Consolidation in One South Carolina District: More Dollars = Less Sense?
Two small rural high schools in Union County, South Carolina are likely in their last year of existence, as soon as a recent school board decision to consolidate becomes final. Even though over 700 Jonesville High and Lockhart School supporters jammed into public meetings to plead for their schools – especially notable because Lockhart has 120 students and Jonesville has 240 – the board voted 7-2 to consolidate the schools into Union High School, which has 1000 students. The two smaller schools lived under threat of consolidation for years, and successfully fought off efforts to close them until just these last few weeks. How did this happen?
Let’s look at informal score sheet of some of the arguments of each side.
According to school officials:
• Consolidation will save more than $1 million a year, and would eliminate the need to spend $14 million in renovation and repairs on the aging Jonesville and Lockhart schools.
• The bigger high school can better implement the 2005 Education and Economic Development Act, under which each high school must provide up to 16 career clusters or majors, even though these do not have to be offered immediately or without collaboration among schools.
• Jonesville has nine portable classrooms, Lockhart has four and Union has none.
• Jonesville and Lockhart students take advanced placement courses at Union High or online.
• All three schools have football, basketball and baseball teams and marching bands. But only Union offers soccer, cross-country and golf.
Supporters of the two small schools have said:
• The benefits of a close knit learning community where every student is known and appreciated outweigh the budget considerations.
• The 2007 Lockhart High School valedictorian is currently taking all of his classes at Union High School, but is opposed to the consolidation of the schools. He says: "At Union, I feel like a Social Security number -- I don't feel like a person. At Lockhart, everybody belongs. The learning environment at Lockhart is great. If they combine all three schools, that strong learning environment will fade away. It will vanish."
• About half of the teaching positions from Lockhart and Jonesville would be eliminated.
• Jonesville students say they benefit from small classes with few discipline disruptions and enjoy academic advantages of having higher class rankings, which means increased opportunity for college scholarships.
• School bus rides for some students to the bigger school would increase dramatically.
• Parents state that moving their children to Union High School is a mistake that would rob them of a sense of community.
And, of course, the situation is even more complicated when you learn more. As in many rural counties, money is tight in Union. Many blame unemployment, a loss of major businesses – mostly manufacturing - and declining population for the consolidation. Another important thing to know about Union County is that approximately one-third of the county is federal government land. School enrollment is declining district-wide, and some say the decision is being made solely to help boost Union High’s ability to compete in a bigger-school athletic bracket. Also, the district is accessing bond money to build new elementary and middle schools through a special Installment Purchase Finance Plan to renovate schools and eliminate the need for portables. So, no additional borrowed funds would be needed for consolidation. Younger students at the two smaller schools would attend the new schools being built.
At a January school board meeting, an extensive presentation was made on the renovation needs of the schools, on the cost savings to the district, and on the supposed benefits of students attending the larger school. But school officials made no mention of other means of helping those students without closing their schools, the most obvious being fully funding and supporting the two small schools, but other smaller steps such as offering distance learning for some classes were also left untaken.
Jonesville and Lockhart were long protected by a 1971 state law relating to Union County that says that any consolidation decision by the board must be unanimous. The Union School District's Office of Public Information had stated previously that the law is likely unconstitutional, since it is a special law. The district says: "according to our attorney, the state constitution prohibits a special law ... when general statute is or may be made applicable. There already are general statutes on the books that deal with the operation and closing of schools, and none of them require a unanimous vote." Mike Anthony, the state House representative from Union and a Union School District employee introduced legislation to repeal the ’71 law, known as Act 301. It passed the House – Anthony was the only one voting, and then two of the three senators in the Union County delegation agreed. The senator who held out publicly stated he was against repealing the law because he’s heard that smaller schools are better. Another felt that Act 301 should be repealed, saying "I think those sorts of decisions are best left to local people," and "I would lean toward letting people who have carefully studied what impact it will have on their community make those choices." The opinion of the third senator was revealed last week, when he stated that Union County students can best be prepared for our changing world by “offering a broader and deeper curriculum through a unified high school where opportunities to succeed will continue to improve in the future.”
Several citizens groups in Union have threatened to sue to stop the consolidation, and approximately 25 students at Jonesville staged a walkout in pouring rain last week and were suspended from school for five days. Students interviewed expressed hope that they could still save their school. The school board meets again soon and will likely take the final official steps toward consolidation with the change in the law.
What is the lesson for those of us who watched this happen from a distance? How did two small rural schools amass $14 million in repair deficiencies while the central high school in the district seemingly flourished? How does log-rolling such as the local legislation process become the determining factor in whether a school and essentially, two small communities live or die? South Carolina is one of the most consolidated of states when it comes to large districts and schools, but even the small schools and districts that remain have had to fight tooth and nail for funding, and many of those districts led the legal school finance battle against the state. There will likely be another legal battle over the future of Jonesville and Lockhart Schools, but in the meantime, what can local citizens – and all of us who care about small and rural schools – do to overcome this lack of sense?