School Board Discusses Millage Increase, School Consolidation
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INSIDE TODAY 2A OPINION 4A OBITUARIES 7A SPORTS 2B PUZZLES 3B BOOKINGS 5B CLASSIFIEDS QUOTE ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’ EDMUND BURKE Vol. 143, No. 14 NTWO SECTIONS e• 14 PAGwES s&PreESTAs BLISHsED 1874 75¢ APRIL 5, 2017 Darlington, S.C. WWW.NEWSANDPRESS.NET Lamar Police Officer charged with DUI School Board Lamar Police Department patrol car on Windham Street in immediately placed on administrative Officer Jay Russell has been Lamar and administered a field leave without pay. A disciplinary board charged for Driving Under the sobriety test, but Russell refused meeting with Chief Chaney and members Influence (DUI) while on duty the to take a breathalyzer test. Russell of Lamar Town Council was held the after - discusses millage night of March 29. was then arrested and taken to noon of April 3 to discuss further action. S.C. Highway Patrol troopers the Darlington County Detention The disciplinary board, including Chief responded to a call from the Center where he bonded out. Chaney, Mayor Randy Reynolds and Darlington County Sheriff's Office Lamar Police Chief Jason Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Thomas ruled that increase, school reporting that Russell seemed Chaney told the News and Press Russell be released from the LPD for viola - impaired. Troopers found Russell in his that following the incident, Russell was tion of department policies. consolidation for all employees, a possible By Samantha Lyles Staff Writer Duke Energy increase of 14 Coker students create community, [email protected] percent (estimated at The Darlington County $280,000), a step increase for Board of Education convened all teachers to 23 years includ - networking opportunities through app a budget work session on ing retirement (estimated at March 27 and discussed ways $549,019), and the employer By Melissa Rollins to bridge a potential deficit of share of health and dental Editor nearly half a million dollars, ($280,000). [email protected] including raising operational Revenue increases total Though their stories are millage and consolidating only about $1.8 million, very different, Coker College schools. including increases in funding students Cameron Flotow and Ashley Smith, Darlington for employee contributions of Dominik Rega have the same County School District's chief $655,674 and $405,956, esti - desire: to make a difference in financial officer, said that mated increase in property the world. This month, they state-mandated expenditures taxes of $500,000, and an plan to launch a crowdfunding have increased by $2.2 million additional $244,530 in Tier III campaign for their app, Brite, while revenues have increased funding. to work toward that goal. by only $1.8 million, leaving a Morphis said he was gener - Flotow’s story began in gap of $480,000. ally opposed to using the 2011 when he was diagnosed “So these requirements are District's fund balance for any - with Leukemia, just days after also coming from the same thing but non-recurring his 21st birthday. people that gave us the cuts, expenses. He expressed frus - “My mom dropped me off at correct?” asked Board chair - tration that even if DCSD used the doctor and they checked man Jamie Morphis. Smith the maximum allowable mill - my blood and then they want - confirmed that was the case. age – a look-back of three ed to do another check because Board members received a years, yielding a total of 5 they thought the first sample budget worksheet with a num - mills, or roughly $1.2 million was contaminated,” Flotow ber of estimated costs and rev - – they would only have about said. “Turns out it wasn’t; I had enues for the 2017/18 fiscal $800,000 to work with, which Leukemia. My entire life year. Required increases in he felt was insufficient to changed that day. When you expenditures total address needs. go through things like that you $2,286,268, including a 2- percent increase in retirement realize what things are impor - BOARD ON 6A tant and which things aren’t.” Cameron Flotow and Dominik stand near Davidson Hall on the Coker College campus. Flotow said that he had an PHOTO BY MELISSA ROLLINS inkling that something might be wrong but nothing prepared from the cuff until after the watching this story and found it While his family has a success - him for the diagnosis. fact.” really inspiring. Yes, he proba - ful company back home, he said Applicants make “I knew that something was He endured round after bly made billions and billions of that it was important for him to wrong because every day I round of chemotherapy and a dollars but that isn’t why he did find his own way, at least for a