"We don't want to see it go like this...we've got too much to lose."
Tremel Echols, a junior at Timmonsville High School, echoes a sentiment felt by many of his classmates.
They don't want Timmonsville schools closed.
That much was made clear when students walked out in protest over the decision earlier this year, in a demonstration led by Tremel and his brother Taumaury, an 8th grader at Johnson Middle.
"I would feel hurt because all of my family pretty much been raised and grew up here and always gone to Timmonsville," Taumaury Echols said. "I want to experience what my family went through and follow in their steps."
The Timmonsville ties run deep in the Echols family.
Taumaury and Tremel's older brother Titus is a Timmonsville grad, who just completed his first year as a teacher at the school. Their father Derrick also went there before becoming vice chair of Florence School District Four.
They say families like theirs aren't uncommon in the small but tight-knit community...but the generational rite of passage that is going to school there will end with this year's class.
South Carolina superintendent of education Molly Spearman says the Florence Four consolidation with Florence One Schools brought on by a $100,000 deficit is happening this July, along with the closure of Johnson Middle and Timmonsville High, the district's only middle and high schools.
"There will not be staff available there at the Timmonsville High School or Timmonsville middle school to take care of your child," Spearman said.
She says the decision was strictly financial, and if students aren't enrolled in their family's school of choice soon, the Florence One board will assign them one based on proximity.
Florence Four Spokesperson Dr. Gary Burgess says officials and families in Timmonsville have real concerns with how the students will handle their schools being shut down.
"The fear is they're going to be lost," Dr. Burgess said. "They're going to be challenged socially."
"We're a small town, so we have a village feel," Derrick Echols said. "If my kids are doing things that are not tolerable, (teachers) will be able to correct them or put me in a position where I can correct them. I think that we would lose that if we send our kids to school further off from the house."
Spearman admits even she's worried about what the changes will bring next year.
"Oh I'm very concerned," she said. "I know it's emotional, and I know it's very hard for any student when they change from school to school. I know it's hard for the family. I know it's hard for the community to accept this."
Beyond the emotions and family legacies left behind, the closures could end up hurting students academically, and families financially.
Smaller classroom sizes have long been favored by studies, which say they create a better learning environment.
Timmonsville High's small student population allows for an approximately 10:1 student to teacher ratio, well below the national average of 16:1.
"I'm able to communicate and work with students one on one in a class period," teacher Titus Echols said. "Not to say that the teachers aren't capable in Florence 1, but there's not a lot of time to work with students one on one.”
The two Florence One high schools closest to Timmonsville, West Florence High and South Florence High, are much larger, and currently have student to teacher ratios of approximately 17:1 and 16:1, respectively.
Titus Echols says further limiting that one on one time in classrooms could harm Florence Four students who already struggle academically.
“We take away that loving and caring bond and relationship, then that disturbs their social structure, and they're not able to really learn the way that they could," he said.
Spearman chooses to see it as a chance for faculty in Florence One schools to grow.
“We're going to be asking the teachers there in Florence One to watch and observe and give extra help if needed for the Florence Four students," she said "I have confidence in them that that they will be to excel, and they will find that this will get them more involved. They'll get to know more students who really just live about seven miles down the road."
That brings us to another concern.
As Spearman alluded to, Timmonsville High is a little more than 10 miles, and a 15 to 20 minute drive, from both West and South Florence High Schools.
If a family now lives ten miles further from their new school, that's an extra 3,600 miles in a 180 day school year for parents or students who drive themselves to and from.
Assuming gas hovers around $4 a gallon, that's an extra $600 in commuting costs for someone getting average gas mileage...
All in a town with a median household income of $28,576 as of 2019.
"It's a group that's on the lower level of the financial spectrum, and that group would be hit real hard, because you're asking them to put out more money to go to a school that's further," Derrick Echols said."
If money isn't the issue, time may be.
"Most of the kids in the district are poor in Florence 4, so they have to get on the bus," Dr. Burgess said. "That bus ride will of course begin much earlier than the bus ride than they're on now."
Spearman points to South Carolina's mandate that no student be on a bus for more than 90 minutes, and promises parents that will remain true.
She also believes the consolidation and closures will ultimately benefit the Timmonsville community as a whole.
"I see this as an economic development," Spearman said. "(Its) a positive move for the Timmonsville area to be part of the larger Florence One area, with a school system that's one of the best funded in the state, with more opportunities for the students to participate."
However, there are fears in Timmonsville of the opposite...that not only will their children be hurt by the decision, but the town itself will be.
"As the schools are closed, that's going to have a negative impact on the town of Timmonsville," Dr. Burgess said.
As of now, Spearman is asking for patience.
"I believe that this change is going to help the community, and we need to just give it a few months, few years to see, and I'm trusting that that's going to happen," she said.
"I'm going to be honest with you, if you think about the state of the schools in South Carolina, I don't think we can trust the superintendent to do nothing for our schools right now," Derrick Echols said.
One thing is already known and agreed upon.
Life will soon be much different for students and families, whose hearts will always belong in the small town
"I love the school," Tremel Echols said. "We don't want to see it leave like this."
The consolidation and closure of schools is set to be effective July 1, 2022.
For more information on Florence One Schools, or to register your child for next year, click here.