Stories in this weekend’s local paper of record don’t inspire a lot of confidence in our local elected officials. Guilford County Commissioner Ray Trapp on the county Department of Social Services food stamp backlog:
“The entire state is watching us and we don’t know what is going on,” Trapp, who is on the DSS board, said Saturday. “That’s not a good situation to be in.”
Trapp said Saturday night that he had not received any updates. He said the county department’s silence is frustrating for the entire DSS board. Most of what he has heard has come from media reports, Trapp said.
“I would expect that when we have a situation of this magnitude, we would have a call at least every morning and possibly every six hours or so,” Trapp said. “And we have not received that.”
Board of Education member Ed Price on the Fairfield Elementary School housecleaning:
“I’m excited that something is being done,” said Ed Price, a school board member who represents High Point. “I don’t have the answers for Fairview, I’m not that smart.”
But sometimes new people can make a difference.
“The key to me is not the two or three years of a turnaround,” Price said. “It’s where are you in five or six years when those resources are gone?”
I realize that’s just Price’s aw-shucks self-deprecating humor. But when he talks about resources, it seems to me Fairview has had plenty of access to resources over the course of principal Rhona Copeland’s nine-year tenure.
As for DSS, Trapp’s right –this is a statewide (and probably national) embarrassment for Guilford County, worthy of a Moral Monday protest, if only they protested incompetence. Director Robert Williams should lose his job over this mess, which is also costing the county thousands in overtime pay.
Rhonda Copeland, however, “is likely to be offered a position at another district school.”
