Some folks believe that Fraser Elementary was closed last year because the Charleston County School District hoped to sell the campus to the city. Now conspiracy theorists should prick up their ears.
The on-line P&C this afternoon confirmed that a necessary school overlay zone for the downtown schools which predate the zoning ordinance does not include Fraser. [See Fate of Former Fraser Elementary School Building Still Undetermined]
Perhaps the plot thickens.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
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OK, let's say they see this as a potential development site for upscale housing or something like that. If they keep closing and selling public school property downtown, where will they have new schools to serve this new population? Try buying back enough land to build a new school downtown. I doubt if they can recover enough land for ten times what they sell it for. What was the sale price of Murray Vocational High School with 7 acres near the Ashley River? I think it was about $2 million. Try buying back 7 acres anywhere on the peninsula for a school, if you can find it. The price for that much vacant land downtown would be closer to $15-$20 million today, even in the current economy. But what do we know? The school board is being kept informed (more like spoon fed) by the all knowing administration. Besides, this is about OPM (other people's money) and so long term costs and benefits don't matter to them anyway. That will be someone else's problem.
Councilmember Mitchell might want to consider how a decision to hold up the school zoning designation for this site will affect the demographics of his district in the future. With fewer public schools downtown, we can expect more college students and retired people to be replacing families with kids. These groups don't always agree on the issues or vote the same way at the polls.
The city's character and economic vitality has changed as a direct result of CCSD's decisions to undercut public education on the peninsula. Many of the changes that followed have not set our city on a path that's economically or culturally sound over time. Without strong neighborhoods with a core group of people and institutions to sustain them, our city is without character. For a few it is at best a museum with no future. History can be a painfully honest reminder if we follow the wrong path forward.
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