Letter: Keep school money in county

The second gymnasium and a performing arts center at Whale Branch Early College High School have been approved totaling more than $17 million.

As a citizen and taxpayer of Beaufort County, I am asking the school board to keep our tax dollars local. Do not employ architects or contractors who are not from Beaufort County.

For example, the architectural firm Hite Associates, headquartered in North Carolina, designed May River High School and River Ridge Academy in Bluffton. This is the same firm that was employed by Superintendent Jeff Moss when he worked in North Carolina and was accused of overbuilding.

Is Jimmy Hite the only qualified architect to do the job? Do we have to continually send our tax dollars out of state? Of course not, if the board has the courage to stand up for what is right. The board must put a stop to this “cronyism” that results in our tax dollars leaving the state.

I asked the board to pledge to keep our tax dollars here in Beaufort County to benefit our local economy.

No one took the pledge, citing various restrictions, while Moss and board members Bill Payne, Earl Campbell, Mary Cordray, Geri Kinton and Joseph Dunkle didn’t respond.

Board chair Patricia Felton-Montgomery cited the 106-page S.C. Procurement Code dated August 2011 as proof that they can’t “provide for local preference.”

There is a way to keep our tax dollars local, but the board’s lack of innovative thinking is preventing it from doing so.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Letter: Keep school money in county."