ACE closure could change local barbering tradition

Students walk into Craig Cylear's class and expect to pick up clippers on their first day.

Instead, they learn physiology, chemistry, anatomy and electricity.

They read about disorders of the skin and scalp, and the history of the red, white and blue barber's pole that once meant the professional inside could treat common maladies, bandage wounds and extract teeth.

"There's some words in the barbering book you can't even pronounce," says Cylear, a veteran barbering instructor who teaches master hair care at the Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Career Excellence.

It's a common misconception that barbering is easy, he says. It's not only an art, but a science, and one with a rich tradition in the Lowcountry.

And yet as public schools embrace career-focused education in Beaufort and Jasper counties, the future of the area's local barbering program is uncertain.

The Beaufort County School District hopes to stop governing and funding ACE after the 2016-2017 school year, and barbering and cosmetology are not among the programs the district is offering as part of its expansion of career and technology education.

While Jasper County schools have found there is still plenty of interest in the fields among its students, it cannot afford to run ACE on its own and is unwilling -- for now -- to turn the school over to the Technical College of the Lowcountry if it means about 10 percent of Jasper County's lowest-performing students are kept out.

And there are no current plans to offer programs related to beauty culture -- including hair cutting and cosmetology -- within Jasper County schools in the 2017-2018 school year.

With the two districts at an impasse, it's not clear what would come of the master hair care program that has produced most of the area's young barbers over the past 15 years.

"It's a god-gifted talent and I would hate to see individuals or students have to go off out of their area to get this type of training," Cylear said. "Personally, I think it would be a tremendous loss."

UNDERSTANDING THE STRUGGLE

ACE, founded as the Career Education Center in 1976, had a 93-percent graduate rate and 91.5 percent placement rate for students who went on to a job, postsecondary education or the military over the course of three years, according to the S.C. Department of Education.

Its enrollment also grew about 18 percent to 437 students from 2013-2014 to last year.

Still, Beaufort County officials have sought to distance themselves from ACE since 2014, arguing their $2.1 million share of the budget could be better spent in house and that the technical school would be better run by an independent board, not a mix from both school districts.

To 2008 ACE graduate Raquel Bryan, the bickering and back-and-forth is missing the point -- that ACE has served students well and can continue to do so.

"I just feel like people who don't really understand coming from nothing are just trying to make decisions based on where they're at, and they don't know what the struggle is," Bryan said. "It's politics."

Beaufort County school board member Earl Campbell made a similar argument during an October meeting.

"There are students in Beaufort and Jasper counties that need to come to ACE because they can't make it in Beaufort or Jasper schools," the Gray's Hill representative said.

TCL President Richard Gough said Thursday he's hopeful the Jasper County school board will change its mind about partnering with the college.

He proposed the district contribute $1 million each year, the same amount it gives ACE, and send even more students than it does today.

The new technical college would offer all the same programs as ACE aside from auto-detailing, Gough said.

"It's a win-win for everybody," Gough said. "It's too bad, because I think if the Jasper school board doesn't take this option, where we partner on a regional work force to train high school students, I think they're a little short-sighted."

A BLESSING LOST?

Bryan joined the fold of ACE graduates to own her own shop one year ago Friday, when she opened Creative Cutz Barbershop in Yemassee.

Her business is small but professional, with a shelf of snacks and combs for sale and a TV turned to ESPN for the four men patiently waiting their turns for a fade or a shave.

Bryan was ambitious as a student at Ridgeland High School and ACE, but didn't know exactly what she wanted to do after graduating until the summer before her senior year, when a business partner with the technical school gave her a job.

At Unique Cuts Barbershop, she learned from Antwan Milledge and cut the hair of clients who waited in mismatched chairs salvaged from a Beaufort flea market, an old hotel and defunct local night club.

"When you're trying to find yourself and figure out what you want to do, you just wing it for a moment 'til you just plant your feet with something," Bryan said Friday. "I was trying to run from barbering but I couldn't. It kept coming back up."

The profession called to her first boss, Milledge much earlier.

He taught himself to cut hair in elementary school and made enough money from his door-to-door cuts to buy his own clothing, school supplies and new, $20 clippers from Walmart every time he wore his out.

His mother was happy with Milledge's independence, but used to harp on him for spending "too much time in the mirror."

"You don't need to have a fresh hair cut every day," she would say.

Milledge disagreed.

"It's an art," he says.

But most students at ACE seem to latch onto the work when they get hands on experience, said Milledge, who partnered with the school from 2008 to 2014.

"You can build your dreams all the way up from Level 1 to how high you want to go," he said.

Both he and Bryan said they'd be happy to see TCL take over ACE as long as there were still opportunities for students who don't immediately qualify for college-level courses.

Or perhaps Milledge will open his own school on the land he owns next to his red and white trailer, near Battery Creek High School.

Still, both said it would be far better if ACE would stay open.

The school has been an outlet for those without one, a place to work hard in many directions until one becomes clear.

"Picking up a trade in high school is a blessing whether you use it or not," Bryan said, adding that she's proof the technical school has done its job. "They couldn't say it didn't work. They could never say it didn't work. They can't."

Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.

Related content:

• ACE proposal shot down by Jasper County school board, December 16, 2015
• Recommendation for ACE's future prompts tension, confusion among boards, November 2, 2015
• TCL hopes to take over financially strapped Beaufort-Jasper ACE, September 9, 2015

This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 4:51 PM with the headline "ACE closure could change local barbering tradition."