Bamberg County School Districtās superintendent says the community is making history with the consolidation of its two former school districts.
āWeāre excited to be a consolidated district,ā Dr. Dottie Brown said.
āWeāre living history right now. Itās a very historical moment. Bringing two towns thatās six miles apart together, equalizing the services that we provide our students and giving more opportunities to students is our goal,ā she said.
Bamberg Countyās public schools kicked off their first year as part of a consolidated district in August. The new, countywide district has 1,793 students enrolled in Bamberg and Denmark in grades 3K-12.
Brown is proud of the overall progress of consolidation.
āMy staff has worked extremely hard to make this consolidation successful and to avoid pitfalls that other districts might have experienced in consolidation. They've worked hard to consolidate our computer and technology systems, financial systems, pupil database systems, operations systems and policies and procedures,ā Brown said.
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āI'm proud of that. I think we've made great progress in a short amount of time, but we continue to work on policies and procedures. I think we have three more sets of policies to go through, and then we'll have a completely new set of newly adopted policies for our consolidated district,ā she said. āOur board has done a great job with forming a subcommittee and staying on top of that to get us functioning under board-approved policies as quickly as possible.ā
The former Bamberg County School District 1 and 2 boards were dissolved and a new nine-member board was created to oversee the consolidated district. The new board includes members from each of the former boards.
The board chairpersons of the former BSD1 and BSD2, Janeth Walker and Beverly Bonaparte, are both members of the new, consolidated board.
Walker serves as chairperson of the new board, with Bonaparte serving as vice chairperson. Other members include: Tonie A. Holman, secretary, and trustees Harriet H. Coker, Naomi Eckels, John L. Hiers, Cynthia F. Hurst, Blossom J. Thompson and Gwendolyn D. Bamberg.
Brown said her goals include tackling the districtās teacher shortage and bolstering student achievement amid academic slides brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
āWeāre facing a national and a statewide teacher shortage. It's no different in our district. We are short some teachers. I think it's about 10 to 12 altogether between the two towns that remain, and that includes fine arts teachers,ā she said.
The superintendent continued, āWe've increased our recruiting strategies. We've developed recruiting teams that are going out to job fairs. We've held one, and we'll soon hold another recruiting fair ourselves for not just certified teachers, but also bus drivers.
āThe state's encouraging us, and we are trying to grow from within. That's aides, shadows, support personnel who have college degrees that are interested in becoming certified teachers. We're helping them through that process.ā
Brown said financial incentives are also being used to recruit teachers.
āWe're offering a sign-on bonus for staff willing to come work for us, but I think being a little more aggressive in our recruiting is our goal right now,ā she said.
Her other concern is student achievement.
āWeāve starting to see some growth again since COVID, but we have experienced that COVID slide. Weāre always focused on student achievement. So that remains a concern,ā Brown said.
Finances
The district approved its balanced 2022-23 budget totaling $20.5 millionr. The budget includes $6.6Ā in total revenue from local sources and $13.9 million in total revenue from state sources.
The school district is supported by a millage rate of 284 mills for operations and 109 mills for debt service, varying only slightly from the millage rates supporting the former BSD1 and BSD2.
āThatās absolutely awesome. I know that was one of the first and foremost fears of our community: How will the consolidation affect our taxes?ā Brown said.
She said the school board and Chief Financial Officer Devon Furr have worked closely with state legislators, including Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, and Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, to make sure millage rates were not increased at exorbitant levels.
āWeāve all worked, especially Ms. Furr, with the state Department Revenue, our county auditor. The partnerships weāve formed with all of these individuals and the collaboration has helped with that, and itās also in our (consolidation) legislation,ā Brown said.
Furr said, āOur legislation states that until 2027, the district cannot set its own millage. So the Department of Revenue sets our millage as a new, consolidated district, and they will until 2027.
āThey issued a letter to myself and the county auditor with what our millage will be for this fiscal year, and they will do that every year until at such time that we are able to take over our millage.ā
Bamberg said he is working to reduce the debt the newly consolidated district has incurred, including bonds issued to build Richard Carroll Elementary School and renovate Bamberg-Ehrhardt High and Middle schools in BSD1 and a new BSD2 pre-K-12 school.
Brown said the goal is to keep millage as low as possible in the district and that any possible increase in millage āwill be dictated by our needs at that time.ā
Partnerships
Brown said the consolidation process has been made easier with the districtās formulation of several partnerships within the community and beyond.
āItās phenomenal how we have worked together to achieve this and continue to work together every day to make it work. Consolidation is hard work. I have staff that was working seven days a week, 14- and 15-hour days for months on end to make this a success,ā she said.
The superintendent continued, āOur parents have come together to support our schools, and our communities are supporting our schools. We have probably more partnerships now with community businesses, our area colleges and our neighboring school districts than weāve ever had before.ā
Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow "Good News with Gleaton" on Twitter at @DionneTandD