Stop spinning and start planning, before it’s too late

In January 2012, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta proposed a round of military base closures, arguing that the Pentagon needed to consolidate to save money.

And while Congress did not ultimately authorize the measure — the result, many believe, of politicians’ unwillingness to deliver potential economic blows to the communities they represented — his thesis has been echoed by top military officials ever since.

In fact, there has been a general feeling since the last Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process unfolded in 2005 that another round of closures was going to happen.

Said a different way, it’s a “when” not an “if.”

So, when the Department of the Air Force released a report grading the school districts that serve its airmen — a study that would be among the factors used in “future basing decisions” — it was a sobering reminder that Wayne County still has work to do to ensure Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is protected.

Here’s the reality: Every time “BRAC” is uttered, it seems ludicrous to suggest the home of the storied 4^th Fighter Wing and 916^th Air Refueling Wing is in jeopardy.

There is no way the military would shutter Seymour Johnson, people say. Its F-15E fleet, and the men and women who ensure it can deliver air power, are too critical. The base’s location is perfect for pre-deployment training with counterparts at Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg. If events got dangerous overseas, SJAFB’s position along the East Coast is a huge strategic advantage.

The list goes on.

And thanks to the hard work of military advocates, from the Military Affairs Committee and Seymour Support Council to Friends of Seymour, top brass are not only well-versed in those pluses, they also have a deep understanding of this community’s knowledge of – and appreciation for – the men and women housed here and the mission they support.

But despite those positives, everyone “in the know” would tell you that there has always been a major concern — one that has, quite literally, kept some of those same advocates up at night whenever talk of another BRAC rears its ugly head — Wayne County Public Schools.

Former Goldsboro Mayor Al King said it back in 2012, days after Panetta made his proposal.

So, too, did former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley.

Their message?

The 4^th might, indeed, be first, but no base — no matter its heritage — is ever BRAC-proof.

No one knows for sure if base closures are coming, although presidential contender Joe Biden said a few months ago he would fight to honor the Pentagon’s request to support another BRAC. But even if they don’t, the need to improve our local school district remains a top priority.

Maybe that’s why the highest-ranking lawmaker in Wayne County, the state House’s majority whip, John Bell, said during the Chamber of Commerce’s annual Legislative Breakfast that it was so critical “to fix” our local K-12 system.

Perhaps that is what prompted 4^th FW Commander Col. Kurt Helphinstine to echo Bell’s sentiments at the Chamber’s State of the Military event a few days later — going as far as pronouncing his commitment to ensuring his airmen would have more of a presence in classrooms and school buildings across Wayne County.

Report or not — neither man directly referenced it — the concern is real.

The reason is pretty simple. This county can ill-afford to give a future BRAC — or the Air Force — any reason to even think about putting SJAFB anywhere near whatever list might or might not be considered.

The base pumps nearly $1 billion into this economy each year. And in addition to being one of the county’s largest employers, it is the reason for jobs in every facet of the local economy — and a good way to attract economic development and residential investment to Wayne County and Eastern North Carolina.

And don’t forget about the human impact, either. The men and women stationed at Seymour are irreplaceable members of our community. We worship together. We volunteer alongside one another. We are neighbors, friends and family.

There are some people in local government who don’t get any of this.

People like certain members of the Goldsboro City Council — one of whom is about to sit on the county’s Board of Commissioners — who say they support SJAFB but who have openly questioned funding Friends of Seymour in recent months.

It’s baffling. Playing with that kind of fire is not even close to intelligent.

And when news like a study revealing that the districts that serve SJAFB, including WCPS, its home district, are near the bottom of the Air Force-commissioned analysis, it should be a wakeup call — even more so than WCPS’ multi-million-dollar budget shortfall “surprise.”

Again, ask King, Moseley, Bell and the countless members of our local military advocacy groups. They will tell you this report is just a punctuation mark on a narrative that has been playing out for years.

That’s why we were a little shocked that one of our local school board members decided to start making excuses for why the report didn’t really tell the whole story — and just as he did when hit with tough questions about the budget crisis — decided to discredit the messenger.

He said the data was “old” and didn’t reflect recent progress in the school district and argued the report wasn’t really about WCPS, but rather, was an indictment of neighboring Johnston, Lenoir and Duplin counties’ schools.

Really?

Look, Wayne County is a wonderful community. It is full of people who love their country and who respect the men and women who fight to protect it.

Helphinstine said during his comments at the State of the Military event that his airmen and Air Force leadership know this community has their back. And that is a great compliment.

This community has never been about just waving flags and putting their hands on their hearts. For decades, you have been there in every way for the airmen who serve at SJAFB and the families they leave behind when they deploy in support of missions around the world.

That matters; but it is not all that matters.

There has been work by generations of members of MAC and other groups to lobby on behalf of Wayne County to make sure the relationship between our county and the Air Force is a strong one.

Combine that with efforts by the legislature and state leaders to create a military-friendly environment in North Carolina — one that attracts retirees when they are finished with their military service — and you have a plan that recognizes how vital this resource is to this state.

These are people who know how to do this, and what our priorities should be to keep the military bases right here in our part of the country.

But they say there is a weak link — and that is our schools. Every single one of them says it.

They don’t talk about Johnston, Lenoir and Duplin counties. Not even Bell, who, for those keeping score, represents Johnston, too.

Helphinstine didn’t commit himself and his airmen to being a part of the change across county lines. He was talking about this community – these schools.

But during the homestretch of election season, it should not surprise anyone that there is a whole lot of spin going on.

The way to do what is right for this community is to ignore it.

The good news is that while what we saw in that report is disturbing, it is not unfixable. There are steps that can be taken right away to get those numbers up and to make sure we address this challenge.

