The Craven County Board of Education voted to close Graham A. Barden Elementary School and extend the closing date to sell F.R. Danyus Elementary School/former site of West Street School; tabled a decision to increase fuel rates; approved a resolution to extend the Apple iPad lease pending approval by the Craven County Commissioners; and more.
The Craven County school board approved several items during their meeting on May 19, 2026 at the Administration Building in New Bern, NC.
Chairman Lee Kirkman (District 2), Lori Spiece (District 3), Jennifer Dacey (District 4), Amy Davis (District 5), Lauren Kitzinger (District 6), Darlene Gibbs (District 7) attended the meeting from the Administrative Building and Patti Mason participated via remotely. The meeting agenda and packet here.
Superintendent’s report
Dr. Matthew Cheeseman talked about district updates and congratulated graduates of the Class of 2026.
Public input
A former board member talked about the process for public input regarding the decision to close Graham A. Barden (Elementary School) and asked the board to delay the decision for at least a year. She said, “If you want input to be effective then it needs to be done in a manner that everyone is heard.” She continued, “If we know that the closure of Havelock Middle School is a done deal, then we can go ahead and start moving those kids.” She noted that some of them may say it will be a busing issue, but she thought it was still feasible.
Another citizen said he was opposed to the proposed increase in transportation fees for yellow and activity buses. He said it “places an unreasonable burden directly on students, teachers, coaches, advisers, and schools already operating under very tight budgets.” He continued, “The reality is simple. Fewer field trips, reduced academic enrichment opportunities, fewer athletic contests and non-conference competitions, reduced participation in band events and competitions, fewer course FFA and CTE travel opportunities, increased financial burdens on booster clubs and parents, and schools being forced to choose between transportation and student development,” he said. He also said the programs keep students engaged, disciplined, motivated and connected to school and they teach communication, teamwork, leadership, accountability, career readiness and skills.
Someone else said she thought the state forces districts to pay for rules like keeping K-3 class size small and buying every child a laptop for state testing, but they don’t give them the money. She felt teachers were spending too much time on paperwork instead of teaching. She also noted that the schools’ savings account has been depleted. She asked the board to consider eliminating some of the technology.
Another person noted that computers students use is costing a significant amount of money and questioned if there was a return on investment.
Break
The board took a break.
Meeting minutes
Board members Kirkman, Spiece, Dacey, Davis, Gibbs voted to approve the meeting minutes. Kitzinger didn’t raise her hand and the chairman said there was one abstention.
Editor’s note: It looks like “North Carolina city and county governing board members have a duty to vote,” according to the NC School of Government website. We asked for clarification on the reason for abstention and requested a copy of the board’s Rules of Procedure but have not received a response by press time.
Donation
The board approved a motion to accept a donation of $18,000 from the Carolyn Willey Lovett Trust for “the use for kindergarten programs and reading programs” at Albert H. Bangert Elementary School.
Exceptional Children contracts
Director of Accountability and Exceptional Children Programs Dr. Hillary Boutwelll presented information on contracts for nursing services with Bayada Home Health Agency, Maxim Healthcare Services, Amergis Healthcare Staffing, and Thrive Skilled/Aveanna for Exceptional Children’s department. “The estimated salary cost for contract nursing for the 2026-2027 school year would be $732,600. The estimated salary cost for Related Services is $2,320,898” according to the contract information. “Special State Reserve funds can be requested to recover nursing contract services. However, funds are dependent upon state approval and disbursement of funding,” the document.
Jennifer Dacey said, “So to our friends in the General Assembly who I have heard say things like we’d like to privatize public education, there is no private school that would provide the individualized level of care that we provide to our students in some cases up to their 20-21st birthday.”
The board approved the contracts.
