Wayne Week — June 2, 2024

WEEK Wayne REPORT: North Carolina public schools are increasingly segregated

Wayne County Public Schools has, by definition, four schools that are “intensely segregated schools of color.” All of them are inner-city campuses.

BY KEN FINE

Wayne County Commission Chairman defends budget as school district's funding ask was largely ignored.

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JUNE 2, 202 4

CONTENTS

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Board chairman defends budget

EDITORIAL

EDITOR Ken Fine

EDITOR Renee Carey

DESIGN DIRECTOR Shan Stumpf

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Casey Mozingo

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OFFICE

219 N. John Street

Goldsboro, N.C. 27530 919 - 648-9905

Wayne County Public Schools asked for an increase in funding from the county government to address teacher retention and what WCPS leaders characterized as critical facilities needs. The request was largely ignored in the county's budget, but board Chairman Chris Gurley said commissioners did the best they could with the money they had to work with.

7 State auditors visit Mount Olive

According to several sources inside Town Hall, officials from the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor showed up just before the Memorial Day weekend to conduct interviews and request documents amid an investigation into allegations made by an unnamed whistleblower.

10

Council scrutinizes budget

During a budget work session held May 28 inside City Hall, several members of the Goldsboro City Council scrutinized certain proposed expenditures they believe could, if removed from the spending plan, lower the city's proposed 15-cent property tax increase.

14 Cover story

A study conducted by academics from North Carolina State University and UCLA says data proves that N.C. public schools are becoming increasingly segregated. Wayne County Public Schools has four campuses that fall into that category.

20 Spectator

Hundreds of members of Dillard/Goldsboro Alumni and Friends came home to Wayne County during the Memorial Day weekend for a few days of fellowship, a parade, and to award scholarships to local high school students.

NEWS + VIEWS Commission chairman defends budget

Chris Gurley said the county gave Wayne County Public Schools all it could afford.

BY RENEE CAREY

The Wayne County Board of Commissioners’ recommended budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year does not include the more than $5 million in increases that Wayne County Public Schools officials have said they need to improve local schools — including a million-dollar request for an increase in teacher supplements district officials say they must have to attract and to keep quality personnel in the classrooms amid a national teacher shortage.

But Commission Chairman Chris Gurley said the county’s spending plan includes what the county can afford — and reflects not only an increase in direct operational spending of more than $500,000, but also other funds the county contributes to schools, like the employment of school resource officers, which will require a substantial increase this year, and contributions to the costs of construction of new schools.

Gurley said the agreement in place with the schools includes a 2-percent annual increase in funding for direct operational expenses — which would have brought in an additional $411,125 to the district’s coffers.

Instead, the commission budgeted $987,000.

(Two million dollars is also allotted for capital outlay.)

The other requests — for additional funds for teacher supplements, as well as several additional million dollars for capital projects are not funded in the current budget proposal.

Gurley said he does not want to turn the budget talks into a blame-throwing battle with the schools, adding that such conflicts are common in the state.

“We aren’t here to grandstand and say, ‘We have done this and that,’” Gurley said. “I have talked to some state officials who have said that in every county in the state, if you ask the school districts, they are going to say their county commissioners don’t fund them enough.”

But having that argument is not going to get the county anywhere, he added.

“I am not interested in getting into all this finger-pointing,” he said. “Let’s get together and get it done — what we need to do and what we can do.”

And therein lies the problem, Gurley said. The county does not just have the schools to think about.

“We have to get our sewer system fixed,”

he said. “That directly affects economic development and farmland preservation.”

And covering those expenses comes with a cost, as this year’s budget includes a 2.5-cent tax increase proposal.

This fiscal year, for example, the county finalized projects like the Carey Winders Detention Center, the combined Health and Human Services building, the Northern Wayne County Library, Highway 117 campus, two shell buildings, the Ivey Road project in Park East, the Goldsboro Industrial Campus, and Fremont Elementary School.

The county also has begun improvements on the property adjacent to the Combined Health and Human Services building for future county office space and completed the acquisition of the final non-county-owned hangar at the Wayne County Jetport.

A new peak-time EMS was added to Station 6 to “better-serve the needs of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base,” and $1.42 million in “unbudgeted dollars” was appropriated for the CITE building at Wayne Community College.

It is expenditures like those that residents don’t realize come from county funds, the commission chairman said.

“We also support the operation of Wayne Community College,” Gurley said, adding that the budget proposal includes $200,000 in increased funding for WCC.

Increased costs brought on, in part, Gurley said, by free-flowing federal COVID money, also have been a strain as the county works to complete a mandated jail construction and a new health and human services building.

