Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) and other members of the House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform pressed Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) officials on the district’s defiance of state law, promoted resources, educational performance, enrollment, and finances during a contentious hearing on December 10.
Co-Chair Jones warned from the outset that the hearing would be uncomfortable. He told CHCCS Board Chair George Griffin and Superintendent Rodney Trice: “You are here today because you chose to wage war against the law. You chose to deceive the public, and now you are here because you got caught.”
The committee called Griffin and Trice to testify after a video in October showed Griffin bragging that CHCCS “was the only school district in North Carolina…that stood up to the General Assembly” on SB 49, The Parents’ Bill of Rights. The bill became law in August 2023 when the General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. In January 2024, the school board voted unanimously to disregard two provisions of the law: a requirement to notify parents before changing their student’s name or gender, and a prohibition on sex and gender curriculum for children in grades kindergarten through fourth.
Despite repeated assurances to committee members that the district was complying with the law, Griffin eventually acknowledged that he thought the law conflicted with federal anti-discrimination law.
Jones held up three books on a list linked from the equity office’s resources page that could introduce young children to topics that should not be in the curriculum for young students under SB 49.
Trice said he was not familiar with the books or the link, but he said a rogue employee could not have posted the link without approval: “We have a multidisciplinary team that reviews materials or resources, particularly if those resources are going to be shared with parents.”
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools has a reputation as one of the best school districts in the state, and Trice said, “Certainly I would put the success of our students squarely to our parents. They’re very involved with the education and the direction of our school district. They demand high quality curricula, strong instructional approaches in the classroom. And beyond that, I would put our teachers up against any teachers in North Carolina or across the country for that matter.”
He was defensive of the district’s performance, but he did admit, “We struggled like many districts with closing opportunity gaps and achievement gaps in our district.” Committee staff analysis of state standardized testing found black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students performed comparably to their peers in other school districts, and well below Asian and white students in CHCCS. White students were the only racial or ethnic group in CHCCS to outperform the state average for that group. [see graphs below]
“For the better part of a decade,” Trice said, “we’ve seen … declining enrollment,” which he called the district’s “biggest challenge” because enrollment is “one of the primary ways that school districts across North Carolina receive funding to educate their kids.” Rep. Charles Miller (R-Brunswick, New Hanover) was among those who questioned the district’s financial situation considering the district’s shrinking enrollment.
Rep. Mike Schietzelt (R-Wake) put the district’s enrollment and financial challenges in context with the legislature’s budget fight: “There’s a lot of mounting distrust with the public school districts as reflected by the declining enrollment right now.” Noting that the House budget included a significant raise for teachers, he added, “We care about the teachers because we care about the kids, and it makes it really difficult for us to do our job when the leaders of these school districts can’t come in here and even give us a straightforward answer to straightforward questions.”
“What you’re doing is wrong, and you lied to this committee under oath,” Jones emphasized. “You’ve replaced reading, math, and science with guilt, shame, and division. You’re teaching kids to feel guilty, either oppressed based on color of their skin, their family values, or what they believe. And while performing gaps grow wider and test scores fall off a cliff, you focused on one thing, spreading your ideology.”
“Let me be real clear,” he said in conclusion, “This General Assembly will use every tool, every statute, and every ounce of our authority to protect children and to force you to comply with the law. If you don’t follow it willingly, we will hold you to the fire with every legal and legislative mechanism in our power. You’ve made your choice, and we’ve made ours.”