Frustrated board might drop idea of merging SJE, Rosenwald
By Bobby Bryant, Editor
editor@newsandpress.net
Darlington County School Board members say they are disappointed, frustrated and baffled by the overwhelmingly negative reaction to a proposal to merge two historic schools into a new $30 million building, and several board members are leaning toward just dropping the idea.
In a frank 45-minute discussion March 28 during a work session, board members said they cannot understand the public’s hostility toward the idea of merging the aging St. John’s Elementary in Darlington and Rosenwald Elementary/Middle in Society Hill into a new facility.
Nor can they understand the public’s level of suspicion about the proposal, nor the public’s willingness to believe that it’s a “done deal,” that the school board and school district have an “agenda,” and that the land for the new “merged” school has already been bought.
Board members said they can appreciate residents’ strong emotional ties to the two schools, but also said they were disappointed that parents and alumni seem unwilling to look beyond their affection for the schools and consider what opportunities a new $30 million state-of-the-art facility could mean for students in the long run.
But the consensus among board members is that they are not going to force the proposal down the throats of an unwilling public, and that if residents are totally opposed to the idea, they should drop it, move on to other projects and find other uses for the roughly $35 million the school district now has in reserve.
However, board members warned that won’t make the schools’ physical problems go away, and indicated that they would not support attempts to renovate either school because it wouldn’t be cost-effective. The school district estimates that just in the case of St. John’s, it would cost roughly twice as much to renovate as to build an entirely new school.
That’s a basic summary of what board members said during the work-session discussion. (All members were present except Lucas Reed, who represents the Society Hill area.) Here is a breakdown of individual board members’ comments:
Wanda Hassler, who represents the Hartsville area, said: “My take from both community meetings (March 22 and 24) is that neither community is interested in the opportunities that we’re offering. … There are a lot of needs in this district. … From my perspective, especially as it relates to St. John’s, I cannot justify the expense of a renovation to the exclusion of the other projects that we have and the facility needs we have in this district.”
“The option, to me, is not to build new (or renovate the schools),” Hassler said. “It’s either we take the opportunity to build (or not), but we cannot afford to renovate. That’s just a dollars-and-cents thing.”
“A lot of community pride,” Hassler said of the March public hearings. “A lot of passion and love for their community, for their history … but we are not a growing county. … We’re not building schools because we are overcrowded or we are expanding. We are building schools because we need to consolidate and combine because we have a declining tax base. … We’re having to build schools and consolidate to decrease our overall cost and expenditures.”
“It is with a heavy heart,” Hassler said. “I probably will say, as a board, we need to move on.”
Board member Leigh Anne Kelley, who represents Darlington, agreed that renovating St. John’s is not an option for the district. “There was a lot of feedback in the beginning, ‘Why spend that money on a new school? Just fix what needs to be fixed at St. John’s.’ … It would be cost-prohibitive to renovate that building.
“Because once we start peeling back those layers, then everything has to happen. We can’t go in over a summer or a Christmas break and fix stuff. Once we start making those renovations, then we are bound to bring everything up to code, etc. I do believe there’s a misconception that is, ‘Either build a new school or just renovate this one.’ And I think it’s important that the St. John’s community and the Rosenwald community understand that it is either (take) this opportunity right now or just continue to maintain the buildings in (their) current state.”
Later in the discussion, Kelley said: “I cannot believe that my community is turning away a $30 million opportunity. This is one of the reasons that I got on this board, was to fight for Darlington. How this turned into such a negative … such a nasty, dirty, negative conversation is just beyond me. … So many ugly things have been said about this board. … ‘We have an agenda.’ ‘We have something to gain.’ ‘We’re people from out of town making decisions.’ … Well, move on. Give them what they want. It upsets me that we’re just passing on this opportunity.”
Kelley continued: “It just kills me that we are going to say, ‘OK, it’s what they want.’ I agree, that overwhelmingly is what we’ve heard from the community is that they do not want it, they love their school and they don’t want a new one.”
“I’m insulted and offended for y’all. I don’t care about me, but for y’all,” Kelley told the board, referring to the overwhelmingly negative response to the merger proposal and accusations by some residents. “I was excited that this was going to be a great opportunity for this community, for Darlington. I mean, I agree, if they don’t want it …”
Board member Richard Brewer said: “We’re trying to stay a step ahead of the needs of our county. … I mean no disrespect (to the communities), but you have two opportunities here to take these two buildings, in Society Hill and in Darlington, and do great things with them (by going with the merger).”
Member Charles Govan, who represents the Hartsville area, said: “One of the things that we need to get the public to understand is that there has not been any property purchased. That seems to have been a thought out there that has lingered, and it’s not true. … The public needs to understand that we’re doing what you elected us to do. And that’s to protect the interests, and the best interests, of our children, and to educate them. A 200-plus-year(-old) building is not the way to do that.”
(The buildings at St. John’s are not actually 200 years old. The school’s claim to “200 years of education” comes from the fact that some type of educational facility has operated at the site for more than 200 years.)
Member Jamie Morphis, who represents the Hartsville area, said: “They don’t want the money? We have to move on to the next area. … If there are voices out there to the (contrary), we haven’t heard.”
Board Chairman Warren Jeffords of Lamar said: “We’ve got plenty of projects we could spend $30 million on, no doubt. It’s something to look at. It’s not something we have to do today or tomorrow.”
Board members and Education Superintendent Tim Newman agreed that if the board decides to leave St. John’s and Rosenwald as they are, the small number of students who attend Rosenwald Middle need to be relocated to another middle school. “If Rosenwald stays in its current location,” Newman said, “I think we need to move the middle-school students to middle schools.”
