|
County Links
School Links
|
|
|
Pitts: Merger of school districts
‘bad idea’ for Greenwood County
March 5, 2004
By
MISTY EBEL
Index-Journal staff writer
|
|
State Rep. Mike Pitts, right, answers questions Thursday night during a community meeting at Ninety Six High about a Senate bill to consolidate school districts.
|
NINETY SIX – About two dozen people came to Ninety Six High Thursday night to learn more about a state Senate bill that would make Greenwood County one school district.
Senate Bill 273 would require that multi-district counties be consolidated to form one district, state Rep. Mike Pitts told the group.
Pitts, R-Laurens, said he arranged the community meeting to answer questions about the legislation because of the number of calls and e-mails he’s received on the issue.
Consolidation efforts aren’t new, Pitts said, but “this particular bill has picked up more steam than any time in the past.”
Consolidation can be beneficial in some areas, he said, such as the lower part of the state, where some counties have three districts in one county, all with less than 1,500 students.
It may even benefit Laurens County, where the two districts are fairly equal in size, he said.
But Pitts doesn’t see a benefit here.
“It’s a good idea in a lot of areas, but it’s a bad idea, in my opinion, for Greenwood County, and that’s why I’m opposed to it,” Pitts said.
Pitts’ concern is that consolidation would not just involve administration, and that the smaller Ware Shoals and Ninety Six high schools would be absorbed into Greenwood and Emerald high schools.
Since District 51 crosses into both Abbeville and Laurens counties, and the bill would set county borders as district lines, some Ware Shoals students would likely be sent to those districts.
Pitts drew from his own experience as a high school junior when his small school, Hickory Tavern, and two other small schools merged with Laurens High.
“Those of us who came from one of those three (Class) A schools found it very hard to break into athletics,” Pitts said. “Community support didn’t follow those kids. The parental support didn’t follow, and it hurt.”
Pitts said he hasn’t seen any feasibility studies that demonstrate consolidation would actually save money.
One roadblock to savings would be requirements about the number of students per administrator in the federal No Child Left Behind education law.
Although consolidation can be cost-effective for business, those savings might not be applicable to schools, Pitts said.
“Why does it work in the private sector, but it would be much harder to do in the public sector?” he asked. “Because of the rules and regulations we put on them.”
Ninety Six School Board Chairman Butch Cobb asked what the district needs to do to oppose the bill.
“We intend to fight this thing as hard as we can, as long as we can,” Cobb said.
Pitts and state Rep. Gene Pinson, R-Greenwood, assured the group that Greenwood County’s legislative delegation would stand against the bill.
“Don’t work yourself into hysteria over it,” Pinson said. “Your delegation is united in opposing this.”
Pitts said the bill probably won’t pass, but it’s not impossible. He advised waiting until the measure “is on the front burner” before sending a flurry of e-mails and phone calls.
Since the Legislature is at the end of a two-year session, the bill will die and have to be re-introduced if it doesn’t pass this term.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
