Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
The board continued to meet throughout a brief power outage. Pictured are superintendent Dr. Crissie Stapleton and BCCC task force member Rhett Richardson.
The Barnwell County School District (BCSD) board did not let a brief power outage stop them from addressing the needs of the district.
Board members were discussing the recently created Barnwell County Career Center (BCCC) Task Force on the stage of the Blackville-Hilda High School auditorium when the power went out. To their delight, it clicked back on soon after it went out and the meeting continued as planned.
Career Center Task Force
A task force of community and business leaders has been created to provide stakeholder input and feedback when considering the priorities of the career center.
BCCC serves all students and schools in the district with hands-on, technical, career-ready skills and training. With the consolidation and adjoined state funding, the career center has an opportunity to expand on offered services.
Here are the members of the task force and a bit about ways in which they’ve served the community:
The BCCC Task Force has set six main priorities for the career center – building a stronger connection between businesses/industries and education, having flexible spaces to expand programs and offerings, expanding agricultural program to include a fully functioning arena and farm, building the career center as a community hub, developing stronger programs for the adult workforce, and provide more effective and efficient spaces for current programs.
Administrators and task force members have been recently visiting career centers across the state to gather ideas and information about what could potentially be considered for the county’s new facility.
These ideas include flexible classroom spaces, large lab spaces, acquiring state-of-the-art equipment through partnerships, dedicated spaces to a specific program, storage for program equipment, a demonstration kitchen, outdoor classroom space, auditorium with retractable seating, a common area with a café space, a business incubator space, an animal research/agriscience area with a fully functioning farm and greenhouse.
Strategic Plan
BCSD Superintendent Dr. Crissie Stapleton updated the board on the district’s strategic plan. In September, Dr. Stapleton met individually with district and school administrators across all schools to understand their tasks. In October, she plans to meet in small groups to discuss and analyze the gathered information, such as with the media specialists from all schools.
Consolidation Plan
The district signed a contract with the S.C. School Board Association for the policy revision process with plans set to be presented in October. The district is also officially under contract with their legal counsel, Halligan, Mahoney, and Williams based in Columbia.
Dr. Stapleton explained the district is currently in the midst of an internal salary study to be completed in fall 2023 including creating a new proposed salary schedule based on comparability studies to other districts.
Consolidation funding can be used to help offset salary schedule costs in the first year; however, the priority will be to allocate funding for the new salaries in the general fund budget immediately.
“Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Holly Hutto is working with the State Fiscal Accountability Authority (SFAA) to modify current procurement practices and prepare for the new district adopting the state procurement code,” states Dr. Stapleton’s PowerPoint at the meeting.
The SFAA provides fiscal oversight for the state and to meet the needs of the public sector by delivering quality, cost-effective insurance, procurement, and engineering services.
Also, facility studies visits have been completed in Williston and Blackville. Engineering and architect teams will present final reports in October.
Safety and security equipment is currently being analyzed district wide including security cameras and ID entry.
The district has also completed the sam.gov registration to receive federal funds.
Policy Approval
The second reading of a policy regarding board meeting procedure was approved. This policy was created by merging the policies of Barnwell School District 45 (BSD45) and Barnwell County Consolidated School District (BCCSD).
New Business
An international weeklong trip to London in June 2025 was approved by the board. The request for the trip was submitted by BCCSD theater teacher David Edwards.
Board members received a detailed itinerary of the trip’s plans including plays and key attractions.
With the board’s approval, Edwards can begin planning for fundraising to keep costs low per student.
“We feel this will be a wonderful opportunity for our students and provide them an experience of a lifetime. I am so grateful to Mr. Edwards for being willing to go the extra mile to provide opportunities such as this to our high school students,” said Dr. Stapleton.
