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Although
the board of directors of the National
DuBois Alumni Association rejected her
proposal to lease or rent space in a
renovated building on the 17-acre
campus, Bettie Murchison plans to
continue three contract programs with no
interruptions in service.
Actually Murchison was not
told about the board vote on that or
that they had also accepted her
resignation. “Another board member told
me that.”
“I am feverishly looking for
space,” Murchison said Tuesday. The
office space would be for her staff and
for the alternative school program for
students suspended by the Wake County
school system, the mental health
counseling program with 200-plus clients
and HopeBuilders, which mentors young
adults to prepare them for jobs.
Murchison said the work will
continue starting March 1 “even if we
temporarily have to work out of my
living room. We really just need space
for the administrative offices and an
area for the computer lab for children
in the long term suspension.” The mental
health counselors go to their clients’
homes.
The DuBois alumni board had
not decided to continue the programs,
Murchison said. “I made them aware of
the grant programs,” she said.
Applying for those grants is
“labor intensive and requires a lot of
background work, a lot of hands,” she
said. “You can’t apply for it today and
get it tomorrow.” Murchison and staff
members were working on the grant
applications while the board met
Saturday – and in the same room because
of the lack of space at the center.
Murchison’s goal was “to
assure people they were not left without
access to the mental health services, to
make sure our families receive the
services they deserve and need and we’re
contracted to do.” Had it been left to
the alumni board, she said, “There would
have been a gap in services.”
The after-school tutoring
program will continue under the auspices
of the alumni board at the DuBois campus
buildings. “Eugene (Perry, the board
president, also known as Lawrence)
announced they would continue programs.’
As for the YMCA summer camp,
Murchison said, “They will have to
negotiate that with the new executive
director or the board or whoever. That’s
not something I will be involved in
unless they want to have it at the
location we’re at.” The Kerr Banks
Family YMCA in Wakefield had planned to
expand the summer camp program.
All the equipment, from
office furniture to computers to the
kitchen equipment donated in hopes of a
culinary arts school, will remain at the
center. “We’re starting from scratch,”
Murchison said. “A desk is just a table
with drawers. I have this wonderful
staff that will work out under an oak
tree if they have to.”
Because of problems that
began with the president’s election
during the annual alumni meeting on
Labor Day weekend last year, Murchison
had been anticipating she would be fired
or be forced to resign. On Jan. 11, to
continue the programs, she and three
others incorporated the W.E.B. DuBois
Community Development Corporation. The
board members are Marshall Harvey of
Raleigh, who has been a consultant on
many projects; Haywood Massenburg of
Wake Forest, a DuBois alumni who
resigned from the national board at the
last meeting; and Brenda Williamson of
Raleigh.
Perry, who has not informed
Murchison of her resignation or any
board decisions, is her cousin. |
