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Most Lancaster County schools will offer free meals to all students this coming year.

Schools in the fastest-growing part of the county, though, won’t.

“None of the Indian Land schools qualify,” said Angela McCrorey, student nutrition and food services director for the Lancaster County School District.

The school board vigorously debated the free meal decision Tuesday night. Board members said they are caught between wanting to help families in the southern parts of the county and concerns of fairness for the panhandle to the north.

“I think it’s horrible the way the state is doing this,” said board member Eddie Boykin. “But if the money is there and we have an opportunity to help people across this county, we’ve got to do that.”

Some states offer statewide free meals for students. Some don’t.

South Carolina puts the decision, to an extent, on local districts. A recent state legislative rule means districts will have to provide community eligibility — free meals for an entire school or district — to qualifying areas or give notice why the districts aren’t doing it. The rule begins in the 2024-2025 school year.

McCrorey evaluates percentages of students who qualify for free or reduced cost lunches annually. The district has 21 traditional elementary, middle, intermediate and high schools. There also are five more facilities — a charter school, district career center, adult education, learning center and early childhood center. Of the 21 traditional schools, six are in the Indian Land panhandle.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the county had five schools that qualified for what is now a school-wide free meal program. Now, all 15 schools outside of Indian Land qualify. An increase on assistance programs during the pandemic combined with the inclusion of Medicaid recipient students as automatic qualifiers.

“That kind of inflated everybody’s numbers,” McCrorey said. “The Indian Land area did go up some. It’s not where it needs to be for us to be district-wide, community eligibility free.”

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Education

June 14, 2023 11:19 AM

The meal program comes from federal money. It would cost the district about $2 million per year of its own money to provide full free meals in non-qualifying Indian Land, too.

“And rising,” McCrorey said. “Because Indian Land is growing faster than any part of the county.”

Board member Melvin Stroble pushed for the board to pay for a district-wide free meal program. Stroble likened the $2 million first-year cost to past decisions such as teacher bonuses, where the board dipped into fund balance for something that was needed.

“We’re telling the kids (outside of Indian Land), don’t worry about your meals,” Stroble said about a decision to make meals free across the district. “Don’t worry about coming to school, we’re going to feed you. We’re going to take care of you. Indian Land, you’ve got to pay and we will continue to send charges and invoices home to those parents.”

Stroble said the issue is equity. Students across the district who qualify for free meals would get them regardless. School-wide programs only impact families that can afford to pay for meals. In 15 schools they wouldn’t have to, but in Indian Land they would, Stroble said.

“Folks are going to understand that all the other schools are being treated differently than Indian Land,” he said.

Indian Land is more affluent than other parts of the county, but the area flooded with half-million-dollar or more homes in recent years also has a higher cost of living, Stroble said. There are concerns in Indian Land that tax revenue goes south already, he said, with issues like athletics or other funding.

Stroble leads the school board subcommittee looking at a bond referendum next spring. Issues like meal funding, he said, can impact issues like the bond.

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Education

July 03, 2023 7:00 AM

Superintendent Jonathan Phipps said he understands the Indian Land area is different from other parts of Lancaster County, but also understands the need for equity across the district.

“We need to be a more united district than what we are,” Phipps said. “But I also believe we shouldn’t penalize students because we’re more concerned about the politics of it than we are taking care of the kids.”

Phipps likened the free meal programs at 15 schools outside of Indian Land to the long-held practice of taking money for Title 1 schools in lower socioeconomic areas that support teaching positions or other needed programs.

“This is a federal offer that we’re taking advantage of,” Phipps said.

Phipps said the cost to the district is too high to add in Indian Land schools.

“There’s no way possible we can take that hit,” Phipps said. “If we could, we would.”

If Lancaster County plans to build a new regional sports complex, leaders want it done right.

Lancaster County Council heard updated plans recebtkt for the 82-acre park planned within the Roselyn development. A park that could cost almost $73 million.

Project director Andrew Pack with the Woolpert refined the project Monday night from a similar presentation last fall. Further details are still needed. Dennis Marstall, county administrator, said groundbreaking could come in spring 2024 with an opening in summer 2025 at the earliest.

Pack proposed a $34 million first phase to include a baseball or softball complex, multiuse fields, trails, passive recreation areas and property expansion. The park is just off U.S. 521 to its west, east of Landsford Canal State Park.

