School board member: ‘It’s time to stop kicking us in the butt’ on Whale Branch promise

A long-sought performing arts center at Whale Branch Early College High School inched closer toward fruition at the county school board meeting Tuesday night, as frustrations on both sides of the project flared and one North of the Broad board member told the others he was tired of the historically unequal treatment his district has received, especially when compared with Hilton Head Island and Bluffton.

The $12.5 million arts center is considered the final piece of a Whale Branch building plan still incomplete more than 16 years after Beaufort County voters approved creation of the high school to serve the rural, largely African-American northernmost sector.

Last summer’s completion of Bluffton’s second high school, May River High — a $70 million project, including an auditorium and two gyms — made the Whale Branch delays even harder for some to understand.

“When folks can go to Bluffton and see what’s happened in the past couple of years,” board member Earl Campbell, whose district includes Whale Branch, said last week, “they not only get frustrated, they get angry about it.”

Near the night’s end Tuesday, Campbell reiterated that frustration.

“It’s time to stop kicking us in the butt,” he said. “You would not take that if (the situation existed) in Hilton Head. ... I am very angry. I’ve been angry for a long time because of the abuse we have taken in this county.”

Board members were told the project could be built using the district’s “8 percent” borrowing capacity without impacting either the school district’s credit rating or its tax rate. The only adverse effect would be a three-year dip below the $20 million cushion typically held in reserve for catastrophic events.

No vote was taken Tuesday night, despite worries from some board members that the project’s fast-track path could lead to quick passage without time to consider the numbers. A $4.4 million competition gym, the other missing item from Whale Branch’s original construction, got the green light in such fashion two weeks ago.

However, the report could clear the way for consideration at the board’s next scheduled meeting March 7.

“The overriding question you may have is can you do the projects,” superintendent Jeff Moss told the board. “The answer to that would be yes.”

Nonetheless, some still had questions and competing sides implored members to heed voters’ wishes.

“The voters spoke loud and clear last November (in rejecting a $217 million bond referendum),” said Richard Bisi, co-founder of Citizens Advocating Responsible Education and one of nearly a dozen speakers to address the issue Tuesday night.

“For the board to use 8 percent funds for a $12.5 million arts center is nothing more than an end run around the voters.”

The Rev. James Moore, lead pastor at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Dale, called such arguments “shell games.”

“The voters of this county have already voted (in 2000) to build that high school,” he said.

The arts center and competition gym were left out of Whale Branch’s original construction when costs spiked amid legal wrangling that followed the 2000 bond measure that approved the school. Whale Branch eventually opened in 2010.

Both projects had been part of last November’s losing referendum, forcing the district to re-evaluate its wish list.

State law allows school boards to authorize capital improvement bonds below 8 percent of its assessed valuation without having to take it to a ballot measure.

The gym was approved two weeks ago when the board voted 6-2, with two abstentions, to bring that project under the mechanism.

Members had expressed concern, though, about what the more expensive arts center might bring.

The district typically has earmarked $20 million in debt capacity for such scenarios as hurricane damage or major roof replacement. By itself, the gym would not bring reserves near the $20 million threshold or make any other significant impact.

To build both projects, Moss said, the reserves would drop to $15.7 million in fiscal 2017, before nudging back close to $20 million the next two years.

“I think it’s fantastic that we can do this without any negative impact,” said board member David Striebinger, who voted against the gym. “I think we’d have a hard time sending this out for a referendum.”

Said board member Joseph Dunkle: “The question has never been can we afford to, but is it smart?”

Among Tuesday night’s speakers was Whale Branch freshman Xavier Pierce, who noted his school’s winter concert for band, dance and choir had to be held in the Whale Branch Middle School gym.

“We should have an auditorium like every other school,” said Pierce, adding that he also recently attended a concert at Beaufort High’s auditorium. “We should be able to have schoolwide functions not in a cafeteria with a stage, but in an auditorium where we can seat our family and friends comfortably.”

Said Beaufort’s William Smith, a candidate for the board’s vacancy in District 3: “No kid in this district should feel that way. That’s rather embarrassing for us as a district.”

An audible groan also could be heard from Whale Branch advocates when Dunkle and JoAnn Orischak broached the idea of folding Whale Branch students back into Battery Creek’s attendance.

“It may not be what the community wants,” Orischak said, “but as a board member, we have to entertain all options.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2017 at 1:59 PM with the headline "School board member: ‘It’s time to stop kicking us in the butt’ on Whale Branch promise."