When the money started to flow after COVID, Gurley said, construction and materials’ costs shot through the roof, making projects much more expensive.

All of those factors, as well as increased employment costs, are putting a strain on the county budget.

“There just isn’t enough money,” Gurley said. “We can’t do but so much.”

Even with those increased costs, Gurley said the county gave the school district $2 million in capital outlay — not the increase of $4 million requested.

But Gurley said that there is still some money in the capital outlay fund that has not been spent, and the county is waiting for a request from the school district to disburse it.

“They did not need it because they had all those ESSER (COVID) funds,” Gurley said.

And there are other expenses, too, that the county covers — in the operation and maintenance of buildings, which are required. Those expenses, he said, add up.

“It is like a divorce,” Gurley said. “The school system picks the designer, the contractor, and sends us the bill.”

He added that the Needs Based Assessment grants, which have funded recent school projects including Meadow Lane, Fremont and most recently, Rosewood, have made much of the county construction possible.

“It is not like we have sat on our hands and not done anything,” he said.

But Gurley did acknowledge that past inaction by both county and school district leadership is one reason why there is so much to do now.

“I wish previous boards would have done more,” he said.

Gurley said in preparation for the budget, county leaders scoured the budget plan, and found more than $8 million in potential cuts, but even with that frugality, there was no way to meet the budget needs.

“We tried to look for a way to do it without raising taxes — and we just couldn’t,” he said.

To balance the budget, the plan for the next fiscal year includes taking $4.6 million out of the county’s General Fund’s unassigned fund balance. Another $3.6 million is slated to come from the fund balance as part of capital spending.

So, when it comes to extras like an additional $1 million for teacher supplements, Gurley said, the board considered other factors.

“Do we need to pay our teachers more? Yes,” he said. “And we think the state needs to step up. But I think there is more to it than just the dollars and cents. Most people do not go into it for the money. They want to make a difference.”

So, there are other factors that figure into keeping the best teachers here in Wayne County, Gurley said, like improving discipline, performance, and working conditions, efforts he says Superintendent Dr. Marc Whichard seems to be attacking vigorously.

“If you look at what he says and what he has done, it looks like he is getting the job done,” Gurley said.

But in the meantime, the district is losing students, he said, and is inching closer to falling below the 17,000 average daily attendance mark, which triggers the loss of low-wealth funding that is a critical part of its budget.

“How much is it going to cost the county taxpayers if they go below that?” Gurley asked.

Gurley admitted that one of the strains on the county budget is the increased costs of keeping county employees in Wayne, and fending off offers of higher salaries from Wake and Johnston counties.

“They were killing us,” he said. When asked if the same concerns applied to the school district as it attempts to keep its employees from jumping ship to higher-paying districts, Gurley said the bottom line is simple — the county needs more support for teacher salaries from the state. Local resources, he said, are stretched too thin as it is.

“There is only so much money,” said.

But Gurley added that like the federal money that flooded the country over the last three years, asking for more funds becomes a dependence that comes back to bite the recipient.

Now that the ESSER funds are disappearing, Continued on page 6

Chairman Chris Gurley

with most going away in September, county governments and school districts are left with the challenge of deciding what to do next.

“I was against all those federal dollars,” he said. “It isn’t how we should do things. You can’t just pick up the phone and call Raleigh every time. There comes a time when you have to fix your own issues.”

And county residents are struggling, too — with increased insurance costs and problems that have been sparked by the recent escalation in home prices, not just in Wayne County, but all over the country.

“This mess with the real estate market has sparked bidding wars on houses, so they are selling for way more than their assessed values,” Gurley said.

And, when a home sells at more than 115 percent of its assessed value, in the state of North Carolina, a revaluation is required.

And when that happens, tax rates go up, insurance costs go up — in some cases, way up — and everything from land and construction costs head skyward, too.

“It is going to affect everyone,” he said. And the county is not immune to the cost increases either.

The construction of the Rosewood Elementary complex in particular is going to “cost way more than the Needs-Based

Assessment grant,” Gurley added.

“That influx of federal funds has got people thinking we can do this and that,” he said. “But it is going to be sticker shock when the bills come in. All those funds have driven construction costs out of sight. Everyone thinks that the county gets a deal when it does a big project. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The last thing we get is a deal.”

Gurley added that calls for the county to use its healthy fund balance to add more funding to the schools’ coffers is also counterproductive.

He said the county is required to keep a certain percentage of operating expenses in the fund in case of an emergency.

And having those funds in reserve also helps with the county’s bond rating, which Gurley said is equivalent to a credit rating.

“We have got a good bond rating, which gives us the opportunity to borrow money at good rates,” he said.

