No Action on Easley Middle Schools

School board members and district officials took no action regarding Easley’s middle school issue at Monday night’s board meeting, but are set to discuss the situation next month.

Board chair Judy Edwards said the board would discuss the issue in a public budget workshop 6pm July 11 at the district office, then move into a called meeting for any resulting action.

Many Easley residents hoped the board would vote on Monday to reverse an earlier decision about the number of middle schools in Easley.

Last month, the board voted 5-1 to abandon plans to fund a renovation at Gettys Middle School. That work, combined with the ongoing conversion of the old Easley Middle School site to a middle school, would give the Easley area two middle schools. Officials have said there is not enough money remaining in the building program fund to fully fun the work at the new Brice Middle School and the renovation of Gettys Middle.

That move, and what Easley officials and residents feel was a lack of transparency on the part of the board and district, has angered many in Easley. 

Attorney Bill Robinson told the board Monday that in 2010 school board had approved borrowing a $30 million bond for construction/renovation for middle schools in Easley.

“Where’s the $30 million?” Robinson asked. “It’s in the minutes. You approved it. Where’s my money?”

Trustee Jim Shelton said Robinson was mistaken. He said the board did not authorize $30 million for middle schools in Easley. He said the board had authorized the issuance of a debt service bond in the amount, he believed, of “right at $29 million.”

“There wasn’t a $30 million bond just for those properties in Easley,” Shelton said  

Robert Dye said many in Easley felt the area had not received its fair share of the building program and program funds.

“Folks in Easley feel like we’re getting substantially fewer dollars than would be warranted by our population and our students, and that is true,” Dye said.

He said the district’s building program is spending under $14,000 per student in the Easley area, as compared to around $19,000 per student in the Daniel area, $28,000 per student in the Liberty area and $23,000 per student in the Pickens area. 

“The original plan only called for less than $16,000 per student in the Easley area, and that was with the two middle schools,” Dye said. “It’s not that we want the maximum amount of dollars per student, so much as we want what we think is an adequate amount of facilities for our students.”

Trustee Alex Saitta said Easley is getting a disproportionate amount of money in the building program, but that he felt people were missing an important point. 

He said four of Easley’s seven schools were renovated in 2003-2004. 

“No other schools in the county got any of that money,” Saitta said. “Very little was needed for East End (Elementary) in the building program money, because East End was practically rebuilt from the ground up.”

He said the original building plan, passed in 2006, called for only one middle school in Easley.

Easley Councilman Chris Mann read the resolution regarding the Easley middle schools drafted following a public meeting held at Easley High School last week.

“This assembly advises the school board that its decision to abandon Gettys Middle School is unacceptable, in the view of the board’s decision on Sept. 27, 2010, to complete both schools,” Mann said.

Many of the speakers referred to a possible source of funding for the Gettys Middle School work – overturning a decision to refund $9.3 million in interest generated by the building program to the taxpayers.

Robinson said he would never live to see the refund, which Edwards has said would not arrive until the building program is paid off in 20 years.

But Saitta said calling that money a refund is wrong.

“You’re going to pay down $9 million in debt,” Saitta said. “It’s not going to go back to the taxpayers. The debt’s going to drop from $350 million to $341 million. We’re swimming in debt.”

Reducing debt will help reduce taxes and spur investment and job creation in the area, Saitta said.

Jay Ratterree said Easley is the key to the district’s budget.

“That’s where our tax base is going to grow,” he said. “That’s why we pay for things. If we have a school system that people don’t have confidence in, they’re not going to move to Easley, South Carolina. It starts and ends with Easley when it comes to economic development.” 

Phalba Jeanes said the three years students are in middle schools “can be the most traumatic of their education.”

“Many of these children come from wonderful homes, but there’s many more that come from homes with serious problems,” she said. “Regardless of their background, when they walk through the doors of a school, they deserve to be cared for deeply by the faculty and staff. When you have 1,000 students at a school, the adults who work at that school cannot possibly even learn everybody’s name. So, I ask you, if you can’t learn a child’s name, how can you give them the individual attention and the guidance that they deserve and need?    

Saitta said a second middle school would add $700,000 in operational costs to the district’s budget each year.

“The cost to run these schools is staggering,” Saitta said. “How are you going to pay for it? We just don’t have the ability to take a $700,000 next year to add another school.”

“I think Easley was treated fairly,” Saitta said. “I think you’ve got a beautiful high school. You’ve got five excellent elementary schools. Brice is going to be very nice. $23 million is a ton of money to spend on a middle school.”