Fort Mill hopefuls address black families' concerns

By Shawn Cetrone - scetrone@heraldonline.com

FORT MILL -- More than 100 people showed up on a rainy Sunday night to hear Fort Mill school board candidates answer questions from black families concerned about how their children are faring in the school system.

Leaders from three churches in the Paradise neighborhood, the historically black community between Joe Louis Boulevard and Steele Street near downtown, hosted the gathering in the Jerusalem Baptist Church Family Life Center. Montrio Belton, a Fort Mill resident and principal of Monroe Middle School in North Carolina, organized and moderated the event.

The candidates — Marion Davenport, Wayne Bouldin, Michael Johnson and Chris Krieger — are running for two open, at-large seats on the Fort Mill school board, which sets policy for the district encompassing Fort Mill and Tega Cay.

For more than two hours, the candidates discussed topics ranging from school funding, achievement gaps between minority students and white students, access to marching bands and the lack of diversity in Fort Mill schools' senior leadership.

They offered similar answers to most questions but appeared caught off guard by a couple.

When Belton noted that no minorities have senior leadership positions in the district and then asked whether the candidates would push to make racial diversity in administration part of the school system's mission, no candidate had a straight answer. They all agreed that jobs should go to the most qualified applicants. Most were unclear on whether they would urge the district to seek out highly qualified minority job seekers.

Davenport came the closest to committing when she said, “The district should move in that direction.”

Johnson drew audience applause while discussing achievement gaps between white and minority students on state tests. Belton asked what policies candidates would propose to close gaps and would they push for a public report on testing and graduation data separated by race, sex and socioeconomic status.

“We should give you the info you need as parents,” said Johnson, who suggested giving schools progress targets. “At one school, seven minority students are below grade level. You can't tell me we can't put the resources in place to help seven students.”

When asked whether marching bands excluded poor students, Krieger, a former band booster club president, quickly assure the crowd that anyone can take part regardless of income. And students don't have to march, he said. They can sign up for just the performance portion. He encouraged parents to work with band directors on financial issues.

Prior to Sunday, Bouldin appeared to be the candidate most familiar to Paradise residents. For two straight weekends, he told the crowd, he'd been going door-to- door. His campaign signs stand in several yards along Steele Street.

But candidates' scarcity wasn't unnoticed.

Later in the forum when Belton read questions from the audience, one read: “Until recently, I haven't seen any campaign signs in this community. If the area churches and Dewey's Barbershop hadn't sponsored this forum, when were you coming to hear the concerns of our community?”

The candidates replied by pledging to focus more on the Paradise community in the future. They all agreed the forum was a step in the right direction.

Organizers agreed to make it an annual event.

“I thought they were authentic in their attempt to answer questions,” Belton said. “They were hesitant on some because they had not formed an opinion on them and because they had probably never been asked.

“If nothing else, a community that's been silent on many issues and overlooked in some regards by many elected officials is starting to get its voice.”

Voters head to the polls Tuesday.