WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County School Board of Trustees voted 7-0 at their April 16 meeting to pass first reading of their $34,334,464 budget for 2013-2014. The budget, up from last year’s $32,789,140, anticipates an increase of $941,800 in local revenues from 2012-2013, but with an unchanged millage rate of 203.1. Kevin Robinson, Director of […]
Board Elects New Officers, Hears from Bond Attorney
With the swearing in of new member during their Nov. 20 meeting, the Fairfield County School Board also elected new officers for their 2012-2013 session. Newly elected members William Frick (District 6) and Paula Hartman (District 2), as well as re-elected member Annie McDaniel (District 4) took their oaths of office as the meeting got […]
Findings Don’t Mar District Audit
Nearly $1 Million Siphoned from General Fund The Fairfield County School District received an “unqualified” report on its annual audit, a Spartanburg CPA told the Board during its Nov. 20 meeting, in spite of two minor findings and questions about a transfer of nearly $1 million from the general fund into the food services fund […]
Civil Liberties Group Launches Probe into School Districts’ Use of Prayer
It is no secret that the Fairfield County School Board of Trustees opens their meetings with a prayer, but a January ruling against a S.C. school district in U.S. District Court and new efforts by the American Civil Liberties Union may spell the end of that practice. Bolstered by their legal victory earlier this year […]
Board Leaders Silent on Details of Unauthorized Atlanta Trip
Nearly two months after a pair of Fairfield County School Board members independently made excursions to Atlanta to attend a conference on bullying, questions continue to surface about the propriety of the trip. Indeed, during the public comment portion of the Board’s Aug. 7 special called meeting, Thomas Armstrong brought the trip back into the […]
Freed-Up Funds Flow into Chester
Although the Fairfield County School Board voted 5-2 in a special called meeting last week to appeal a July 16 ruling by a Circuit Court judge in the Mitford case, one detail of that ruling remained unaddressed – whether or not to seek a court order to delay the delivery to Chester County Schools funds […]
Fairfield County School Board to Appeal Mitford Ruling
The Fairfield County School Board voted 5-2 Tuesday night to pursue an appeal of a Circuit Court decision in the legal battle between the Chester County School District and Fairfield County Schools. Judge J. Ernest Kinard ruled July 16 that Fairfield must pay Chester approximately $3,452 in local funds for each student living in the […]
The Fairfield County School Board of Un-Trustees
Leave it to the Fairfield County School Board to elevate something as trite as an overnight field trip gone wrong to the level of the Watergate break-in; but that is, remarkably, exactly what they did when, during their July 17 meeting, they chose to discuss the matter in an illegal executive session. And sadly, considering […]
Chairwoman Chastised in Secret Session
An executive session during the July 17 meeting of the Fairfield County School Board may have violated the state’s open meetings law and thwarted efforts of one Board member to discuss a recent Atlanta field trip in open session. Board member Marchella Pauling (District 6) said she had asked for the Atlanta field trip to […]
Teen to be Charged in FCHS Summer School Assault
The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said a male juvenile will be charged with assault and battery after a female student claims she was sexually propositioned and inappropriately touched earlier this month during summer school sessions at Fairfield Central High School. The juvenile in the case is reportedly one of the three young men who pleaded […]