BY CHARLES SWENSON
COASTAL OBSERVER

In 18 years, Waccamaw High School has seen seven principals. Only one stayed as long as Keith Brown, who announced last week he plans to retire June 30.

“It’s time,” said Brown, who has been in education 29 years, the last four at Waccamaw High.

He said he is considering some personal and professional opportunities, but did not elaborate.

“I don’t know how soon that will happen,” he said.

The Georgetown County School District has already started advertising the position, said Superintendent Randy Dozier. If fact, he said if he didn’t already have a job he would consider applying himself.

“It’s a great high school,” he said. “With that and the area, we’ll have no problem attracting candidates.”

Dozier said Brown first approached him a few weeks ago about leaving. He offered to find him another job within the district, but said Brown declined.

“I was surprised about his retirement,” Dozier said. “But I respect his decision. I can’t say enough about what he has done for Waccamaw High School: the International Baccalaureate program, Palmetto’s Finest.”

Susie McCaskill, head of the parent-teacher-student association, WAVE, said, “I was shocked when I heard.”

At the same time, she said she can understand the timing of Brown’s decision.

“Everyone knows that Keith Brown has high expectations, maybe that’s what led him to leave at this time,” she said.

The school was named Palmetto’s Finest in a state award competition conducted by the S.C. Association of School Administrators.

High expectations is one reason teachers and administrators traditionally cite for the turnover of Waccamaw High principals.

“We’re at the top of everything,” said Cara Cook, a special services teacher who has been at WHS since it opened in 1990. “It is a lot of pressure. They’re held accountable.”

Expectations have been his since the school opened, said Dennis Lee, another of the original teachers. “Every since 1990, every year we try to do something different,” he said.

Only Burke Royster, who was principal when the school opened, stayed as long as Brown.

During the intervening years, “everything happened so fast, we just started looking to each other,” Cook said. “The turnover has helped us turn more inward.”

She said the staff shares the same goals, but that “it does take the right captain to steer the ship.”

Brown doesn’t take credit himself for the school’s accomplishments.

“We as a school and a community have come a long way by working together,” he said. “The community felt like they had ownership.”

Dozier said Brown’s tenure has created a sense of stability at Waccamaw High.

“We, as a team, have brought a lot of stability in four years,” Brown said. “The school is in very good shape and will continue to be in good shape.”

He said his goal was to “empower the people to do things and watch them deliver.”

Brown started work at Waccamaw in July 2004, after seven years as principal of Georgetown Middle School. By that fall there was discussion about starting an IB program at Waccamaw to provide more opportunities for college-bound students.

In the two years prior to Brown’s arrival, the school had earned “excellent” ratings on its state report card for overall performance and for improvement.

The school’s overall rating has continued to be “excellent.” Its improvement rating is “good.”

The ratings measure a school’s progress toward the state’s goal of ranking in the top half of the nation by 2010.

But, there is still work to be done, Brown said.

“You always feel like you have things you want to work on,” he said. “Everybody has to set a goal and consider themselves a work in progress.”

“He’s very goal-oriented,” Cook said. “And he’s accomplished that and worked hard at it.”

“You have to give Keith a lot of credit,” Lee said. “He set the bar high.”

School Board Member Bob Jewell said Brown “did a terrific job. He improved the school academically and athletically, and blended the two well together. He brought the level of the school up.”

Board Member Scott Hutto said Brown was his weight lifting mentor at Georgetown High and he is “a great teacher and a great motivator of people. I hate to see him go. He did a great job.”

Dozier said the success of Waccamaw High is “a reflection on leadership, the staff and the students.”

He said that success also creates a challenge.

“There are a lot of expectations,” he said. “A record of high achievement must be maintained.”

“We’re the best high school in the state; what do we do now?” Lee said.

Nancy Oliver, head of career and technology education, and an 18-year WHS veteran, said “we have a wonderful faculty and wonderful students and we just continue to march to the beat. I think the new principal will come in and be please with what he sees.”

