Rocky Nimmons/Courier

Local residents hold signs in support of schools during Monday night’s Pickens County School Board meeting, at which the board voted 4-2 to shut the doors of Holly Springs and A.R. Lewis elementaries.

By Rocky Nimmons

Publisher

rnimmons@thepccourier.com

EASLEY — In the time it took to raise four hands, two Pickens County communities lost their identities Monday night, as the Pickens County

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School Board voted 4-2 to shut the doors of Holly Springs and A.R. Lewis elementaries.

Despite numerous meeting with parents, teachers and residents and even motions to postpone and pleading from two of the board’s own members, trustees Judy Edwards, Phillip Bowers, Brian Swords and Herbert Cooper all voted to close the two “mountain schools” and push their students and teachers into the remaining Pickens-area elementary schools. Dr. Henry Wilson and Alex Saitta voted against the proposal.

In a special called meeting Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m., the district’s facilities committee settled on a recommendation to keep Ambler Elementary open, abandoning an earlier plan to push the school’s students and teachers to Dacusville Elementary. The move, which spared one of the three Pickens elementary schools on the chopping block, did not affect the fates of the other two.

With only 68 people allowed into the board room at the district office by a fire marshal and dozens more waiting outside the building during a heavy thunderstorm, members of the public were denied the chance Monday night to speak one last time to save their schools.

Wilson started the meeting by making a motion to move the proceeding to a larger venue to accommodate all who wanted to attend. That idea was voted down, with only Saitta and Wilson voting in favor of the measure.

Wilson also motioned to allow 90 minutes for those who wanted to speak to have the chance to do so before the vote, and again the motion was voted down 4-2 to the jeers of those allowed in for the proceedings.

Bowers then made a motion to amend the meeting agenda to strike the facilities committee report concerning the possible study of Pickens-area middle schools. Prior to the meeting, a note was made available that was titled “Message to Dacusville Residents.” The note stated that Dacusville schools were not a part of the consolidation proposal that would be before the board Monday night. It stated that no plans for closure of Dacusville schools have been presented to the board.

“Mr. Bowers had a PowerPoint and clearly pointed out that there was a proposal to close Dacusville Middle School and move the 300 students to Pickens Middle School and have the alternative educations program moved to Dacusville,” said Wilson, who represents the Dacusville area. “I respect that we adjourned the meeting on Saturday, but that puts it on the table. I think the majority of people in this room pretty much understands that when you guys put something on the table regardless if you call it a rumor or not, it comes to pass. That is why you see all these Dacusville people here today. Even our county councilman (Tom Ponder) is standing outside in the rain.”

Edwards told Wilson that the closure of Dacusville Middle was not on the table during Monday’s meeting. She said the proposal was just an idea or a study and was not presented as a fact or something that was going to happen.

“So the people should wait until you guys talk about it in a back room where nobody will knows about it and then bring it for a vote and the next week pass it?” Wilson asked.

“If it is discussed and we pursue it, and like we said, it was just an idea that was presented to save money rather than spend money on the old B.J. Skelton building and use Dacusville Middle as an alternative school,” Bowers responded. “That was just a suggestion from a citizen in the community. We didn’t get around to that at the meeting on Saturday.”

Rocky Nimmons/Courier
Dozens of people were left outside during a thunderstorm at Monday night’s Pickens County School Board meeting.

Edwards then read the recommendation from the committee that would close Holly Springs and A.R. Lewis and consolidate them into other Pickens-area schools.

Edwards said the recommendation was based on information concerning Census trends, school enrollment, operational and capital improvements and efficiencies and transportation.

“The reason we are faced with this is that we continually kicked the can down the road,” Swords said. “We did not take the time to create the funding mechanism for our capital improvement plan. We have to let go of the things in the past. The building program is over. We have to quit pulling the scab off this wound and let it heal.

“If we do not change course and act strategically, there will be more closings to come.”

He then made a motion to amend the recommendation to allow the remaining elementary schools in the Pickens area to continue to house grades K4-5. The motion passed.

Bowers followed with a motion that would allow, if passed, the two schools closed to continue to get minimal maintenance for one year to keep the school viable in the event that a charter school wanted to be created. The amendment passed.

Saitta then made a motion to not consider the closures indefinitely so people could take a step back and think about it a little longer and see it from a broader prospective. The amendment was voted down 4-2.

Wilson said that in a poll he had taken across Pickens County, 70 percent of the people said they would not be in favor of closing schools.

“Clearly, if two-thirds of our community does not want us to close schools, obviously that is going to upset people,” he said. “That is what the overwhelmingly majority of our community wants.”

Saitta then questioned if the board had the moral standing to close schools.

“Leaders have to be conscious not only of their legal authority, but whether or not they have the moral authority,” he said. “I don’t have the moral standing, and I have been representing this district for 12 years. My roots are not from here. Frankly, I am from New York City. I have no place messing with a 100-year tradition in rural Pickens County, South Carolina. When I think about people who could make that decision of this magnitude, this (school board) is at the bottom of that list.

“If you close these schools, it will be unforgivable. You are going out of your way to close these renovated schools. Some are the top performers in the county. I am telling you, your names will be mud in this county, because you do not have the moral authority to make this decision in the eyes of these people. Closing these schools is going to be your signature issue.”

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