Praise the Lord, for this day I have been a witness to one of his Wonders.
Today, Sept. 4, 2007, the entire, unanimous 7-member board of Richland-Lexington School District 5 came in to visit with our editorial board to express its support for the proposed bond referendum to build new schools and renovate and expand old ones.
Yes, I had read the news that they had voted unanimously to support this effort to deal with the district’s growth while maintaining excellence and meeting new educational challenges. But reading it in black and white and seeing it, in real-life, up-close and personal in 3D — well, that’s a miracle.
The entire board sat and met with us for over ninety minutes, and there wasn’t a single firefight during the entire time. Total harmony. The above photograph, taken just minutes before this post, stands as proof. (Left to right, that’s Roberta Ferrell, Paula Hite, Jerry Fowler, Carol Sloop, Ellen Baumgardner, Ed White, Supt. Scott Andersen and Robert Gantt.)
Don’t tell me the cause is lost in Iraq. Don’t tell me John McCain can’t get back his momentum. Don’t tell me the Cubs can’t go all the way. I know better. I have been witness to a miracle.
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Yes, it’s always inspiring to see people band together to spend millions of dollars of other people’s money because nobody else has the guts to stand up to the developers who have gutted the quality of life in Lexington and Richland counties.
The real solution is IMPACT FEES. Make the developers pay for the mess they have created and will continue to create.
The school board may have all shown up. We may need the bond, badly. But the voting public thinks that they shouldn’t have to pay “more taxes.” After all, they’ll have to pay for something that their children probably won’t need, something for those who will be moving into the area. I am so tired of South Carolinians refusing to pay for needed improvements. OK, maybe their is fraud and misuse of funds in government…are we willing to pay for better oversight? But if the area wants to grow, and attract more lucrative business, we must be able and willing to pay for those services that we want, and those that will attract businesses/people. But until “the taxpayer” is willing to pay, we’ll be last in line indefinitely. And those who send their children to private school because “public schools are failing” are simply guaranteeing that those schools will fail. If they want the schools to succeed, them put their children back in them and work to ensure that the child and the school succeeds. And perhaps, if their child is there, they might understand why the bond is needed.
…ok. I’ll get off my soapbox now.
One day after Labor Day and you’re ready for Hot Chocolate?Where ya from?
And one day, probably more than 90 minutes from now, I may witness the miracle of Brad Warthen learning the difference between “over” and “more than.”
Here’s hoping the irony doesn’t fly over anyone’s head.
weldon just provided a beautiful illustration of why I don’t post more — I feel like I can’t afford to make small mistakes such as that one.
Anyone who works with as many pedants as I do knows the difference, weldon, and a truly obsessive difference it is, too. We all have our obsessions. That’s not one of mine. (Some of mine are “such as” vs. “like,” amount vs. number, “flack” vs. “flak,” “Democrat” when “Democratic” is meant, and on and on.) I’m just going to leave this one rather than correct it. You know why? Because correcting it would spoil weldon’s fun, and the mistake is in no way a barrier to communication.
weldon VII,
STOP THE PEDANTRY!
Mark this day down. I agree with Doug Ross.
Impact fees are not only the most fair way to deal with growth but they will also make “recycling” older areas economically viable.
I am so thrilled that our board is TOGETHER on this. Anyone with working eyesight can see that we are growing and need to renovation and build new schools. The best thing this board has done other than being unanimous and working TOGETHER is that they are addressing the older schools in Irmo and bring them up to standards and then building new schools to address growth! Great job!
I too like impact fees. However, they are not in place yet. We need to get the legislature to enable them. In the mean time, we must go with the process that is in place.
Mr Ross,
If I am correct, School Boards have NOTHING to do with Impact fees. This is the job of the Legislature.
District 5 is growing. A new high school and Vocational School needs to be built NOW !
My hat is off to the Board Members who have supported building a Vocational School.Not all students will go to college. A vocational school can spring board them to a career after high school or prep them for a Tech. School.
Want IMPACT fees? Call your legislator. They most likely won’t take your call because it’s not an election year.
>> My hat is off to the Board Members who have
>>supported building a Vocational School.
>>Not all students will go to college. A
>>vocational school can spring board them to a
>>career after high school or prep them for a
>>Tech. School.
I’m a graduate of a vocational high school. As are my two brothers and three nieces and nephews.
Vocational schools can be far superior to regular high schools at producing productive members of the community.
I understand school boards cannot set impact fees. But if school boards collectively expressed an opinion on the matter, it would potentially carry more weight with legislators than a single caller would.
If you believe in Miracles, please read
SMALL MIRACLES by Askin Ozcan
ISBN 1598001000 Outskirts Press
Thirty true-to-last-word stories of stunning small and big miracles from the life of the author Askin Ozcan in many countries.
http://www.outskirtspress.com/smallmiracles
sold on major internet bookshops incl.
http://www.amazon.com, http://www.bn.com, http://www.borders.com
A copy of the book was sent as a Christmas present to His Holiness The Pope Benedictus XVI who acknowledged its receipt
with a letter.
Brad, do you not recognize spam or are you interested in providing free publicity for Ozcan?
It should be noted that the small group of malcontents who defeated the last District Five referendum aren’t satisfied with the new plan which includes a vocational education component.
They’ve already said that they’ll restart the same misinformation, disinformation and smear campaign which successfully sunk the last bond referendum.
