The Craven County commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding to participate as one of 8 counties in the AttainmentNC initiative; receive budget requests and hear about generative AI, environmental assessment, and more during May 4, 2026 meeting at the Craven County Administration Building in New Bern, NC. They will meet again on Monday morning, according to the agenda.
Petition of Citizens for agenda items
One citizen said he thought Craven County Schools needed to have a comprehensive strategy to guide the prioritization of reducing facilities and thought the facility study needs to be updated. Another person said the public-school system appears to be influenced by political agendas rather than educating students. A third person shared his thoughts on the budget.
Consent agenda
Commissioners Tim Mason (District 1), Jason Jones (District 2), Beatrice Smith (District 3), Etteinne “ET” Mitchell (District 4), Shevel “Sherry” Hunt (District 5), Chadwick Howard (District 6), and Denny Bucher (District 7) approved the consent agenda which included budget amendments for a cash donation to the sheriff and state funding for the Health Department, and other things during their May 4, 2026 meeting at the Craven County Administration Building in New Bern, NC.
Proposed budget — Craven County Board of Education
Craven County Schools Superintendent Matthew Cheeseman and Chief Finance Officer Heidi Daly presented the proposed Board of Education budget for FY 26-2027 and funding requests.
The chief finance officer noted the state allotted $1.7 million less than what the planning allotments were for school year 25-26 so they were looking at reducing by at least 21.5 positions out of the state funding.
She also said they could save $625,000 by closing Graham A. Barden and $587,000 by closing Craven Virtual Academy. She also detailed a projected salary increase; retirement rate increase; health insurance increase; teacher supplement with an increase; charter school increase which totaled $1,035,000. She noted increases in insurance premiums and utilities.
She said they received $218,000 from the state (Department of Public Instruction) for Tyler Munis implementation. She said they will be moving from SunPac AS400, which is DOSS software, to Tyler Munis. She said they “put a sunset on that of June 2028. They have also put a sunset on HRMS which is our human resources uh human capital management program and so that is also June 2028” so they don’t have a choice.
She noted the per student average daily membership dropped from $15,091 in 2016-17 to $11,644 in the 2025-26 academic year. The current year ADM funding is $11,838.
The local current expense expenditures total $30,319,675 with Charter School Allocation at $1.8 million; Instructional Services at $13,520,042 and System Wide Support at about $15 million.
Commissioner Mitchell said, “I understand that just closing a school is going to result in let’s say 25% savings because the expenses follow the students. But the facility also has a cost. It still has it needs insurance. It has to have the grass cut. It has to have heating and air due to mold…” She also asked the cost of maintaining the facility until it sells.
Heidi Daly said the numbers she presented are “if the facility is no longer in our possession.”
She said they are proposing a $29,346,954 budget and $3.8 million would be needed to cover the costs.
Proposed budget request — Craven Community College
CCC Chief Finance Officer Jim Millard talked about the following infrastructure projects: New Bern campus — Brock exterior stairwell updates; Bender refurbishments; Digital sign installation; Greenhouse installation; Nursing classroom upgrade; Brock office upgrade; Volt Center — Kitchen floor refurbishments; Havelock Campus — Library refurbishments; and Gate updates.
President Raymond Staats presented the budget and talked about the Corporate Training Center, a 12,000 plus square foot multi-purpose facility.
Editor’s note: The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the CTC was held on June 10.
He said they do three orientations for the nursing program and talked about the surgery tech program. He said they graduated their first night-weekend LPN course which was almost entirely CarolinaEast employees.
Enrollment has grown from 3,182 in 2016-17 to 3,519 in 2025-26, according to the presentation.
Dr. Staats said the Fleet Workforce Education Center project in Havelock started with a 5,000 square foot shell building.
He said they had a ribbon cutting for Starbase Cherry Point which is a partnership with the Department of Defense, Allies for Cherry Points Tomorrow, Craven County Schools and the employees are Craven Community College employees. He said that “deal we worked with ACT because as a nonprofit they were not allowed to employ people. He said he thought about 1,000 fifth graders are going through there every year and noted it’s a regional program for Craven, Carteret, Jones, and Pamlico counties.”
Staats talked about the Public Safety Training Center that includes a 10-lane indoor shooting range, “fire tower, and a two-story burn building, a burn pad, and a 400×600 concrete driver training plan (for Basic Law Enforcement Training).”
