COUNTY — Before a single teacher hits the pavement every ounce of fat should be cut from the budget.
These words were addressed to the Pickens County School Board by school volunteer Mary Kelly of Six Mile during a school board meeting Monday night. Kelly said good teachers are the single most important component in providing a good education to children.
Board members say they are expecting another state funding reduction to schools at anywhere from $5 to $10 million.
Kelly, who was the school district’s volunteer of the year last year, is a driving force behind a tutoring program at Six Mile Elementary and donates hundreds of hours each year to the school.
She told board members salary cuts should come from the top down and should be voluntary and that every item in the budget should be looked at carefully.
Kelly said anyone paid more than $50,000 a year should take a voluntary pay cut.
“Those making the biggest bucks should take the biggest hit,” she said.
“Let’s share the pain.”
At this time the administration is in favor of unpaid five-day furloughs for teachers and 10-day unpaid furloughs for administrators, but no mention has been made of pay cuts, either voluntary or otherwise.
A strong advocate of education, Kelly said it is imperative to keep student to teacher ratios as they are and not eliminate teaching positions.
John Wager of Six Mile also urged prudence.
Wager said he is also very concerned about the possibility of reducing the teaching staff.
“Education is the key element of future success,” Wager said.
He urged board members to have the courage to make hard choices and said if after conducting an analysis the results show a millage increase is necessary then that is what board members should do.
After several speakers expressed concern about proposed budget cuts board member Alex Saitta told the audience the three avenues available to the district for making ends meet are either reducing costs, raising taxes dipping into the reserve fund.
Funds to supplement holes in the operating budget have been used from the reserve fund once, dropping it to about $11 million.
Saitta said using the fund was a short-term solution to a long-term funding problem.
There was no response made by school board members or Superintendent of Education Henry Hunt School to public comments made by Dan Trouten, a local advocate for children with disabilities, during Monday’s board meeting.
Trouten said the school district didn’t comply with federal regulations when it refused to conduct an evaluation of a student when requested to do so.
Section 504 regulatory provision at 34 C.F.R. 104.35(b) requires school districts to individually evaluate a student before classifying the student as having a disability or providing the student with special education.
Trouten said the district expelled the student despite lack of testing and that a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in January is under investigation by the agency.
Trouten said the evaluation of the student would have cost $254 and questioned the school board members’ understanding of the law. He also said it would be far less expensive to follow the law as written in the Americans with Disabilities Act than for the district to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees defending their actions.

Southern Wesleyan alumnus Daniel Stanley, right, and Ralph Kelley of Pickens View Wesleyan Church treat a Haitian girl at a clinic set up in a rural area near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Two Southern Wesleyan University students and four alumni were among a 14-member missions relief team that left for Haiti Jan. 27 on a nine-day trip to deliver medical supplies and provide medical treatment to earthquake victims. The team, led by SWU alumnus Greg Edmonds, assisted another medical team in providing immediate treatment of earthquake victims’ injuries. On the team were two current SWU students — Kelsey Buchanan, a pre-med major, and Stephanie Sestito, a forensic science major. SWU alums Fritzlene Gilles and Michelle Bryant, also went on the trip, as well as Joel Barrington, husband of SWU alum Kelly Barrington. The youngest member of the team, Brandon Bryant, is a Daniel High School student and son of Joy Bryant, Southern Wesleyan’s executive director of alumni and constituent relations.

Luke Threatt, son of Jimmy and Leigh Threatt of Pickens, focuses as he lines up his pencil-shaped pinewood derby car to race down the track during Cub Scout Pack 51’s Pinewood Derby Saturday morning at Grace United Methodist Church.

PICKENS — Pickens High School was one of more than 6,400 groups nationwide that participated in the 2010 “Souper Bowl of Caring.”
This is the third year that the high school has participated in the program, which encourages groups such as schools and churches to raise money for charity.
Students, teachers and administrators at Pickens High collected canned goods and raised money for SHINE soup kitchen in Easley, and for Gleaning House Ministries, a food pantry in Pickens. According to school officials, Pickens County schools educate more than 700 homeless students, and even more go without three meals a day.
By selling soup made by foods classes, Pickens High was able to raise $1,500, topping last year’s amount of $1,000. In a canned food drive held from Jan. 25-Feb. 12, the school collected around 1,200 cans, with teacher Chris Carbaugh’s class collecting the most.

LIBERTY — The body of a Liberty man missing for nearly two weeks was found last Wednesday.
The body of Christopher Kimberly Clark, 58, of 140 Cleveland Court, was found in a wooded area off Porter Road in Liberty at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley.
No foul play is suspected in Clark’s death, but the cause and manner of death are undetermined pending the results of a toxicology report.
Clark suffered from epileptic seizures and went missing without the medicine to treat his condition, according to authorities.
The death is being investigated by the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office and the county coroner’s office.