WAS BLACK NEW HANOVER
SUPT. FIRED BECAUSE
OF RIGHT-WING POLITICS?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Did right-wing politics play a role in the sudden firing July 2nd of Dr. Charles Foust, the African-American superintendent of New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) by the NHCS Board of Education?
There was no warning, no indication during the course of the NHCS School Board meeting that night that Foust would be terminated. In fact, he was present, as is customary for the superintendent at school board meetings.
When the board went into closed session to discuss issues normally not allowed to be made public, Foust went with them.
But when they came back out at around 11 p.m., and announced his termination, Dr. Foust, who had been superintendent since 2020, was gone.
He had reportedly left the building.
The school board vote, 5-0, was unanimous.
The only reason given was the result of a districtwide climate survey of over 2,000 teachers and staff members, which reportedly panned district leadership, including the school board.
Dr. Foust, per his contract, will be paid one year’s salary of $225,000. Ironically, Foust’s contract was just extended in 2023 to 2027.
And last April, he was named the 2024-25 Regional Superintendent of the Year by the 12 school superintendents of the District 2 Southeast Region.
Foust, the first African-American to serve as schools superintendent for New Hanover County in its history, issued a statement upon his termination:
“I am proud of the students and all employees of NHCS. We accomplished so many great things in the last 4 years. I am grateful for how my peers, the state and the community have recognized the diligent work put forth for student academic achievement. I wish NHCS nothing but the best; I know the students will continue to achieve excellence…focus on the focus.”
Dr. Foust’s attorney, Gary Shipman, issued his own statement about the NHCS Board’s punitive action Wednesday, July 3rd:
“This morning, I called Dr. Foust to congratulate him on being emancipated from the embarrassment that is the majority of the members of the New Hanover County Board of Education. The deliberate effort on the part of the majority of the board members to radicalize public education in New Hanover County has not only led to career teachers leaving the profession they love, but has left a stain on the reputation of the public schools in New Hanover County that will not easily disappear. The group that controls this board has given into the will of the vocal minority, and for Dr. Foust, I am glad he will no longer have to endure their efforts to trash public education in New Hanover County.”
Atty Shipman continued, “The callous and reckless disregard by this Board towards fiscal responsibility is outrageous, given that the taxpayers of New Hanover County will be writing a check for work that Dr. Foust will not be performing.”
Interestingly, only five of the seven-member elected NHCS School Board were present July 2nd when the vote was taken without warning.
Stephanie Kraybill, one of the two absent school board members, later that evening wrote, “I am disgusted with the decisions this board continues to make, coupled with the shady way that my colleagues continue to conduct business, both tonight and since the 2022 candidates were seated.”
Kraybill was reportedly referring to Republican school board members Melinda Mason, board vice chair; Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart.
The New Hanover County NAACP blasted Foust’s firing, calling for more “transparency” from the school board. Other critics of the school board allege it's main interest was politics, not education.
In August, 2023, Board Vice Chair Mason, who had actually campaigned for her board seat on a promise to fire Dr. Foust in 2022, was the only board member to vote against renewing his contract.
Mason publicly accused Dr. Foust of presiding “…over the dissemination of obscene materials to the children of New Hanover County. Under the General Statutes of North Carolina this is a Class 1 felony, and grounds for Foust’s immediate removal from office – and more.”
Mason also accused Foust of presiding over discriminatory policies. “…including segregated classes on the basis of race and gender.”
Still, three of the other board conservatives backed off their objections to his leadership then, refusing to go along with the false accusations.
But NHC Republican Party Chairman Nevin Carr was not pleased that they did.
“This county was not satisfied with Democrats running our school system, so in the last election we rose up and swept the entire school board with Republicans. We expected sweeping changes as a result, and there are none more important than the person in charge of our entire school system. You have every right to be furious with the recent school board decision (1-6) this past Tuesday to extend the contract of Superintendent Dr. Charles Foust, a Democrat, for another 3 years [sic],” Carr wrote to county GOP members then.
Carr urged more Republicans to run in 2024 to “…get conservatives into government positions where they can protect our liberty and stop this freak society the Democrats are currently creating for our kids.”
Republican board member Pat Bradford wanted to make a motion to fire Foust last January for “cause” because he closed the Career Readiness Academy for special needs students at Mosley School in favor of transferring students there out, and using the school to help “newcomers” refugee migrant families, based on two existing newcomers schools in Guilford County.
The board, however, angry that it had not been consulted first, reversed that decision and retained the program.
Dr. Foust was then accused of “woke education.”
Foust grew up in Sedalia, right outside of Greensboro, and credits his parents with prioritizing education above all else in his life.
He attended NC A&T University, and drove a school bus to earn an income during those years. After graduating, his first job was as a Guilford County teacher. Foust later rose to principal there, and then left North Carolina for a position with the Independent School System in Houston, Texas.
He earned his Education Doctoral degree in 2017 from the University of Houston.
Foust then came back to North Carolina to work as a School Performance Officer in Union County Schools. But he didn’t there stay long. In 2018, he was hired to become superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools, successfully turning that system around academically after just a year.
He was hired by NHCS in July, 2020 in the midst of the pandemic from a list of 39 highly qualified candidates. But controversy always seemed just around the corner.
In April 2022, Foust got in trouble with many NHCS teachers after writing an article accusing them of using a "bless your heart’ curriculum, where they lower expectations of their students because of their home life. His stance has been that Black children throughout the county are being failed by the system,” a petition circulated to get him fired then stated.