A second phase would add a 50,000-square-foot recreation center for almost $39 million. Or, for the same price, that project could be split into a 25,000-square-foot recreation center and future expansion to double it for the same 50,000 square feet.

Marstall said splitting the recreation center could mean a few more years before the entire project is complete.

The county still needs to work out what programs the new park will offer to make final decisions on what will go there. There is a $750,000 agreement in place with USC Lancaster baseball to host home games on one of the park’s new fields.

The vision for the new park includes trails that could be used for cross country. Gyms for basketball, volleyball and pickleball, including tournament events. Tournament baseball or soccer, plus disc golf if the county acquires an adjoining 20 acres. A splash pad is planned, too.

Marstall said there are funding streams like hospitality tax to help with the park. A separate discussion of a new detention center and court facilities at about $90 million — a more detailed update is expected next month — also factors into county finances. The detention center could use capital sales tax, among other sources. The projects likely would require a 20-year bond, Marstall said, to pay for some portion of them.

“We have sufficient revenue streams,” Marstall said.

Even with the large price tag, council members on Monday said they aren’t looking to cut back on the park. Chairman Steve Harper said the park isn’t for him, but for the growing number of pickleball players and team sports athletes and community members who want something special.

“I just want to make sure that we do something a little different than everybody else, or a little bit better,” Harper said. “This needs to be the showcase for Lancaster County.”

Councilman Billy Mosteller pointed to a Hartsville trip leaders took to view a splash pad. Mosteller doesn’t want a small, afterthought splash pad at the Lancaster County park. Mosteller wants a significant attraction.

“They’re shipping bus loads to Hartsville to go to this thing,” Mosteller said. “I want them to go to Lancaster.”

With the gym space option, whether to build a larger facility at one time or split it and delay half, Councilwoman Charlene McGriff said the county needs to go with whatever best serves the recreation needs of a growing community.

“If we’re going to do it, this is the time we do it right,” McGriff said. “We will not have another chance.”

Two adult men got in a fight at a South Carolina promotion ceremony in a classroom at a Lancaster County school Tuesday morning, officials said.

“No students were hurt,”Doug Barfield, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, told The Herald.

The incident caused a temporary lockdown at Brooklyn Springs Elementary School, Lancaster County School District officials said in a statement.

Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office deputies are investigating the incident, Barfield said.

Barfield said a school resource officer and other deputies went to the scene.

The school is in Lancaster, southeast of Rock Hill and Charlotte.

The classroom had students, staff and other adults in it when the fight happened, Lancaster County Sheriff Barry Faile said in a statement.

“The two men know each other and had a disagreement which led to the physical altercation,” Faile said in the statement. “The fight was short. Other adults broke it up. Neither man received serious injuries. Nobody else was hurt. No weapons were involved.

“Incidents like this between adults visiting our schools set a very bad example for our children.”

The Lancaster County School District posted a statement about the incident on its safety and transportation Facebook page. The statement from safety and transportation director Bryan Vaughn said:

“We Had a Very Unfortunate Incident at Brooklyn Springs Elementary. Parents and students were attending a promotional ceremony at Brooklyn Springs Elementary today when a fight broke out between two men. It was an alarming scene that occurred in a classroom packed with students and fellow parents. The school was placed on lockdown and law enforcement and administration responded. The case has been turned over to the Sheriff’s Office. This was a joyous day for so many that got interrupted by this poor behavior and we are sincerely sorry. The staff at Brooklyn Springs did a wonderful job keeping kids safe and we hurt for the kids who had to witness this event.”

The school district calendar on its Web site shows the school year ends this week.

Faile said in the statement that deputies are talking to witnesses during the investigation.

This story was originally published May 23, 2023, 2:43 PM.

LANCASTER, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A new budget presented to the Lancaster City Council shows there won’t be any new taxes for city residents in next year’s budget.

“It was a little bit of a happy accident,” said Lancaster City Finance Director Kirk Medlin.

Lancaster neighbors will get to keep some of their money next year. The $38 million budget was presented during the council’s budget meeting.

South Carolina’s local option sales tax allows cities to offset some of the increases in the property tax amount.

