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It's 505 and welcome in to a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. Even though we are about a week removed from the March primary that happened last Tuesday, there are still a couple of races across North Carolina that we are keeping a very close eye on. The one that we have been talking about and you've heard a lot about over the last couple of days has been a race in Rockingham and Guilford County.
That is North Carolina's 26th Senate District, where Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page has extended his narrow lead over Senate President Phil Berger. This is after election officials counted provisional ballots in the Republican primary on Friday. Of the provisional ballots approved by County Board of Elections in both Guilford and Rockingham County, 59 of those additional votes were cast for Page, while only 38 were for Berger. That means that Page's lead, which was just two votes when we joined you last Wednesday morning and we're looking at the immediate unofficial, and I'll continue to know all of these results remain unofficial and it will stay that way until this Friday. That lead is now 23 votes.
The count as it stands this morning is 13,136 votes for Sam Page and 13,113 votes for Phil Berger, a 23-margin, 136 to 113 Page over Berger. On official election night returns had Page ahead of Berger by just two votes, which is one of the closest legislative contests in recent history. Following election night, we were aware that there were 189 provisional ballots remaining to be reviewed across the two counties. Rockingham County accounted for 137 of those, while Guilford County had 52. It is important to note that not all of Guilford County is in the 26th Senate District here in North Carolina.
It is about the northern third of Guilford County. County Board of Elections, all the county board of election offices across the state are scheduled to certify. The results during the official canvas, which will be taking place on Friday.
However, before this occurs, any absentee ballots that need curing or any military or overseas ballots outstanding will also be added to the total, potentially moving the current number. And while I'm not immediately clear on what is left in Rockingham County during the board of elections meeting that took place Friday afternoon in Guilford, county officials there made it clear that there were no outstanding military or overseas ballots. At least that's what was described by the election director in Guilford County Friday afternoon. I guess there could be maybe one or two more that could trickle in, but definitely not a large number in Guilford, not immediately clear in Rockingham. If these results stand, Page would defeat one of the most powerful figures in North Carolina politics in what would be one of the most consequential primary upsets in recent state history for Phil Brown.
Berger. He has served as the Senate President Pro Tem since 2011 and was a central architect of the GOP-led legislative policy agenda for more than a decade. During that period of time, he helped lead efforts to cut income taxes, reshape the state's education policy, and expand the General Assembly's influence over state government. He had been in a rally going back to the year 2000 is when he was first elected to the General Assembly. This race also drew statewide attention because Berger was heavily backed by national Republicans, including, well, President Donald Trump, who endorsed Berger in the primary, while allies of the Senate leader and outside groups spent millions of dollars, potentially as close to as $10 million supporting his campaign.
He remains down 23 votes as of this Monday morning. Page, who also has served as a Rockingham County, has as the Rockingham County. Sheriff, I should say, since 1998, previously led the North Carolina Sheriff's Association, mounted a challenge centered on local issues and public safety. This is not the first time that the two Republicans have clashed in recent years, including over a failed 2023 proposal to expand casinos in North Carolina. That was something being pushed by the leader of the North Carolina Senate in Phil Berger, which would have brought a casino to Rockingham County.
There was an incredible amount of local pushback on that issue, and well, that issue does remain this morning. Looking ahead, the primary winner will be strongly favored in the general election in Senate District 26, which is a strong Republican-leaning district that includes, as we've talked about, all of Rockingham County and northern portions of Guilford County. But because the margin will remain well under 1%. Percent of the total vote. North Carolina law will allow whoever the trailing candidate is to request a recount.
Any recount requests must be filed with the state board of elections by noon on March the 17th. That is a week from Tuesday and the second business day after the county canvas, which will happen on Friday. We have not heard yet from Berger or his team after those additional provisional ballots were added on Friday. He has not publicly said whether he will or will not request a recount. We will keep a very close eye on those details throughout the remainder of this week and bring you the latest totals as soon as we get them right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
You can read the latest on this story over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. In some other statewide news this morning, Burke County has been awarded $3.59 million in FEMA funding for flood mitigation and recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene. In a press release last week, Tim Moore, used to be the Speaker of the North Carolina House, now represents North Carolina's 14th congressional district, said, quote, this funding will help Burke County acquire homes that were severely damaged by Hurricane Helene, providing long-term needed financial relief for homeowners who were hit hardest by the storm. These families have been living with the aftermath for months, and this assistance will help finally clear those damaged structures and return the land to green space. It is an important step towards reducing future flood risks and protecting Burke County families moving forward.
