ST. MATTHEWS – The Calhoun County School Board voted Monday to close two schools and spend more than $31 million to build a new facility, plus improve other schools.

The action is subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Justice because the district is under a three-decades-old school desegregation order. That is where opponents intend to turn in an effort to derail the plan.

“Our petition is going to be sent to Washington, D.C., to the Justice Department. We felt it would be kind of useless to present it to (the school board),” said Michael Charley, pastor of Word of Faith Christian Center in St. Matthews.

The board’s vote was 3-2 along racial lines, with Chairman Michael Drake, Gary Porth and Sandra Tucker in favor and Vice Chairman Eliza Claxton and Secretary Debra Fredrick opposed.

More than 100 people were in attendance for the board meeting, and many spoke during the public comment time. Afterward, Superintendent Ken Westbury spoke to the audience.

Westbury says Guinyard Elementary and John Ford Middle schools, both built in the 1950s, lack proper facilities and are landlocked so there is no room for growth.

He supports closing them and building a new facility a few miles south St. Matthews. The K-8 facility will be similar to Sandy Run Elementary School, which was built about five years ago.

The package of improvements approved by the board also includes building an addition to the Sandy Run school to accommodate the middle-school grades, and making $4.5 million in improvements to the heating and air conditioning system at Calhoun County High School.

The 2005 state school report cards list Sandy Run’s enrollment as 227 and Guinyard Elementary’s as 612. Both serve children up to grade 5. At present, all students in grades 6-8 attend John Ford Middle School, with an enrollment listed as 440.

“The problem I have with it is that they are not supposed to have a K-8 school in Sandy Run because of the desegregation order,” Charley said in an interview Monday.

Charley said he does not agree with Westbury’s assertion that new facilities are needed at this time.

“They spent a couple of million dollars just a few years back to renovate those schools. They’re in real good shape. That’s not the problem,” Charley said.

“The problem is instructional issues,” he said. “They’re rushing” with the construction plan.

“We want them to hold off and concentrate more on getting test scores and academic performance up,” Charley said.

Charley said a lot of people in the community “felt betrayed” that the board “made a major decision like that” without answering all of the citizens’ questions. “That didn’t go over well,” he said.

Charley said he believes the board’s real motive was to further segregate the schools.

Sandy Run is a white-majority area in the western end of the county. Many areas further east are predominantly black.

Westbury assured the audience at Monday’s meeting that the new attendance zones will be drawn to ensure that the schools’ racial percentages will fall within 15 percent of the county’s overall racial percentages.

Porth reminded the audience that, no matter what the board did, the Justice Department would reject it if it did not meet the guidelines of the desegregation order.

The board voted in March to pay Moseley Architects $20,000 to develop a capital facilities plan for the district. Westbury said at the time the plan would look at facilities needs for the next 10 to 12 years.

Chief Financial Officer Jerry Sullivan said in July that the district had to determine the method of payment for the improvements by October because a new law will limit the district’s ability to raise property taxes.

He said there are three options to paying for the improvements: pay as you go, installment plan or bond referendum. Depending on the method, the board might have to issue $3 million in bonds immediately or raise the property tax rate by 22 mills for the next 25 years.

-- T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552. T&D Correspondent Larry P. Jordan can be reached by phone at 803-874-3276. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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