Gurley added that the county will be discussing the budget in public hearings and in public sessions before it is final.

The county board meets the first and third Tuesday of the month beginning at 9 a.m., with a briefing set before the meeting at 8 a.m.

The commission’s public hearing on the budget is set for June 4.

Wayne County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Marc Whichard releases statement concerning budget

Wayne County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Marc Whichard offered his thoughts on the Wayne County Manager’s recommended budget in statement form. His thoughts have not been edited:

general operating budget. While this added $576,540.00 being recommended by the County Manager would make our local County appropriation for general operations more than what we have previously received, the added funds still fall short of the Board of Education’s approved budget request for $1,484,213.00 in new County appropriations — a $907,673.00 difference.

Dr. Marc Whichard

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“We have reviewed the Wayne County Manager’s Recommended Budget, which reflects his priorities for how local funds should be spent for our schools and across the various areas under the County Commissioners’ purview. As someone who has successfully forged partnerships with county leaders in past roles I’ve held, I do recognize the weight that our own County leadership carries through its responsibilities in serving the residents of Wayne County. It is especially important to note that neither myself or the Board of Education takes the funding needs for other areas of the county lightly in our budget request.

Early in this year’s budgetary process, I presented twice to the Board of Commissioners the financial needs of our schools and our district. As part of these two public presentations, I highlighted our capital needs, the need for increased teacher supplements to be competitive with neighboring counties in recruiting and retaining teachers, and the impact of inflation and rising operation costs in maintaining and improving older schools and campuses. In considering the challenges our County Commissioners may have in fully funding my budgetary requests made at that time, I significantly scaled back my requests within my recommended budget that was approved by the Board of Education in May.

In reviewing the County Manager’s Recommended Budget, I did find some key funding differences between our two budgets. For instance, both budgets include the agreed upon annual 2% increase in the County appropriation for our general operating budget ($411,125.00). However, in addition to the 2% increase, the County Manager’s budget recommendation does include an additional 2+% in new funding equaling $987,665.00 for the

Additionally, the Board of Education approved a $2,500,000.00 Capital Outlay budget request to keep funding levels in the same place it has been for the past three years in order to help continue chipping away at deferred maintenance needs for our schools and to address other capital expenses in the coming year. The County Manager’s Recommended Budget has a $500,000.00 decrease in Capital Outlay funds, bringing next year’s Capital Outlay funding level back to where it was four years ago. All together, there’s a $1,407,673.00 difference in what has been requested by the Board of Education and what is now being recommended by the County Manager to allocate to WCPS for general operating expenses and capital outlay. With greater efforts made around transparency and our schools, I believe the public is paying even closer attention to this year’s budgetary process than ever before. As such, I plan to discuss the County Manager’s Recommended Budget with our Board on June 3 at its monthly meeting. What I will need Board members, the public, and our stakeholders to understand is that if the County Manager’s budget is approved by the Board of Commissioners as recommended, Wayne County Public Schools and the Wayne County Board of Education will have to cut $1.4 million from an already conservative budget for next year. That is significant and any cuts would ultimately impact our schools, our students, our staff, and our families. It is my plan to share potential options that the Board can consider, and take direction from Board members as to their next steps with regards to the County Manager’s Recommended Budget.”

Superintendent

Keen Plumbing Co.

Is the Mount Olive investigation heating up?

According to several sources inside Town Hall, state auditors came to town to conduct interviews — and request documents.

BY KEN FINE

Less than six weeks after the Town of Mount Olive was notified by the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor that it was under investigation, state officials have begun conducting interviews and pulling documents as part of the inquiry.

Several sources who requested anonymity to avoid potential retaliation for speaking to Wayne Week said auditors came to Mount Olive just before the Memorial Day weekend to gather information.

And while it remains unclear how long it will take for the NCOSA to complete its investigation, the office has seemingly laid out what it is looking into.

In an email sent to Town Manager Jammie Royall Dec. 20, which was obtained by Wayne Week via a confidential source, Staff Auditor Jenna Murphy wrote that NCOSA had received “allegations of improper conduct” regarding the town.

“North Carolina General Statute 147-64.6 (d) states that all ‘…audit work papers and related supportive material are confidential…’ We consider the complaints received into our office to be related to supportive materials, and therefore are confidential and not to be shared,” Gleason replied. “That is why we can’t share specifics of the complaint. Further, N.C.G.S. 147-64.6B (a) states ‘Individuals who make a report under this section may choose to remain anonymous until the individual affirmatively consents to having his or her identity disclosed.’ Therefore, we can’t disclose the complainant or anything that could possibly identify the complainant.”

