The score when the game was over on Sept. 19 was Guilford County Republican Party 1 – Guilford County Board of Education 0.
Politics is a lot like sports. It doesn’t matter what the score is at the end of the half or even with 10 seconds left in the game. What matters, what goes down in the record books, is the score at the end of the game.
The Guilford County Board of Education won the first couple rounds in its battle with the Guilford County Republican Party over who got to choose the District 3 school board member, but it lost the game.
The Guilford County GOP refused to fold. Much to their credit, the Executive Committee of the Guilford County Republican Party continued to nominate Michael Logan, who, after nine months of waiting, is now the District 3 member of the Guilford County Board of Education.
If the Guilford County school board had been smart – or if it had more concern for education and less concern for partisan politics – it would have accepted Logan. Boards and commissions across the state for decades have been faced with similar situations – where the majority on the board didn’t like the nominee of the county political party. But since the board had no authority to name a nominee, they simply accepted the nominee of the party.
But the Guilford County school board decided to play hardball politics and, in the end, went down to defeat.
The school board had many opportunities to put an end the political machinations but chose to allow itself to continue to be distracted by a political issue that had nothing at all to do with education.
Before Logan was seated on Sept. 19, the Democrats had a 6-3 majority on the board. Now the Democrats have a 6-3 majority. So what was achieved by the recalcitrant school board? A lot of time that could have been spent on education was wasted. And not only did the school board waste its own time, it forced the North Carolina legislature to waste some of its time.
Clearly the intent of the state law passed in March was to take away the right of the school board to vote on the nominee of the Republican Party. The school board could have admitted defeat at that point. It was fighting against the state legislature, which has the authority to abolish the entire Guilford County Board of Education.
Instead, the school board found a legally defensible way to thwart the will of the legislature and appointed Bill Goebel, a registered Republican, to the school board in April, instead of Logan. That appointment may or may not have held up in court, but it clearly violated the intent of the legislation.
So the state legislature went back to the drawing board and wrote a new bill. When that became law on Aug. 17, Goebel was removed from the school board and, according to the law, whomever the Guilford County Republican Party Executive Committee nominated had to take the oath of office at the next regular meeting of the school board, which was Sept. 19.
But even then the school board was not able to admit defeat. Chair of the Guilford County Board of Education Deena Hayes went through the charade of reading the letter of resignation from Goebel at that meeting.
If Goebel had actually resigned at the Sept. 19 meeting, the Guilford County Republican Party Executive Committee, according to state law, would have had to nominate a replacement within 30 days, and that replacement would then take the oath of office at the next school board meeting. However, the Guilford County Republican Party Executive Committee had nominated Logan on Aug. 30. There is nothing in the law that allows a political party to pre-nominate a candidate in case there is a vacancy. According to the law, the party has 30 days after the vacancy occurs to make the nomination.
Seating Logan on the school board recognizes that Goebel was removed from the school board on Aug. 17. Any Guilford County Board of Education documents that portray Goebel as a school board member after that date should be corrected, but it is doubtful they will be.
What did the Democratic majority on the Guilford County Board of Education learn from this nine month long political distraction? Judging from their comments at the Sept. 19 meeting: nothing.
Good article John…and the education of Guilford County students continues to slide down the toilet.
Not when compared to Rockingham Surry Davidson alamance and Randolph!
It’s all about indoctrinating our children, not about education. The Board, just like our Democrat govt in the White house, etc., will do everything they can think of to entrench themselves in power.
Lol, like the Republicans don’t do everything they can to entrench themselves in power. Heck they even tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Even in this case, the republicans had the State legislature get involved in local politics over a single seat on a school board. What a joke. Both side love power equally.
Schools don’t indoctrinate you children…they just refuse to promote the bigotry and hate that republicans want promoted against LGBTQ community etc…
Lol, like the Democrats don’t do everything they can to entrench themselves in power?
It works both ways Chris, but am sure you know that, just don’t want to admit it.
You are right. I am a little off target. It is politicians of all stripes that are mostly in it for themselves.
Democrats do control school boards all over the country, including ours. They do teach children what to think, not how to think.
Are Wellborn and Pratt still suing their fellow board members?
Yes our suit is still in progress.
Goebel’s resignation put an acceptable end to any action the school board may have wanted to take. The problem with the school board is its members, especially Deena Hayes. She has been on the board for over 20 years. We need term limits for school boards as we do for all elected offices. Hayes filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections against a nonprofit called “Take Back Our Schools,” (TBOS) which, among other things, opposed the bond referendum on the Nov 2022 ballot. Hayes alleged that TBOS was 501(c)(3), which it was not, and could not engage in political activity. The NAACP was a 501(c)3 at the time. Did you hear any political rhetoric come from the NAACP, which Deena Hayes is a member of? TBOS was a 501(c)(4). Hayes filed this complaint to stop any opposition to the bond. The NC legislature should remove the entire school board, but would this stop voters from electing unpalatable candidates? No. The demographics are such that the majority of voters are uninformed and petty.
Or we won we won the demographic war and we won the power struggle. Have more babies or convince more people to move to Guilford County. Unless your going to be proactive you’re just pouting!
People who gravitate to the political Left are generally spiteful, petty, and proud. They have convinced themselves of their own moral superiority, if only because they adhere to the political faction that “cares”. This gives them free rein to indulge their baser urges, namely prejudice and hatred. And – of course – in a sterling example of projection, they accuse their political opponents of their own vices.
Leftists are almost always odious people, even if you have to wait awhile to see their true colours.
There is no one on this earth who is either right or wrong, all the time.