Burke County will receive two separate FEMA awards to support the acquisition and demolition of what are now deemed as flood-prone properties. According to the press release, the majority of the $3.59 million is allocated to the first award of $3.5 million to fund the acquisition and demolition of 13 properties in Burke County. The structures will be removed after the land is purchased.
So you'll have the government buying this land from homeowners and it will be turned and returned to permanent green space with deed restrictions to prevent any future acquisitions. This award is funded at a federal cost share of 75%.
So the Fed's picking up a large tab of that there. The second award, significantly smaller, only consists of $80,000 in federal funding for some Recipient management costs associated with some of the acquisition and demolition. The funding will support the county's administrative activities related to the mitigation project's implementation and oversight. That part of the award, the $80,000 there, is a full 100% federal share. These awards are separate from two additional federal funding awards for Burke County in terms of funding debris removal.
That's under the Stafford Act, as well as through the Public Assistance Alternative Procedures Debris Removal Program. Yeah, it's a mouthful, but another federal program as well. Those were announced in late February as part of a $16.5 million award for areas near Lake Lurb. As well as portions of Burke and Polk counties. The first award of $3.5 million will fund the debris removal from roads and public properties, which includes more than 47,000 cubic yards of vegetation debris and almost 1,000 cubic yards of construction and demolition debris.
Those will be the homes. With the total project cost at $3.8 million, this award is funded at a federal cost share of 90%. The second award of $7.58 million is also a 100% federal cost share. This is for debris removal on a much larger scale, which will include more than 216,000 cubic yards of vegetational debris and more than 12,000 cubic yards of construction and demolition debris. Hazardous leaning trees, hanging limbs, and other goods from either roads or public right-of-ways is a part of that second.
$7.58 million federal match. It has unfortunately taken a little bit longer than I think folks would have hoped, but we continue to cover almost a couple of times a month now additional monies flowing from the federal government, most predominantly FEMA, to portions of western North Carolina. You can catch up with the latest on that as it relates to Burke County this morning by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com, our stories headline: $3.5 million in FEMA funding released to Burke County. Yeah. It's 22 minutes past the hour.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. We've got a follow-up report this morning from the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor. Dave Bollock and his team have uncovered additional alleged financial mismanagement failures within the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School District, including roughly $15 million in expenditures that were kept off the district's books for months. The rapid response special report was released after an earlier investigation into the district estimated nearly $46 million worth of budget deficits. The new report focused on the district's financial activities during the fiscal year 2025, which would have started at July the 1st of 2024 and ran until June the 30th of 2025.
The auditor's office stated that in this period of time, the district delayed recording millions of dollars in costs and failed to follow basic financial oversight practices. With the state auditor saying in a statement, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County Schools remains far from having healthy budgetary practices in place. Approximately $15 million in expenditures were not properly recorded for months. The school system yet again failed to complete monthly reconciliations. During the fiscal year, which, as I mentioned, ended June the 30th of last year's auditors found that the district incurred approximately $15 million in expenses.
However, these expenses were not recorded until September of 2025, which was months after the fiscal year ended, and they were retroactively assigned to June the 30th. The report also identifies a problematic budget transfer that resulted in the subsequent financial shortfall. Going all the way back to September 20th, 2024, the district's finance office transferred $16.99 million from the non-instructional support program to the restart school program. At the time, the source amount held just $13.92 million. Million resulting in a more than $3 million overdraft.
By April 30th, 2025, that overdraft had continued to grow to over $11.34 million. Auditors also found that the district failed to complete required monthly reconciliations comparing what budget revenues were to actual expenditures with figures, which is a basic financial control designed to detect problems before they balloon to where they are at $11.34 million worth of overdrafts. In another finding, the district's Board of Education approved a zero-interest internal loan of up to $6 million from the Child Nutrition Fund to cover some of those cash shortfalls. This agreement lacked clear provisions outlining what the repayment terms would be, interest or penalties, which raised concerns about the integrity of the fund or whether program guidelines. Were properly followed.