That’s because their real goal isn’t to improve either vocational or college education in the district. Their goal is to eliminate the district as a magnet for new homeowners. Destroy the attractiveness of District Five and new schools won’t be necessary. Neither will their taxes go up because the value of their property won’t rise.
These people were invited to participate in both the evaluation committee and the proposal committee. Their half-baked ideas were given due consideration by both committees. The referendum proposal is the result of consideration by over 40 diverse community members.
The malcontents are simply pursuing their regressive, hidden agenda with their usual short-sighted zeal.
RTH,
Some might call a desire to limit unrestricted growth that has decimated the quality of life in an area progressive.
As one who has already moved once to escape the sprawl in Northeast Columbia, and now see it heading further up I77, I would gladly stop every single developer from building another house for at least five years to allow the infrastructure to catch up.
My kids attend a new high school in Blythewood that was built with one of those wonderful bond referendums. They just started year three and guess what? There are already portables in the parking lot and homerooms being held in the library. And there will be more portables added next year.
Why don’t they build bigger schools right from the start? Oh, I forgot, it’s better for school construction companies to build two 1600 student high schools at $40M each than one 3500 student high school at $60m.
The ONLY excuse that pro-bond people can come up with is the hand wringing wailing about “It’s for the CHILDREN!”. Too bad for them. Their parents decided to choose to live in a place where the politicians are beholden to the developers. If the schools are too crowded, either MOVE or vote for someone with some sense of responsibility.
If you think property values are stuck because of a lack of schools, how about considering what happens to property values when the supply of homes is increased by thousands as developers squeeze as many
as they can. And you think property values are going to rise when traffic chokes the roads and crime rises? And now you want Lexington homeowners to pay even MORE in taxes for that “opportunity”? Take a look at existing home sales in areas where developers run rampant. Spring Valley home sales are dead. Why buy a 20 year old house when you can get a new one down the road for
the same price?
The people who allowed the building to occur without any plan need to feel the heat of overcrowded schools. They can’t just keep coming back to grab more and more. I hope this bond referendum fails like the last one.
RTH, regarding the “spam” — it at least bore a passing resemblance to relevance, and I thought it just possible that it was truly a real person saying “speaking of miracles, check out my book”…
Besides, the Pope liked it, so have a little respect…
Doug, I would have a lot more respect for the anti-growth opponents if they simply admitted their true agenda and worked to implement impact fees.
In fact, I would support impact fees as I suggested above. Many people would.
I have nothing but contempt for the craven “end-run” strategy which seeks to degrade quality education, victimize students and, inevitably, reduce the quality of life for people in District Five. (BTW, I didn’t even mention the fact that destroying the school district would inevitably and ironically torpedo the biggest investments that these people have made, their homes.)
The anti-education malcontents recognize that the battle for impact fees would be significantly more difficult. They also understand that their tiny clique would have no sway over the debate state-wide– unlike their homegrown propaganda campaign in District Five.
Doug, you’re a perfect example of hyper-hypocrisy. Why did you move to Blythewood? You knew well enough that the new high school would be a magnet to growth.
If you’re so averse to growth and development there are plenty of other locations where you could actually get more house for your money. You could have moved to Fairfield County or Newberry County.
Wait. Let me guess: the school districts in those locations aren’t as good as Richland District Two; or you don’t want your kids going to underfunded, run-down schools.
You’re just like the white-flight refugees in Chapin who want to raise the drawbridge once THEY get to the Promised Land of Mayberry.
Thanks for your heart-felt concern for the District Five taxpayers but please keep your regressive views and destructive activities to Richland Two. You can attempt to destroy your own district. I’ll leave it to the folks in your community to point out your willingness to sacrifice their kids’ future on your anti-growth altar.
>Doug, you’re a perfect example of >hyper-hypocrisy. Why did you move to >Blythewood? You knew well enough that the new >high school would be a magnet to growth
Uh, I moved to Blythewood BEFORE the high school opened. I drove one son back and forth from Spring Valley H.S. for a year
AFTER Blythewood H.S. opened. Next erroneous assumption?
We didn’t move because of the new high school, we moved to get away from the sprawl that was allowed to occur in the Spring Valley area. We got out because of the pending Sandhills development and the Summit
choking the roads on Clemson and Hardscrabble.
I know everything is “FOR THE CHILDREN!” but there are other factors that maybe influence other people to choose where to live besides our glorious schools (especially the ones in Richland 2 that have been living off a reputation built back in the early 90’s).
Church affiliations, friends, family, jobs, access to an airport, restaurants, libraries, state parks, etc…. it’s not all about the precious little ones having optimum class sizes.
And after 13 years in our little house a mile from the Summit and Sandhills, we saw a total appreciation in value when we sold it of only 10%. Because why buy a 13 year old house when you can buy any one of a thousand new ones down the road for the same price? That’s what you’re going to see in Lexington if it’s not happening already. Overbuilt areas will eventually result in depressed real estate market conditions but excess growth will force local governments to increase taxes to build the infrastructure that wasn’t considered in the first place.
I’m not destroying the district. Those people who allowed growth without any forethought or limitation created the untenable environment. I want to see them suffer for their greed and ignorance. I want to see them have to deal with hundreds of calls from angry parents asking why their kids are being taught in portables by teachers who don’t speak English. I want to see them explain why they approved hundreds and thousands of homes to be built without having a plan to deal with the demands that would place on roads, schools, crime, and quality of life. Their easy solution is to cry “It’s for the children!” and get the taxpayers to bail them out.
The price for their stupidity shouldn’t be paid by taxpayers who decide they don’t want to.