FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – The new Florence School District One (FSD1) facilities committee met for the first time Wednesday afternoon. This comes after the FSD1 school board chairman Barry Townsend says he wanted a new perspective to come up with a potential bond for the full board to present to taxpayers.

Three new committee members were given proposals from the previous facilities committee group with notes from the board chairman Barry Townsend and Porter Stewart.

Former committee member Alexis Pipkins came to the meeting even though he is no longer apart of the committee.

“I have no authority to vote or take any action, however, I still will remain and following through on my commitment,” said Pipkins.

Pipkins believes the new committee is illegal. He says the proposals given to the new committee excludes previous studies and suggests the group getting the minutes from each meeting.

“In terms of what was presented, presented at various times, may be from a personal perspective and not from the consensus,” explained Pipkins.

The new facilities chairman Will McLeod says he will request the minutes from the district office if they are available.

The group started with the $266 million bond presented to the community to build a new West Florence high school and renovate South Florence and Wilson High School.

In total rebuild, five schools renovate eight schools and three district buildings

“The only official thing that was given to us was the original plan. The others were just ideas that had come out of that discussion,” said McLeod. McLeod says the new group will review all of the ideas from the previous group.

Some of the ideas include:

  • Build three new high schools proposed $230 million bond referendum (for high schools alone)
  • Renovations at all three high schools
  • Renovate three high schools, build new high school estimated $120m bond (West Florence renovations not included)

During the meeting, McLeod asked each member to write down the most important factors on post-it notes when creating the bond.

“My goal is for this committee to come up with some solutions that may or may not have been thought of before,” said McLeod. “Then you can say is this solution a good viable solution or something that needs to be taken off of the table. It’s just a framework to help us make sound decisions.” 

Community advocate James Williams feels the original group was wrongly disbanded but was impressed with the new leadership.

“He offered an opportunity to build consensus for constructing a plan,” concludes Williams.

McLeod says he will tally the notes and establish goals for the next meeting on Tuesday.

The district will host an informational meeting on the new Williams Middle school plans at Wilson High School starting at 6.