Nondenominational Church in Charleston, SC

|Updated: Oct. 29, 2024 at 6:45 PM EDT

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The Charleston County School District has now approved and adopted a new rule to regulate which books are allowed in public schools.

The approval came from Monday night’s Board of Trustees meeting but was discussed more in-depth Tuesday at a news conference with district leaders.

Tuesday’s event was held at Edith L. Frierson Elementary School on Wadmalaw Island because the school jumped from an unsatisfactory rating to excellent on the state report card in just one year, with the district wanting to highlight that achievement.

The news conferences are a new initiative for the district to hold after each Board of Trustees meeting to help offer more transparency and access to Charleston County schools.

Superintendent Anita Huggins focused on major topics from the night before including the approval of the Union Pier TIF, instructional materials and the cellphone ban.

Specifically focusing on the book ban vote from Monday night, the South Carolina Department of Education implemented a new law this summer which left the CCSD with really no choice in approving the policy.

“Since the summer and since we’ve had more knowledge about this regulation, we have been working to ensure that they (principals) know the support that we want to offer them and to their teachers,” Huggins said.

The state law completely bans material for any age group if it includes visual depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct. It also outlines a process for someone to challenge them all the way up to the State Board of Education.

Board members were presented with multiple, very detailed policies that are aligned with state regulations and unanimously approved each specific policy.

One of the major changes in the regulation now requires teachers to catalog books which puts a challenge on educators to select and retain materials.

“Our principals, they have welcomed the opportunity to really ensure that the content of the curriculum that we’re choosing, the materials are rigorous and they’re appropriate for the age with which the students that they’re serving,” Deputy Superintendent Dr. Luke Clamp said. “So they’ve not necessarily been concerned, but really it’s an opportunity.”

When asked about feedback from parents, Huggins said there are two very different views from parents…

“We hear from parents who want students to have access and opportunity related to books of all content, and then we have parents who want a voice in what their students read and have access to in our library media centers across the district,” Huggins said.

The regulation allows the State Board of Education to have the final say in local disputes over what materials are appropriate, ranging from school library books to even those read by an afterschool student book club.

The State Board of Education will be holding its first book review hearing on Thursday to decide if famous books such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” will still be on the shelves of public schools in the state.

“This week’s first committee review at the State level has sparked some interesting dialog and debate,” Huggins said. “There are various titles on the list to be considered among the committee, and so we await the decision and the recommendation of that committee to the state board and the next steps.”

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, SC — On Monday, the Charleston County School District (CCSD) Board of Trustees voted 5-4 to move forward with a tax increment financing (TIF) district to help fund a revamp to the Union Pier.

Board members Carol Tempel, Courtney Waters, Darlene Roberson and Daron Calhoun voted against the measure. Board chair Keith Grybowski, trustees Pamela McKinney, Carlotte Bailey, Ed Kelley and Leah Whatley voted in favor.

In August, Charleston City Council voted unanimously to establish a TIF district for the Union Pier property. The approval initiated a 45-day process for the Charleston City Council and CCSD to hold votes on the district's establishment.

The projects in the mixed-use redevelopment plan could include additional public parks and spaces, affordable housing, and improving stormwater drainage.

The TIF will allow the City of Charleston to collect property taxes that typically go to CCSD and the county, and use those funds toward the purchase and renovation of the pier.

The deal also allows the district to have all office space at 75 Calhoun St. in return for giving up tax revenue.

Several community members spoke against the proposal during the public comment section of the meeting, “Why is the school district being asked to bear the largest share of the cost of this deal when it is the city of Charleston and the developer getting the largest share of the benefit?”

Currently, Union Pier generates no tax revenue, according to a news release from the City of Charleston. However, redevelopment could bring in roughly $20 million to the school district each year after the pier’s redevelopment.

“TIFs have proven successful, as seen with King Street’s revitalization. By establishing a TIF, the city can replicate that success at Union Pier,” according to the release.

The South Carolina Ports Authority owned the Union Pier before selling it to Ben Navarro, the owner of Beemok Hospitality Collection.The city will now have a say in the pier’s development, ending its time as an acting cruise terminal.

On Tuesday, Oct. 29, Charleston County Council voted to move forward with the measure. The City of Charleston is set to host a public hearing on Nov. 4 before the city council's vote on a final decision.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston International Airport’s director delivered his first-ever “State of the Airport” address Tuesday, giving a glimpse at the facility’s future.