The principal position will likely be advertised in national publications. There are also several capable people in the district, Dozier said, but “moving a person solves one problem and creates another.”

Even with a tight deadline, Dozier said the community will be involved in the selection process.

Cook said that is helpful for the school staff.

“You get a feel for the person,” she said. “They really have to sell themselves. They have to do their homework.”

Brown said he will work with the next principal to make sure there is a smooth transition. In the meantime, there are exams and graduation coming up.

“Whoever comes in, they need to know they’re in a great place,” Brown said.

Tim Callahan contributed to this report.

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BY JACKIE R. BROACH and TIM CALLAHAN
COASTAL OBSERVER

County looks for savings
Georgetown County Council got its first look at a budget that calls for no increase in taxes.
The bottom line: $54.1 million
The change: Down $200,000
The cause: Slower growth in tax revenue and fees
The savings: Pay raises will be delayed until January. Departments are cutting fuel costs. Some capital equipment spending will be deferred.

No tax increase in next budget
By Jackie R. Broach
Coastal Observer

In terms of numbers, Georgetown County Council members saw only a bare bones view of next year’s county budget, but they walked away with a very clear concept of what those numbers represent.

At the end of his third week on the job, county administrator Sel Hemingway gave council a budget presentation unlike any they’d seen before.

Instead of the stack of handouts and balance sheets they normally receive during budget workshops, council got a concise verbal presentation of the challenges this year’s budget presented along with the solutions staff came up with.

It was accompanied by a one-page proposed budget summary and millage schedule that shows totals for the general fund and department fund balances that make up the $54.1 million budget, down from $54.3 million in fiscal year 2008.

In short, the county is experiencing tight times with more expenditures than revenue, but has a balanced budget for fiscal year 2009 with no tax increases, fee increases or use of the reserve fund balance.

Hemingway said all those things were considered, but ultimately tossed out.

He told council they will receive the entire budget later this week, along with supplemental documents, all in electronic format. He hopes council members will find it easier to navigate than the pile of papers and files they usually get bombarded with, he said.

The switch also saves paper and money.

The new format and simpler presentation was well received by council.

“We have the background of your thinking and that makes the numbers easier to understand,” said Council Member Jerry Oakley.

Council Member Glen O’Connell said the approach made it “less about the process and more about substance.”

For the last several years, Hemingway told council, the county has had a budget surplus.

“The trend has changed of late and what we’ve seen recently is revenues have flattened — primarily tax revenues — and some related to the housing industry have actually declined,” he told council.

Traditionally, the county has had a 3 to 4 percent annual increase in tax revenues, but now it’s closer to 1 percent, Hemingway said. Revenues for building permits, impact fees, document stamps, recording fees, and landfill fees for construction debris have all dropped.

That’s a problem for the county, because it’s still employing the same number of people to handle things like building inspections, even though the demand has dropped, said Scott Proctor, county finance director.

“If we were a big county with lots of building inspectors, we would have to lay off inspectors, but we’re not a dollar for dollar government,” Proctor said. “Plus, we don’t have that big of a staff that we can immediately start reducing it.”

In the mean time, expenditures have increased at a more rapid rate than in previous years, largely due to increasing fuel costs. Utility costs have also increased, he said, as providers deal with the rising cost of gasoline.

All those things combined to leave county staff scrambling to make ends meet.

“We’re still excited we got to the last page and got a zero on there,” Hemingway told council. “At times we were probably as much as $2.1 to $2.2 million collectively away from that point as the targets moved.”

To balance the budget without putting the burden on taxpayers’ backs or dipping into the reserve fund took creativity and a lot of careful scrutiny. Hemingway and department directors looked at every budgeted line item, searching for things that could be cut.

They also came up with a plan to save on fuel use. The county will consolidate trips, try to have meetings closer to home, have directors scrutinize travel logs to look for extra fat, increase use of conference calls, create a no idle policy for vehicles, and a number of other things.

The county expects to save more than $300,000 by delaying cost of living and merit pay increases to January. Personnel costs make up about 66 percent of the general fund budget, Hemingway said.

