School Officials Criticize Audio Tape Article

Board members in solid support of CFO

SMITHFIELD – At the Tuesday meeting of the Johnston County Board of Education a strong rebuke was made of an article released on Monday in The Johnston County Report. The article included an audio recording of board members Lyn Andrews, Kay Carroll, and Ronald Johnson along with Chief Financial Officer Stephen Britt, and Superintendent Dr. Eric Bracy.

On the audio was a short discussion centered around budget items and funding. The recording was taken by board member Ronald Johnson, who was not in attendance at the Tuesday meeting. Johnson gave the audio recording to two current board of education candidates, Kevin Donovan and Michelle Antoine. Together they released the recording inside a short video where they describe being questioned by Smithfield Police over recordings.

Donovan and Antoine said the audio recording, where board member Kay Carroll can be heard saying the commissioners want money back if it isn’t used and to “hide your money,” was concerning. The two called on Beth Wood, the North Carolina State Auditor, to investigate the matter.


Kay Carroll attended remotely and offered an apology for his choice of words, saying they were “not the best in world,” but stated they never hid money. He also offered apologies to Chief Financial Officer Stephen Britt for being part of what he called, “a political mess, a continuation of the past.”

Chairman Todd Sutton offered a timeline of meetings to present transparency on the budget process and asked for a retraction of the story, calling it defamatory. Lyn Andrews had the harshest words saying she does not accept accusations and false statements in regard to her work on the board. She went on to say the article had statements that she considered “malicious defamation,” stating she would hold the people involved in the article accountable, which garnered a small applause. Andrews also offered Mr. Britt an apology and stated he was a man of integrity, the best she’s ever seen.

Terri Sessoms gave a thorough review of the ethics policy, which included the prohibition on the recording of meetings. Sessoms contemplated why Beth Wood was not called earlier regarding the March 2022 audio recording if fear of local police was an issue. Mike Wooten, who heads the finance committee, said Ronald Johnson, who took the recording at an informal budget meeting, was not regularly involved in the finances. Wooten said the County was blessed to have Mr. Britt as an accountant and wished for him to stay on for many years.

Stephen Britt admitted the words on the audio tape were his and offered an explanation. He gave a breakdown of the 2022-2023 Superintendent’s Budget proposal which was presented publicly on May 11, 2022. In the budget he showed a Capital Outlay Request which had an $8.5 million dollar fund balance transfer to capital. Britt went on to say the transfer of over $8 million came from the net impact of vacancy savings which stood over $9 million, and said the document was presented to the commissioners and they understood the fund balance had a significant extra amount of funds. He said, “there is absolutely nothing being hidden in this document.”

Britt went on to describe a slide of current ESSER funding that was remaining, saying it was all there in the presentation from May and nothing was being hid.

He additionally displayed a document, a Fund Balance Transfer Resolution from June 29, 2022, that was passed by the Board of Education. The Resolution states there will be a transfer of $8 million from the active funds to the capital outlay account. The document had Board of Education signatures, but there were no signatures of Commissioners in the lines provided for them on the viewable form. Mr. Britt said through many meetings the Commissioners were always made aware of the money the schools had and he called the Monday’s article with the audio tape defamatory, and full of outright lies.

*The Johnston County Report spoke with County Manager Rick Hester and Assistant County Manager / Finance Director Chad McLamb today. Both said, as of today, the Johnston County Public Schools June 29, 2022 Fund Balance Transfer Resolution had not been received by the County Manager’s Office or County Commissioners. Mr. Hester said the Resolution had not been formally received or presented to County Commissioners but when it is it will be scheduled for an upcoming meeting. “The board has had no formal discussions that I remember (on the Fund Balance Transfer Resolution) and this will be the first time it is on the agenda,” Mr. Hester said.

*(Update: After this article published, School Board Chairman Todd Sutton forwarded an email to us showing where CFO Britt emailed Chad McLamb on June 30, 2022 with a copy of the Resolution. In our interview with Mr. McLamb and Mr. Hester this morning, both indicated the Resolution had not been formally received.)

In a statement today school board candidate Michelle Antoine said the words on the audio were disturbing to her. “The Johnston County community deserves accountability, being a fiduciary of public dollars is serious. The people on the audio recording are accountable for their words and involvement. I held an honest and true belief that these tapes were authentic discussions of mishandling funds. All parties have now admitted to being on those tapes and those were their words…. Mr. Carroll, on tape says the Commissioners would take back funds if they weren’t used then compels CFO Stephen Britt to “HIDE YOUR MONEY.” …

School board candidate Kevin Donovan added, “We asked for a forensic audit to take place and let the public form their own opinions… I take full responsibility for the video and releasing of the audio, the board should do the same by taking responsibility for the statements made in the audio….”

