While France's Marie Antoinette famously said, "Let them eat cake," the Charleston County School District's mantra is more aptly put, "Let them rot."
"They" are all the unused CCSD school buildings scattered around the county. Fraser Elementary is a case in point, as its expensively updated (for then!) deserted campus asserts near the old cigar factory on the peninsula. W. Gresham Meggett School on James Island is another. When will the district comprehend that allegiance to its schools builds upon history? Good question.
Meanwhile, some forward-thinking community residents actually have made plans for the building. Imagine that! Helped by the Historic Charleston Foundation, they have nominated the building for the National Register of Historic Places. "The equalization school was designed to provide separate but equal education to black students. It's representative of the consolidation of smaller rural black schools during the 1950s and 1960s, and it also was James Island's first high school for black students."
CCSD's best idea for its use was as an adjunct to a bus lot.
"Meanwhile, the school's alumni hope to make some plans of their own. Wilburn Gilliard of the nonprofit Heritage Development Corp. said the group hopes to convince the school district to sell the property. The nonprofit would like to see it become a community center and a museum to historically black public schools."'
"'We really want to tell the story about equalization schools,' [Charleston County Councilwoman Anna] Johnson said. "A lot of people aren't aware of them. I didn't know the history of them. I was just a kid going to school here.'"
"While the county had several other equalization schools, Gresham Meggett may remain among the most intact, as far as its physical form."
"'We just don't want to see it waste away.'''
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