A Thousand Words

Hi. My name is Susan Evans - School Board member for District 8. I'm the one on the right. I'm with my fellow Board member, Christine Kushner. She's the one on the left. 

Who is that in the middle, you ask? That's one of the leaders from Great Schools in Wake (GSIW), Adrienne Lumpkin. This picture of us was taken at the last Moral Monday protest. If you have Facebook, you can see some of my other friends and GSIW members here.

You might remember that Christine and I were accused of being involved with GSIW after taking our Board seats. You see, being actively involved with such a political group would be against the WCPSS Code of Ethics. So, Christine and I just denied everything. Denied, denied, denied. But, c'mon, did you really believe us? ;)

Not only do we work closely with their leaders, we love going to their organized protests and bad mouthing people who don't agree with us. We wear stickers and hold protest signs during the day - and then pretend we're listening to all sides when we sit in our Board seats at night. It's so much fun!

So, to date, we've checked off the following on our GSIW to-do list:

1. We ended the Choice Plan. Too many of our magnet friends were upset. I don't really understand why the suburbs are so angry. Whatever.

2. We fired Supt. Tata. Honestly, the guy is smart. Had to go. Buh-bye.

3. We hired a new superintendent. He's an old school guy . Our previous Board chair, Kevin Hill, really likes to live in the past. You know, like 30 years ago. This Merrill guy will fit right in.

4. Our latest accomplishment was getting approval to go back to using F&R data to assign students. What? You don't remember the Board discussing that in public? LOL. That's because we didn't. Of course, Adrienne knew all about it. 

It really amazes me how easy it's been to keep up this guise. I guess it helps that the media is on our side. 

Anyway, I hope you like the picture.





 

Downhill

Think what you may - but Kevin Hill really is a smart guy. Evil and a complete jerk...but smart.

Sure, we caught him scheduling and attending secret meetings. And, we all now know that he has been secretly collaborating his School Board business with members of Great Schools in Wake. And he had the audacity to call parents "selfish and anti-social" in response to a parent's question. But, honestly, so what? He still sits in that Board chair - arrogantly and unaffected. Spouting lies and expecting us to believe them.

Hill was Chairman back in 2012 when he led the charge to fire Supt. Tony Tata.  Hill came up with numerous unsubstantiated excuses when Tata was let go without cause. But, we all know Hill's a liar and Tata's firing was the most partisan move in WCPSS.

My last public information request - the one which has numerous emails from Hill BCC'd to members of GSIW - also contained an interesting email from Hill to Tata.

In this email, Hill thanks Tata for "your letter" and then proceeds to seemingly clarify his opinions on Tata's military background. This email strongly suggests that Hill criticized Tata's military background and service to our country. So much so that Tata felt it necessary to write a letter to Hill. Could Tata's years of service to our country be the reason he was fired?

I asked for a copy of that letter from WCPSS. I was told: "Mr. Hill did not keep a copy".

That's it. Plain and simple -- he doesn't have it. No concern that this is a public document and falls with the General Assembly's definition of "public record". No concern for the contents of this letter and the possible exposure of why Tata was really fired by Hill, Sutton, Evans, Martin and Kushner. 

All Hill had to do was say "I don't have it" and we're all supposed to move along. 

Like I said, smart guy.