By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The public didn’t have to look far to find its favorite name for Darlington’s new elementary school.
Nearly 1,000 people – community members, students, parents, school district employees – turned in valid “name that school” ballots to the Darlington County School District. And the clear winner was “J.L. Cain Elementary,” the same name as the school that sits next to the new school’s construction site on First Street.
“Cain” got 454 votes out of 958 valid ballots submitted to the school district. The current Cain Elementary will be absorbed into the new school next year, along with another school, Brunson-Dargan Elementary. But only 49 ballots favored “Brunson-Dargan” for the new facility’s name.
After “Cain,” the public’s No. 2 choice was “Dr. Willie Boyd Sr. Elementary,” which got 223 votes. The other three options got little support. “East Darlington Elementary” got 108 votes. “First Street Elementary” got 94. “C.C. Wearring Elementary” got 21. And nine people chose other names not on the ballot.
Results of the balloting were revealed to the Darlington County school board during its Oct. 14 meeting. The board has final say on the new school’s name, but board members did not make a decision last week. Chairman Warren Jeffords said the board planned to take up the school’s name next month.
The board’s “preferred” policy is to name county schools after geographic areas, not people. But that’s not mandatory, and it seems unlikely that the board would reject the public’s wishes after the district went to so much trouble to get input from everyone with an interest in naming the new school.
A committee was set up to consider and recommend a list of possible names for the new school, then the district put out ballots (on paper and online) with six final options: Cain, Brunson-Dargan, Willie Boyd, C.C. Wearring, East Darlington and First Street. (James Lawrence Cain was a pioneering black educator.
Susannah Woods Brunson and Margaret Keith Dargan were well-known local educators. Boyd retired last year after more than 50 years’ service to the school district. Wearring was a longtime principal at Cain.)
The district got a total of 1,156 ballots, district spokeswoman Audrey Childers told the board last week.
Nine hundred came from members of the community, 204 from parents and 52 from school employees. Out of that total, 198 ballots were judged to be invalid – 70 were duplicates; 82 were incomplete; 46 came from people outside the affected attendance zones.
(The ballots also asked people to pick a favorite mascot for the new elementary school. The votes went like this: Bear, 471; Tiger, 432; Eagle, 345; Hawk, 145. The school board also has final say on the mascot.)
The district currently is taking suggestions on names for two other new elementary schools, one being built in Lamar and one being built in Hartsville. If you have ideas, go to the district’s website (www.dcsdschools.org).
In other business during last week’s meeting, Education Superintendent Tim Newman gave the board an update on the school district overall. Among the statistics: District graduation rates have risen from 87.2 percent to 91.5 percent. On school “report cards” recently issued by the state Education Department, he said, eight of 17 schools reviewed had improved their rating, and 14 of 17 had improved their overall points.
“I think we’re moving the right way, but I think we have a lot of work to do,” Newman said of the district’s test scores in general. “We need to keep moving in the direction we are.”
Board member Wanda Hassler said that the state is setting the bar for achievement too low. She advised the board to “accept where we made gains and be happy with those,” but to keep in mind that the district still has a great deal of work to do.