“When we do that we can increase the millage that if we increase the credit factor, it’s not like a scale,” Medlin said. “It’s not like they’re both going up. One is balancing the other. It’s that they both move up the same amount then it ends up keeping the amounts flat for the taxpayer.”

Medlin says the city inadvertently built a reserve of about $1.5 million in the local option tax fund.

It allowed the city to increase the millage rate — which would normally increase what taxpayers pay — instead, the city expanded the local credit factor and kept property taxes flat.

“This is really sort of a one or two-year bridge to the growth that we have coming in 2026, ‘27, ‘28,” Medline said. “And so since we had that, though, we can use that this year and hopefully, next year to make sure that that money is, you know, that is staying flat and the taxpayers don’t have a situation where they’re having to see those increases right now until we can actually get that growth on the tax tables.”

Both the county and the city have seen massive growth in the last decade. The U.S. Census Bureau reported the county growing by nearly 9 percent from 2020 to 2022, making it the fastest growing in the Charlotte metro. And Worldpopulationreview.com projects a nearly 2 percent county population increase for 2023. Many of those new residents are heading straight for the city of Lancaster.

“We’ve noticed just a change in traffic,” said Angel Sams.

She says she’s happy to see people have an opportunity to save a little more money which will eventually help the economy.

Cheryl Miller can’t wait to see what her wallet looks like next year.

“I’m on disability, and the more I can keep in my pocket, the better off I am to pay the bills,” Miller said. “And those are outrageous enough as it is, but I don’t get to do but one monthly shop at the grocery store and I had to be very picky, but having the lower taxes is a big help.”

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Medline warns that just because the population is booming doesn’t mean they can’t automatically roll over on tax rates.

“I think a lot of people are expecting, ‘Well we’ve got some revenue now because they see these houses being built,’” he said. “But that’s not really the case. It’s something where it’s a little bit more down the road. And that’s why we’re looking at fiscal year 2026 as really the first year where we can say, here’s the growth, here’s the actual change in terms of revenues that we’re having this organic as opposed to an increase in the tax rate.”

A lot still has to happen before Indian Land, or Lancaster County, gets new schools from a bond referendum. And this summer, a lot is happening.

A bond subcommittee for the Lancaster County school board met last week to outline plans ahead of an anticipated public vote in March. It was the fourth meeting for the group, to discuss details that will be laid out for the full school board when it meets July 11.

“This is not something that, I want folks to understand, is in stone,” said school board member and subcommittee facilitator Melvin Stroble. “It gives us a guideline. Milestones to attempt to achieve through this process.”

If the full school board approves, a facility needs committee could be set up by July 19. A 14-member committee would include participants from each voting district in the county. That committee would present recommendations to the bond subcommittee, which would present to the full school board.

“The facility needs committee is, we believe, is critical in this process to ensure that we are continuing to gain community input and feedback in this process,” Stroble said.

The bond subcommittee isn’t committing to specific projects before the facility needs group does its work. Yet, there are obvious need areas. Indian Land is one of the fastest-growing areas in the Carolinas. Earlier in the week at a medical facility ribbon cutting, state Rep. Mike Neese noted how Indian Land transitioned from an area that didn’t have a grocery store to what now would be, if incorporated, the eighth largest city in the state.

Mary Beth Braham with architectural firm LS3P, a company approved by the school board for design work, mentioned several potential projects that have come up already in discussion about the bond next spring. Braham mentioned a new elementary and middle school for Indian Land at 1,000 students each, an elementary school in Lancaster for 600 students, a gym at Andrew Jackson High School and athletic upgrades in Buford. The subcommittee also mentioned a land sale in Indian Land at Wednesday’s meeting.

Nothing about that list if final or official.

“Clearly these are just the beginning points, of ideas,” Braham said.

If the bond plan progresses, the subcomittee would hear back from the facility needs committee on Aug. 2. The school board could select bond council in executive session on Aug. 15 and recommendations could be finalized on Aug. 30 for presentation to the school board. A public comment period would follow and draft wording on a bond referendum question could follow on Oct. 17.

If all those steps transpire, a bond referendum vote would come March 26, 2024.

The bond process this time is similar to one from 2016. Then, almost $200 million in bond money paid for a new high school and elementary school in Indian Land and land for the high school along with a host of upgrades at schools countywide.