JoCoReport reached out Friday, August 5 to Kay Carroll and Stephen Britt for information about the allegations centering around the March 2022 meeting. We also copied the email to JCPS Executive Director of Communication Caitlin Furr. Our story published three days later, Monday, August 8. As of the publication of this news story, Wednesday, August 10, we have yet to receive a response to our request for information.

JoCoReport will continue to investigate all claims made by school board candidates Antoine and Donovan and the Board of Education.



Related Article: “We Need New Leadership And A New Direction In Our School System”, County Commissioner Says

32 COMMENTS

    • Where was ADT. How come Terry want in the video with Kevin and Michelle. They all need to drop out of the race. Or let’s redo the primary again

      • Brett, How was any of this money wasted? I don’t like candidates trying to make a name for themselves by falsely drumming up scandal where there was none.

      • You should bail on Johnson, Donovan and Antoine on this one Bret. They are in the wrong and were way out of line on this one. Cant see them winning an election after this. They are as dishonest as your boy RJ.

  1. Why is it that our elected officials, as well as some businesses, always seem to put in their ethics policy, a sentence which includes the prohibition on the recording of meetings? ALL meetings, regardless of where someone is at, one should be able to record, as long as their voice is on it. Then, if something is not right, it is not a “he said, she said” story. Seems to me, some people just like to keep things hid from the public and putting that clause in the ethics policy hopefully “saves” them from being exposed.

  2. Here is the sad thing to all of this…. They all (board members, Johnson, those releasing the audio, etc) THINK they are doing what is best for the schools. They honesty feel like they are doing good and what is best.., but in reality, they are killing what was left of public education in Johnston County. The superintendent, the cabinet, & school board ALL need to be replaced. The whistleblowers don’t help the situation either. If they felt the information they had was something criminal, then they should have turned it over to the state.., NOT the media to get publicity for themselves! I appreciate their desire to help, but their desire to help simply isn’t working. No one is winning right now in JoCo. The biggest losers are the teachers and students. It is very sad to see what has happened to education in JoCo over the last 10-15 yrs.

  3. They are anything but “whistleblowers”. They’re an embarrassment to the county. Trying to mislead the public with dishonest accusations for political gain. There has been nothing but drama and unsubstantiated accusation since Ronald Johnson came to the school board. Britt blew his garbage out of the water by providing evidence that went beyond a cherry picked audio clip. Johnson, and people like him, are the problem and they need to go.

  4. It’s like the recording is here to be heard but ” That’s not what I said”.
    Ok, Spunky,let’s play it over again to be sure.

  5. As was mentioned last night, at NO TIME has Ronald Johnson expressed interest in what is happening with students and staff. I think that says enough about who he is. The laundry list of ethics violations sealed it. You can say what you want about what should or shouldn’t be in an ethics policy, but if you agree to it & are SWORN in to office, you are responsible for following the policy. Add to this that Johnson is (was) police, the list of ethics violations make Smithfield PD look bad, too.

    Likewise, Michelle Antoine and Kevin Donovan NEVER mention how any of this impacts students or staff. Their only aim is to put bigotry on the school board. The should not be eligible for seats based on colluding with Johnson in his ethics violations.

    I hope the county attorney takes them all down.

    • Ronjon you took the words out of mouth. They not once mentioned the teachers or students. They thought it would help them Where was tippet at ?

  6. If Mr. Ronald Johnson, defender of the defenseless, the hero of all children of JCPS as well as his followers, the man of integrity, the lone wolf of Johnston County politics, the mentor of his three disciples running for BOE, MR. Whistleblower and master keeper of recorded messages, is so innocent then why hasn’t he shown up in the last couple of board meetings? What are you hiding Mr. Johnson? What have you done? Your followers need their hero! #Whereisronjon

  7. Lock up RJ FS Michelle A for racketeering, extortion and insurance fraud. Having my kid in the news a day after being served papers, is literally extortion from a dirty cop. I’ll have my day in court and it will be to put these people in jail if need be. RJ, FS, Michelle A, and 2 Irish cops from CPD.

  8. Oh course they are up because they got caught. It’s sad it takes a leaked recording to know what they are doing behind the publics back. Ronald is the only good school board member we have.

    • If he is the only good school board member, then where has he vanished to? He’s letting the rest of the board vote on things without casting his own. Surely if he’s so great, he wouldn’t let the other members run the show.

  9. It’s a known fact with the state that you loose it if you don’t use it with education funding. Had the BOE spent wisely this would not have been an issue.

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