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Light turnout for first school forum
bryan county schools Bigger
Ted O'Neil
Updated: Oct 25, 2016, 5:15 PM
Published: Oct 25, 2016, 12:32 PM

About 50 people Monday night attended the first of two forums on the need for a new high school in South Bryan County.

The session, which lasted about 90 minutes, was held at Richmond Hill High School. Another forum is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tonight at Richmond Hill Middle School.

“We appreciate you being here and showing interest in our school system,” Board of Education President Eddie Warren said. “We’re trying to get information from the community on the growth we’re experiencing and what our plans should be.”

Superintendent Paul Brooksher said the process is important because “while it may not impact our children, it will impact our children’s children,” adding that a new school has to have a lifespan of at least 40 years.

The school board knows that the Richmond Hill area needs at least one new high school in the immediate future, and at some point will need two. Officials are seeking input from residents before moving forward. The questions they are asking pertain specifically to how people view one new large high school versus two medium-sized schools.

Attendees Monday night were seated at tables in groups of eight while a school administrator at each table recorded feedback to specific questions.

While many answers included a recognition that a large high school would mean fewer opportunities for students (sports teams and student government were cited), the general consensus appeared to be in favor of that option. A divided community was mentioned several times as an objection to having two high schools, including a financial strain on business support for athletics.

One student-athlete in attendance brought up the fact that a single, larger school would mean more travel time for teams as such a school would possibly be placed in a region of similar-sized schools generally found in the Atlanta area.

Brooksher said RHHS is currently at about 2,100 students, and growth projections put it at about 3,000 students in 10 years. The board must decide if it should build two new schools for roughly 1,500 students each or one large school for 3,000 students. It would cost taxpayers about $100 million for the former option and about $85 million for the latter. Operating costs for two new schools compared to one would be up to $2 million more annually.

Brooksher said neither option would detract from amenities or offerings, noting that two new schools would still have a fine arts auditorium at each and new athletic facilities. The timeline for any new project start to finish is 36 to 48 months.

“The conversation needs to occur that South Bryan will eventually need two high schools,” Brooksher said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

Almost 700 people responded to an online survey the district offered earlier this month that asked what issues people most wanted to know about as the process moves forward. Brooksher said the most popular issue — cited by 57 percent of respondents — was about districting.

“With two high schools, we would definitely need to draw new attendance lines,” he said. “That would depend on things like location and student population density. We would not use demographics.”

Other top concerns from the survey included academics (51 percent), construction timeline (38 percent), growth projections (37 percent) and athletics (23 percent).

There was also a general consensus from attendees Monday night that the district should increase the millage rate to pay for new projects. Brooksher also noted that South Bryan County will need an additional elementary school and middle school in the near future and that schools in North Bryan County are in need of upgrades.

The current school millage is 15.537, which has not increased in several years. Brooksher said one mill raises about $1.2 million in revenue per year. The district also has a 1 percent E-SPLOST that raises about $5 million annually. It expires in March 2018 and the school board is expected to vote soon on placing a renewal before voters next year. The board can also ask voters to approve general obligation bonds to pay for expansion.

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Later yall, its been fun
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Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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