Editor, Pickens Sentinel
PICKENS COUNTY - The board of trustees voted to approve plans for four high schools - or did they?
Confusion over votes, a debate over classroom sizes and an outburst from a former district superintendent were the highlights of Monday night's board meeting.
Architects from McMillan Smith presented design development plans for Pickens High School, Easley High School and Liberty School to the board during the meeting.
Trustees originally voted 7-1 - with Alex Saitta opposing and Jim Shelton absent - to approve the plans but confusion prompted a retraction of that vote.
"I'm concerned about equitable number of classrooms," said Trustee Dr. Jim Brice. "Under current plans, Daniel High School would have 34 classrooms and eight science labs while Easley High would have 49 classrooms and ten science labs, Brice said.
"I wouldn't quibble over one or two but I think five or six is a significant number," Brice said. "I feel Easley High should be made larger."
The number of classrooms and labs in each school reflects not only the student body per school but also the new requirements of the Education and Economic Development Act that districts better prepare their graduates to enter the workforce or college.
Should plans for an international baccalaureate program at DHS not come to pass, that school's focus will be biological science, with all district students eligible to take advantage of the school's science programs, DAndrea said.
"With additional science classrooms to meet the needs," she said. "There is space at the back of Easley to add eight classrooms fairly easily."
Brice then motioned to table any vote until the classroom issue could be addressed.
"We just approved Liberty, Pickens and Easley," Skelton said.
Brice disagreed.
"My understanding was we were approving the general design," Brice said.
Trustee Kevin Kay agreed with Brice.
"The look of the building," Kay said.
Trustee Alex Saitta said since there was disagreement on the nature of the original vote, a new vote would need to be taken.
"Let's just vote on it," said Trustee Shirley Jones. "If anybody was confused about the previous vote, they can revisit it now."
Board chairman B.J. Skelton agreed. "We're going to do it again."
Before a vote could be taken again, former superintendent Dick Gettys addressed the board.
"You're not going to hear from anybody?" Gettys asked. "That is not good policy for the public. You're omitting the public from the very essence of the thing they should know about."
Skelton said the district had hosted numerous meetings regarding the look and designs of the four high schools.
"But you never mentioned the number of classrooms," Gettys said.
Jones moved that the board approve the design for Easley High, Liberty High and Pickens High.
"Which includes look of the building as well as the number of classrooms," she said.
Brice moved to amend that motion, adding two science labs in Easley High, four classrooms at Easley High, one science lab at Pickens High School and three classrooms at Pickens.
"Making a total of 46 classrooms in Pickens, 53 in Easley, 12 science labs in Easley and 11 in Pickens," he said.
Brice's amendment died when no one seconded it.
"Back to the original motion to approve the design and development and the look of the three schools," Skelton said.
The final vote was 4-2, with Brice and Saitta opposing, Kay abstaining, and Shelton and Oscar Thorsland absent.
Saitta agreed with Gettys.
"Dick Gettys has a good point," he said. "The district leadership met with board members in groups of 3 late last week, to show them these detailed plans. They do that once in awhile so they don't have to hold an open and public meeting. My fellow board members should join me in demanding such meetings end."
The community needs to set aside its differences, Jones said.
"We are a single school district," she said. "At some point, we have to get past the Hatfield and McCoy feud. If you have a school that's going to be biology focused, they're going to need science rooms.
"This is such a good thing, we don't need competitiveness to start ruining it," she continued.
The board voted to approve schematic designs for DHS before adjourning.
Reach Jason Evans at jevans@pickenssentinel.com or 878-2453.
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