Raking in the green

Some Wayne County Public School campuses, like Spring Creek Elementary, still do not have functioning air-conditioning units in every classroom.

Parents of students who attend others get robocalls or text messages regularly about broken down school buses — notifications that urge them to figure out a way to get their children to class.

But despite those concerns, the district has spent more than $115,000 over the last few months on “beautification” projects across 15 of its campuses, with hundreds of thousands of dollars more allocated for similar initiatives.

And of the money already spent, more than 20 percent — nearly $24,000 — was paid to a current WCPS employee who happens to be the son of former Board of Education chairman, and the board’s current longest-tenured member, Chris West.

The idea seemed well-intentioned.

Wayne County Public Schools would allocate funds to each of its campuses for beautification projects — $16,250 for each high school, $10,000 for each middle school, and $7,500 for each elementary school.

But despite the fact that nearly every campus spent thousands of dollars on landscaping, no effort was made by district leaders to lump the projects into a single expenditure, which would have triggered a bid process experts say would have drastically lowered the cost.

WCPS Superintendent Dr. Marc Whichard repeatedly declined interview requests for this story.

But he did provide a statement about the projects in general and the fact that a district employee was awarded contracts in specific.

“With regards to these funds, which were set aside prior to my arrival, each school was required to develop a plan for their campus revitalization efforts. Once approved, each school then selected local businesses, as applicable, to complete the campus improvements that were needed,” the statement reads. “It is important to note that if a WCPS employee working a parttime job outside of WCPS was involved with any campus revitalization work, it occurred outside of their regular work hours and/or during approved vacation time.”

Whichard went on to say he did not “see a need for a formal interview at this time.”

And according to WCPS, no mention was made, in an open Board of Education meeting, of Noah West’s pending employment with the district as an independent contractor through his landscape company, Next Level Lawn & Landscaping — despite the requirement to do so in the board’s own policy.

The district, however, denied the requirement existed.

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From his office on Jericho Farms, Landscape Design of Goldsboro owner Mark Metzler worked his way through a stack of invoices provided to New Old North as part of a records request.

A member of the N.C. Landscape Contractors’ Licensing Board — and the head of the biggest landscape firm in Wayne County — he said he was taken aback by several aspects of the district’s beautification projects.

First, he said, the number of unlicensed landscapers used for the projects was staggering.

“Licensed landscape contractors are held to certain minimum standards, so when you hire a licensed landscape contractor, you know there are certain standards the law requires them to adhere to,” Metzler said.

“You hire somebody that’s unlicensed, there’s no recourse, there are no standards, and there is no requirement for continuing education so they can learn about the standards and how to install landscaping the appropriate way.”

And there is no accountability because if they botch the job, you cannot complain to the state board, Metzler added.

Metzler also said the process WCPS followed ensured the district would not get the best bang for taxpayers’ bucks.

If the district, which acknowledged schools had to present plans for how they intended to use the beautification funds, had wanted to be cost-effective, it would have lumped all the landscaping projects into one to trigger a bidding war between local companies — a measure he said would guarantee far fewer dollars would have been spent.

“Certain aspects, it certainly would have made sense (to lump the projects together) like the mulching. It looks like just about every school got mulch installed … and if you get mulch in bulk pricing, you save money. The pricing on the invoices I saw ranged anywhere from $50 a cubic yard to $85 a cubic yard. If you say, ‘Hey, I have 20 schools that need mulching,’ you can hire a company to come in and mulch them all at $40 a cubic yard because there’s an economy of scale there.”

And then there were the invoices themselves, which, in many cases, he characterized as “vague at best.”

But what “irritates” him the most, he said, is how companies that have done right by the school district over the years were never even notified that there were potential jobs available.

“The community as a whole, it’s always been our reaction when somebody asks or has a need — whether it be a school, church, or civic organization — we usually make a donation. To my knowledge, this year we have donated trees and materials to two schools and have an offer on the table for a third school,” Metzler said. “So frankly, it was a little disappointing that we didn’t hear anything about the jobs. It’s irritating when good paid work comes along that we don’t even get notified about.”

