Colleton Now

Election Now A De Facto Referendum

It turns out that voters will have their chance to speak out for or against the school facilities plan, afterall.

Our story in the Post and Courier today details how opponents hope to gain control of the School Board during the Nov. 7 election and then derail the $90 million plan.

Supreme Court Accepts School Case

The South Carolina Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in the Colleton County Taxpayers' Association's lawsuit against the school district.

The court also granted the district's wishes to do so at an accelerated pace - rejecting the plaintiffs' requests for discovery and a continuation.

Read more about this in Thursday's Post and Courier.

2 New Schools In Cottageville?

How about a new elementary school AND the new high school for Cottageville, suggested School Board Trustee Rachel Farris who, yes, represents that side of the county.

During Tuesday night's School Board meeting, Farris gave a couple of reasons for wanting to expand the search for new high school property to Cottageville and none of them included the fact that it's an election year.

Her No. 1 reason was concern that by building the new high school in Walterboro the district might be missing an opportunity to build the school in the area of the county that, at last check, had the most growth and was the fastest-growing.

She compared the situation to Dorchester County, which is a tale of two cities - burgeoning Summerville and the relatively stagnant St. George.

Could we have the same situation 20 years, 10 years down the road in Colleton County?

Farris put the idea up for consideration but no one else on the board felt the need to respond.

Maybe Farris - a self-proclaimed fan of the blog and the first elected official to offer comment - would like to elaborate more on her idea here with a second comment and readers can tell her what you think.

Facilities Plan On Display On 'Net

If you're tired of hearing about the Colleton County School Board's $90 million facilities plan skip on to  the next post.

The school district, under fire in part for how it has  communicated the plan to the public, has put on its website several items related to the plan.

Included are Superintendent Charles Gale's initial powerpoint presentation, an essay about alternative financing by the Greenville School Board chairman and a little diddy called 'The ABCs of Colleton County School District's Installment Plan."

Gale said Trustee Rachel Farris pushed the idea of making the information available on the website.

"This will answer so many questions about the facilities plan," Farris said. "The School Board failed in making this stuff available, as we should have."

District Looking At New HS Property

The School Board met in executive session Tuesday night to discuss an alternative site for the new high school.

The board was initially interested in - but has yet to finalize - plans to purchase about 100 acres of land off U.S. 15.

With that agreement still in negotiation, the board met in executive session last night to discuss another piece of property at the request of Kenny Blakeney, the district's building and grounds supervisor.

No action was taken. Superintendent Charles Gale said Blakeney will examine the piece of property and compare it to the intitial tract.

The board sustained some criticism last week after Chairman Michael Crosby signed an affidavit in a lawsuit against the district stating that the property owners wanted to sell the land for $15,000 an acre for the land - a figure denied by other trustees.

Edisto Voted For Last Referendum

With all the talk of secession and referendums, School Board Trustee Miles Crosby wants to point out that Edisto Beach voted in favor of borrowing money for a new high school and two elementary schools less than seven years ago.

The town voted 164 to 53 in favor of borrowing $57 million to build a new high school and elementary schools for Hendersonville and Edisto Beach during a December 1999 referendum, according to elections documents.

The rest of the county, however, defeated the proposal by a 59 to 41 percent margin.

Now the School District is planning to borrow $90 million without a referendum to build a new high school and Cottageville elementary school and some residents from the tiny resort town are threatening to take their tax base with them because they don't want to pay the higher taxes.

Crosby said Tuesday night that the School Board found a way to build the two elementary schools, including the award-winning school and civic center in Edisto Beach, and now it's time that they take care of the other needs in the district.

"It was the right thing in 1999 and it's the right thing now," he said.

School Board Meeting

Colleton County School Board will meet tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Annex Learning Center.

The agenda is relatively light.

Superintendent Charles Gale is expected to brief the board on the Cottageville Elementary School property, school funding and an update on the Economic and Development Act.

Your Candidates

Here's your nine candidates by district, as we reported in the Post and Courier, today:

District 2

• John Barnes (i)
• Timmy Benton

District 4

• Rachel Farris (i)
• Lloyd Edward Jones
• Paul Haase
• Alroy Headden

District 6

• Wayne Shider (i)
• Joe Mire
• James Adams

Nine File For School Board

That's right, nine.

For three seats.

Full story Saturday this weekend in the Post and Courier. UPDATE: I'm still trying to get in touch with some of the candidates. It'll be in there sometime over the weekend.

Chairman Crosby: Gale, Board Dishonest

School Board Chairman Michael Crosby said Tuesday night that Superintendent Charles Gale and the board have been dishonest about the details of a plan to borrow $90 million to build new schools.

"You've been dishonest to this board," Crosby told Gale. "The board's been dishonest to the public, in my opinion."

Crosby was applauded by a room full of  angry taxpayers, many of them Edisto Beach residents who threatened to take their one-third of the county's tax base with them to Charleston County if the taxes were raised any higher.

Gale and Crosby's fellow trustees said the allegations were false and unfair. "He has never been anything but honest and forthcoming," Trustee Rachel Farris said of Gale.

The board approved a revised agreement Tuesday night 5-2, with Crosby and Trustee John Barnes voting against it.

Read the complete story in Wednesday's Post and Courier.