By Miles Layton

COLUMBIA — Tyrrell County Board of Education member Mike Cole voted against a security equipment purchase Tuesday because it lacked competing bids, and he pushed back on pressure to approve a floor plan for the county’s planned consolidated school before board members had time to study it.

Cole also moved to extend Superintendent Brianna Williams’ contract by one year, a motion that drew a debate over evaluation procedures and was not resolved before the board went into closed session.

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The five-member board approved a school improvement plan, budget amendments, a surplus-property process and the minutes of earlier meetings. It also voted to make a final decision on the new school’s floor plan no later than its Nov. 16 work session.

The loudest exchange of the night came during Williams’ presentation of the proposed site and floor plan for the new school, which will be built with a $62 million state grant that requires no local match. Williams said the plan grew out of 17 small-group meetings and three traffic-scoping meetings with the N.C. Department of Transportation held since Sept. 28.

Board members said it was their first look at the color-coded drawing, which Williams said still needed about nine changes. Williams told the board the project could not advance without a decision.

“The next phase of construction cannot happen until y’all decide on a floor plan, whether that’s tonight, whether that’s at the work session, whether that’s in December,” Williams said.

Former Superintendent Nelson Smith, who is retired and whom I saw at Tuesday’s county commission meeting, too, urged the board from the audience to act that night.

“Y’all need to do something tonight,” Smith said. “We’re two months behind.”

Smith said a vote would let the architects and engineers begin additional work, and that the plan must then go to the state Department of Public Instruction for approval. He said the design reflected input from teachers across the grade levels.

“Y’all went way farther than what I’ve done in the past, and you’ve got so much input from people who will be using this facility,” Smith said.

Smith said he had been involved in the building’s safety planning from the start. “This is going to be as safe as you can possibly build a pre-K thirteen school,” he said. “You don’t do it any safer than this.”

Cole objected to the pressure.

“Being behind is not an excuse to me feels like you’re jamming this down my throat,” Cole said.

Cole had said earlier in the exchange that he wanted time to review the plan. “So I need time to process this too respectfully,” he said.

Board Chairman Joni Liverman said she shared the concern about voting on an unfinished plan. “For me personally, voting on something that’s not finalized, I can’t put my name on that until I see the actual plan,” Liverman said. “I wouldn’t do that for my own house.”

Smith said the board was being asked to approve the outcome for the building, not every detail inside it. “What y’all need to prove is the outcome for the building, not necessarily what each wing is going to be,” he said. “That can be changed.”

He said later changes would be possible. “There’ll be many other opportunities to make all kinds of changes,” Smith said. “He just needs to know: Is this what y’all want as far as the layout?”

Williams said she understood the board’s position.

“I’m at the pleasure board for you guys to decide when you want to do it,” she said.

The board settled on a deadline rather than a vote. It approved a motion to make a final decision on the floor plan no later than the Nov. 16 work session, and Williams said the architect would send updated drawings and large printed copies in advance. The vote was 5-0.

Liverman said she and Dr. Jana Rawls would attend a regional school construction meeting in Greensboro on Sunday and share what they learn with the board.

Williams said the design, drawn by architect Jimmy Hite of Hite Associates and design-build firm WIMCO, keeps elementary and secondary students in separate wings, with shared spaces including the cafeteria, gym and administrative offices. She said a community survey drew 209 responses and that safety and security ranked first, at 68 percent.

Liverman asked whether the plan left room for flexible classroom space in the elementary wing. Williams said square footage was the limit. “Right now we’re about ten thousand square feet over,” she said.

Cole’s vote against the security purchases came earlier, during the budget portion of the meeting. The board was asked to approve several purchases funded by a state safety grant, including a three-year visitor-management subscription, iPads for guest check-in stations, a new radio repeater tower at the maintenance shop and automated external defibrillators with storage cabinets. The AED order, at $14,969.29, was the only one with three quotes.

Interim Chief Finance Officer Kristy Christenberry told the board the repeater is needed because the district lost its main repeater across the street after it was moved down the road. “I can’t talk to a bus from this building,” Christenberry said.

Christenberry said the repeater had only one quote, from the vendor that supplied the district’s existing radios. A school staff member said replacing that vendor would mean replacing all of the district’s radios and licensing. Board member Dr. Jana Rawls said she was familiar with the cost from her earlier work overseeing safety. “Those license run into tens of thousands of dollars to replace a repeater,” she said.

Cole asked whether the district’s own rules for others should apply here.

“So we were asking for three quotes from everybody else, right?” Cole asked.

Christenberry replied that no other quotes were available.

“I’ve been at the bottom. I’ve received this stuff from the top, and they got rules for thee, but not for me,” Cole said. “I can’t support it. Sorry, I need three quotes.”

He added, “But I’m only one vote.”

The purchases passed, with Cole casting the lone dissent.

Under board policy, purchases over $10,000 require board approval. Christenberry said the visitor-management quote came in just under that threshold after a late revision, and she included it to show all the components together.

Also, the board approved two fiscal year 2027 budget amendments. The first set the beginning budget with no changes from a previously presented resolution. The second adjusted state and local funds. Christenberry also noted that the district expects to pay about $122,000 this year to charter schools, mostly in Washington County, out of local current expense money. “This comes off the top,” Williams said.

Cole’s questions earlier in the meeting focused on student behavior and testing. After a presentation from Columbia Middle School Principal Clarence Pointe II, Cole asked about vaping at school. Pointe said the problem was down at least 50 percent in the last two weeks and that incidents involving THC or marijuana are referred to law enforcement, but tobacco vapes are not.

“Is that a school choice not to do the tobacco?” Cole asked.

Pointe said some parents had told staff they buy replacement vapes after school confiscates them. “So we’re fighting a problem at home too,” Pointe said.

At the end of the meeting, before the board went into closed session to discuss personnel, Cole moved to extend Williams’ contract.

“I want to apologize to Brianna that we have not done our part,” Cole said. “That we’re penalizing her by not doing this.”

Liverman said she supported Williams but said the contract process requires a formal evaluation, a self-evaluation from the superintendent and a board discussion. She said one board member’s evaluation was still outstanding. “I think that Brianna, you’ve done a phenomenal job,” Liverman said. “I think you have not only uplifted our school system and changed us. I think everybody on here would be on board to extend your contract.”

Cole said the board had already evaluated Williams. “We’ve had seven months,” he said. Another board member said the evaluation was done June 30, and Liverman suggested taking up the contract again at the next work session. The board then voted to go into closed session under G.S. 115C-319.

Earlier in the evening, Tyrrell Elementary Principal Angela L. Tyler presented the school’s early-year reading and math check-in data to the board. The board then approved the school improvement plan for Tyrrell Elementary, the district’s only low-performing school, and voted unanimously to let the operations department begin preparing surplus items for disposal. Williams said the district has accumulated mismatched desks, old filing cabinets and two retired buses, and that proceeds from sales would go to a special revenue fund.