But we have to get serious. And that starts with facing realities.

Since the announcement of the financial debacle in the school district, the questions got tough, so the school board and WCPS went on blackout, refusing to talk to media and to release their own coverage instead.

Even a middle school journalist knows what happens when a public body — especially one like a school district — decides to bypass legitimate questions and to become its own “news” feed.

The latest spin is that the hiring of more teachers in the county — personnel that there was no money to pay — to prematurely implement the state’s K-3 class size mandate is why we are in the shape we are in.

Previous board members got it wrong. This current board is about “solutions.”

OK. Not so. Not really.

It is true that other boards contributed to the district’s financial condition. They were part of the money-spending and the inattention as a $7 million fund balance slipped away to become a deficit.

But keep in mind, too, that chairman Chris West has been on the board since 2010 and vice chairman Jennifer Strickland was elected in 2014, and spent time on the board’s finance committee, which deals directly with budgets and purchase orders.

And like them, Patricia Burden and Len Henderson were here for many audits, budget presentations and financial discussions.

They dropped the ball. They approved — or were just too inept to catch — big-ticket consultant bills, including a fancy Raleigh attorney WCPS simply can’t afford.

They were here when the district signed an “energy savings” contract that has, based on “savings” other school officials — including in neighboring Johnston County and members of WCPS’ own Maintenance Department — have questioned, led to cutting the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks a year.

And four of them — one (Strickland) by not voting and having her inaction counted as a “yes” — were responsible for extending former superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore’s contract, even as it was becoming obvious something had gone terribly wrong on Royall Avenue.

So we expected buck-passing on the budget crisis. But this latest missive surprised us.

This Air Force report is a big deal. It is a warning — and an important one.

It is not about politics anymore. It is not about power, or even an election.

It is about this community’s future.

The right response is not to look for reasons to explain it away — or to discredit the message by spinning facts to your advantage.

It is to acknowledge that this is a concern, one you are determined to take seriously.

Although there might be some ancillary information about the other counties, the report, according to literally everyone with any knowledge of how this works, is about the primary county in which the base is located and where most base children attend school — and that is Wayne County.

Again, we didn’t hear Bell and Helphinstine talking about Johnston, Lenoir and Duplin schools over the last two weeks.

But just for giggles, let’s say the “it’s not just us, it’s three other counties, too” argument is credible. The bottom line is that Wayne County is part of an education system that Air Force officials rated in the red.

That is still failure — a failure this county is part of.

So, what should have been said?

We thought there might have been expressions of concern and acknowledgement of mistakes that have been made. We thought there would be a leader from the district who might pick up a phone or make a statement — calling for action and input from others in the community with more experience and a different perspective — immediately.

And before we get right down to it, let’s say this: Our current board members are not bad people.

This is not some dastardly plot to destroy the schools. This is a tough one to fix. We did not get here in 12 months. A new superintendent and more fancy high-priced consultants won’t be able to snap their fingers and fix it either.

But there are ego and power mixed into this mess. While a couple board members, Burden and Henderson to be specific, seem to get that the community does not trust any decision being made by the Board of Education right now, others are still trying to save face.

And that is not what we need.

We need to pay attention to the message in the report.

The areas where there were green lights — an attaboy — were teacher/counselor to student ratios.

It means that what we are doing a good job at is making sure students get the attention they need — a critical part of having a successful learning program.

And even though another piece of spin is that data the Air Force used is “old” and not reflective of the progress that has been made across WCPS in the last few years, one could argue that part of the reason that progress was made — and it’s still not enough to calm the fears of local SJAFB advocates, by the way — is because the district took an aggressive approach to staffing to ensure students had the support they needed.

So, when, this evening, Interim Superintendent Dr. James Merrill recommends to the board a series of cuts necessary steps to mend the district’s serious budget problems – and one of those suggestions will almost certainly include not filling dozens of vacancies and considering further attrition — we should pause.

This is an important step. A critical decision.

The wrong move might fix the budget concerns, but it could also result in a serious drop in student performance — at a time when we can ill-afford such a setback.

Merrill himself told the board, in open session, that every superintendent and education professional in the state would agree that if you only hire based on the state allotment, you won’t have enough teachers and staff to ensure academic strides are made.

He also said once you cut those positions, it’s difficult to figure out a way to add them into future budgets without a windfall of cash to support the move.

And whether or not it was premature to staff the K-3 class size mandate a few years ago is no longer relevant because the mandate is now upon us. So any cuts would have to come from middle and high schools — knocking down any progress on those campuses.

So, what do we need to do?

First, we need to be willing to live within our means. That means no more expensive consultants, hiring assistants for assistants, creating jobs for people with connections or who are deemed in-effective in other WCPS posts and signing bad contracts.

We need new leadership, new perspective, new vision.

And that means we need to call on some of the people who have the knowledge, the experience and the guts to tell it like it is — and to get the job done — before we make another mistake, like hiring the wrong superintendent.

West said in recent days that if the right person to lead the district wasn’t among the current crop of applicants, the board would keep looking. We need to hold him to that.

There are people out there right now, leaders who could step up. They are men and women who have the experience and the reputation that would show just how serious we are about getting this problem fixed. And they are not afraid to say what they think — in public and to whomever needs to hear it. (Former Commissioner Jack Best, are you out there?)

We need an advisory group of community leaders who understand the stakes and who are going to get the job done — especially since we lost several of those leaders this year, most recently Commission Chairman Ray Mayo.

We need to show we are serious. That is how it is done.

Spin won’t fix this one. Putting the county first — and calling on the best we have to join forces to get things done — that is what we need now.

And that means leadership — from not just the school board, but from the county commissioners, city leaders and legislative leaders as well.

We will see who is up to the task.