Pitt County Board of Education members Jill Camnitz and Barbara Owens recognized the potential risk of picking a fight with Chairman Billy Peaden prior to the board’s annual election of officers last year. They strongly believed that board members deserved to weigh information about a State Bureau of Investigation inquiry involving Peaden prior to the vote and acted accordingly.

Now they — and their constituents — are unfairly paying a steep price as Peaden and his supporters exact a political vendetta for that decision. Essentially excluding two of the more thoughtful and experienced board members from committee assignments smacks of petty vindictiveness and arbitrarily harms the cause of public education in this county.

Billy Peaden won election to the school board in 2004 with a campaign that pledged better management of the school system’s financial resources and a greater voice for the rural communities that too often find themselves obscured by the long shadow cast by Greenville. His victory was one of many that put on the board a majority of members who live in and advocate for county residents. That, in itself, is a good thing for public schools.

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