A sign outside a Pickens business admonishes Pickens County School Board members after they voted last week to close two Pickens-area elementary schools.

Pamela Dodson/Courier

By Rocky Nimmons

Publisher

rnimmons@thepccourier.com

Saitta calls for issue to be decided by county voters

EASLEY — Despite the continued efforts to halt the closing of A.R. Lewis and Holly Springs elementary Schools by Pickens County School Board trustees Alex Saitta and Henry Wilson, the closure continues to move forward with the announcement of administration for the new configuration in the Pickens area.

District officials announced Tuesday morning that current Holly Springs principal Donna Harden will be the new principal of Pickens Elementary School next year, while current Pickens principal Allen Fain will become the district’s director of Adult Education in 2017 after working with current director Mary Gaston for a year.

Meanwhile, A.R. Lewis principal Melissa Terry’s role with the district for next school year is undetermined, officials said, although she will “work closely with the other Pickens-area principals to ensure a smooth merger process.”

Last Monday, the board voted 4-2, with only Saitta and Wilson opposing, to approve the closure of the two mountain schools.

Pamela Dodson/Courier

A number of signs around the Pickens community, including this one at Legacy Square, urge action from local residents to keep the doors open at A.R. Lewis and Holly Springs elementary schools. School board member Alex Saitta has proposed a plan to put the matter before voters in the November election.

The move has not sat well with local residents, who have made it very clear that closure was not what the people of the two effected communities want.

As this Monday’s meeting started, Johnnelle Raines spoke during time set aside for public input and said she was there to let the four school board members who voted to close the two small rural schools — Edwards, Herbert Cooper, Brian Swords and Phillip Bowers — know that Conservatives of the Upstate members, along with parents of the schools affected, aren’t going down without a fight.

“The state of South Carolina is ultimately the one responsible for education in South Carolina, and hopefully after many phone calls with our phone blitz they will be looking into the wrongness of this decision,” Raines told board members. “We have reached out to our Pickens Legislative Delegation, and they should be fighting alongside of us for a remedy to your gross negligent decision as well.”

Raines said the group is seeking legal advice and action and has set up a CrowdRise fundraising account online to share the expense of hiring a lawyer for advice and action.

“What you for did was morally wrong for sure,” she told the board. “You have destroyed our confidence in your abilities to serve our county’s best interest of doing what is best for children. We will hold you accountable.

“Even if a lawyer says we have no case, just know that your names are mud in Pickens County and you won’t be re-elected to this office or any other office you plan on seeking in our county.”

Following Raines at the podium, Donald Joslyn asked for a audit of the bus routes currently being used, saying that some are claiming some routes are in violation of the state policy for allowed student time being bused to and from school.

As the meeting continued, Saitta asked to amend the agenda to discuss the idea of a referendum on not closing the schools, but the motion was voted down again by a 4-2 vote, with members saying they did not have enough time or information to discuss the issue and that an agenda could not legally be changed the night of the meeting.

Saitta then made a motion to hold a special called meeting on Thursday of this week. Before the vote, Swords amended the motion to allow the topic to be discussed at the next monthly board meeting on April 11.

Saitta said his concern was that the process of closing the schools was moving forward, and his thinking was if they were serious about the referendum idea of not closing schools, they would want to talk about it right away, not wait until April, when the process of closing those schools will be well on its way.

“Brian (Swords) talks about building trust,” Saitta said. “Actions build and tear down trust, not words. This killed public trust with the strongest supporters of the system — teachers, PTA volunteers, alumni. This action would be a way to repair this.”

Saitta laid out three options he would like to see on the possible referendum.

The first option was a plan posed to the facilities committee, which would place an extra 1 percent tax on all retail items, with exemptions for items like groceries or newspapers.

“That would raise the $12 million the committee talked about,” Saitta said. “The school district would get $7 million a year for capital maintenance. $12 million less the $7 million would mean $5 million would go to lower the property tax rate on debt (12 mills). The $3.25 million refinancing savings doesn’t need to be paid back. Instead of taking that savings and spending it like we do now, we’d no longer need it, so that would flow back to the taxpayers, reducing the tax rate another 7.5 mills.

“In the committee’s plan, the school district gets $7 million a year and property taxes come down nearly 20 mills.”

The second option Saitta suggested was the current plan — to close A.R. Lewis and Holly Springs, and possibly more schools.

His final option was to keep all schools open and fund them with the money the district currently has.

“This way the people get to choose, all three points of view are on the ballot (and) you have the possibility for much higher revenue,” he said. “And it adds fairness to a process that doesn’t look fair to anyone.”

The amended motions were then passed to discuss the matter in depth at the April 11 meeting, but Edwards said that the process of closing the schools will go on as planned.

According to district attorneys, even if the board voted to seek a referendum for the November ballot, they would not see any revenue from a tax increase until about six months after the measure passed.

Saitta questioned whether hs fellow board members wanted to close the schools for a year with the possibility of moving all the students back a year later if the voters decided to keep them open.