couldn’t walk as far and people bone marrow transplant, what he did; he did it to help little while. A-Tax requests kept telling me that I looked spending months in the hospi - the world. I was looking death “I come from a family of follows: pale,” Flotow said. “I remember tal. in the face and I made a prom - entrepreneurs so I grew up in By Samantha Lyles Black Creek Arts Council putting my arm into a blood “At the very beginning, I was ise to myself that if I survived that setting,” Rega said. “We Staff Writer [email protected] RenoFest: $15,000 pressure cuff because I was just dumbfounded,” Flotow this I was going to do some - have our own company back in The Darlington County Butler Heritage Foundation worried it might be a heart said. “Two days after my diag - thing. I didn’t know what that Czech so I saw my dad and my Accommodations Tax / Butler Week: $12,000 problem but my pulse was fine. noses, I was getting ready to would be but I wanted to make grandfather, how they were Committee convened its sec - City of Darlington / A day later, my whole arm was begin chemotherapy and I was my life meaningful in some running the company; the ond meeting of 2017 on March Williamson Park 5K: $2,500 bruised. How in the world watching on tv that Steve Jobs way.” company is as old as I am.” 30 to hear funding requests for Darlington Chamber of could my whole arm get passed away. He was someone Rega is a freshman foreign the 2017/18 fiscal year. Commerce / Freedom Fest: bruised? I didn’t realize it was that I looked up to and I was exchange student from Czech. STUDENTS ON 3A The Accommodations Tax $10,000 Committee is responsible for Darlington County Cultural dispersing a $55,000 funding Realism Complex / Total pool to applicants whose ven - Package: $52,000 ues and events increase local Darlington Downtown DCSD social workers trying to curb chronic absenteeism tourism and overnight hotel Revitalization / Taste of Sue Ingram, the lead social daily attendance is good,” given year for any reason, By Melissa Rollins stays. The accommodations tax Darlington: $2,500 Editor worker for Darlington Ingram said. “Research has can often be a sign that a stu - pool comes from the state- Darlington Downtown [email protected] County School District, shown that it’s not great, dent is at a greater risk for mandated two-percent tax on Revitalization / Yam Jam: Many teachers will tell recently shared with the that we should be at 97 per - not completing school. hotel and motel stays, which is $5,000 you that there are challenges DCSD Board of Education cent or higher. Currently, Ingram said that the brief, collected by the state and chan - EdVenture, Inc. / EdVenture to overcome in order to about the effort that social Darlington is at 95.38 per - entitled Chronic neled back to counties and Hartsville Satellite: $5,000 reach students educational workers are taking in the dis - cent.” Absenteeism: A Problem municipalities. These agencies Florence CVB / Darlington needs when they have some trict to curb chronic absen - Chronic absenteeism, Hidden in Plain Sight, talks then distribute accommoda - Car Hauler Parade: $5,000 many other things going on teeism in elementary defined in a brief from about the many issues sur - tions tax monies to applicants Hartsville Community in their lives. Sometimes the schools, a growing problem Attendance Works and the rounding students who are who can demonstrably increase Center Bldg. Comm/Center struggle is simply getting all across the country. Child & Family Policy Center frequently absent. local tourism. Theater: $12,600 them to school to begin with. “A lot of schools think as missing ten percent or This year's applicants and that 95 percent of average more of the school days in a their funding requests are as DCSD ON 6A A-TAX ON 3A FDTC opens new Automotive and HVAC center By Samantha Lyles Staff Writer [email protected] Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC) for - mally opened its new Automotive and HVAC Technology Center with a March 29 ribbon cutting cere - mony. FDTC president Dr. Ben Dillard welcomed guests, including Darlington Raceway president Kerry Tharp and NASCAR’s JTG Daugherty Racing crew chief Trent Owens, and lauded the new $7.3 mil - lion facility as a major step in A ribbon cutting ceremony celebrated a new HVAC building at FDTC's 10-year Academic Florence-Darlington Technical College. PHOTOS BY SAMANTHA LYLES Master Plan. “We also have a new multi- founding over 50 years ago. It’s what a great day to be in the storied building planned for time for something new,” state of South Carolina. I look the front of the campus which Dillard said. around, and what I see is excel - will take the place of two struc - Automotive and HVAC stu - lence.