Open Letter
I just paid another couple of tax bills. This is just a reminder to all the property owners out there as we are paying more for everything these days.
Look at your home, boat and car tax bills. You will find that SCHOOL TAX is usually the biggest culprit on your bill. For those new to our community and to remind others, D5 spent $34,000,000 to build a school we didn’t need in a location nobody wanted. It was railroaded through with little input from the community and limited due diligence by a negligent school board. The prior school board raised your taxes (millage) to pay for it. I’ve been told Piney Woods Elementary is now expected to serve just 350 students. The new board was forced to make it a school of choice just to get to that number. That’s almost $100,000 per student that went towards new construction over students and teachers. It’s $34M spent in a community that didn’t need it over many of our other underserved areas such as Irmo. A little research will reveal the previous board’s ties to developers.
You may not agree with our new school board members on every issue. You may not like the fact that some board members are asking tough questions and demanding answers. You may be upset at the loss of Dr. Melton. She did a good job in a tough time. You may view the resigning board member as a martyr instead of an arrogant coward.
Regardless, the new board was elected to hold themselves and others accountable. If you don’t like their methods, it’s your right and duty to hold them and every other elected representative accountable at election time.
As taxpayers, we cannot afford to allow this type of wasteful spending to occur again.
Mark Ebert
Chapin
