or programs and the school district overall.
One frequent complaint they heard was that the board of education, as it formerly was constituted, wouldn't listen to the public. The school board fueled that firestorm at one meeting when board chair Tracy Norman refused to allow any public comments not specifically about items on the agenda. When Wilkinson challenged her ruling, the board voted 2-4 and refused to endorse the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement said, in its Aug. 24 letter putting the high schools on probationary accreditation, "The Burke County Public Schools board must establish and implement a collaborative process to involve stakeholder groups in the development and understanding of a systemwide vision and purpose to guide the continuous improvement process, allocation and alignment of resources, and daily actions of members of the school community."
SACS CASI's Dr. Donna James continued, "Stakeholder groups must include school and district leadership, teachers, classified staff, parents, community and business leaders, students (and) civic and governmental leaders, ensuring representation of all demographic and geographical areas of Burke County."
"Allocation of resources" may be one of the prominent topics Thursday night. Since its fiscal year started on July 1, the school board has incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in unbudgeted expenses, including buying out former School Superintendent David Burleson's contract, conducting a search for a new superintendent, dealing with SACS CASI, fighting a series of lawsuits and launching its own lawsuit against the Burke County Board of Commissioners. The school board currently faces a $240,000 bill from its special counsel, Raleigh law firm Schwartz & Shaw.
The school board budgeted $65,000 for legal expenses this year. All of that is gone.
Finance Officer Keith Lawson and Associate Superintendent Rick Sherrill have prepared a list of possible cuts in other budget areas.
Lawson believes the cuts, which are based on actual and anticipated expenses five months into the school year, can be made without reducing any salaries or eliminating any staff.
The school board probably will consider that list of proposed budget changes, as well as people's suggestions Thursday, when the full board has its regular meeting Dec. 7. The site will be announced later this week, but it probably will be in Morganton.
The incoming board members said they specifically chose Heritage Middle School in Valdese for Thursday's public forum because it's midway between Glen Alpine and Hildebran and equally convenient to people in both sides of Burke County.