He the “generative Artificial Intelligence momentum” and using generative AI to manage their students through the enrollment process. “We’re using it for early intervention for students who maybe are an A student and all of a sudden get two C’s in a row. Machine learning will pick up on that and say there’s something wrong and then we can alert a human being to go make a phone call and find out what’s happening with that student. So, we’re setting up those processes,” he said.
Ray Staats said their club baseball team is the 2025 National Collegiate Club Baseball Association Division 3 champions.
It was noted that Timothy and Linda Ninkin donated $2.46 million to the College Foundation.
A list of summer camps was presented that included cosmetology, music, and other summer camps for elementary (grades 3-5); automotive skills, engineering, write on and full steam ahead camps for middle school (grades 6-8) and welding day camp, 3-D modeling and print workshops for high school (grades 9-12) and babysitting 101 for grades 12-17-year-olds.
The president said the VOLT Center has had eight facilities opened between 2019 and 2025 with 5,516 students. He said they are working on building #9 but he wouldn’t talk much about that because they are waiting for the Environment Protection Agency to give them clearance to advance in the negotiations.
He presented a budget request of $5,929,486 (5.29% increase in funds) which included an increase in salaries; an increase in the retirement system rates; an increase in health insurance; utilities, insurance, operating and maintenance; infrastructure projects at the Corporate Training Center and the Public Safety Training Center; and a capital allocation.
He noted they had “crested over a million dollars for utilities for our campuses this year.”
He said the total operating fund was $55,379,486.
Chairman Bucher said, “it’s really critical that we have the workforce to do the work that these companies need to have done and the Volt Center is a primary, in my opinion, a primary function of doing that.” He said there was no other county that had anything like that, that he was aware of.
“And thank you to the commission. You have a little over $2 million in operating expenses that have gone into that since 2019,” Staats said.
Proposed budget — Juvenile Crime Prevention Council
Juvenile Crime Prevention Council Board Member Albert Lester asked the county commissioners to approve a budget of $320,355 for the council. The BOC approved his request.
Break
The chairman said they were taking a 5-minute recess and told the audience they could call it a day or stay with them.
Economic Development MOU
When they came back into session, Economic Development Director for Craven County (and Craven 100 Alliance Director) Jeff Wood said the county was invited to participate as one of eight counties in the state in the “Attainment NC initiative, a cohort-based model developed and supported by myFutureNC to advance career connected learning and post-secondary attainment. He said, the “initiative is funded at $100,000 a year for two years and brings together key partners across education, workforce, economic development, and industry sectors” which requires the execution of a memorandum of understanding. He also asked them to appoint him as liaison to the companies as well as Leanna Kloc as his alternate. The board approved the request.
Editor’s note: On April 20, the county commissioners voted to immediately “withdraw membership from the East Carolina Council of Governments,” which is “a multi-county, local government, planning and development organization,” as reported here.
Appointments
ET Mitchell nominated Debbie Roberts for appointment to the Craven County Clean Sweep Committee and the board appointed her.
Jason Jones nominated Johnathan Gaskins for reappointment to the Local Emergency Planning Committee and the board appointed him.
Denny Bucher noted a list of upcoming appointments to the Craven Community College Board of Trustees, Craven County Recreation Advisory Council, Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council, Fire Tax Commissioners Board, Fireman’s Relief Fund Board of Trustees, and the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council.
County manager’s report
County Manager Jack Veit read a proclamation recognizing “professional clerks to the boards of county commissioners’ week” and thanked the board’s clerk for her work.
Commissioners report
The commissioners talked about a number of things, and it was noted that the Department of Navy issued a press release related to a draft environmental assessment for the home basing of the E130J Pheonix at MCAS Cherry Point. The release says, “United States Fleet Forces Command has prepared a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) to home base and operate E-130J Phoenix II aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, North Carolina in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and Department of Defense NEPA Implementing Procedures.” The release notes, “The Proposed Action includes home basing Phoenix II aircraft at MCAS Cherry Point, construction of necessary facilities to support the aircraft, and the stationing of approximately 1,000 personnel and their family members.”
Break
The chairman said they would take a two-minute break and then do the petition of citizens.
Petition of citizens for non-agenda items
It’s unclear what people said because there is no video recording of this portion of the meeting. The meeting minutes said three people spoke about the West Street School (FR Danyus Elementary School), one person spoke about prayer, and one person spoke about government waste.
Watch the meeting, except for the second petition of citizens because it was not recorded, here:
Related news
The County Commissioners will meet on June 15, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. in the Administrative Building located at 406 Craven St. in New Bern, NC, according to the meeting agenda and packet here.
By Wendy Card, editor. Send an email with questions or comments.