District leaders host forum to discuss Bennettsville Intermediate move

BENNETTSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – The Marlboro County School Board hosted a public forum for Marlboro County High School teachers, Bennettsville Intermediate School teachers, and parents in the district on Wednesday night.

Teachers from both Marlboro County High School and Bennettsville Intermediate agreed that the decision to move third and fourth graders from Bennettsville Intermediate to the high school seemed rushed.

Judith Davis has taught at Marlboro County High School for 25 years. The English teacher said none of the high school teachers were told about the move until after the vote happened. She said many of the questions the teachers asked at their faculty meeting on Tuesday were met with one answer: “I don’t know.”

“Where are the logistics of this move?” She asked. “Meaning who is moving? Where are they moving? What room? I mean we have had no logistics.”

One parent who has children at both Bennettsville Intermediate and Marlboro County High said the board did not do its job by informing everyone involved.

“Now you call us here for a forum to make a decision that you, your executive staff, and board members are supposed to make? This forum should never exist,” the parent said.

Davis said the teachers should have been involved in the decision-making process because the hall where the elementary school students would be learning is not a healthy environment.

“We have a lot of issues on D-Hall, health-wise, too,” she said. There are places where the ceiling tiles, you come in and they’re on the floor, water’s all over the floor and you’ve got the big yellow trashcans.”

Davis said it felt good to have the support of the Bennettsville Intermediate teachers who said they did not want to move in the middle of the school year because it will disrupt their students learning environment.

“I think we’re all on the same side, they don’t want to move and we don’t want to move,” said one Bennettsville Intermediate parent.

Davis said some teachers have threatened to quit if the elementary students transfer to the high school.

“We will definitely have teachers who, if this occurs, will already start looking for jobs, I promise you,” Davis said. “We don’t need this kind of thing pushing them out of the door.”

Acting Superintendent, Dr. John Lane said another public forum will be held Friday, Dec. 15 but declined comment at Wednesday’s forum.