Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
At its April 23 meeting, the Barnwell County School District Board discussed recent updates to its facility plan, numbers regarding school of choice applications, and the district’s salary study.
Facility plan
The school district has final draft contracts with two architectural and engineering firms to continue working on a new district-wide high school and career center. The district administration has created historical committees to preserve the history of the county’s three high schools.
Dr. Crissie Stapleton, superintendent of the Barnwell County School District, said the school district has received $100 million from the state of South Carolina for school consolidation. This $100 million was deposited into First Citizens Bank, where it will collect what Stapleton estimates to be $5 million in interest.
“That is wonderful, we’re very excited about that,” said Stapleton.
Part of the financial consolidation of the school district comes with each high school maintaining their pupils activities funds account, earmarked for school funded extracurricular activities.
School of choice
The district has created a school of choice option for parents and students interested in going to a school outside of their zoned district. The applications closed April 7, and Stapleton said they received a total of 107 applications.
“Out of those applicants, 44 were either coming back to the public school system or coming to the public school system for the first time,” Stapleton said. “Five were homeschool students, nine were from private school [and] 23 were from daycare programs. I think that is a great number, [that] out of 107, 44 [are] coming back to public schools.”
Salary study & consolidation plan
The salary study, which was recently completed, unifies salaries across the district, creating a more even scale for employees regarding schedule, classification and pay.
The administration is continuing to meet with athletic directors and high school principals to coordinate athletics for the 2024–25 school year. Administrators are also meeting with other district personnel.
At the Barnwell County Career Center, there are currently four homeschool students in programs. Under the Equal Access to Interscholastic Activities Act, homeschool students are allowed to participate in the school-sponsored interscholastic activities, like athletics, music and speech, of the school district in which they reside. District attorneys recommended that the current homeschool students be grandfathered in and future situations be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Elijah de Castro is a Report for America corps member who writes about rural communities like Allendale and Barnwell counties for The People-Sentinel. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep Elijah writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today.