Auditors came to Mount Olive just before the Memorial Day weekend to gather information.

“I am an investigator with the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor. OSA investigates allegations of improper governmental conduct by state agencies or state employees within our statutory authority,” the email reads. “OSA received allegations regarding the Town of Mount Olive.”

Murphy then requested a series of documents to “assist with the triage of the allegations.”

They include:

The town’s personnel policy.

The town’s secondary employment policy.

The town’s procurement policy.

All open and closed board minutes from June 1, 2020, to the present.

All of William Carroll Turner’s contract(s) of employment entered into between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2023.

All documents pertaining to the sidewalk construction performed on Church Street in 2022.

And based on a second email obtained by Wayne Week, it appears Turner, the Town Attorney whose name appears in the aforementioned list, responded by requesting specifics from the complaint — an ask that was denied by Investigative Audit Director Katie Gleason.

But Gleason did tell Turner, in general terms, the scope of the NCOSA’s investigation.

“The general topics of the complaints we received are as follows: secondary employment policy violations, conflict of interest, and procurement violations,” she wrote.

A call to the NCOSA for comment has not yet been returned and a request for the official notification sent to the town from the State Auditor’s Office was not fulfilled.

But Town Clerk Sherry Davis did acknowledge in March that “a complaint had been filed by an individual” and the information requested by the NCOSA had been provided by the town.

Her response does not, however, explain why, if the town provided the information requested, auditors felt the need to travel to Mount Olive in search of documents.

This is not the first time the NCOSA has made headlines in Wayne County in recent months. Both Goldsboro and Fremont have been at the center of controversy that stemmed from damning reports sent by auditors to City Hall and Town Hall, respectively, with the latest implicating a sitting Wayne County Commissioner for her role in alleged wrongdoings during her tenure as Fremont’s Town Administrator.

Note: This is a developing story and will be followed, to its conclusion, in future editions of Wayne Week

Council members raise questions about proposed budget

Several members of the Goldsboro board scrutinized line items they believe would reduce the city's 15-cent proposed property tax increase.

BY KEN FINE

The Goldsboro City Council understands that a property tax increase has to happen in order to fund salary increases for police officers and firefighters the chiefs of both departments argue will make the city safer.

But that did not mean that

Interim City Manager Matthew Livingston's proposed 2024-25 budget would not be scrutinized when the board, a week after the spending plan was presented, met to try to figure out a way to decrease the 15-cent hike that was recommended.

Nearly every member of the council raised questions about specific line items they saw as potential cuts that could lessen the burden on local families.

The following reflect some of the highlights from that discussion:

DISTRICT 3

JAMIE TAYLOR

Councilwoman Jamie Taylor said she was concerned about the seemingly "little things" that add up.

"Sometimes, when you're at home and you're broke, you have to eat oodles of noodles," she said, before questioning everything from what she considers an excessive number of newspaper subscriptions to the $100,000 paid to the Goldsboro Housing Authority for security cameras located on the organization's properties.

"Is there any way we can see that agreement?" she asked. "I would like to see it."

MAYOR

CHARLES GAYLOR

Mayor Charles Gaylor supported some measures that could lower the impending property tax increase, but said he was not in favor of eliminating — or altering — cost-of-living salary increases for city employees.

"I do not want to impact COLAs. I do not want to impact new positions, although I do, over the course of this year, think that we need to look at our nonpublic safety authorized positions ... that, in the last decade, has grown notably," he said. "I think that this year, we need to be very strategic as we look at a salary plan for how we want to roll positions to throughout the organization."

DISTRICT 4 BRANDI MATTHEWS

Mayor Pro Tem Brandi Matthews fought for pay increases for the part-time employees she believes always get overlooked — particularly in the Parks and Recreation Department.

"There are part-time staff who have worked in that department for years that have never gotten an extra penny, an extra nickel, an extra dime," she said. "I mentioned this last year and I really would like to see (something done)."

Finance Director Catherine Gwynn said a pool of money is given to the department for part-time employees and that department would "set the rate."

DISTRICT 1 HIAWATHA JONES

Councilwoman Hiawatha Jones questioned, among other things, why city taxpayers are footing the bill for "several dinner meetings," including the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce Banquet and the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp.'s Annual Dinner.

"Does that just mean that we are paying for tickets for employees?" she asked. "What is that?"

Interim City Manager Matthew Livingston explained that tax dollars are, indeed, used to purchase tickets to those high-cost events for members of the City Council and high-ranking members of the city management team.

DISTRICT 5 BEVERLY WEEKS

Councilwoman Beverly Weeks took aim at Goldsboro Housing Authority — specifically as it relates to a $100,000 allocation to the organization for surveillance cameras.

