The newest Guilford member of the County Board of Education, Bill Goebel, who was appointed to represent District 3 on April 4, has been censured by the Guilford County Republican Party.

The Guilford County Republican Party Executive Committee had nominated Michael Logan to fill the District 3 seat, which was left vacant when former District 3 school board member Pat Tillman was elected to represent District 3 on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. Logan’s appointment had been voted down by the school board but the state legislature had passed a new state law making that vote unnecessary.

Logan attended the meeting, Bible in hand, expecting to be sworn into office.  Instead, all six Democrats on the school board voted to appoint Goebel to the seat citing a technicality in the new state law that allowed the Democrats on the school board, not the Guilford County Republican Party, to fill the vacancy.

Chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party Chris Meadows issued a press release on Thursday, April 13 that states, “In response to the actions of Mr. Goebel’s backroom dealings, the GCGOP Executive Committee affirmed its continued support of Michael Logan and also passed a resolution on April 11, 2023, censuring Mr. Goebel for Party disloyalty, deceiving Party leadership and circumventing the proper avenues for filling a vacancy on the Guilford County Board of Education.”

The press release also states, “In regards to the Tuesday, April 4th Guilford County Board of Education meeting, Michael Logan was not seated because of extremely partisan politics.  Michael Logan has the support of the Guilford County Republican Party (GCGOP) which followed the rules of the new law and the previous law pertaining to filling vacancies on county boards.  Mr. Logan is immensely qualified to serve on the GC Board of Education and was duly elected by members of the GCGOP Executive Committee as outlined in the rules set forth.  The Democrat led school board got a registered Republican, Bill Goebel, on the Board that immediately voted with the Democrats in opposition to the Equality in Education bill, HB 187, which is designed to protect the best interests of our school aged children.

“The School Board’s attorney cherry-picked portions of the new statute and ignored the bulk of the new statute, including the portion stating that the School Board shall consult with the Executive Committee on nominations.  The GCGOP did not receive any responses from the Board when contacted about the District 3 vacancy.  The GCGOP did not know in advance that the events of Tuesday night were going to occur.  We were told through intermediaries that a judge was going to be present to perform the swearing in.  The Superintendent allowed the two elected Republicans on the School Board to be misled and kept in the dark by not informing them of what was going to transpire.  The Superintendent must have known what was going to occur because her Chief of Staff was intimately involved in the events that occurred according to the public comments of the Board’s pick to be seated, Bill Goebel, which were aired on the local TV stations.  A majority of the School Board’s members and their attorney conducted public business in private, non-disclosed meetings without informing all Board members, namely the Republican members.  This school board is demonstrating every day that they are not acting in the best interest of our school-aged children who are forced to attend failing schools run by a Board that cares more about what political party has a majority than if our children can read, write and count.”