BAMBERG, S.C. - Talk of consolidating the Bamberg-Ehrhardt and Denmark-Olar school districts and a Freedom of Information Act complaint that led to a lawsuit resulted in the immediate aftermath of a vote earlier this summer by Bamberg School District 1 trustees to close Ehrhardt Elementary.

Now, after the smoke has cleared, officials say consolidation of Bamberg School Districts 1 and 2, although an option, is not being entertained at this time and, if it ever should be, will not be entered into hastily.

A group of Ehrhardt residents and members of the Elementary School PTO filed a FOIA complaint against Bamberg School District 1, alleging the district violated the law by voting at an April meeting to close the Ehrhardt school without first giving proper public notice.

“Well, I think that we have resolved that issue,” Bamberg District 1 Superintendent Phyllis Schwarting said this week. “In order to make sure that there was no room for misunderstanding, we held another board meeting. ... The purpose of that was to discuss the closing of the Ehrhardt school, which was the main basis for the FOIA suit, anyway.”

“We had that meeting, which I think will eliminate their main cause,” Schwarting said.

She said the group also complained that former trustee Sheri Seigler was no longer living in Bamberg County and should not be seated on the board. “She has effectively resigned,” Schwarting said, noting that the district is now preparing to hold an election to fill Seigler’s seat during the Nov. 4 general election.

“We’re trying to fall within that 90-day time frame so we can piggyback off of that election and not have to pay for a separate election if at all possible,” the superintendent said.

Some disgruntled parents have also talked about the possibility of consolidating the two districts. It wasn’t that long ago that District 39 Sen. John Matthews spearheaded the consolidation of Orangeburg County’s eight school districts into three.

“The General Assembly does it and, typically, it (a consolidation plan) begins with the legislative delegations. Also, it can begin as it did in the case of Orangeburg with a single legislator taking a leadership role and sort of pushing it through,” said Jim Foster, spokesman for the state Department of Education. “In that case, of course, it was Sen. John Matthews. In other (cases), it might be the school districts coming together and exploring it and then going to the legislative delegation. There are a number of ways it can happen.”

Matthews, however, said he has taken no leadership role in the consolidation of the districts in Bamberg. He said while he has heard from Ehrhardt parents, neither he nor the other legislative delegation members have made any decisions on consolidation.

“We just talked about how we could keep the (Ehrhardt Elementary) school. I didn’t represent the area that we’re talking about. My district only covers a small portion of Bamberg County, but I do think that I’m open to discussion,” Matthews said. “We have not made any decision on that, and I have not engaged in any discussion with anyone about consolidation or any other changes they wanted to make.”

Schwarting said the consolidation option is also something her district does not plan to entertain.

“No, that hasn’t been discussed, and it certainly is not anything that we would entertain at this time. We are in the process of doing whatever it may take to actually deed the (school) facilities in Ehrhardt to the town so that they can use them wisely and in their best interest,” she said.

“We hope we’re moving forward. Of course, you never know. I’m always looking for the other shoe to drop,” Schwarting said.

S.C. House District 90 Rep. Bakari Sellers, whose district includes Bamberg, Barnwell and Orangeburg counties, said listening to constituents is paramount.

“The first thing that’s going to happen is Sen. Matthews, Sen. (Brad) Hutto and myself are going to listen. There has always been a murmur of consolidation. It’s just grown louder. We have planned to have town hall meetings and just entertain discussion about consolidation. I would not take any legislative action without feeling that is the consensus of everyone in the county,” Sellers said.

Sellers said he also wanted to make it clear that “unless there was some type of push otherwise,” consolidation would not include “merging high schools or any other school,” but rather merging the districts under one superintendent with one bus depot and one school board.

“We’re doing research now to save the citizens of Bamberg County many dollars. We haven’t started the process yet, and we will not begin ... until we have town hall meetings to listen to the voices of the constituents in District 90 of Bamberg County,’ Sellers said. Parents and taxpayers are the people he’s interested in hearing from, he said.

“Parents provide our most precious possession, which is our children, and taxpayers provide the funds that our schools run off of. Those are the two most important stakeholders right now,” Sellers said.

District 40 Sen. Brad Hutto said consolidation issues would have be decided by the school boards and not the legislative delegation.

“If there’s any realignment, I don’t foresee that right now. But that’s always a possibility. But, that’s not something that we have on the front burner or have any kind of schedule to look at,” Hutto said, noting that small, rural districts statewide are facing critical financial issues as it pertains to shrinking state funding.

“That’s something we’ve got to address on a statewide basis. It’s not isolated to Bamberg. Funding of the school system is something we are hoping that we can address in the next legislative session,” he said. Hutto said study committees have been studying various funding formulas for the public school system and their direct impact upon rural school districts.

The real problem, he said, is finding a way for the state to adequately fund rural school districts. “It’s a much bigger issue than just what’s going on in Bamberg School District 1. I think the problem is a statewide problem, and so that’s what we’re doing to be focusing on,” Sellers said.

Matthews said pressure will be building for small, rural districts either to consolidate or find other cost-saving measures in these difficult economic times.

“You’re going to find that pressure building ... in small rural districts with limited taxpayer ability and small numbers of students. They will have to make some hard decisions and ... try to consolidate as much as they can in terms of their services,” Matthews said. “Sooner or later, we’ll have to make some decisions about how we deal with it.”

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534.

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