Now, here's the interesting part: Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools acknowledged each of the auditors' findings in its response and has begun the process of outlining corrective actions and projected completion dates. This follow-up report was released after the State Board of Education voted unanimously to declare incidents of management failure within the districts following the initial discovery of the $46 million budget gap that came out from the state auditor's office just a few months ago. State Auditor Dave Bollick said that the new findings suggest a broader issues with financial oversight in one of North Carolina's largest school systems, saying the additional findings of financial misconduct that the team uncovered in our follow up show a failure to keep their books straight. Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools owes parents, teachers, and students accountability. Winston-Salem and Forsyth County Schools is among one of the largest districts in North Carolina, serving tens of thousands of students across Forsyth County.
The latest finding builds on financial problems in the district previously reported by Carolina Journal. Earlier reports highlighted a state auditor investigation that uncovered an estimated $46 million budget deficit for the fiscal year 2025 within the school system. The deficit stemmed from multiple management issues, including the use of one-time COVID-19 relief funds to pay for ongoing expenses like salaries, as according to the report. The earlier investigation also found structural budget pressures tied to declining enrollment. Since 2018, the district's student population had dropped by more than 3,000 students, yet the number of full-time Equivalent employees increased by nearly 245 positions, creating a mismatch between staffing levels and funding, which is tied to per-pupil enrollment here in North Carolina, which is one of the funding models for education.
The way in which school districts are and do receive money from state government is that per pupil allotment, meaning that if you are losing students, as the Winston-Salem, Forsyth County Schools has been since 2018, a decline of more than 3,000 students, that is less money that you are receiving from the state each and every year, depending on how many students enrolled and to see that 245 positions were added to the district there is definitely highlighting one of the major problems within the school district. You can read a full copy of the auditor's report. We've got all the details this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, Auditor Follow-Up Finds More Issues in Winston. Salem Forsyth Schools.
Keeping our topics here on education this morning, new data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction shows strong principal retention rates and stable teacher attrition rates in public schools. The findings which were presented to the North Carolina State Board of Elections less than a month ago suggest a continued leveling of teacher departures as well as a slight decline in overall vacancy rates. The report tracked teacher attrition and vacancy rates between March of 24 to March of 25 across the state's 115 public school districts. For the 24-25 school year, the teacher attrition rate was at 10.11%, a bump of less than a quarter of a percentage point from the previous year's 9.88%, which translates to 221 more teachers leaving last year. From a total of 9,107 full-time permanent teaching positions across North Carolina.
According to Dr. Bob Lubke, who is the director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, he says the slight uptick in teacher retention is noticeable, although I don't think it's worrisome. The fact is the North Carolina teacher attrition rate is comparable to attrition rates in other industries. It doesn't mean we stop trying to improve working conditions, but it's certainly no cause for an overhaul of the profession. The report also revealed that teacher attrition remains highest among new educators at 14 to 18 percent and veteran teachers between fifteen and a half and twenty five percent.
For experienced educators, these departures are largely driven by retirement, which is not necessarily or inherently a problem. A factor that board members noted is often a personal decision outside of the direct influence of the state or the Department of Public Instruction. The report also showed a positive trend in principal retention. The attrition rate for principals was 6.1%, with nearly three in five departures attributed to retirement.
So those are some pretty strong numbers there. Those numbers, again, showing that nearly more than three-quarters of principals in low-performing schools remained in their roles.
So things seem to be leveling off there as well. You can read some additional details on that story over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the headline. NC Report touts strong principal retention, stable teacher attrition rates. It's 5:38.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. Since Po Hall was shut down in 2023, there have been a couple of legal challenges filed against NC State University by both individuals that were attending as students and those that worked within the facilities to walk us through the latest legal challenge just filed a couple of months ago. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, for frequent readers over at CarolinaJournal.com or those that have been listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour over the last couple of years, we've talked about a couple of these different legal challenges. You've got one that was just filed last month in January.
Before we get to that, can you kind of walk us through what exactly was going on at Poe Hall and what is the reason behind all of these legal issues? Sure, certainly. Poe Hall opened in 1971 and it served as the education building, also dealing with other departments within the campus and was used quite a bit. It was a center for students to congregate, especially students who were in education at NC State University. And so, for a number of decades, it was a major piece of the North Carolina State University campus.
