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Thank you for your article of July 9, “More changes for the Polk County Board of Education.” It reported action by the North Carolina legislature to take away one of Tryon’s seats on our school board.

A local bill concerning Southport was introduced in May and amended in committee on June 20 to include this Polk County measure, as well as directives to many other counties. By June 26, the bill had been passed by both the House and Senate and enacted into law.

Did I miss the community discussion about this? Did Tryon and Polk County residents have a chance to weigh in on changing the school board structure that’s been in place since the merger? No.

This happened just like last year when the legislature told Polk County to change our school board elections from nonpartisan to partisan. And when the legislature changed the schedule of our town elections in Tryon, Columbus and Saluda.

In none of these matters were the people of Polk County given any public notice, allowed any public hearing, or even offered any public explanation for why.

When I was a Republican many years ago (I am unaffiliated now), the party believed that local matters were best decided by local folks. Raleigh Republicans don’t think that now! We must do as they tell us.

Why do we stand for that?

 

Doug Clark

Tryon