Fort Mill school board to vote on security contracts

The Fort Mill school board is expected to vote Tuesday on security contracts to cover all its schools.

The board meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, with three contract items up for discussion: one each with the Fort Mill and Tega Cay police departments, and a third listed only as relating to security elementary schools, according to the board’s agenda. All three are listed under the “action items” section of the agenda, meaning they could come up for a vote.

The district office is closed Fridays during summer, and spokeswoman Kelly McKinney said contract details likely will not be available prior to Tuesday night.

Board Chairman Patrick White also said nothing would be final until the board makes a decision Tuesday, but the pending action stems from months of discussion on how best to protect schools.

“The main concern that we had originally was we had school resource officers at some of the schools but not all the schools,” he said.

The district and local police departments have arrangements for resource officers at the middle and high school levels now, and by association the elementary schools built on dual campuses beside middle schools. That leaves four elementary schools – Doby’s Bridge, Orchard Park, Pleasant Knoll and Riverview – without such an arrangement, but they could have security coverage beginning with the new school year depending on action taken Tuesday.

Also set for discussion Tuesday will be the planned Spratt property being considered for annexation and rezoning in Fort Mill. Former U.S. Rep. John Spratt wants to put a mixed use development on more than 700 acres he owns at Spratt Street and Fort Mill Parkway, just across from Riverview. The current plan would allow for up to 2,900 new residences.

The item wasn’t listed on the school board agenda early Friday, but White said he expected it to be added later in the day or on Monday after only recently receiving notice. The county and local municipalities typically inform the school district of any new residential project being considered, and the district typically provides comments.

In recent years, the district has produced a formula showing how many new students and what school costs a project would generate based on the residential details proposed. The district doesn’t make every project a separate agenda item, but with the scope of the Spratt property decision, it will be of interest to board members, White said.

“Our whole thing isn’t to get into ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” White said of municipal planning decisions. “It’s just to provide the facts.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Fort Mill school board to vote on security contracts."