"They are a private entity. They get grant funding. They are for profit," she said. "Please explain to me why we are using $100,000 to provide cameras for the Goldsboro Housing Authority."

Interim City Manager Matthew Livingston explained that the payment is a result of an agreement reached between GHA and the city.

Note: More on this issue will appear in a future edition of Wayne Week.

DISTRICT 2 CHRIS BOYETTE

Councilman Chris Boyette said he has been through "every page" and "every line item" in the budget.

"In doing so, I used up a half a stack of sticky notes," he said.

But "90 percent or better" of those notes, he added, were simply to gain clarity — an understanding he reached after discussions with the city management team.

"That said, I got my questions answers and got my arms around the budget," he said. "And I would agree with your comments mayor. ... I wouldn't be in favor of cutting anything on this list."

DISTRICT 6 RODERICK WHITE

Councilman Roderick White raised several concerns, including an allocation to Friends of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base when the city was already paying a lobbyist to fight for the installation on the city's behalf. "I see where we've got alloted $16,125," he said. "Why are we giving $16,000 to Friends of Seymour?"

He also noted that before signing a new contract with Crossroads Strategies, the new lobbying firm brought on board earlier this year to advocate for SJAFB, "deliverables" should be spelled out to ensure taxpayers are getting a return on their investment.

{ our TAKE }

It’s a dog whistle.

“Segregated schools” is a label that sparks reactions — and turns otherwise fair-minded individuals into outraged combatants who pick sides and argue amongst themselves as they look for someone to blame.

In fact, we hesitated to bring up the topic.

We know what happens when someone broaches this subject in Wayne County.

But then we thought about you, our readers.

You have not shirked away from some pretty tough discussions since we published our very first Wayne Week last June.

So, we decided to trust that the future of our community was more important than being right.

And we also knew that there are plenty of Monday morning quarterbacks out there in academia just chomping at the bit to offer their “educated” opinions on the how, when, and why — and plenty of unsolicited advice on how to fix it.

So, we decided to talk about the report published earlier this month after the completion of a joint study by North Carolina State University and UCLA academics.

You will find the details in our cover story, but we’ll brass tacks it for you.

A rising number of public schools in North Carolina are segregated.

And if you look at the demographics, that statement holds true right here in Goldsboro.

In our Central Attendance District, every single school is very, very “minority dominated.”

And yes, they are the lowest performing of all Wayne County public schools.

So, it’s true. They are, in effect, segregated.

But this is not the first time we have heard this analysis.

As recently as 2019, the Wayne County Board of Education commissioned Cropper GIS to do exactly the same sort of study.

About $75,000 later, the results were in: If you want to fix low-performing schools in the county, you have to start with desegregation via redistricting and, perhaps, closing and/or rebranding a couple schools.

And, of course, because that is easier said than done — and because the mere notion of diversifying innercity campuses was met with resistance from all sides — nothing was done.

And now, here we are again.

So, let’s talk.

If we are being honest, we have to admit one very important fact — there are two sides to the desegregation debate, but they both have the same end game.

They don’t want to change the composition of the Central Attendance District schools.

Many black families do not want to see their neighborhood schools close and many of their white counterparts do not want to send their children to those campuses.

Just look at the recent uproar caused by the suggestion that it might be time for a major change at Goldsboro High School.

The black community reacted — loudly — about what they saw as the inevitable closing of their school.

They called it a loss of a community touchstone — an important building to the black community — and lamented yet another abandonment of a predominately black school so, in their view, more resources could be diverted to white schools in wealthier communities.

You have heard it.

You might even understand it.

But imagine, if you will, what would happen if the lines were redrawn to force more white students to attend Goldsboro High or to bus GHS students out into the county.

The response would be the same.

We know it because we still have a copy of the community feedback provided after Cropper made recommendations that included, among other things, increasing the white population of GHS from roughly 3 percent to nearly 25 percent by redrawing district lines.

Not a single positive comment.

But here’s the thing.

Perhaps this should not be about race, segregation, or diversity.

Maybe the argument is not so, forgive the pun, black and white.

Maybe it is about change being a good thing.

Nobody can argue that the schools in the Central Attendance District are doing well.

Their test scores are abysmal, and it has been a long time since Goldsboro’s flagship school showed promise.

Attendance and discipline records are even worse.

And no, it doesn’t matter how we got here.

All this community needs to know is that our students deserve better.

So, something has to change.

It is not about, as the report detailed in our cover story would have us believe, simply dropping a few white kids into the mix to bring the test scores and graduation rates up.

