Rivers campus promised funds

Supporters of the Charleston Charter School for Math & Science who worry about whether the county school board will set aside money to renovate the former Rivers Middle School campus may be able to rest a little easier.

The school board agreed in a 6-1 vote Monday night to reserve at least $25 million in leftover contingency funds from its ongoing building program and use that toward repairs and improvements to the Rivers campus.

The money wouldn't become available until next summer when the building program has been completed, and construction work would begin as soon as is practical.

Board member Chris Collins was the dissenting vote, and Chairwoman Toya Green and member Chris Fraser weren't at the meeting.

The charter school and a proposed district program, currently called Lowcountry Technical Academy for Health, Human and Public Services, have received the board's OK to share space in the building, but the structure needs a considerable amount of work, including seismic repairs, before students can occupy it. The charter school is using mobile classrooms on the Rivers campus, and the board has not signed off on the proposed Lowcountry Tech or dedicated any money to it.

The issue of repairing the downtown Rivers building wasn't on the board's agenda, but it came up after members were asked to approve a routine, short-term $56 million bond issue to pay its debt from previous building programs. The board can issue bonds worth up to 8 percent of the district's total assessed property value, its statutory debt limit, and Charleston has about $155 million available for construction.

Board member Arthur Ravenel Jr., a steadfast supporter of the charter school, told the board that he wouldn't vote for a bond issue that didn't include money to complete the renovation of the Rivers campus. He tried to increase the amount of the bond issue to include money for the Rivers campus, but he couldn't get enough votes to pass his motion. He said the district's leadership has done whatever it can to fight the school.

"It's almost criminal the way we've neglected and just let the building sit there," he said.

Collins wanted the board to approve the agenda item as presented rather than amend it to include the charter school.

District officials said they couldn't give cost estimates for the Rivers campus renovations until the board decided what the Lowcountry Tech program would involve, and the board agreed to require district leaders to return by this spring with an academic proposal for Lowcountry Tech as well as cost estimates for the work.

Before that happens, School Superintendent Nancy McGinley plans to ask the board to approve a county-wide proposal for new programs, specifically that the district be divided into geographic zones, with each having certain offerings, such as Montessori or single-gender classes. She expects that strategic plan to have implications for the district's future building needs, which could affect the Rivers campus.

Four other downtown buildings that are being used by students need the same seismic repairs as the Rivers campus, and school board Vice Chairman Gregg Meyers said fixing those structures is more critical than repairing Rivers, the one that's vacant. The board still needs to address that issue, he said.

Community leaders representing the Charleston NAACP and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance have been asking the board during the public comment portion of the meeting to move forward with the Lowcountry Tech program.

They told the board on Monday that they'd like to see the original district proposal -- one that offered classes in advanced security, automotive, aviation, bioscience and creative industries with a technology focus -- implemented.

The district changed the school's proposed focus to health in August.