“That is why we want to maintain the schools for at least a year,” Bowers said.

“Yes, if that is what the voters decide if we hold a referendum,” Edwards added.

In an email to the Courier later Monday night, Bowers said he was glad to hear Saitta’s motion.

“I’m thankful he has realized what I did several months ago when I took over the facilities committee,” Bowers said. “His proposal tonight highlights what I have been saying for weeks — the financial numbers do not work for the long-term health of the district. We must cut expenses or raise revenue. Mr Saitta’s proposal tonight to raise revenue through the penny tax is one option that may work.”

By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

EASLEY — A Greenville woman faces multiple charges, including murder, after police claim she shot and killed her husband and staged it to look like a suicide.

Rebbecca Lee Easterling, 51, of 27 Shamrock Circle, was arrested Friday and charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, according to Pickens County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy Creed Hashe.

Warrants claim that Easterling shot and killed her husband, Harold Anthony Arnold, on Friday morning.

Arnold, 49, was found dead in bed at a home the couple shared on Belt Road in Easley, Hashe said.

Initial information from a 911 call stated that a shooting had occurred and that one person was injured due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Deputies arriving on the scene were met by Easterling, who said that Arnold had committed suicide while she was in another part of the residence.

Hashe said intensive investigation revealed that the scene had been staged to appear as a self-inflicted injury.

“However, sheriff’s detectives determined that the victim had been intentionally shot one time in the head by his estranged wife,” Hashe said in a news release.

Easterling is being held without bond at the Pickens County Detention Center.

By Greg Oliver

Courtesy The Journal

goliver@upstatetoday.com

PICKENS — The trial of 55-year-old Clemson resident Deby Lee Mark Burnside, charged with the murder of James Cherry in August 2014, began Monday at the Pickens County Courthouse, with attorneys painting two different pictures before the six-man, six-woman jury.

Assistant 13th Circuit Solicitor Graham Buckner told jurors Burnside used malice aforethought in shooting and killing Cherry, known to friends and acquaintances as “Old School,” at the defendant’s Summey Street home. Buckner said Cherry was at Burnside’s home to cut grass when Burnside gunned him down.

“He cut grass and was sitting on his own lawnmower in the defendant’s driveway,” Buckner said in his opening statement. “While sitting there, the defendant walked out his back door, walked up to (Cherry) and shot and killed him.”

But Ernest Hamilton, the defense attorney representing Burnside, said his client is a longtime Clemson University employee who was nearing retirement. Hamilton said Burnside was assaulted by Cherry and lost control of his emotions.

“There was an intent to do serious harm, even an intent to kill, but his wasn’t an intentional killing with malice,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said Cherry had a history of violence against Burnside, going back four to five years. In one instance, the attorney said an argument resulted in Cherry putting Burnside into a chokehold and “daring him to call police.”

After watching Cherry, in his words, “break up and destroy his weed-eater into little pieces,” Hamilton said his client lost all self-control.

“After the defendant told the deceased to leave the premises, which he didn’t, and instead began to assault and threaten to do more harm to my client on the premises, that further inflamed and rekindled a fire to an uncomfortable impulse by being on his own property,” Hamilton said. “We believe, without malice, the evidence will show he is not guilty.”

Two eyewitnesses had a different account, saying Cherry was seated on his lawnmower unaware of Burnside approaching him when he was shot multiple times.

Michelle Washington, who grew up in the neighborhood, testified that Cherry was always a friendly person and was talking to her at the time of the shooting.

“He was talking to me, looking at me, not paying attention to nothing but me,” Washington said, adding she saw Burnside approach from behind his house and shoot Cherry. “We thought it was fireworks, but I saw the gun shooting him out there. It hit him and he limped over. He was on a riding lawnmower, and the gun went off three to five times.”

Washington said she saw Burnside leave and go inside his home. When police later arrived on the scene, she told them what happened.

“Old School didn’t see (Burnside). He was looking at me — he wasn’t looking at anybody else,” she said. “He was talking to me.”

Hamilton, upon cross examination, pointed to Burnside’s reputation that he “was a good neighbor with no problems.”

Virginia Putnam, another former resident whose parents still live in the area, said she was visiting her parents when she witnessed the shooting. Putnam described the sequence of events in a similar fashion as Washington, pointing out that Cherry was unaware of what was about to happen.

“It happened so fast,” Putnam said.

Putnam said she then saw Cherry lying on the ground in a pool of blood with his hand to his face. She added she “heard no commotion” at Burnside’s residence prior to the shooting.

“I was looking at Michelle while (Cherry) was looking at her,” Putnam said. “I was going to say ‘Old School, Michelle doesn’t have time to talk to you,’ before I heard gunshots.”

Clemson police say Burnside shot Cherry with a revolver. Burnside was inside his residence when police arrived on the scene and surrendered when asked to come outside.

The trial, in which judge Alex McCauley is presiding, was expected to resume Tuesday, but no additional information was available at press time.