My View: Clover school district serves every student

Don Long would have us believe Clover School District put the aquatics center into last year’s bond referendum at the last minute to sell it when, in fact, it was part of the 10-year facility study to identify capital projects at current schools and to outline future needs.

He also erroneously states “the school board is seeking donations to finish the job.”

Not so according to a Lake Wylie Pilot (Jan. 13, 2015) article that stated “The YMCA announced last month it needs to raise or have pledged $1.7 million by mid-January to add an outdoor water park to Clover School District’s aquatic center plan on S.C. 274 north of Crowders Creek Elementary School in Lake Wylie.

“The district won’t finance an outdoor water park, similar to the one at the Fort Mill YMCA in Baxter, saying it lacks the educational value of meeting space or an indoor pool used by swim teams and to teach children to swim.”

The district WON’T finance an outdoor water park. It clearly states the YMCA wants to raise the money not CSD.

Mr. Long wants a high school built in Lake Wylie as a center for the community. Where is the population center moving to in Lake Wylie? Where does he want this new high school? Five Points is where development is beginning to move and toward the Daimler Boulevard site where land is already purchased. New homes and apartments are being built along Highway 274. We can thank the school board for foresight in buying that land several years ago.

Mr. Long describes the long 16-mile round trip to CHS. Some Bethany students must travel nearly 40 miles round trip to get to high school. Should Lake Wylie students get preferential treatment?

In Cherokee County lies the site of a proposed nuclear plant. I bet many of those employees would want to live in our school district for the same reasons people have moved to Lake Wylie, including the great school system.

Where does Mr. Long get his economic figures? I believe they are his projections. Maybe some of our local Realtors can weigh in on this.

He continues to use fear tactics about having one of the largest high schools in the state. This is not true. CHS has 2,000 students in ninth to 12th grades. About 550 of those are freshmen who will be housed on a different campus in 2017.

CHS will have a LOWER population with room to grow. The district administration and board feel this is a conservative approach and will save taxpayers for many years. (Consider Fort Mill’s $226 million referendum in May, which includes a new high school at $118.8 million.)

Mr. Long also states Rock Hill, York and Fort Mill are moving forward with smaller high schools while we are moving backward? What is right for those communities does not necessarily mean it is right for us. Our administration and board continue to move us forward in the right direction each year as evidenced by the programs, technology, facilities and awards received by our schools.

In recent years, CHS has grown and academic performance has INCREASED, belying research that bigger is not better. The research Mr. Long uses is from the Gates Foundation. The foundation has backed down from their own research because they recognize the size of a school is not a true test of performance.

As an educator in CSD, I know there are many factors that make for successful schools, including demographics and socio-economics, along with supportive administrators and board, excellent teachers and staff and encouraging parents.

Clover High again is one of two finalists for the Palmetto’s Finest Award, given to the top high school in the state. Winners will be announced later this month. This is quite an honor for our high school and our district. If we weren’t an excellent district with outstanding schools, why would an outside, third party organization with independent evaluators from across the state again identify CHS as a finalist?

Clover School district is and will always be at the forefront of South Carolina’s top schools. We will continue to make decisions in the best interest of our students, not specific neighborhoods or precincts.

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 4:21 PM with the headline "My View: Clover school district serves every student."