The Rest of the Story/Facts

By: JCPS Board Chairman Todd Sutton

On February 8, 2021, a story ran on JoCoReport regarding some recent personnel changes that were made within the Johnston County Public School System and in that article, there are some especially important points of information that are not stated that went into the decisions that were made in our BOE Meeting on January 12, 2021 that need to be stated.

First let me state there was no “cryptic” late night vote by the school board as indicated in the article. We had begun our closed session pertaining to personnel matters prior to the open board meeting as has been the practice in the past however we were unable to complete our closed session prior to the scheduled open session to begin and in that we had speakers scheduled to appear in the open session pertaining to the COVID-19 issues, we stopped the closed session in respect for our guests schedules and decided we would again go back into closed session after the open session was completed so as to conclude our discussion of personnel issues as required by NC General Statute.

The article was correct in that it was a long board meeting but in the spirit of getting everything accomplished, we as a board stayed to get the job done that the citizens of Johnston County elected us to perform. As reported in the article and is furthermore a matter of public record, a vote was taken in open session to give one of our many valued servants (Brooks Moore) within the Johnston County Public School System an increase of annual salary of $16,292.00.

It is important to know what the factors involved in making such a decision for JCPS. First and foremost, Mr. Moore is a Licensed Professional Engineer and because of having such a certification he has saved JCPS a large amount of money that would have otherwise had to have been outsourced and paid for by the school system. Below are a few of the projects that Mr. Moore has caused the school system to experience savings.

$4,000 NJHS clearing – Clearing and erosion control permit (PE stamp required)

$60,000 Worked with Johnston County GIS and OREd, to locate parcels of land for school sites. Met with landowners to gauge interest.

$130,952 Innovation Academy renovation, three phases without hiring an architect or general contractor$122,000 Mobiles (oversee annual installation including permitting, zoning, site plans, etc.)

$750,000 Savings from renovating SJHS fieldhouse instead of rebuilding it like SSS fieldhouse.

$12,500 Annual certification of retention ponds

$15,623 SSS bleachers (Design and RFP package)
$15,938 SJHS bleachers (Design and RFP package)

$500,000 Cooper Academy improvements with developer (round about, carpool, ADA sidewalks)

$2,000,000 Collaborate with NCDOT and MSTA to make carpool improvements (River Dell, Polenta, Powhatan, West Clayton, Cleveland E/M, Riverwood E/M)

$12,880 Tobacco Trust fund grant for Ideal academy (Design and RFP package)

$1,830,800 CHHS Addition under budget at $154/sf (design changes resulting in construction savings)

$12,500 Annual savings from buying landscape mulch from town of Goldsboro.

$7,350 Savings by reusing canopy from CHHS at Micro E

$37,500 PHS Athletic Field RFP bid package.

$2,300,000 New School design changes resulting in construction savings.

$700,000 Collaborate with NCDOT for sewer to new school site when county did not have an option instead of septic field.

$37,500 West View Elementary Hail Damage claim (RFP package)

$99,626 Full depth reclamation on CHS tennis courts in lieu of substantial excavation

Total Savings of $8,657,669 in 3 years of employment.

In addition to the savings of $8,657,669, we also are aware that we will continue to realize these type of cost savings in our approach by having Mr. Moore working on behalf of our JCPS’s. Mr. Moore has also assumed additional responsibility that eliminated a position that was being paid $80,676 annually hereby creating an additional savings of $64,384. Mr. Moore is now responsible for managing an annual budget of $16,965,110.71 while supervising 92 associates within our school system.

If that were not enough justification for the action that was taken by the BOE, the following represents annual salaries being paid to others within local state and town governments.

County Engineer $122,194
Code Enforcement Director $101,876
Public Works Director Clayton $135,348
Public Utilities Director-Smithfield $100,360
Town of Garner Engineer $130,145
DOT Division Engineer $120,130
DOT Construction Engineer $110,646

As you can see from all the information above, your Johnston County Board of Education takes a very systematic approach in every decision that is made while being good stewards of the taxpayer’s money and rest assured, we take our responsibilities very seriously and I as Chairman intend on staying the course to lead in the way my fellow board members have appointed me to do.

I am also aware that there others that will attempt to tell the citizens of Johnston County otherwise but also be aware that the majority of our citizens chose to elect each board member to serve on our BOE and those that continue to distract us from what we were elected to do WILL NOT keep us from providing a safe and rich learning environment for our students to learn and achieve all that is possible and in addition providing a workplace that all of our JCPS associates are proud of. I am so proud that the majority of our BOE had the foresight and knowledge to make the right choice with this decision.

Now you have “The Rest of the Story/Facts”! Now let us go forward and work together to achieve the goals we need to make and not allow the “distractors” to take away our children’s future and let us get focused on what we really need to be focused on.