Chuck Hughes, R/SSS Board of Education
♦ In 2012, I had the honor of being elected to the R/SSS Board of Education (BOE). I soon learned that, while I am not an important man, the seat to which I was elected is. I also understand there is still much to be done to improve the quality of education in Rowan County.
BOARD POLICIES THAT I INITIATED OR TO WHICH I HAVE CONTRIBUTED
THE CENTRAL OFFICE BUILDING (COB): The time between my election in 2012 and the seating of a new board in 2014 was very frustrating. I consistently found myself on the short end of 4-3 or 5-2 votes on many issues I believed were not in R/SSS’s best interest. The most intense was the Central Office Building. Contrary to popular opinion, I never opposed a COB; what I did oppose was it being built when the school system did not have money to address the external and internal safety issues that were blatantly obvious in many of our schools. I also strongly opposed the 329 South Main site for two reasons:
1. Despite the state’s letter of “No Further Action”, building on a recently contaminated site put Rowan County tax payers at risk for Vapor Intrusion (VI) (the new “asbestos” money maker) class action suits. The threat was real based upon Greensboro legal firms’ bold warnings.
2. The promised 140 parking spaces were non-existent without robbing spaces promised to Integro, the neighboring resident on S. Main.
LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: I voted with the board to go into mediation with the County Commissioners in order to resolve capital funding issues. However, I opposed taking legal action beyond that. I believe my firm objection to this action prevented further legal action. I cannot reveal the reasons for this belief since most of the discussions were protected by the privilege of closed session (something else I objected to).
USE OF FUND BALANCE BEFORE ASKING FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDING: I argued that the board should use its fund balance for financial needs, especially safety needs, BEFORE asking the County Commissions for funding.
SEXUAL ORIENTED CLUBS: When a group promoting sexual orientated clubs threatened legal action against the board in 2014, I seconded the motion to change BOE policy to, “exclude clubs or organizations designed to address issues of sexual orientation or attempts to promote, influence, encourage or discourage any form of sexual orientation or behavior.” Unfortunately, the motion failed 5-2.
OWN YOUR VOTE: In an attempt to ensure members owned their votes, votes that in the past had been noted in the minutes by numbers for and against only, I made a motion that ALL votes be recorded by name in the minutes. The vote failed, but with the seating of a new board in 2014, I repeated the motion and it passed.
PROPERTY SWAPS LEADING UP TO THE CENTRAL OFFICE BUILDING’S SITE: I voted against exchanging R/SSS’s administrative property on Ellis Street for privately owned property on the 400 block of N. Main. My concern was that we were trading property that might be of future greater value to R/SSS if Southern/Norfolk decided to expand the Shober Bridge.
VIDEO TAPING – AT LAST: During the years from my election in 2012 to 2015, I lobbied for all board meetings to be videotaped and put on our website, http://www.rss.k12.nc.us. After years of persistence, the meetings are now available for viewing.
SCHOOL SAFETY: From the beginning of my term, I lobbied for school safety issues, internal and external in nature.
ISSUES I WILL STRONGLY PURSUE IF RE-ELECTED IN 2016:
FREE SCHOOL CHOICE: I believe every parent should have control over which school is the best fit for their child. I strongly support expanding this option to ALL of our schools.
DISRUPTIVE CLASSROOMS: The teacher cannot be a surrogate parent, control repetitive disruptions and be a productive teacher at the same time. It is also an injustice to the child who constantly disrupts the classroom at the expense of the other students, to keep him or her in the standard classroom. The Restorative Classroom does not just WAREHOUSE the student; it also works with the student in a manner that mediates the behavior while continuing the child’s education needs. I believe we should eventually have several Restorative Classrooms in both elementary and middle schools.
SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION: The most controversial issue to come to the board since my election was the issue of school consolidation. Although it was not a popular vote, I supported building a new Western Elementary
School to replace Woodleaf and Cleveland Elementary schools. I voted for this because I believed a consolidated elemenatary was in the best interests of the children and the county as whole. However, I never supported the controversial “option 1” to close six elementary schools.
With the 2016 election cycle just around the corner, I ask you to give me the honor of continuing to advocate for our students as a member of your Board of Education for another four years.