That doesn’t solve the underlying problem — that too many students are leaving the Central Attendance District without the skills they need or the certainty that their futures can be more than just a small paycheck or a life in the shadows.

We have to change that.

And the first step is understanding something about environment and the role it plays in setting a course for success.

Children from failing schools get a lifelong message that they, too, are failures.

When they are surrounded by dilapidated buildings and bombarded with the knowledge that they are part of a “failing school,” they don’t aspire.

They settle into the label.

Ask anyone who has ever taught at North Drive, Dillard, or Goldsboro.

They see that play out every single day.

And adding “diverse” faces to that mix is not going to change anything for those students — even if it gets administrators off

the hook for low test scores and pulls WCPS out of “low-performing” status.

If we want to make a difference for these kids, we have to do more than that.

We have to change their view.

Creating new branding for Goldsboro High School — making it a specialized magnet school with a concentration in the arts or technical skills — offers the chance to make it a special place again.

It will bring a mix of talented young people from all backgrounds together to share in the possibilities that come when you have the space and support to dream big.

It’s not a forced integration.

People will willingly choose to send their children to a place like that.

The same is true with consolidating schools.

A larger, more diverse population raises standards for everyone — and students learn

All this community needs to know is that our students deserve better.

a little bit about the world by meeting fellow students from all kinds of backgrounds and with some unique and special stories.

And that is good for everyone.

Need proof?

Did you hear the report delivered at a recent Board of Education meeting about Wayne County’s military children — how that group was outdoing their non-military peers in the classroom by leaps and bounds?

Of course they are.

Most have a broad worldview, supportive parents, and a level of maturity that comes with being the son or daughter of someone who makes sacrifices on a daily basis for something bigger than themselves.

Students who come from those environments do better.

And we could learn from them.

They could inspire us to come up with non-traditional programming, so every Wayne County student has a chance to create a way to discover that they, too, have something to offer.

They could prompt their peers to look outside of the bubbles they have been living in

their entire lives to see that there is a great big world out there full of possibilities.

They could vouch for the fact that even without a college degree, someone can achieve the American Dream.

Have you checked recently to see what a good plumber makes? How about a skilled carpenter or a really good auto mechanic?

Military children aren’t “above” noncollege options because they see the fruits of those kind of careers every day.

See the point?

So, no, throwing money and resources at underperforming schools isn’t going to do it.

We have to change the model — and our mindset.

Just look at the money that has been spent on programming in this community. It isn’t moving the needle.

That’s because, as our parents and grandparents have told us, it is not just about the money. It is about the attitude.

So, we have a choice. We can sit back and let the old saw of “segregated schools” start the same old rants about the South and its past, or we can take charge of the problem and create a new solution.

We don’t need some never-been-to-Wayne County academic from Raleigh or Los Angeles to tell us that.

We can create a new beginning for our schools all by ourselves.

But if we are going to make a change, we have to talk about another really hard topic.

The reason so many of these children are failing, descending into a spiral of discipline problems and drug use that leads to lives that are destroyed by 22 or earlier, is because we have a lot of parents out there who are not doing their jobs.

No school can undo a rotten home life.

No teacher who sees a student for eight hours a day can reverse the abuse or neglect or bad examples they are subjected to when they get home.

Former Goldsboro Mayor Pro Tem — and GHS teacher and alum Taj Polack — told us that.

So, too, did Victoria Atkins — also a former GHS teacher and alum.

And so did Delavisha Faison, a woman who, after graduating from Goldsboro, dedicated her life to mentoring those very youth.

They told us that we have to demand more accountability from parents and to work harder to reach those students whose only role models bounce a ball, run a gang, or sell drugs on a street corner.

They told us that we have to set strong, firm limits in not just some schools, but in every school.

They told us there can be no tolerance for disrespect, misbehavior, and disruption.

And they told us that if you interfere with a fellow student’s ability to learn, or you fight

on campus, the rules and the consequences should be the same no matter who you know or what you have been through.

And they were absolutely right on all accounts.

We have to set a higher standard and expect more from all students. No more excuses, no more concessions.

We have to hold the line when we say that just barely making “improvements” is not enough.

We have to lambast those on Royall Avenue who celebrate “growth” at our failing schools — even when that “success” reflects only twenty percent of students who can read at grade level or solve a basic math problem. We have to be united in our determination that we want the best for all students.

And we cannot be afraid of being labeled or canceled because we are willing to have the tough conversations.

And by we, we mean WE.

This coalition of ours is growing and it’s because of you that changes are happening in the city and county.

So, together, let’s make another one. There is no way to just put on blinders and look away.

