Budget tops Georgetown school concerns

GEORGETOWN -- Topics such as the budget and standardized testing were on the list Monday night when candidates for the Georgetown County School Board were questioned about what they would do for the school district.

The Georgetown League of Women Voters' candidate forum was planned for candidates in all contested races in Georgetown, but according to league rules it prohibited incumbent Democrat Vida Miller, who attended, from participating because Kevin Ryan, her Republican challenger for S.C. House Seat 108, did not attend as the group required.

Instead, the five school board candidates had the stage to themselves. One of the biggest issues school board members will have to tackle, if elected, is the district's budget.

All of the candidates said they would want to keep class sizes down, but with an estimated $3.5 million shortfall with the loss of federal stimulus funding alone, the members had to offer some ideas for what could be done to cut the budget.

Benny Elliott, an at-large board member and vice chairman, said all of the district's personnel and programs need to be looked at.

"We need to figure out what is the most valuable," he said, and the programs or positions that are determined to be the least valuable would be "cut or combined."

Jim Dumm, another at-large board member and the current board chairman, said the district is going to have to start looking at cutting extracurriculars and athletics.

He also said if raising class sizes had to be looked at, he would have it begin at the high school level.

"We've cut out the fat. There may be a little more," he said. "But soon we're going to get to the meat, and shortly we're going to have to cut in the bone."

Pat DeLeone, a candidate for the District 2 seat, said she would support the idea of half-time teachers, and also examine the number of days teachers are paid for.

"We're going to have to do the best that we can without affecting the students as much as we can," she said.

Johnny Wilson, a candidate for one of the two at-large seats, said the district should look into other funding sources, like grants, and take advantage of them whenever possible. "Look and see where the money's at," he said.

David Curry, the current District 2 board member, was only present for the first few questions, one of which was about how the candidates felt about teachers "teaching to the test."

Curry said he understands that there has to be a "measuring bar" to compare schools across the state, but added, "I wish the teachers just could teach."

DeLeone, a retired health science teacher, said she likes the state standards and doesn't feel like they make teachers teach to a test.

"You help the students learn those standards," she said.

But she said the standards are high. "I didn't know that material when I was in ninth grade," she said of the fifth-grade standards.

Elliott called the tests a "necessary evil" and said, "If we don't have a standard, then every district would be different."

The tests should simply be used to measure where a student is at academically and not anything else, he said.

Dumm said he thinks some of the more diagnostic tests that are the most useful aren't getting enough attention.

Wilson said he supports the standardized system but is against teachers "teaching to the test" and should focus on "making the child prepared for the test.