Particularly when Landscape Design handled installation of landscaping after Charles B. Aycock High School’s latest expansion — and is currently the landscaper on the new Fremont Elementary School job.

“I get it. There is no frustration at all if you have a principal who has a student that goes there, and their father or mother owns a landscape company, and you want to use them because they’re part of the school family,” Metzler said. “The frustration comes in when one company gobbles up the bulk of the work and, in the case of Next Level, they’re not even a licensed landscape contractor and happen to be an employee of the district as well. That’s the biggest aggravation. We didn’t get a shot at something, and the school district was kind of letting their employees moonlight with an inside track on those jobs.”

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According to Wayne County Board of Education policy, before any immediate family member of a board member or central office staff administrator is employed by the district — “in any capacity as an employee, independent contractor, or otherwise” — two things must happen.

First, the board member or central office staff member must disclose the relationship to the board.

Then, the board must approve the contract in a “duly open session meeting.”

But when asked if — and if so, when — such a presentation or approval took place, WCPS spokesman Ken Derksen said, “no such presentation occurred or was required for these projects.”

Had Whichard not declined interview requests, he would have been asked why this case, which involves the son of a board member who was hired as an independent contractor for the beautification projects, was exempt from the board’s policy.

West’s son was paid to complete work on five campuses — Northeast Elementary, Tommy’s Road Elementary, Norwayne Middle, Greenwood Middle, and Charles B. Aycock High School — and was paid nearly $24,000 for the work.

A current district HVAC technician, the payments reflect more than 50 percent of his annual salary.

And his company, Next Level Lawn & Landscaping, uses his father’s home address as its location and is not registered with the state Department of Commerce or the N.C. Secretary of State’s Office.

For work completed at Charles B. Aycock, he was paid $7,740.49.

Northeast cut him checks totaling $3,338.55.

Tommy’s Road paid $6,789.30.

Norwayne paid $4,398.10.

Greenwood kicked in another $1,585.23.

The grand total — $23,851.67.

And some of the work was done on a WCPS workday after the district approved leave so he could do landscaping at Aycock.

Other than a Facebook page that boasts 98 “likes” and 99 “followers,” New Old North was unable to locate any other website for Next Level Lawn & Landscaping, so it is unclear how the principals of those schools — most, if not all, of whom, were appointed to their posts during the elder West’s tenure as chairman of the School Board — determined the company was best-suited for the projects at hand.

But on the company’s invoice, the business address listed is 262 Airport Road — Chris West’s Pikeville residence.

Former Spring Creek Elementary School PTA president Kathy Larson remembers pleading with the school district a few years ago to install mulch on the school playground — how the campus received a Department of Health and Human Services violation because themulch was not deep enough and, therefore, put children at risk.

She recalls being told they would “get around to it” only if they received “another violation notice” — how, in the meantime, a little girl fell on the playground and broke her arm because there wasn’t sufficient padding to soften the impact.

“They were saying they didn’t have the budget for it, so, what we were told — verbally not in writing — is that they were going to wait until they got another citation before they did anything,” she said.

So, when she learned that Spring Creek had already spent the $7,500 allotted to it for “beautification” projects this year without even notifying the PTA for its input on priorities, she was shocked.

The mulch issue was ultimately settled after a second DHHS violation notice, but now, there are fire ant hills scattered across the playground — an issue she says was brought to the attention of WCPS officials and never resolved, to the point where the PTA decided to use its own money to kill the insects.

And the kindergarten hallway still does not have functioning air-conditioning.

“The kids are miserable. The district, they’ve sent a crew out several times. I don’t know enough of the details to know exactly what the problem is, but I know it’s been an ongoing issue since school started. And we’re not the only ones, either,” Larson said. “But the kindergarten hallway has been particularly bad. They’re sweating their tails off and they’re not supposed to prop open their doors because of active shooters. But what are they supposed to do?”

The conditions have been so bad that the PTA considered taking action on its own — buying individual air-conditioning units for each classroom.

“But that was going to run the PTA somewhere in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. We don’t have that kind of cash,” Larson said. “In the meantime, everybody has bought their own fans. That’s nothing. That’s peanuts. That’s what they expect you to do.”