These failing schools affect us all. They influence property values and set the stage for more people who simply have nowhere to go.

People from all backgrounds have told us that. They are on board with setting a new course. All we have to do is to take down the walls that divide us, and to talk — really talk — about what it will take to solve the problems we face. This latest study is just another reminder that a problem we have had for generations across this country is not getting any better — that we are divided and getting more so.

But to create stronger schools that work will take more than a bunch of sanctimonious and condescending swill from yet another person who has spent not one minute in this community. So, we have to stop worrying about being right and where to put the blame.

We have to erase the battlelines.

We have to put the needs of the children of Wayne County first.

Our students — all of them, regardless of their background — will be better because of it.

Reading the data in this week’s cover story, and thinking about the implications and the solutions, well, that is how you start.

So, we challenge you to look at the results of the study with fresh eyes and an open mind.

And we urge you to accept the fact that we don’t need an “expert” to tell us what needs to happen next — or to remind us that if we show the courage it will take to, at last, have the real conversation, we can change the futures of generations of young people who might otherwise slip through the cracks.

REPORT:

North Carolina public schools are increasingly segregated

Wayne County Public Schools has, by definition, four schools that are “intensely segregated schools of color.”

All of them are innercity campuses.

BY KEN FINE

The timing of its publication was calculated — a study spearheaded by researchers at North Carolina State University and UCLA that dropped in mid-May.

And the data contained within its pages told a story — one that researchers seemed to argue began nearly 70 years to the day before their finished product began circulating throughout the world of academia.

In May 1954, the United States Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision that signaled the end of legal racial segregation in the nation’s schools and overruled the “separate but equal” doctrine affirmed by justices more than 50 years prior.

But the joint NCSU/UCLA study, “Can Our Schools Capture the Educational Gains of Diversity? North Carolina School Segregation, Alternatives and Possible Gains,” argues that North Carolina is still not living up to the spirit of Brown vs. Board of Education — that despite increasing diversity across the state, segregation is not just alive and well in the Old North State, it’s commonplace.

And according to data reported by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, Wayne County’s Central Attendance District schools are among the most “minority-dominated” in the state.

Continued on page 16

GOLDSBORO INNER-CITY SCHOOL DEMOGRAPHICS

Data provided by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction

According to the “key findings” reported by the scholars who took on the study, North Carolina’s student population has become “increasingly diverse” since 1989 — with no race representing more than 45 percent of enrollment.

But despite that fact, “patterns of segregation intensified as students of all racial groups were disproportionately enrolled in schools with same-race peers.”

“Despite having a diverse and multiracial student body, schools throughout the United States, including North Carolina, are segregated,” the report reads. “Across the nation, students are isolated in schools with peers who share their same racial background.”

And according to their research, the authors claim that what they characterize as ongoing segregation is costing students — deficits they say can be measured by everything from graduation and dropout rates to “interpersonal outcomes” and “cultural competency.”

“Segregated schools where large shares of students of color and low-income students are enrolled tend to have less experienced and less qualified teachers, higher levels of teacher turnover, and higher levels of student mobility. They also tend to have less advanced curricular offerings,” the report reads. “In terms of academic outcomes, students of

color who attend segregated schools have lower levels of academic achievement than their peers who attend integrated schools.”

The opposite, according to data collected by the scholars, is true as well, they argue.

“Desegregated schools are associated with

stereotypes and enhanced friendships among students from different racial groups.”

And those benefits pay dividends later in life, the scholars said.

“In the long term, students who attended desegrated schools are more likely to live and

Despite an increasingly diverse student body, patterns of segregation intensified as students of all racial groups were disproportionately enrolled in schools with same-race peers.

our pluralistic, democratic society.”

Tpositive academic outcomes for students of color, including higher levels of academic achievement, higher graduation rates, and lower dropout rates,” the report reads.

“Alongside academic benefits, integrated schools are also linked to positive interpersonal outcomes, such as reduction in prejudice and

work in integrated environments later in their lives and they tend to have higher status and better paying jobs, better health outcomes, and decreased likelihood of being incarcerated,” they said. “Alongside the benefits that accrue to individuals, integration is also beneficial for society as it leads to greater social cohesion in

he enrollment in “intensely segregated schools of color” is, by definition, 90 to 99 percent non-white.

Wayne County Public Schools has four of them, according to NCDPI data — Carver Heights Elementary School (91.1 percent), North Drive Elementary School (95.1 percent), Dillard Middle School (95.5 percent), and Goldsboro High School (97.4 percent).

All of those schools are located in the Central Attendance District.

All of those schools received a “D” or “F” on their latest School Report Cards.