Elliott Summey, the executive director and CEO of the Charleston County Aviation Authority, said multi-million dollar projects will expand where folks park and check their bags and will ultimately make it easier for Lowcountry residents and visitors alike to get where they need to go.

“It’s going to create the best quality of life and economic development story of any airport, not only in South Carolina but in the southeast,” Summey said. “And I know we can deliver. It’s time to get to work.”

This airport saw record-breaking travel last year with 6.1 million passengers and is preparing for the time the area eventually reaches 10 million. The airport has recorded a few record-breaking holiday travel weekends in 2024. For its July 4th travel weekend, airport officials recorded a 12% increase in the number of travelers passing through security checkpoints during compared with the previous year.

It then recorded a 15% jump in passengers during 2024’s Labor Day travel weekend compared to 2023.

As far as overall population, Summey said during the address that Charleston could have million people by 2030. Summey said besides the Tri-County area, people in Horry, Georgetown, Lexington and Richland Counties — and others as far as 200 miles away — make the drive to Charleston International Airport.

He says it’s cheaper to fly in and out of Charleston now than it was in 2019.

“So many people are moving here. So many people are visiting here. Mayor, elected officials, we have to make sure that as we grow, we have to keep what makes us special,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to strive to do at the Aviation Authority as well.”

Construction on a six-level parking garage is already underway. When that $348 million project is finished, the new garage will offer 5,164 spaces for private vehicles and 2,036 spaces designated for rental cars.

As far as where the current rental cars are, that will be replaced by temporary gates until it becomes Concourse C, where those gates will become permanent.

The addition of a consolidated rental car facility will streamline the rental process, allowing travelers to conveniently pick up and drop off rental vehicles all in one location, Summey said. A new Concourse C will also house a new federal inspection station for international flights.

“This is the community’s airport,” Summey said. “This is South Carolina’s airport. So, they deserve to know what we’re about to do.”

READ MORE: Long-term expansion plan revealed for Charleston International Airport

This expansion will also include adding eight new gates and a state-of-the-art baggage handling system on the side of the airport closest to Boeing. This will become the East Concourse.

In this area, the curb where passengers get picked up and dropped off will expand by almost a mile. This will also take the number of ticket counters from 28 to 60. Three more TSA lanes will be added on top of one that’s already in the works.

They also plan to expand the central energy plant here to ensure they can handle the 20-30% higher capacity of travelers.

Surrounding the airport, overnight parking for airplanes will be added as well.

“You come to this community. You spend the money to get here,” he said. “You should have a great experience. And for us, it starts when you land and it ends when you takeoff. And everything that happens in between is so vitally important.”

Some of the funding is still needed for the projects that have yet to start, but Summey thanked U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R - South Carolina, Tuesday for helping kickstart what’s already begun.

Summey says they plan to break ground on the overnight airplane lot during the first quarter of 2025 and start the temporary gates in the middle of the year. The East Concourse and ticket hall expansion can be expected to start in the first quarter of 2026.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

People who aren’t citizens of the United States shouldn’t be allowed to vote. That’s so obvious and easy that we shouldn’t have to say it. Regardless of what you think about the United States’ immigration policies or their enforcement, the vote should be reserved for citizens.

And in South Carolina, it is. We believe it’s clear that our state constitution bars non-citizens from voting, as does state law. Additionally, federal law bars non-citizens from voting in federal elections.

There have been no attempts to change state law or the state constitution to allow non-citizens to vote. We would call the idea a non-starter if it weren't for the fact that nobody has even tried to start it.

Editorials

And yet, for reasons that do not hold up, the Legislature is bothering us with a constitutional referendum about barring non-citizens from voting. The Legislature is creating longer lines at the polling places because of all of those people who haven’t looked at their sample ballots and have to take the time in the voting booth to read the question and figure out what it means — when from a practical perspective, it means nothing.

The question on the ballot asks us to change our constitution to say “only a citizen” can vote. What it doesn’t tell us is that “only a citizen” would replace “Every citizen” in the section of the constitution that says “Every citizen of the United States and of this State of the age of eighteen and upwards who is properly registered is entitled to vote as provided by law.”

