Boards discuss resources for schools
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 22, 2017 10:00 AM
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Wayne County Commissioner Joe Daughtery discusses textbook availability in Wayne County schools Tuesday during a joint meeting of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners and Wayne County Board of Education.
The Wayne County Board of Education Tuesday said it will supply a textbook needs plan to county commissioners, complete with cost estimates, to ensure that all students have textbooks.
The textbook shortage has been a growing concern in recent weeks for some in the county -- a concern that has been brought before commissioners, the school board and even the Goldsboro City Council, which has no funding obligations for schools.
Commissioners had not responded publicly to those concerns prior to their Tuesday afternoon joint session with the school board.
The issue emerged during a presentation on the school system's technology plans and use of electronic books.
"How much would it cost to provide a textbook for all of the subjects for all of the students for the entire school system here in Wayne County?" Commissioner Joe Daughtery said.
The initial cost would be $5 million, Assistant Superintendent Tarmara Ishee said.
There could be additional costs of about $1 million when the curriculum changes or as the books become dated or are lost, she said.
Wayne County Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore said if he had to guess, the additional cost would be between $1.5 million to $2 million annually.
"So it would be $4 million if you go technology?" Daughtery said. "What I am saying is get a plan. This commissioner is saying get a plan. If I need to pressure my commissioners to give some dollars to provide some textbooks so we can get better education in Wayne County, for God's sake what's better?
"Where can you spend better money than educating our kids? What I am saying is give us some options here."
Commissioner Ed Cromartie said he would support such an effort.
Dunsmore said he did not want to give commissioners hypotheticals.
"If a plan is what you need, we can get you a plan," Wayne County Board of Education Chairman Arnold Flowers said. "Dr. Dunsmore, you can get them a plan."
Daughtery said he regularly receives phone calls from taxpayers wanting to know why their children can't have textbooks.
"Now we have them coming to our commissioners' meetings," he said. "Believe me, we are just starting to see this. I am just saying let's have some options to solve the problem because nothing is more important than a good education."
Cromartie said he is tickled about what has been done with technology in the school system, but that there is a segment of the population that think children need to have a textbook in their hands to bring home.
Some of those people came to see the school board two or three weeks ago and then came to see commissioners, Cromartie said.
Daughtery and Cromartie were referring to three speakers, including Goldsboro City Councilman Antonio Williams, who spoke on the textbook issue at the commissioners' March 7 session.
They appealed to commissioners to focus more attention on the needs of Goldsboro High School and to address the lack of textbooks.
Similar pleas were made to the city council and the school board.
Commissioners did not comment on the remarks at that time.
Cromartie said he has "all the faith in the world" that the school board knows the best combination of textbooks and digital media needed to achieve the best results.
"But the public has got to be made thoroughly aware of that combination of whether or not their child needs a textbook at home," Cromartie said.
The state allocated Wayne County about $860,000 for textbooks this year -- a "lot less" than what the system used to get, Ms. Ishee said.
Last year, the school system bought textbooks for middle and high schools, she said. This year textbooks were purchased for elementary and middle schools and students taking college classes, she said.
"We have tried to spread it around as good as we can," Ms. Ishee said. "I don't know what they will give us this year."
School board member Jennifer Strickland said she had "aggravated" the school system about textbooks for two and a half years.
"The very first thing they did was exactly like I asked and begged," she said. "They cataloged the books that we have."
That list was sent to all the schools. Mrs. Strickland said she does not know if the list was used or not.
"I had rather have books in their hands because some people learn better that way," she said. "But they are doing an amazing job getting books out as fast as we financially can."
School board member Rick Pridgen agreed with Cromartie that communication is a problem. But at the same time, Pridgen said he has to look at the trend toward more and more digital options.
Even the book companies are pushing technology, he said.
"The same people who are complaining, how many of them still have a phone in the wall at their house and not carrying their phone in their pocket," Pridgen said. "Change is change, and it is coming.
"I realize that even though we are trying our best to put what books we have in the classroom and get them in the classroom. But the trend is to be going more with the digital aspect of technology."
Daughtery said he had heard that Lenoir County has signed a three-year lease with Apple computers for $1 million annually to provide a computer for every student in the county.
He questioned why Wayne County couldn't do the same.
Lenoir County has less than 10,000 students while Wayne County has more than 19,000 which would probably double the cost, Dunsmore said.
Also, the cost does not include the programs that would need to be purchased, he said.
"If Lenoir County could find a way to make it happen, then we ought to put our heads together and see if we can find a way to make it happen," Daughtery said.
Wayne County would be interested, but Apple sets the criteria and where the program goes, Pridgen said. The company only takes a few counties a year, he said.
However, going digital will present a problem for Wayne County students because of the lack of countywide high-speed Internet, Commissioner Ray Mayo said.
It is an issue that commissioners have been working on.
Commission Chairman Bill Pate, who has been heading up those efforts, hinted that a solution may be in the near future. He did not elaborate.