Chuck Francis will again return to chair a Haywood County School Board that has set high marks for achievement, climbing into the top 10 percent of all districts in the state.

Haywood County Schools is at a crossroads, making this year’s crowded election for school board a pivotal one.

On Tuesday Nov. 8, voters in Haywood County will decide from amongst a slew of candidates seeking election to the Haywood County Board of Education in a non-partisan race. 

Let’s be completely honest: the Haywood County School Board’s long-time practice of recording its work sessions makes it one of the most transparent elected boards in the region. No other boards in Haywood County do the same, and I’m betting not many in the entire state record work sessions. For that, the school board should be commended.

So when School Board Chairman Chuck Francis announced Aug. 4 that the board would stop recording those sessions, many of us who argue for open government were incensed. When a board embraces openness, going backwards seems much worse and more suspicious. Because every presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in the early 1970s has released their tax returns, Donald Trump’s refusal to do so arouses suspicion.

Admittedly, the issue of recording work sessions and regular board meetings on video would be mostly moot if the public took more of an interest in them; indeed, Haywood County Board of Education Chairman Chuck Francis expressed his “disappointment” in low attendance at the meetings.

Just prior to the Haywood County Board of Education’s work session on Aug. 4, Chairman Chuck Francis unilaterally decreed that the meeting’s required minutes would be recorded manually.

Haywood County Schools has been a part of my life for 24 years now — as a journalist, the husband of a teacher, and the parent of three children who were each students for 13 years in the system — and never has there been a time when I have heard more criticism about its leadership. 

I sort of get it — you close a school, that’s what happens. Understandably, people get emotional. But the larger, more important issue for parents and taxpayers, though, is whether the school system is in good hands. Is there any validity to the voices critical of Superintendent Anne Garrett and the school board’s leadership through these trying times?

A little-known contract crafted in 1980 will take center stage in coming months as Haywood County school officials and county leaders sort out who owes who what if the school system gets the boot from its central office location.