Greenville school board approves tax increase for new schools

Paul Hyde | The Greenville News

Greenville County residents: Your taxes are going up.

And you're getting some brand new schools.

Greenville County Schools trustees unanimously approved a 4.6 mill tax increase Tuesday night to build a new high school and new elementary school, among other projects.

Greenville residents packed the school board room Tuesday night, but not to talk about the tax increase. Most were there to urge trustees not to change the name of Wade Hampton High School.

Recently, a group of students and adults have waged a campaign to drop the name of Wade Hampton, saying that it's inappropriate for a modern, high-achieving school to honor a 19th century Confederate general and slaveholder.

Tax increase

The millage increase vote came after extensive discussion in which a few trustees registered concern. Trustee Roger Meek asked others on the board to offer persuasive arguments.

Board chairwoman Crystal Ball O'Connor said she had four words for Meek:

"Fountain Inn High School."

The new $67.2 million high school, to be located near downtown Fountain Inn, is the centerpiece of the building plan to be funded by the tax increase.

Also included is a $44.4 million elementary school.

Rounding out the big ticket items is a Career Technology Innovation/Incubation Center, slated to cost $10.5 million.

Greenville Schools Superintendent R. Burke Royster said the tax increase should satisfy the growing school district's building needs through 2029.

Trustees Derek Lewis asked if the board might also sunset the 4.6 mill increase in 2029, reducing millage at that time. But Royster said it was uncertain whether the board could legally bind a future board in that way, nor was it certain whether the district might continue to need the 4.6 mill increase in 2029.

In the end, all 12 trustees voted in favor of the tax increase.

The owner of a home valued at $180,500 — the average home valuation in Greenville County — will see an annual tax increase of $33.21, according to district officials.

The tax increase for school buildings comes a little more than a month after the district raised taxes for general operations by 2.3 mills.

That earlier tax hike did not affect homeowners, although it raised taxes on businesses, cars and second homes that are used for rental property.

The current levy for debt service of 47.50 mills will rise by 4.6 mills (or 9.68 percent) to 52.1 mills, according to district documents.

Trustees have noted that this is only the second time the district has raised taxes for building projects since 1999. In 2013, the district raises taxes for capital projects by 5 mills.

The district provided examples of how businesses will be impacted by the 4.6 mill increase. A restaurant with an assessed value of $316,040 will see its taxes rise by $87.23 annually. A pharmacy with an assessed value of $602,270 will pay $166.23 more each year in taxes.

The current proposed 4.6 mill hike has been discussed for more than five years as trustees considered the district’s Long Range Facilities Plan.

Wade Hampton High

At the beginning of the meeting, 10 speakers asked the board not to change the name of Wade Hampton High School. Two other speakers, meanwhile, urged the board to drop the name.

At last month's board meeting, nine speakers supported a name change and three opposed it.

Debbie Dill told the board on Tuesday night that students associate Wade Hampton High School not with the Confederate lieutenant general and slaveholder after which it is named but with the accomplishments of the high school itself.

"Wade Hampton High School students are in an inclusive school that brings all students together to raise thousands of dollars each year for charitable causes and where students volunteer to assist in Special Olympics," Dill said. "These students are in a philanthropic and benevolent school. They're in a school where academic opportunities abound and test scores are high."

Larry McNair said Wade Hampton III, the school's namesake, "was a product of his times" and owned slaves but so did many revered Americans such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington.

"When it comes to history, let's face it, don't erase it," McNair said.

However, Jim Hennigan said the naming of Wade Hampton High School in the 1960s was "a hostile response" to desegregation laws.

"In truth, the high school was not named to honor a complicated historical figure," Hennigan said. "The school's name was chosen to make an unambiguous declaration of war against court-ordered desegregation."

The Rev. Pat Jobe tied Wade Hampton III to his supporters known as the Red Shirts, a violent paramilitary group that, as some historians claim, killed 150 black South Carolinians during the 1876 gubernatorial race, Jobe said.

Phyllis Foster, a 1973 graduate of Wade Hampton High School, said most people associate the school not with Wade Hampton III but with the school's illustrious graduates.

"Our Legion of Honor recipients have served in all walks of life, from ministers to researchers to a special agent with the FBI to a director of National Intelligence to a United States senator and even a Greenville County school board member," Foster said, referring to, among others, former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and current school board member Lynda Leventis-Wells.

"I, along with thousands of others from Wade Hampton, choose to look at the good things that have been accomplished by students from Wade Hampton High, and we are proud to be associated with that name," Foster said.

Paul Hyde covers education and everything else under the South Carolina sun. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter: @PaulHyde7.

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