Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PAGE 12—The Newberry Sun, Newberry, S. C., Thursday, Oct. 31, 1968 i ■ '■ ■ — BY THE WAY (Continued from Page 1) sessed valuation of taxable property in the county, rather than the present eight percent established in the constitution of 1895. You are told “this will not cost a cent”. This is true, as far as voting on this amend ment is concerned. The cost will come later, when and if the vot ers approve a bond issue for the construction of new school build ings. It occurs to me that some of the information 'concerning this issue has been a little mis leading. Despite all the publicity a- bout the Newberry schools re turning to a “freedom of choice” plan, nothing is farther from the truth. The schools are operating this year EXACTLY as they were instructed by the Department o£ Health, Educa tion and Welfare. There is no reason to believe there will be any change next year. There is every reason to believe that the second phase of “the plan”, as outlined by HEW, will take ef fect in our county schools for the 1969-70 session, and the construction of a new high school, which a bond issue would allow, is simply part of the plan for next year as appro ved by HEW. There was a “tour” of the schools - or of four schools - of the county last week, and they were declared to be in das- tardy condition. This is nothing new. Drayton Street school, in particular, has been known to be in this condition for a long time. That was one of the. schools visited. Now the inter esting part about it is, that Drayton is not even scheduled to operate after this year, new school buildings or not. Under the HEW plan, Drayton Street RITZ THEATRE THURS., FRI., SAT., MON. & TUES. THE FOX Sandy Dennis, Keir Dullea Anne Hey wood WED., THURS., FRI. & SAT. For The Love of Ivy Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln Clover Leaf FRI. & SAT. PROJECT X Christopher George, Greta Baldwin SUNDAY MAROC Gene Barry, Cyd Charisse The Drive-In will be closed on Monday, Tuesday, Wed nesday, Thursday for the winter months. Always A Color Cartoon RIEBE NAMED TO COMMITTEE Mayor Mark Gerner of Myr tle Beach has been named chair man of the 1969 Legislative committee of the Municipal Association of the state. Other members of the com mittee include Newberry City Managr Ken Riebe. will close, so Drayton should not have been included in the tour. You are also told that some of the school buildings were built prior to World War I, others prior to World War II. What you haven't been told re cently is that one school, Reu ben, built AFTER World War II, is also scheduled to be closed. It is a one-story structure with no more fire hazard than Boundary or Speers, but it will be closed. The Negro students now attending that school would attend Silverstreet or Bush River. The Greenville News reporter may have misunderstood some of the information given, but he quoted' Ralph Watkins as saying that the present Silver- street school was once used as a high school. This again is er roneous, as far as the class rooms are concerned. The class room building is a one story structure which was built AF TER World War II. The old auditorium and gymnasium - which were once used for a high school - still stand, but the old classroom building was demolished several years ago. Just to bring you update on the HEW plan for the county schools next year, here is the line-up: In Whitmire, the elementary schools will be totally integra ted with the first four grades attending Park Street, the next four atending Carver, and grades 9-12 attending the high school. Notation was made above to the Silverstreet and Bush River schools. Down around Prosperity, a- gain total integration with the first four grades attending Prosperity school, the next four attending Rikard. Total integration is scheduled in the Pomaria and Little Moun tain areas with all students grades 1-6 attending the once “all-white” schools, all students in the 7th and 8th grades at tending Garmany. All high school students in the lower county would attend Mid-Carolina. In Newberry, IF a new high school is constructed, it will house all students grades 9-12. The present Newberry High will house all students in grades 7 and 8. All students in grades 5 and 6 would go to Gallman, grades 1 through 4 to Boundary or Speers; Drayton St. and Jun ior High would be closed. I’m not suggesting that you vote for or against the local amendment but I think it only fair that you have ALL the facts before you vote. I think there is no doubt that we need at least a new junior high school - probably a new Park Street school, and perhaps oth ers. But do we need to leave a perfectly good school building sitting idle, and only a few miles from the city limits ? Boundary and Speers were both built with a view to future ex pansion. Wouldn’t it be less ex pensive to expand these schools to house junior high or some other students, rather than buy ing additional land and building new buildings? For lack of foresight, sev eral hundreds of thousands of dollars went down the drain in construction of schools during the “building boom” following imposition of the three percent sales tax. Let's look ahead, and be SURE of what we are doing this time. The Rumor 1. It is being reported that the New berry County Board of Education has already decided on a school building program for Newberry County. 2. It is also being reported that the Newberry County Board of Edu cation has definitely decided to build one consolidated high school in New berry which would serve high school pupils in the county. 3. Some people say that this ref erendum involves a tax increase. 4. Some people are saying that since the Federal Government is forcing integration on the Newberry County Schools that the government should furnish money to construct the necessary school buildings. 5. Some people would have us be lieve that the condition of a school house has nothing to do with the quality of education. 6. It is being reported that the as- essed valuation of property will double and therefore no increase in the bonded indebtedness will be needed. 7. It is being reported that when the last school bond referendum was passed, that the money was not spent as publicly announced. . The Truth 1. This is absolutely incorrect. No definite plans have yet been made because the board is waiting on the results of a comprehensive survey that is presently being conducted by the South Carolina State Board of Education. This survey will not be completed until sometime in early 1969. 2. This too is a false conception. The survey mentioned above will not be completed until early 1969 and then it will take months to determine the recommendations that should be made. Once such recommendations are made, the cost would be determ ined and then a special referendum would be called to approve the plans and to approve a bond issue in a cer tain amount to suit the recommen dations. At that time the public can accept or reject the recommenda tions. That is the vote that will de termine the size of the bond issue and any necessary taxes. 3. It does not. As stated above, it would take another referendum af ter the survey and recommendations are made before any cost factors could be determined. The public will get a full opportunity to approve or reject any such tax increase if and when it is determined that such a tax is needed. All this referendum on November fifth calls for is a word change in the constitution. It does not obligate the county, nor the peo ple, to the expenditure of any funds. 4. The majority of our residents cannot afford to send their children to any school other than public schools. So, for the majority of our people, we’ve got to provide the best possible schools or else it will dam age the county and destroy any fu ture our children may have. 5. Obviously this does not make good sense. Good buildings are just as important to quality education as they are to quality of work in an in dustry or in an office. School build ings must have adequate lighting so the children can see properly. They must have safe wiring so our child ren will be safe. They must have up- to-date science labs, adequate class room space, and modern educational techniques. Most importantly, it is difficult to employ teachers when many of our school facilities are so antiquated. 6. Newberry County is the only county in South Carolina that has not raised its bonded indebtedness since the constitution was written in 1895. Even if the assessed valuation were doubled (which is highly un likely) at the present rate of bond ed indebtedness, this amount would not be enough to correct our school needs. Most of our present credit limit is used up, leaving very little room to build or modernize schools. By the way, the official results of the reasessment program have not been announced because the program has not been completed. 7. The money was spent as pub licly announced and records are on file at the Newberry Education of fice to verify this. STATEMENT BY COUNTY DEVELOPMENT BOARD EDUCATION COMM. The public support for amendment eight has grown rapidly and we appre ciate the thousands of people who are in favor of this amendment. Dan H. Hamm, Jr. L. Hart Jordan James F. Cummings James E. Wiseman, Jr. John F. Roche Ollie Moye Margaret (Mrs. A. L.) Jayroe Mrs. Phillip T. Kelly, Jr. A. G. D. Wiles Ralph E. Watkins Gerald C. Paysinger Mrs. Helen Wheeler Dr. Margaret Buckley For the future of our children Vote YES - Amendment No. 8 SEPARATE BLUE BALLOT