And the recently released findings from NCSU and UCLA do not represent the first time the issue of alleged segregation in WCPS has come to the fore.

Back in 2009, the NAACP filed a Title VI complaint against the school district — claiming WCPS was engaged in “resegregation” that deprived students of rights afforded to them by the Constitution.

Several months later, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division launched an investigation which, according to its website, remains active.

And as recently as 2019, the Board of Education brought in Cropper GIS, a firm that specializes in “demographic and facility planning Continued on page 18 Continued from page 15

for K-12 school systems, cities, counties, and federal agencies,” to conduct its own study.

But when the firm, at a cost of $75,000, completed its report and presented its recommendations — which, among other things, included an increase, via redistricting, of the white population at GHS to nearly 25 percent — to a committee comprised of stakeholders and elected officials, backlash from the community was swift.

In fact, some 91 pages of negative comments were delivered to committee members, taking County Commissioner Joe Daughtery aback.

“I was really overwhelmed in regard to the negative comments. It was, I did not receive one single positive comment,” he said then. “I’m a little disheartened over the fact that the committee has spent many hours trying to arrive at a plan, only to find that when we present it to the public, my goodness, the backlash was just unbelievable.”

Some sounded off on perceived transportation woes associated with getting students from the northern end of the county to inner-city campuses.

Others were upset about the prospect of sending their children to schools with “quality” issues.

And there were even some who threatened to pull their students out of WCPS if they were “forced” to attend GHS or Dillard.

Keith Copeland, a member of the 2019 committee, said at the time that, unlike Daughtery, he was not shocked by the public’s reaction.

“I could not read through 91 pages of negative comments. What I saw in that was bias. I understand that people don’t like change, but a lot of it was about personal,

‘What I want for my child, and I don’t care about your child.’ And we can sit here in this room and pretend like that didn’t happen, but it definitely happened,” he said. “These schools were segregated a while back … and when somebody said, ‘No. You’re going to have

It is unclear if the Department of Justice will ever wrap up its investigation into WCPS, as the DOJ “does not comment on ongoing investigations.”

And it has been years since anyone — including the NAACP — has commented on

In the past three decades, the share of intensely segregated schools of color increased such that in 2021, 13.5% of the state’s public schools were intensely segregated schools of color.

to desegregate,’ nobody’s making positive comments. So why should we expect there to be positive comments when we’re talking about a change now? There are going to be people who don’t want things to change.”

They ultimately got their wish, as the board voted to pass on Cropper’s recommendations.

the complaint filed back in 2009.

But the scholars who published “Can Our Schools Capture the Educational Gains of Diversity? North Carolina School Segregation, Alternatives and Possible Gains” recommended that local school districts and state and federal officials make changes to ensure what they contend would be more positive outcomes for North Carolina students

from all backgrounds and walks of life. They include (Note: These word-for-word recommendations as they appear in the study have not been edited):

• Districts around the state should design voluntary school desegregation policies that are likely to be most effective in their local context. These policies could include implementing controlled-choice plans or multi-factor student attendance policies that include diversity goals, redrawing attendance boundary lines with diversity as a priority, developing magnet schools, pairing elementary schools, and consolidating multiple school districts within the same county.

• North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI) should offer incentives to districts and schools to desegregate through grant programming, as well as offer support to LEAs engaging in desegregation efforts.

• The state legislature should strengthen its charter school regulation by holding charter schools accountable for diverse student enrollment practices and require that charter schools offer transportation and free or reduced-price lunch to qualifying students.

• The state legislature should also strengthen the statutory language for the statewide voucher program to include civil rights protections for all students in private schools that accept vouchers, as well as require the same levels of transparency and accountability for those private schools accepting public funds.

• The federal government should increase funding for MSAP and the Fostering Diverse Schools Demonstration Grant Program to allow for more awardees.

OUR MISSION: NNECTED,

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I M P A C T T H E L I V E S O F O V E R P E O P L E

Did you know that United Way of Wayne County has been a part of the Wayne County Community for 97 years? & &

To connect our community members with programs referrals in an effort to restore education, health wellness, financial stability, and basic needs.

the SPECTATOR

Dillard, Goldsboro alumni come home

As is their tradition, hundreds of members of Dillard/Goldsboro Alumni and Friends converged on the Wayne County seat over the Memorial Day weekend for fellowship, a parade, and to award scholarships to promising high school graduates.

by Ken Fine

Photos

Kids Zone • Food Trucks

Live Entertainment Street Fair Vendors

Car & Bike Show • Static Displays

Beer Garden • And More!

Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024

AN SCAPE DESIGN OF GOLDSBORO, INC.