By Beth Cassidy
Enterprise Record

Superintendent Dr. Darrin Hartness took the opportunity at the Dec. 6 school board meeting to address, as he said, “elected officials and the handful of citizens who constantly criticize our school district and the board of education.”
At the school board meeting last week, one resident who regularly speaks at the meetings, Randy McDaniel Sr., said he could not understand “what justified the fireworks in this room on Dec. 6.”
And James Kowles, another regular at the meetings, reminded the board, “We are all citizens and have the right to speak our minds.”
During the board comments portion of the meeting, it was board member Steve Ridenhour who was first to speak his mind.
Ridenhour, reading from a piece of paper he held, said, “I am concerned if we publicly question people that speak out, it could keep others from expressing their concerns in the future.”
When firms were being considered to assess facilities needs on Davie campuses, two residents, Bill Foust and Randy McDaniel Sr., and one county commissioner, Carl Humphrey, raised concerns about a conflict of interest should a firm that had as a consultant former Superintendent Dr. William Steed, be hired. That firm was Moseley Architects and was subsequently not chosen, but the comments made about Steed in a letter to the editor prompted all school board members, except Ridenhour, to …