Read to Achieve camp plan
Director of Elementary Education Jason Griffin talked about the Read to Achieve camp and said students could take an assessment one-on-one with a teacher using the iPad. He said 292 students are invited to camp and he thought they would get at least half of the students. He said they scaled the camps back “to eight campsites due to rising costs in transportation.” He said Bridgeton, James W. Smith, and Vanceboro will operate their own individual campsites and JT Barber, Oaks Road and Trent Park will be combined and Bangert and Ben Quinin would be combined. He said Brinson and Creekside would be combined, Gerganus and Graham A. Barton would be combined and Roger Bell and Havelock would be combined. The camp cost was estimated at $163,771, which was said would come from the state. The board approved the plan.
Out-of-state and water activity field trips
The board approved the following field trips: Tucker Creek Middle School’s Technology Student Association Nationals at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD; Havelock High School’s JROTC students’ trip to Camp Seafarer, Arapahoe, NC; and West Craven High School JROTC students’ trip to The Citadel in Charleston, SC.
Grants
The Board of Education approved a request from the School Nutrition Department for Craven County Partners in Education to submit two grant applications to the Duke Energy Foundation Grant program to purchase a used forklift and to construct “covered areas at each of the outdoor freezer entrances,” according to the meeting packet.
Increase in fuel costs
Director of Facilities Jermaine Smith reported fuel costs have increased and proposed raising the fee for yellow buses from $2.30 per mile to $3.33 per mile and activity buses from $1.00 per mile to $2.50 per mile.
Craven County Schools currently operate 141 yellow buses, which are funded by the state. They travel 9,085 miles a day and routes are between 1-2 hours long. They have 33 activity buses that are used for athletic events and field trips and athletic events in and out of state, which are locally funded.
The fuel costs have increased by 67.1 percent since the beginning of the 2025-26 school year. The cost rose from $2.55 per gallon to $4.26 per gallon, as of March 2026. The director said the rise impacts daily route operations, activity buses, field trips, athletics and extracurricular travel, according to Transportation supporting documents.
Director Smith reported that the current Activity Bus rate is $1.00 per mile and the Yellow Bus rate is $2.30 per mile, which has been the same since 2016. He requested a rate change from $1.00 to $2.50, a mile for Activity Bus usage and a rate change from $2.30 to $3.33 for Yellow Bus usage. He also noted Craven County Schools “just purchased five new buses about a week ago and it’s $170,000 for a yellow school bus just for one.”
Dacey said, “the more knowledgeable economists on this issue, they’re all saying at the moment that even if the conflict in the Middle East ends quickly, the price of fuel is not going to rapidly decrease. It’s going to take some time for that price equalization to occur.” She said they needed to plan to make ends meet.
Spiece asked, “How does this impact our extracurricular activity groups? So, when sports teams and things, the band need to utilize activity buses, how does it impact them directly? Are they having to pay a higher rate or getting charged a higher rate in their departments for us to do these things?”
“That is correct because the fuel is actually being taken out of our budget. So anytime that anybody takes a field trip and extracurricular activities, the fuel cost is coming out of our budget,” the director said.
Kirkman said, “You’ve (Transportation Department) actually been subsidizing the fuel cost absorbing that in your budget.”
The director said the state provides the yellow buses; we have to buy the white activity buses. He said they just purchased five new buses about a week ago, and it’s $170,000 for a yellow school bus. He said that didn’t have anything to do with the increase in fuel rates.
“Groups that use them and what have you just paying a fraction of what it actually cost fuel wise and the rest of it’s been coming out of your budget which is tightening because of increased operation cost as well,” Kirkman said.
Dacey said, “Economists on this issue, they’re all saying at the moment that even if the conflict in the Middle East ends quickly, the price of fuel is not going to rapidly decrease. It’s going to take some time for that price equalization to occur.”
Gibbs asked, “Can you tell me how many miles per gallon the activity buses get?”
“So, it varies. We have a 60-gallon tank and a 72,000-fuel tank. So, the bigger buses with the fuel tanks are the best buses to take when you’re going long distance,” Smith said.
The board tabled the issue until the next meeting.
Editor’s note: We reached out to Craven County Schools on May 21 and asked about the cost of diesel fuel. We also asked if generators are used for electricity load management, to run refrigeration, and/or as temporary backup but have not received a response by press time.
