BJ Murphy: LCPS Chairman Bruce Hill Admonishes Parents for Contacting Him
At the September 13th Lenoir County Public Schools board meeting, Chairman Bruce Hill admonished the public on when it’s appropriate to contact a school board member. He cited a chain of command, the need to go straight to the source, and emphasized the school board’s primary goal is to be policymakers.
Lest he forgets, each school board member is elected by the citizens to represent their interest in all matters concerning public education. The school board is not appointed by the North Carolina General Assembly, Governor, or the school administration. Therefore, at its core, the school board’s job is not to be policymakers but to represent the people. And I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that probably means taking phone calls, getting emails, and being stopped in the grocery store by citizens who elected you to represent them.
Now, I’ll give Mr. Hill some benefit of the doubt in that his admonition attempt may have been to better educate the public on how they conduct their business. He cited getting emails from parents, then forwarding them to staff, etc. Yes, that is customary in a system where you have professional staff carrying out the policy orders on a daily basis as directed by the board.
However, Mr. Hill seemingly chastises parents, guardians, and stakeholders for attempting in any type of way to hold school board members accountable. In an eye-opening statement, Mr. Hill says about the school board, “[we] aren’t as versed in education” and “we as board members we don’t know what goes on at the schools.”
During Mr. Hill’s campaign last year, he touted hundreds of hours of school board training he’s received. His peers thought enough of him to elect him to chair the board. However, it escapes me that someone with this many years of experience in school board representation would argue that parents, guardians, and stakeholders should not contact him for answers on education, but rather bog down teachers, principals, and school administrators.
I’ll say this plainly: if you don’t know what’s going on at the schools and you only get that information from monthly virtual or in-person meetings, then it’s past time to put your own “boots on the ground” and visit the schools on a regular basis, or let someone else have your seat.
What is your purpose if not to be the conduit between the parents and the school system? Why are you not in the schools more often? Why do you feel compelled to admonish parents for sending you emails, contacting you, and asking you for answers?
As someone who chaired a board for eight years and made myself more available than most public officials, I can attest that many times the questions were not as important as matters of public policy. But I can tell you that the only reason someone took the time to reach out to me was that the issue was important for them. And, therefore, it always became a top priority for me.
The least you can do is listen, try to get an answer, then follow up. The worst you can do is to tell people, instruct people, or almost command people not to bother you with their concerns.
Mr. Hill, you can do better. At times like these when there are more questions than answers, all elected officials should be inviting the public’s feedback, not shunning them for inquiring.
Otherwise, the board seems to be mighty complacent behind computer monitors with an electorate that seems miles away.
We are here. We are watching. And I’m encouraging all parents in Lenoir County Schools to reach out to you for more answers. Your contact information is below.
To contact the LCPS board members, their information is below as provided by the Lenoir County Public School System.
https://www.lcpsnc.org/domain/58
Bruce Hill, Chair
2541 Birch Circle
Kinston, NC 28504
252.522.5917 (home)
bhill@lenoir.k12.nc.us
District At-Large, Term Expires: 11/30/24W. D. Anderson, Vice Chair
607 Girl Scout Road
Kinston, NC 28501
252.527.0020 (h)
andersonwda@lenoir.k12.nc.us
District 5, Term Expires: 11/30/22Keith King
2172 Hardy Bridge Road
La Grange, NC 28551
252.566.5655 (h)
252.468.5654 (c)
keithking@lenoir.k12.nc.us
District 2, Term Expires: 11/30/22Merwyn K. Smith
P.O. Box 451
La Grange, NC 28551
252.582.3163 (home)
msmith@lenoir.k12.nc.us
District At-Large, Term Expires: 11/30/24Billy Davis
1361 H. B. Smith Road
Kinston, NC 28504
252.523.2168 (h)
bdavis@lenoir.k12.nc.us
District 1, Term Expires: 11/30/22Elijah Woods
1803 Haskett Road
Kinston, NC 28501
252.527.1067 (h)
ewoods@lenoir.k12.nc.us
District 4, Term Expires: 11/30/24Dr. Kimberly Outlaw
PO Box 894
Kinston NC 28502
252.702.7488
koutlaw@lenoir.k12.nc.us
District 3, Term Expires: 11/30/24
Secretary to the Board:M. Brent Williams, Superintendent
Lenoir County Public Schools
P. O. Box 729
Kinston, NC 28502-0729
252.527.1109 (office)
252.527.6884 (fax)
bwilliams@lenoir.k12.nc.us
Watch Mr. Hill’s comments for yourself: https://youtu.be/Xv_ZWQnHsUE?t=4414
Chairman Bruce Hill’s remarks beginning at 1:13:35:
“I would like to take an opportunity at this point if I may. If you are a parent or a grandparent or a concerned citizen or a stakeholder and you got a concern, you got an issue. So, I’m not trying to belittle anyone or disrespect. But you see these seven board members sitting up here. Our primary goal is to be policymakers. We got. So we really don’t know so Mr. Anderson does because he’s an ex-school person. Mr. Merwyn is an ex-school person. Mr. Davis does.
“But, the rest of us aren’t as versed in education. If you have an issue or a concern go straight to the source. If you come to one of us. I will tell you if you send me an email I’m going to forward it to the administration because they are the ones that are the boots on the ground. They know what's going on, they know what's happening, they know what the protocols are, they know what has and hadn’t been done. If will you go straight to the source I think you’ll find you’ll get a lot faster question or answer to your question.
“Certainly, there's nothing that says you can’t contact a board member and we all welcome that. But the majority of the time if you ask me a question about what's going on in any specific school I will not know. I am not at that school. I’m not an educator. I’m not a principal. I’m not a teacher in the classroom. So if you’ll go straight to the source, go to the teacher, go to the principal, go to the administration. Then if you can’t get the satisfaction to the answer to the questions that you’re asking, then certainly contact a board member and the board member certainly will follow up.
“But we as board members we don’t know what goes on at the schools. Obviously, we find out at board meetings as they give us updates on information all during the month. We get correspondence from legislators, from different education people. But the people in the office, the people in the classroom, the people in the building, the people in the administration, they know how to answer your question. They can answer those questions for you. So I would encourage you, if you have a question or if you have a concern, and you feel like you need some answers, no matter what it is. Please, I don’t like to say it like this, but it’s like a chain of command. Start with the principals, the teachers, the principals, and move right on up until you get a satisfactory answer.”