FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – Florence School Districts One and Two will help Florence School District Four this year.
State Superintendent, Molly Spearman, declared a state of emergency in May because the Timmonsville district wasn’t financially unstable.
Spearman told News13 both Florence One and Florence Two in Pamplico will help Florence Four in different ways.
“Finance, human resources, personnel,” she said. “In technology, in maintenance, and other areas that normally would have a full-time person in both places so we’re really excited.”
Spearman said Florence One will put a little more than half a million dollars into shared services with Florence Four.
“They’re not doing it for free, but certainly, they were very welcoming, and worked with us because they’re interested too in making sure that the children in Florence Four have the opportunities that they need.”
Florence One School Board Chairman, Barry Townsend, said the district will be compensated.
“There are no District One tax dollars going towards this,” he told News13.
Spearman said Florence School District Two will help with maintenance services.
“We signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Florence Two to cover the maintenance, and custodial services for Florence Four,” she explained. “So they contracted out, and they added that site as an additional site so it was really good financially for both districts.”
Spearman said Florence Four will save about $600,000 because of the shared services with the neighboring districts.
The State Superintendent said Florence Four will start the school year fully-staffed.
“We’re starting school with all our teachers in place,” she said. “I think they should be able to see more opportunities for the students.”
Spearman said the state will contract with Florence One to let Timmonsville students use the career center.
“Our high school students in Timmonsville will be going over to the career center,” she said. “Great opportunities for them. We hope that you’ll see more opportunities, more resources down in the classrooms supporting teachers so it’s a good situation for Florence Four.”
Townsend said Florence One will offer mostly administrative services.
“Any training that our teachers are getting, their teachers will get as well,” Townsend said.
Spearman said it’s important for neighboring districts to help Timmonsville during its state of emergency.
“Florence Four has about 650 to 700 students,” said Spearman. “Florence One is a much larger district with somewhere around 16,000 students.”
Spearman said she approved a budget of $6,211,557 to help balance Florence Four’s budget.
“The district finished in the red. We’ve got them now with a budget where we’ll finish in the black, and so it’s a good thing,” Spearman said. “The savings that we’re receiving from the shared services, over half a million dollars will go to stabilizing the district’s finances.”
Spearman said Timmonsville students and teachers will see the most change this school year.
“The high school students will be going over to the career center so they have more opportunities now, there may be some new faces that they see, but it should be highly expert services that are given on the district level,” she said.
Spearman said the state will hire a consulting superintendent to assist her, and that position will be filled by Aug. 24.