The county will also analyze vacancies and delay hiring if possible. Further savings can be had by having more part-time employees, saving on benefits costs.

The county will also look closely at the vehicles due to be replaced this year and replace only 18 of the expected 32. That method can only be employed once, however.

“I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know where the bag of tricks will be next year if things continue as they are,” Hemingway said.

But he and staff will begin now looking at ways to balance the fiscal year 2010 budget.

Schools plan tax increase
The Georgetown County School District will raise taxes for owners of non-residential property to make up for shortfalls in state revenue.
The bottom line: $75.8 million
The change: Down $1.9 million
The cause: A $4.3 million cut in state revenue
The increases: 3.4-mill rise in property tax for operations; 2-mill increase in tax for debt service
The savings: Cuts in some programs. Consolidation in staffing. Delays in capital purchases

Budget includes cuts and tax hike
By Tim Callahan
Coastal Observer
The Georgetown County Board of Education’s 2008-2009 draft operating budget calls for a 3.4-mill tax increase, and a 2-mill increase in debt service.

Operating budget millage affects owners of businesses and second homes. Debt service everyone pays and would be an additional $8 per $100,000 of assessed value.

It is the second millage increase in two years.

Last year, millage was increased from 87.5 mills to 91.3 mills. The proposed increase would set the millage at 94.7 mills, and the debt service cap would be raised from 25 to 27 mills.

The budget, which will be finalized in June, would be $1.9 million less than 2007-2008, or $75.79 million.

The increase in millage is intended to deal with a budget deficit of $7.7 million, due to a $3.6 million loss of state revenues, $1.5 million in state mandated increases, and the costs of opening Waccamaw Intermediate School.

Superintendent Randy Dozier said the district is losing funds from the Education Improvement Act, Medicaid, IDEA, and Title V funding.

To meet the crunch, district staff recommended: raising the millage cap from 25 to 27 mills; cutting some initiatives put in place in the last couple of years; consolidating job responsibilities and, therefore, eliminating positions; and funding allowable expenditures from the general fund through the capital projects fund, including equipment, security cameras, bus surveillance cameras, technology, some operation costs related to building improvements, painting and carpeting.

“This is the best plan at this time,” Dozier said. “There are a lot of variables. In 27 years of education, I have never been confronted with this type of challenge.”

Reduction and reallocation in teacher positions would include the loss of 13 positions due to decreased enrollment – district staff will fill some of the positions – as well as the loss of special education and foreign language teachers and science coaches, and reducing additional English/language arts and math teachers for middle and high schools.

But, all the news is not bad, Dozier told the school board Tuesday.

“No one has lost their job and we haven’t had to tamper with the $7 million in the reserve fund,” Dozier said. “We have to have a prudent reserve.”

He also said a salary increase for teachers of 3.6 percent, and a 2 percent increase in support staff salaries are still in the budget.

The debt service increase will be used to fund some operations costs and $1.6 million for projects outlined in the capital improvement plan for the summer of 2008, including repairing the roof and water heaters at Waccamaw High School.

The district lost $4.3 million from the state because of lower enrollment, and reassessment. Ever-increasing home values make the county one of the top 10 wealthiest in the state, Dozier said. Therefore, “the index of tax paying ability goes up and the percent of state funding goes down,” he said.

School board members sat glumly during a budget presentation by Lisa Johnson, district finance manager, and clarifications by Dozier. The board asked almost no questions and made few comments.

School Board Member Bob Jewell did ask several questions to clarify what the budget meant overall.

“We’re slowing progress down,” he said. “But, we’re not going back to ground zero. Is that a correct assumption?”

“We’re deferring things,” Dozier said.

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BY TIM CALLAHAN
COASTAL OBSERVER

Belin Methodist Church’s annual Blessing of the Inlet has grown. The church has grown. The pastor has grown.

But, Rev. Mike Alexander’s message from the pulpit and the blessing for three years has been “we are blessed to be a blessing.”