But the building shut down in 2023 after university officials confirmed in testing that building materials had PCBs, very harmful. And eventually, there was some suggestion that Poe Hall had contributed to health problems. There was an initial legal action by a former staffer/slash faculty member who was trying to stop NC State from taking any steps that would prevent evidence from coming out about the PCBs in Poe Hall. That actually ended up being successful. But then in January, a group of a dozen plaintiffs, nine living former staff and faculty and student members, but also the estates of three people who had died, all filed suit against Etsy State University, basically using what's called a quorum claim.
And that's something that comes out of the early 1990s when a plaintiff can file suit against a government agency saying their constitutional rights under the North Carolina Constitution have been violated and trying to collect damages for that violation.
So that suit was filed, and then later, the same group of plaintiffs filed suit against Monsanto. A company that was alleged to have been involved in the building materials that include the PCBs. Interestingly enough, North Carolina State University has also filed suit against Monsanto, claiming that the company bears some responsibility for this. But the latest development in the suit that was filed by a dozen plaintiffs against NC State is that the university has filed a motion to dismiss the case. And basically, the argument from the university is that the plaintiffs did not follow the proper procedure in how they should attack this case, that they filed a lawsuit in superior court, and that is not something that NC State is subject to have to deal with.
If they really wanted to pursue claims against NC State for its role, they either had to file a tort claim. Or a worker's compensation claim, depending on whether they were a student or an employee. And both of those would have had to go through the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
So basically, the university is saying, no, you can't file a quorum claim against this because you had another opportunity to file an action. And either action that you could have filed has to go through the Industrial Commission, not through Superior Court. And so the court should throw this case out. Mitch, you follow a lot of legal cases and challenges that we talk about here in North Carolina and your understanding, and obviously every case is unique, every case has different factors, based on what you understand with all of the various elements of this case, do you think NC State's got any standing on this? Or is this, as we see many a times, pretty much any effort, any ability to dismiss a case really before it gets off the ground?
Well, you're right that in almost all lawsuits, unless the defendant decides, yeah, I'm liable, I've got to settle, they'll file a motion to dismiss on one of a number of different grounds.
Sometimes it's that the plaintiffs lack standing or that they're asking to failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted, meaning you filed suit, but you're not really asking for something that a court can address. In this case, it's not really the standing or failure to state a claim, but not following the proper procedure. And NC State University being part of state government and being a government entity, there may be some cause to say that this is something that the university can win on. That, you know, if a former student. Wanted to hold NC State accountable for what happened at Pohal, that the proper thing to do would be to file a tort claim under the Industrial Commission, or if a former employee Or even a current employee wanted to file an action that that would be a workers' compensation claim within the Industrial Commission.
And then, because those two different avenues take away some of the sovereign immunity that NC State University has, you could pursue a claim that way. But the university says it does not give up its sovereign immunity for an action that's filed directly in superior court. And another piece of this whole thing that is a quorum claim, which actually comes out from a case from the early 1990s that was filed against the University of North Carolina.
So NC State's chief rival was the basis of this court case that now is the basis for what NC State, the plaintiffs are asking for against NC State. You can only file a quorum claim. If There's no other avenue. For you to get the relief that you're looking for. And NC State is saying that's not the case here.
They can file something with the Industrial Commission and try to get a ruling there. They can't just say, my constitutional rights have been violated. You've got to pay me some damages, because there is another avenue for them to pursue. It remains to be seen whether the courts will respond to that favorably, or if the plaintiffs could say, look, what we're asking for in this quorum claim is different than what we would ask for in an Industrial Commission filing.
So we'll have to wait and see what the ultimate result is. But certainly, NC State is making its case that this is not the proper avenue for these plaintiffs to have pursued when they're suing a government entity like the university. Mitch, is there an added level of complexity to this case? The fact that NC State already has an ongoing lawsuit against Monsanto, who they claim produced some of the materials that now here we are this many, you know, 30 years, 40 years down the line are being linked to, some of these PCBs linked to lingering health effects, things like cancer and that nature. Does that add a level of complexity to a case like this?
It certainly does add complexity to the overall situation because not only is NC State suing Monsanto, but the exact same plaintiffs that are suing NC State are also suing Monsanto. And so they will be on the same side, certainly, in that litigation. But I think one of the things that's going to be interesting to see how the courts resolve is what sort of liability does NC State University have? For the fact that back in the early 1970s, before PCBs were banned, that building materials had these PCBs. One of the arguments that's going to be made against NC State is that it was before 2023, and some may even say long before 2023, that they actually learned that there were PCBs.
