Rocky Mount power grab? Nash County officials oppose state lawmakers' school board plan

Republican state lawmakers are pushing ahead with a plan to overhaul the Nash County Board of Education over opposition from the school board and leaders in Rocky Mount’s Black community who call it a plot to diminish their political power.

The proposal “is, at best, asinine,” Rev. Nehemiah Smith Jr., a Rocky Mount pastor, told state senators Wednesday. “It is born out of personal agendas and fear. … What you’re trying to do is push more marginalized communities away from being able to make decisions about their children and about their children’s education.

“You’re not concerned about education,” Smith said. “You’re only concerned about your own agenda.”

Senate Bill 248 would reduce the number of seats on the Nash County school board from 11 to seven, and would also force the school board members to be elected from the same district lines currently used to elect members of the Nash County Board of Commissioners.

It’s that second part that has members of the community upset. They say they should be in charge of drawing their own lines, not the legislature.

Nash County Sen. Lisa Stone Barnes, the bill’s lead Republican sponsor, said she thinks it’s a good change. “It’ll simplify the entire process, especially for the voters,” she said. “They don’t have to keep up with what school board district they’re in, what county commissioner district they’re in.”

The bill passed the Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee in a party-line vote Wednesday, with Republicans in favor.

Racial minorities make up a significant portion of Nash County’s population, yet the local political leadership is largely white, including most of the county commissioners.

The school board, however, is not: Six of its 11 members are Black. That board recently passed a resolution opposing this bill to make its districts align with the county commission districts. That vote was 8-3, WRAL News reported.

School board shakeup: New bill would change maps, drop number of board members for Nash Schools

Evelyn Bulluck, a longtime school board member, said they helped write an existing 2016 law that addressed another issue this bill targets, regarding students living in Edgecombe County but going to school in Nash County. Barnes and cosponsor Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, say this new bill is needed to address that same issue.

Bulluck challenged that, pointing to the 2016 law, and wondering what the true motivation of the new bill is.

“I question why this bill is before the Senate now, and why it is being rushed through with no public input,” she said. “Who from our local area asked for this bill?”

Barnes said she hadn’t heard any opposition from school parents, just local officials.

One of those local officials, however, questioned whether Barnes actually wanted to hear what local parents think. County Commissioner Gwen Wilkins, a Democrat, came to the meeting Wednesday to oppose the bill. She said she asked Barnes to hold a meeting back home about it — since the only other option is to do what Wilkins did and drive into Raleigh for a meeting in the middle of the afternoon. But not only did Barnes not schedule that meeting, Wilkins, said, she never even responded to her email.

Barnes didn’t dispute that.

But while local officials like Wilkins and Bulluck oppose the legislature being able to decide how the school board districts should be drawn, a top redistricting official, Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, defended the legislature’s desire to make that decision.

“School boards in this state have no authority not given to them by this General Assembly,” Hise said.

Senate Democrats tried objecting to the bill, led by Charlotte Sen. Natasha Marcus. She said her Republican colleagues should respect the fact that so many local officials object.

“For me, that carries some weight because these are the folks that are directly involved in what’s going to take place,” Marcus said.

Barnes pointed out she’s not an outsider to the debate, having previously served as a Nash County commissioner before joining the legislature. She was backed up by Sen. Jim Perry, R-Lenoir, who said the legislature frequently rules on how local school boards, county commissions and others should operate by passing what are called “local bills” — legislation that doesn’t go into law statewide, but rather in just one county or region.

“Whether or not it’s simple or hard, it doesn’t matter,” Perry said. “It is a local bill, and we have historically given a great deal of deference to the local lawmakers on local bills.”

Indeed, on Wednesday the same Senate elections committee passed several other local bills that were less controversial and advanced with little to no debate.