Freedom Middle School (Tucker Creek Expansion) update
Dr. Stuart Blount reported on the progress of Freedom Middle School and said the school, district and the board leadership will need to make decisions on combining two athletic programs and two band programs.
Heidi Daly reported the “only change in the last 30 days is we had a payment to JM Thompson pay number two for 53,340. So that brings the total fiscal year to date to $1,267,899 and then the remainder of $15,404,525.” The total project cost of the Freedom Middle School (Tucker Creek Expansion) is $17,996,750.
K-5 Apple iPad lease
Marlena Quinn said 4,560 elementary school devices needed to be purchased. The total financed amount is $2,625,000 over a 4-year term with an interest rate of $2.49% per year with an annual payment of $656,295 over a 4-year term. Jason Griffin said the State Statute said, “the State Board of Education establishes testing guidelines and under those guidelines it mandates that schools rely on school issued electronic devices, computers or tablets preloaded with the test application for all assessments grades thru 3-12.”
After a discussion, which was partially inaudible, the board approved two resolutions – one was a resolution for the Board of Education to approve the lease pending the approval of the Craven County Board of Commissioners.
Potential closure of Craven Virtual Academy
The superintendent recommended that the board allow him to move forward with the potential school closing of Craven Virtual Academy. Someone said, “So moved.” Someone seconded it. The video feed’s sound was inaudible, and it appeared six members raised their hands.
Matthew Cheesaman also recommended that the board approve the closure of Graham A. Barden Elementary School effective June 30 and let the superintendent take action to implement the closure. Lee Kirkman (District 2), Lori Spiece (District 3), Jennifer Dacey (District 4), Amy Davis (District 5), Lauren Kitzinger (District 6), Darlene Gibbs (District 7) voted for a motion to close the school.
Meeting Schedule
The board approved a motion to maintain their current meeting schedule.
Resolution to discontinue using certain language
Without saying anything about a proposed a resolution that would discontinue the use of “Social and Emotional Learning…” Jennifer Dacey said, “I think we all feel the pressure to be more sensitive to competition in the education marketplace and so I think the resolution speaks for itself and would be happy to entertain questions.”
Patti Mason said she had two questions, but they were inaudible on the meeting video.
“It’s a resolution about how we need to proceed to make our public schools more reflective of what we want our community to know what we’re doing,” board member Dacey said.
The board approved the resolution.
Board comments
Remote attendee Patti Mason began to talk about public comments but the sound from the video feed was inaudible.
Several members talked about their decisions to close the school, events and other things.
Closed session
The board spent over two hours in closed session and then approved a resolution granting an extension to the closing date for the sale of FR Danyus Elementary School/former site of West Street School at 700 and 712 West Street in New Bern to the Housing Authority of the City of New Bern for $385,000. The end date is now Dec. 19, 2026.
Human Resources report
Dr. Boone presented the HR report and the board accepted it, which can be found in the meeting packet here.
Related news
The Craven County Board of Education talked about the 2026-27 budget considerations in January 2026. In April, the superintendent “recommended requesting an additional $3.8 million in local operating funds and $1,437,537 in additional capital outlay funding (from the Craven County Commissioners), with the possibility of refinement pending county funding decisions and final state budget adjustments,” according to meeting minutes. Patti Mason said it could cause the commissioners to raise taxes by 4 cents. Board members Kirkman, Spiece, Dacey, Davis, Kitzinger and Gibbs voted for the proposed budget and Mason voted against it.
On May 5, Craven County Schools asked the Craven County Board of Commissioners to consider their budget in the amount of $29,346,954.
The Board of Education will hold a special meeting on May 27 at 8:30 a.m., according to their website.
The county commissioners will hold a public hearing on the annual county budget on June 1, 2026, at 6 p.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room at the Craven County Administration Building, 406 Craven St. in New Bern, NC. The agenda packet should be available here a few days before the meeting.
By Wendy Card, editor. Send an email with questions or comments.