And if NC State had shut the building down as soon as they knew that this banned substance was in the building materials, that probably would have helped the university. But the fact that the shutdown of the building didn't happen until 2023, long after people knew PCBs were a problem, and according to the plaintiffs, and I think according to Monsanto in its response to the lawsuit against it, the fact that NC State may have known about the presence of PCBs long before the building was shut down, that could be something that hurts the university.
Now, this is, of course, something that's a claim that's made in the lawsuits, NC State may come back and deny that it actually had any knowledge of PCBs before 2023. But that will be a major source of the litigation.
Well, and Mitch, I can kind of see an interesting situation here. There was a lot of growth and development throughout the state of North Carolina in the 60s and 70s when a lot of these materials were being used. You can imagine, depending on how something like this plays out, other situations popping up with county buildings, school buildings all across the state of North Carolina, with unfortunately having a lot of these building materials be very prominent, not just here across the state, but across the nation as we went through the 60s and 70s. You would imagine that maybe something like this, depending on how it shakes out, could potentially affect cases that we're talking about 20 or 30 years from now as some of these lingering health effects continue to pop up. That's true.
That's something that could crop up. This building, as we said, was put up in the early 1970s, and this was before the ban on PCBs.
So, one of the things I wondered as this case came forward was: are there any other buildings on the NC State campus that have similar situations? Or because NC State is part of a University of North Carolina system, were there other buildings built around the same time at other university campuses that have the same sort of issues?
Now, One would think that after all this time, that if you saw a building that seemed to be linked in some way to a bunch of other health issues, cases of cancer, alleged cases of cancer, that you probably would have seen this by now in other buildings. But that's not necessarily true. It may crop up in other settings. And of course, one of the wrinkles here that's interesting that would be different from a building erected in a private sector is NC State has, as a government agency, some sort of immunity from many lawsuits. And that's one of the things that's being claimed here is that.
If the plaintiffs go forward in the Industrial Commission, some of that immunity goes away. But trying to sue directly in Superior Court, the sovereign immunity remains. And I think that's going to be something that's going to be very interesting to watch, not only in this case, but how this case is resolved. Could help determine what happens if there are other cases in the scenario that you point out, that other buildings built around the same time show that they have similar health issues. How the Po Hall litigation plays out could impact how other cases turn out as well.
We will be keeping a close eye on this story. Mitch will join us as we continue to get updates with that. You can read some additional coverage over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the information this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Mm-hmm. Good morning again. It's 5:55. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9. WBT keeping a very close eye this morning on the very close election up in North Carolina's 26th Senate District.
The race between Sheriff Sam Page and the longtime serving president of the North Carolina Senate, Phil Berger, on Friday. A situation took place in which election officials counted provisional ballots not only in those and not only in that area, but across the state of North Carolina. And with that, well, Sam Page has now extended his lead from two votes to 23 votes, with the final count being, as it stands right now, still unofficial. 13,136 votes for Sam Page, 13,113 votes for Phil Berger. Following election night, 189 provisional ballots remain to be reviewed.
Viewed across the two counties, all of Rockingham in the northern portion of Guilford County. With those new totals in, Page gained 59 votes, Berger 38, leading to that 23-vote delta that exists as of this morning. County Board of Elections are scheduled to certify the results during the official county canvas. That is taking place on Friday, March the 13th.
However, before this occurs, any absentee ballots that need curing or any military or overseas ballots outstanding could also be added to the total, potentially moving the current number.
However, if the results stand, Page would defeat one of the most powerful figures in North Carolina politics in what would no doubt be described as one of the most consequential primary upsets in recent state political history. Phil Berger has been in the North Carolina General Assembly since the year 2000.
However, he has served as the president pro. Thames since 2011, leading and was the essential architect of the GOP-led's legislative policy agenda for more than a decade. Berger was endorsed by President Donald Trump, and outside groups spent nearly $10 million in support of his campaign. It is going to be interesting to watch throughout the remainder of this week. We'll keep an eye on all the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
That's going to do it for a Monday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5-6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. Yeah.