Over 1,000 people signed that petition at the time.
On his Linkedin page online, Dr. Foust now refers to himself as “Former Superintendent at New Hanover County Schools.”
He also reposts something from a group known as “Leadership First,” which says, in part, “Remember to always value yourself enough to have the courage to walk away from individuals who fail to acknowledge your true worth and appreciate your unique qualities.”
In reaction to that prescription, Foust wrote, “And trust me, it’s liberating.”
Dr. Charles Foust may pursue a lawsuit against the NHCS Board, published reports state.
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MICHELE MORROW
ROBINSON’S REMARKS ABOUT
“SOME FOLKS NEED KILLING”
LATEST IN VIOLENT MAGA TALK
By Cash Michaels
Recent controversial remarks from NC Lt. Governor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson about “Some folks need killing” are not only drawing renewed attention to his penchant for uttering divisive statements, but are the latest example of violence-tinged remarks coming from North Carolina conservative candidates running for the state’s highest offices.
In the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent historic decision granting presidents and former presidents “absolute immunity” for their official acts, talk of political violence from former President Donald Trump if he wins the 2024 election is increasingly alarming political observers given the legacy of the January 6th, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol.
Candidates like Robinson who openly support Trump's reelection, help create an atmosphere where such talk is tolerated, observers say.
Robinson joins Republican state superintendent of Public Instruction nominee Michele Morrow, and GOP candidate for state attorney general Dan Bishop as going on the record with talk about political violence.
As a videotape and published reports show, Robinson was addressing a conservative church in White Lake in Bladen County for its “God and Country Day" on Sunday June 30th.
At one point during his address to the predominately white congregants, the lt. governor said: “We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. You know there was a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield and guess what we did to it? We killed it. We didn’t quibble about it, we didn’t argue about it, we didn’t fight about it, we killed it! When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we flew to Japan, and we killed the Japanese Army and Navy. We didn’t even quibble about it. ‘I didn’t start this fight, you did! You wanna be left alone, you shoulda left me alone.’ We didn’t argue and capitulate and talk about, ‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t fight the Nazis that hard.’ No, they’re bad; kill them. Some liberal somewhere is gonna say that’s awful. Too bad! Get mad at me if you want to. Some folks need killing.”
State Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover) reacted to a tape of Robinson’s remarks on X (formerly Twitter) by saying, “This rhetoric must be denounced by each and every leader in the NCGOP. Advocating for people to be killed. If that’s your brand of Christianity Mister Robinson, you can keep it.”
A spokesperson for Robinson’s campaign replied that “He was talking about America fighting the Axis Powers in WWII; your lies are despicable and a great example of why the voters have put the Democrat Party on the back bench in NC.”
The problem with that explanation is that Robinson began his remarks by saying, “We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. You know there was a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield and guess what we did to it? We killed it.”
The World War II analogies then immediately followed.
Though she has mostly stayed out of the limelight since her surprise victory in the GOP primary for state supt. of Public Instruction, MAGA candidate Michele Morrow is still trying to shake the stigma of previously posting on social media that certain Democrats should be killed.
“[Morrow has] called for a pay-per-view execution of former President Barack Obama, whom she considers a war criminal,” WRAL-TV reported last March. “She also called for the executions of other prominent Democratic politicians and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda.”
Morrow’s Democratic opponent for state supt. of Public Instruction, former Guilford County Schools Supt. Mo Green, blasted her social media remarks, saying, “We should not tolerate this,” and that her posts reveal Morrow’s “…much darker view of the world…fueled by violence.”
The third MAGA conservative candidate running for top office in North Carolina is Rep. Dan Bishop (R-Union). When Bishop served in the state House, he was infamously known as the primary sponsor of 2016’s HB 2 “the bathroom bill,” which denied transgender people the right to use the public restroom facilities of their choice. The bill, which became law when former NC Gov. Pat McCrory signed it, cost North Carolina hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business revenue and job opportunities as a result. The Republican-led legislature was later forced to rescind the measure.
Now a conservative congressman running for state attorney general, Bishop issued a statement decrying former Pres. Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of bribing a porn star with $130,000 to remain quiet about their alleged affair prior to the 2016 presidential election.
"Today's verdict is a travesty for America. This was a rigged trial designed for one outcome: to 'Get Trump.' Leftists would rather shred the Constitution and destroy the rule of law than face Trump in a fair fight. Americans see through the farce,” Rep. Bishop said in a statement afterwards.
“Lawfare has reached its Waterloo. A reckoning is coming for gangster government."
“Waterloo” was an infamous 1815 battle fought near what is now known as Belgium in Europe, which marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It is considered to be one of bloodiest days of those wars.
Former Pres, Trump is also noted for employing violent language during his run for re-election, saying recently that there will be a ‘bloodbath” if he loses, and that if he wins, he may seek “retribution,” though he later tried to soften that by saying “success” at winning would be his retribution.
Some observers call what Trump and his MAGA followers are doing is practicing “the politics of fear.”
Many of Trump’s supporters called his NY felony conviction “an act of war.”
In recent story on current politically violent talk, The NY Times reported that we should expect to hear more of it in the coming months, and that it, again, creates a dangerous atmosphere in the nation.
“So far, the politicians who have used this rhetoric to inspire people to violence have not been held accountable,” Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official who has studied the ties between extremist rhetoric and violence, told The NY Times. “Until that happens, there’s little deterrent to using this type of language.”
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