SJE supporters rally against school-merger idea
Front of St. John’s Elementary. The school board has been asked to consider merging it with Rosenwald. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
By Bobby Bryant, Editor
editor@newsandpress.net
Within days after county Education Superintendent Tim Newman asked the Darlington County School Board to consider merging Darlington’s St. John’s Elementary with Society Hill’s Rosenwald Elementary/Middle, SJE defenders were signing an online petition against the idea.
“Save St. John’s Elementary!”, the petition launched by onetime SJE student Josh Byram, had gathered nearly 1,200 signatures by the middle of last week. Here are some of the reasons residents gave for signing:
— “Just what Darlington needs, another vacant building!”
— “Keep this historical school open and (the) SJ name alive.”
— “They can update the inside without messing with the outside. Don’t take this away from our hometown!”
— “The millions needed to build a new school should be used to further update this campus.”
Some signers seemed to think that the school board had already approved Newman’s idea to merge the aging St. John’s and the dwindling Rosenwald into a new building, to be built with money the district already has on hand. That’s not the case. The board has taken no votes, no action on the idea; all Newman asked at this point was for them to discuss it.
Byram, 22, attended SJE and graduated from Darlington High School in 2018. “I have so many great memories at SJE from fall festivals, to science fairs, to the epic kickball games on the playground,” Byram told the News & Press.
“Friends were made here that continue today, and the teachers I had were instrumental in my love for learning,” he said. “ … I love all things Darlington, but SJE holds a special place in my heart. I started this petition to bring awareness about a school that I love. … We are going to need a lot of support to do what’s necessary to save these buildings!”
Byram said, “I know this school board cares about the community and will be forthcoming with all the necessary information to make the right decision.”
Byram makes his argument for sparing SJE in the petition. The site has served as some type of school since 1818. The current main building was built in 1902. In 1915, what then was known as St. John’s High School was built on the campus; the original building is now part of SJE and the high school is in a new building across from the Darlington Post Office.
“History runs through the bones of SJE, as it is the most historic building in the city,” Byram writes in the petition. “ … Please sign this petition if you do not want to see the heart of Darlington become the most recent abandoned historical building!”
He writes: “Darlington cannot afford to leave another piece of history behind. We cannot afford to let the only school located in the heart of this great town to be ripped away. We cannot afford 200-plus years of history to be wiped out for convenience.”
At the Feb. 14 school board meeting, when Newman first broached the idea, he sketched out where St. John’s and Rosenwald stand now.
Of St. John’s, Newman said: “It’s a beautiful building that many people have many fond memories about. But the reality is, it’s a four-story, challenged facility for students and for children. And (building) codes and ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act requirements) and everything else has changed so much over the years that anytime we have to do a minor repair, it’s very expensive. … It just gets to a point where it’s more expensive to actually do renovations than it is to build.”
Of Rosenwald, he said: “We also have had discussions about our Rosenwald Elementary School attendance area, and how our enrollment has continued to drop in Society Hill … and because the numbers continue to drop, there’s very little opportunities for the students currently attending. For example, there’s 27 middle-school students total in grades 6 through 8. There’s a total of 118 students in attendance at Rosenwald.”
The News & Press could not determine whether Rosenwald supporters have begun a petition similar to Byram’s.
It’s likely that the SJE/Rosenwald issue will be discussed at the next regular meeting of the Darlington County Board, set for 6 p.m. Monday, March 14, in the school district’s administration building. The meeting will be open to the public and will also be livestreamed via Facebook and the district’s website. The district has been requiring that everyone in the meeting room wear masks, and there has been limited seating because of changes made to aid social distancing.