Sales-tax, Jeff Moss, teacher salaries debated by four school board hopefuls in Bluffton

Candidates for Bluffton’s school board seat pitted their experience against each other Wednesday evening in an hour-long forum that spanned issues from the potential penny sales tax to community distrust.

The former represented the only major difference of opinion between the four District 9 hopefuls lobbying to replace outgoing board member Laura Bush. Only one candidate supports the Beaufort County school board’s proposed 1 percent educational sales tax for capital projects, which will also go before voters Nov. 8.

That’s Bill Fletcher, owner of UniSource Mortgage Services and a former teacher. In a room at the Rose Hill Golf Club, he told about 50 debate attendees that he trusts the industry professionals who manage the school district and the capital needs they’ve outlined — including new schools, building expansions and roof replacements.

“We need to let the district properly manage what they are doing within the governance of our schools — with board oversight,” he said. “That’s the key. We don’t want them to run amok.”

His opponents in the race — junior architect Chris Epps, Battery Creek High School teacher Bridgette Frazier and ear, nose and throat doctor Christina Gwozdz — all say they would vote down the sales-tax plan.

Trusting the board, superintendent

Other questions elicited more subtle differences between the candidates.

Each of them, for instance, said they disagreed with the actions of superintendent Jeff Moss or the school board during last fall’s nepotism scandal. Both sparked public outrage in September 2015 when Moss approved the hiring of his wife to a district-level job around the same time as he changed district rules regarding nepotism, and the board took no action against him.

Epps said he thinks Moss is “the biggest bully of them all” and should be fired so the district can start anew. The board should also go into schools to gain the trust of teachers.

Fletcher said it’s unfortunate the community is viewing every district decision through a lens of distrust, which is unfair to administrators, teachers and students. He also said people should be aware of the time line of the nepotism controversy, but did not speak directly to it.

Frazier noted Moss does not act alone in the district, but is managed by the board, which has to make sure their wants and desires are being met.

Gwozdz said Moss should receive an unsatisfactory performance rating in his upcoming annual review. She said she values ethics and integrity above all else and would be part of a new board majority to more effectively manage the superintendent. She also wants to see more transparency in the board’s use of closed-door executive sessions.

Increasing diversity among teachers

One audience member, Sharon Brown of Bluffton, asked candidates how the district cold increase its ranks of African-American teachers.

Fletcher, who answered first, said he didn’t have an answer for Brown. He added, “I’ll be 50 years old next year but I’m still very teachable,” promising to look into the issue.

Frazier described how she was lured by West Palm Beach, Fla., at the start of her career, when that school system sent recruiters to South Carolina State University, a historically black university in Orangeburg. She said that tactic would work well here.

Epps said like Fletcher, he didn’t have an answer ready. He tried to give his time to Frazier, the only candidate who is black, a current teacher or a district employee. “I think Bridgett should talk a little bit more,” Epps said. “That’s what we need. Folks to say, ‘I don’t have all the answers. Will you please talk and tell me what I have to do?’”

Gwozdz noted that the district is already working to improve the diversity of its staff and that she also supports hiring from local college programs, as she did with one of her medical assistants 15 years ago.

Supporting teachers

A few questions pertained to the board’s ability to better serve teachers, from resources in the classroom and compensation to teacher affordable housing, an idea Moss floated in December 2015.

Epps said the board needs to do a better job of asking teachers what they need, and that too many of them have been given expensive equipment they don’t know how to use. On the potential of affordable housing, he said that every time the government involves itself in development, it goes awry and over budget.

Gwozdz said she does not believe the board should get involved in affordable housing and should instead look at increasing salaries and implementing longevity bonuses.

Fletcher said he thinks there are grants available to help make school district affordable housing a reality, but that more input from the community is needed.

Frazier said she disagreed with Epps that teachers are untrained in expensive equipment. She said the district must increase teachers’ wages and should consider working with realtors to help put them on the path to home ownership.

The candidates face off in the Nov. 8 election.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Sales-tax, Jeff Moss, teacher salaries debated by four school board hopefuls in Bluffton."