So, the thought of spending money on anything other than what she and her fellow PTA members consider more pressing needs seems misguided.

And if the school was going to use money for “beautification projects,” they have a built-in volunteer corps that would have been willing to do the work, she added.

“We are a very involved PTA. So, we’re here,” Larson said. “We are absolutely willing. Everybody in this community knows that.”

Still, she believes the problem is at Central Office, not SCE.

“I would love to share my frustration with the system,” she said. “But here at Spring Creek, I really think our principal is doing the best she can.”

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A wheelchair-bound elementary student is preparing to transition from Meadow Lane Elementary School to Northwest. Months before she arrives on campus, staff and administrators note, to district leaders, that the school’s ramp does not comply with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.

They are assured — as are the girls’ parents — that a new ramp will be installed before she arrives on campus.

To date, the work has not been completed.

Several members of the Northwest family spoke to New Old North to share their concerns for the girl’s safety — and to express their ire that money was being spent for beautification projects on campus while a handicapped student was being forced not only to use an unsafe ramp, but a changing station she cannot fit on when staff needs to catheterize or change her.

They agreed that it is “unacceptable” to have a special needs student on campus without an ADA-compliant ramp.

And they all said WCPS Maintenance Department employees told them that because the ramp had been in existence for a long period of time, it was “good enough” and “not worth replacing.”

So, when they got wind of the fact that a member of that same department had made nearly $24,000 to complete landscaping projects across the district, each said they were “shocked.”

And one of them — all of them spoke to New Old North anonymously for fear of retaliation — said they were “disgusted” with what they considered a “slap in the face” and a “twisted sense of priorities” from leaders at Central Office and on the Board of Education.

“So, just to be clear, we can’t come up with the time or money for a very necessary ramp, but we can spend $7,500 on landscaping projects? And one of the people doing that work is in the same maintenance department that refused to replace the ramp?” one of them said. “This is absolutely outrageous. This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to be done with Wayne County Public Schools.”

Had Whichard agreed to an interview, one of the questions would have been about the ramp and changing table situations at Northwest.

Why have these projects not been completed?

Is the district concerned about potential legal action should something happen to the student as a result of having to roll up and down a ramp that is not ADA-compliant?

Is there truth to the claim from Northwest staff that when they need to change or catheterize the student, it requires — regardless of the weather — for them to wheel her along a path that does not have an awning in hopes of getting access to the school nurses’ station?

“We have to walk halfway across campus — and part of the walk has no covering — every time she has to get cathed or needs to get changed,” another staff member said.

“There is a changing table in the nurse’s office, but it’s not always available when we need it. We just have to wait for the room to clear or for the nurse to be ready. She hasn’t trained any of us yet, so she’s the only one who can do it.”

It is unclear what projects are being planned for the remaining money allocated for beautification — or whether or not the district intends on bidding out the work.

Those questions would have been among those asked of Whichard.

And he would have been questioned, also, about whether or not he has communicated with his principals to understand why certain contractors were chosen for projects at their respective schools — or if he fears allowing a WCPS employee to earn an additional $24,000 moonlighting for the district would cause a public relations problem or dissention within the ranks.

Those who did answer questions, though, seemed to agree that, in their view, something is amiss.

“If anyone out there doesn’t think this a major red flag, they need to spend a day in a classroom with no air conditioning like my colleagues at Goldsboro. Have them go into one of the deteriorating rooms at Brogden. They need to watch this little girl struggle on the ramp at our school,” one of the Northwest staff members said. “Money fixes those problems, but our board keeps using our money in ridiculous ways. And now we’re paying a board member’s son what it would cost to fix some of this stuff? The fact that I am sure there will be people who act like this isn’t an issue is exactly why the people on our board and in leadership do whatever they want. They get away with all of this and we are the ones suffering every day.”

(Editor’s Note: Several weeks after the publication of this piece, an ADA-compliant ramp was installed at Northwest Elementary and a size-appropriate changing station was installed by Northwest staff. The work was completed after an email was sent to Northwest staff threatening them with retaliation for talking to the media — an action school administrators characterized as “insubordination” that would be “dealt with in time.”)