“This is paradise, and we know it,” said Alexander, taking a break after the 12th annual blessing, and reminding people, according to the book of Jeremiah, that people who trust in the Lord are blessed – and those who don’t are cursed.

“Of all the communities I have lived in,” he said, “I’ve noticed these people understand that we are a blessed people, and they want to be a blessing to others.”

“God has graced the community with so many natural gifts,” he added. “There has been such a big turnout at the blessing because people of different denominations and faith are so humbled and recognize the Giver of these gifts.”

This day’s gift included sunny skies, a cooling breeze, and 80 degree temperatures.

Alexander, who has pastored in several South Carolina towns, said the people of Murrells Inlet have been “so generous” during his brief tenure.

A $4 million capital campaign resulted in purchasing property that will help the ever expanding church, he said. “I don’t even know where the money came from,” he said. “People have been very, very generous.”

Alexander replaced popular pastor Harold Lewis after his retirement in June 2005. Lewis had been at Belin for 13 years, a long time for itinerant Methodist ministers.

“I just hope I am so fortunate,” said Alexander, who would love to make this his permanent home.

“My wife, Betsy, is so happy, and the children love to visit because there is so much to do in the area.”

Chad, 30, is married and lives in Columbia. Abby, 28, is single and lives in Charlotte.

A church volunteer eavesdropping on the conversation said, “I was one of those people who was worried when Harold left and Mike came on. Well, I’m not worried anymore. Mike has been incredible, far meeting our expectations.

Belin will grow from two services to three in September, he said: 8:45 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Alexander, 56, grew up in Bishopville, where he attended Bethlehem United Methodist Church with his family. He worked as a counselor at Asbury Hills Methodist Camp, where he felt a tug to be committed to full-time ministry.

He started ministering in Hampton and Allendale counties, doing three services at three different churches. He has also ministered in Travelers Rest, Florence and Clinton.

His longest tenure was eight years; his shortest, four years.

He received his master’s in divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University and his doctorate in ministry in 1990 from Erskine College.

When Alexander came here, he said he was ecumenically-minded. There was not one document he could point to and say, “This is what I and the church believe.” He and the church had open doors, hearts and minds and open arms. He said then that the Bible is the word of God to him, but it is not “inerrant” and it is not literal.

He hasn’t changed his mind.

In 2008, he is still preaching “inclusivity and diversity. We are made better by our diversity and different religious backgrounds.”

He said the Blessing of the Inlet was a prime example of a beautiful picture God can paint from so many faiths and colors.

“But I want to make clear I am privileged to be a part of this church,” he said.

“Any success is not about me. It is about the people of this church and this community.”

Alexander stepped out of the back cloak room, walked across the sanctuary and out the back door of the church, facing the inlet, ambled down the steps and started shagging with the other dancers, celebrating dance, music, diversity, beauty and blessings.

And home.

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BY TIM CALLAHAN
COASTAL OBSERVER

Why would an Alabama woman with a nationwide consulting firm come to the island and head up the 11th annual Pawleys Pavilion Reunion?

It isn’t about cleaning up the environment, Allison Black Cornelius said, and it isn’t about making money. She is here consulting for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and trying to promote and organize the reunion.

“It’s about building social capital,” she said. “It’s about taking what you’ve got and using it.”

Pawleys has the beach, the ocean, and people with money.

“It is not whether you agree with the environmental issues, or with the local business association, it is about touching everybody and everything with what you have,” she said. “You improve the area when you help other people.”

Resistance to reunion fund-raising efforts has frustrated the woman who has trained more than 1,700 boards of nonprofits. A nonprofit in a rural area with a statewide sphere of influence needs, she said, the law project needs a big event to survive and raise funds.

“This isn’t Charleston or Columbia,” Black Cornelius said. “If you are going to have a business in a small town in a rural area you need to move, or put on a big event.”

Jimmy Chandler, the law project’s founder, and a few persistent reunion junkies convinced her a big fund-raising event might be the reunion, accomplishing two purposes, keeping it going and meeting the law project’s needs. The Pawleys Island-Litchfield Business Association was also to share some of the proceeds.

The Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce was set to take over the reunion this year, but the Chamber president informed the town it doesn’t have the staff to run the event.

“I was just so thunderstruck,” said Molly Mercer.

Mercer spent two years organizing the reunion and getting approval from the town before the first event was held in May 1998 on the site of the fourth pavilion.

The Pawleys Pavilion was a place where teenagers came to dance and socialize. The fourth Pavilion burned in June 1970.

The Pavilion Reunion drew people from around the Southeast to reminisce and take a turn on an open-air dance floor set up in the Pawleys Island Nature Park. The last pavilion was just across the street, overlooking the creek.

After 12 years, Mercer was ready to step down. “It’s a great thing,” she said. “I just wanted to go to it.”

Chandler resurrected the dying event and asked Black Cornelius to help.

As Black Cornelius talked to people, she began to understand the island’s non-commercial policy, and the tradition and memories associated with the reunion, and why mixing business with the reunion isn’t really popular. She said people told her:

• “This is where I met my wife.”
• “This is where I went to meet Sumter girls.”
• “This is where I bring my children to share my history.”
• “This is where I learned to shag.”

These, and other heart-warming statements, gave Black Cornelius a better picture of what reunion goers were about and what they wanted.

Talks with Mercer and Mayor Bill Otis also helped Cornelius understand Pawleys’ “arrogantly shabby” mantle and meaning.

“The people are so welcoming and friendly here, but there is something more there....”

Tradition is the key that keeps people coming back to the Pavilion, Black Cornelius discovered. It was an island tradition to go to the four pavilions, and it will be passing on this tradition to children and grandchildren that will keep them coming back, she said, and keep residents from selling their homes or renting them out, two things that will keep Pawleys Pawleys. That benefits everyone, she said.

Tradition to the baby boomers was walking to the Pavilion and beach. In Black Cornelius’ generation and cities “walking to the store could get you killed.” She said a sense of tradition needs to be created for the younger generation. A tradition like going to the reunion every year to get away from it all. And then passing that on to their children.

But, the event is geared to benefiting attendees. Black Cornelius thinks that needs to change if the event is to survive and thrive, and if Pawleys Island wants to be known for the great place that it is, and the great people living there.

Great as in nice. There are plenty of famous people in the world, she said. That doesn’t make a place special.

She had a word of advice for attendees, famous or no.

“You’ve got to start promoting the reunion,” she said. “When a restaurant owner asks you where you’re from and why you are here, you’ve got to tell them, ‘I’m going to the Pawleys Pavilion Reunion.’”

She said a list of attendees has never been kept and that will change at this event. She is offering door prizes to get people to sign up so they can be kept track of for the next reunion and the next.

Because of the lack of funds raised, Black Cornelius said, money raised this year will be put in a reserve for next year’s reunion.

With word of mouth promotion, and keeping in contact with attendees, she hopes the event will grow into a major fund-raiser for nonprofits while keeping its low-key island fun flavor – and building tradition for generations to come.

Among many heavy metal clients, Black Cornelius consults for governors and the Republican and Democratic parties.

Her job is to help boards, organizations and people work more efficiently, and she has some ideas about improving the Pawleys Island area.

Black Cornelius is from Alabama. Her “view from 45,000 feet” might be more objective than someone who lives here, she said.

“Why not build a pavilion?” she said. “Are you worried about partying and crime? The best way to deal with that is make it family-friendly. Have walkways for strollers. I guarantee you the teenagers will bolt when they see woman with strollers.”

“No animals on the beach?” she said. “That doesn’t encourage families to live and stay here, or people to visit.”

“Do you want it to stay the same? Then don’t sell your home.”

Pass the home on to your children, she says. If a parent dies and you get the house, live in it. Keep the tradition alive.

Black Cornelius knows she might be seen as an outsider trying to change things. But, why not change things for the better and build social capital?

It benefits everyone, she said. [E-Mail Article To a Friend]