Community speakers press district for discipline transparency and highlight meal debt
Summary
Two public commenters asked the Lincoln County Schools board for clearer public information after a reported racial harassment incident and urged community support to erase roughly $9,000 in student meal debt.
Two community members used the public-comment period at the Oct. 14 Lincoln County Schools Board of Education meeting to press the district for details about disciplinary actions in a racially charged student incident and to offer community support for unpaid student meal accounts.
Reverend Kino Kennedy, identifying himself as pastor of Poplar Springs AME Zion Church, said the district publicly condemned racial harassment of a Lincoln High School student four months earlier but has not provided details about which policies were applied or how they were enforced. "The community still wants to know still doesn't know how the district applied policy 43 29 slash 73 11," Kennedy said, asking the board to provide clarity without naming individuals. "We're not asking for names. We're asking for truth because public trust requires public clarity."
Matt Sinn, who said he has supported local schools and volunteers with an educator warehouse, told the board he helped pay down a nearly $9,000 balance in unpaid school meal debt at the end of the last year and urged more community involvement or fundraising to address the issue. "The public school school meal debt at the end of the year was almost $9,000," Sinn said, and encouraged parents who qualify to register for meal assistance programs.
Board attorney Dean Shatley read the public-comment rules before speakers began; each speaker was allowed three minutes. The board did not provide additional comment during the public-comment period recorded in the transcript.
The speakers raised separate but related concerns about district transparency and community responsibility. Kennedy sought public reporting on which district policies governed discipline and whether those policies were enforced; Sinn urged community action to address meal debt and recommended fundraising and parental registration for assistance programs.
The meeting proceeded to a closed session later in the agenda under North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11 to discuss student personnel matters and attorney-client privileged matters. The board returned to open session and stated that "no action was taken."