Supporters in the Legislature claimed we needed to change this because some judge in some crazy liberal state ruled that language similar to ours didn’t bar local governments in that state from allowing non-citizens to vote in municipal elections.

That explanation would be easier to believe if the Legislature hadn’t deliberately written the ballot question in a way to make it impossible to tell that our constitution already restricts voting to “every citizen.” And if top state officials hadn’t refused to add an explanation to the ballot — as they had every right and we would say every obligation to do — to explain what the amendment would change.

Why all the secrecy about what the change would do? We hate to sound conspiratorial, but it’s tempting to believe legislators didn't want voters to see how silly their change was, that they just wanted to get some anti-immigration measure on the ballot to get voters riled up.

There have been no reports of any local governments in our state trying to allow non-citizens to vote. If one did, someone would sue. We doubt there’s a judge in South Carolina who would stretch the words of our constitution as far as they’d have to be stretched to get to the conclusion that non-citizens may be allowed to vote in strictly local elections.

Even if one did, it is simply not credible to suggest that our state Supreme Court would embrace that stretch. That’s true of any Supreme Court our state has ever had, and more so for the current court, whose members were chosen by a Legislature that is focused on fealty to whatever interpretation the Legislature gives to the constitution instead of just putting friends and relatives on the bench.

If a municipality did try the non-citizen voting approach and a lower court judge allowed it and the Legislature didn’t trust the Supreme Court to strike it down, lawmakers could easily pass a law to make it super extra clear that non-citizens can’t vote in any elections held in our state. Indeed, that’s what conservative lawmakers would have done before they tried to mess with the constitution, but they didn’t.

Editorials

It's hard not to conclude that they didn’t try because passing a law that clarified that the law said what we all knew it said wouldn’t garner any attention. A constitutional referendum, on the other hand, does, because we’re all forced to vote on it. So that gives lawmakers some red meat to throw to the base, to say oh yes, we’re fighting to make sure non-citizens can’t vote. It also feeds the false narrative that non-citizens are allowed to vote.

However you feel about non-citizens voting, this change to our constitution would do no good or harm. It would change nothing. But since the Legislature is forcing us to vote, we recommend a “no” vote.

We recommend a “no” vote because the conservative approach to any question is that you don’t change the status quo unless there’s a clear need to change it. More importantly, we recommend a “no” vote because there’s a tiny possibility that this would send a message to the Legislature to stop using our constitution to play partisan political games.

We fully expect the referendum question to pass, because what the ballot makes it look like the amendment would do is completely reasonable, likely even to people who think we should have a more welcoming immigration policy. But if the “yes” vote is something short of overwhelming, there’s a chance that some legislators might pick up on our annoyance, and be a little less willing to waste our time like this again.

Editorials

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The early voting period is coming to a close Saturday across South Carolina.

Early voting began on Oct. 21 and election officials saw record numbers for turnout. This year marks the first time the state has done one of these periods that is open to any voter, and especially for a presidential election.

“People are excited about this year’s presidential election,” Rosie Brown, director of Berkeley County voter registration and elections, said. “Since early voting, we have seen a phenomenal turnout all over the county. People are wanting to get out and get their vote heard. And they’re participating in early voting in record numbers.”

Isaac Cramer, executive director of Charleston County board of elections, echoed the same message. Mount Pleasant is one of their busiest polling locations and said they are moving the lines as much as they can.

“Here in Mount Pleasant, wait times are 20 to 30 minutes,” Cramer said. “We’re seeing the most voters in the state at this location, so even if you see a line, they’re moving really quickly.”

Charleston County recorded nearly 120,000 votes since early voting began. Although they aren’t seeing as many people show up as last week, many were expected today.

“It seems today is the busiest day, which is what we expected – Friday, last Friday before the election, to be the biggest turnout,” Cramer said. “One thing, we’re just encouraging voters is you still have one more day – it’s tomorrow, from 8:30 to 6.”

Berkeley County added 30 in-person voting machines and 2 more to curbside vote to relieve the wait times this week. Officials said they recorded around 50,000 votes. However, voters are coming to cast their ballots at all hours and there is not necessarily an off-peak time. Brown said one trend she noticed last week, that may be helpful for those going to the polls on the last day.

“People usually get up early on Saturday mornings to do their early voting,” Brown said. “We did notice last Saturday that once the college football games started coming on TV or people going out to those games, the line became shorter at that point in time of that day.”