Criminal Defense Attorney inSlater, SC

The Lexington County School District One Board of Trustees has selected three finalists, all of them current school district superintendents around the country, for the position of superintendent/superintendent-elect.

Chris Ballenger, Keith Price and Erin Slater are the finalists and each of them were present at the April 8 meet and greet where members of the public and the district got to shake their hands and ask them for their plans should they be selected.

Ballenger is the current superintendent of Warren County Public Schools in Virginia and holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Southwestern College.

“I think it’s important that we keep our focus on students,” he told the Chronicle, adding that he would work to address classroom capacities. “I would be a part of a team that would come in to make sure that if we have those staffing standards put in place that we're giving our teachers an opportunity to be in an environment that's really conducive to learning because now they're able to manage, now they're able to get that one-on-one because it's the relationships that drives education.”

Price is the current superintendent of the Georgetown County School District in South Carolina and he is currently pursuing a doctorate of education from the University of South Carolina.

“Lexington One is a phenomenal district,” he told the Chronicle, adding that during the meet and greet, numerous locals shared with him that they desire to see more efficiency within the district. “There is so much to be proud of – strong academic reputation, successful athletic programs, numerous arts opportunities for students and you've got an engaged community. … There seems to be a lot of excitement about consistency and continuity and getting systems in place.”

Slater is the current superintendent of Fort Madison Community School District in Fort Madison, Iowa and she holds a doctorate in education from Northern Illinois University.

“[Lexington One] is extremely impressive on paper and even more impressive in person,” she told the Chronicle, adding that the meet and greet gave her the chance to hear from locals that they have concerns with organization and hope that the new superintendent can address that. “[I want to] make sure that there's equity for students so they have equal access to programming, equal access to facilities, equal access to instructional, that instructional strategy that will elevate them for their pathway whether they want to be in a college pathway, a career pathway or a military pathway.”

The final round of interviews took place after the meet and greet.

Each of the finalists’ resumes are available to view online.

Keywords

Lexington County School District One, Chris Ballenger, Keith Price, Erin Slater

GREENVILLE COUNTY — Slater Hall has seen better days.

The historic community center in northern Greenville County once served as the social focal point for the surrounding mill village.

But in the decades since its heyday, the building has fallen into disrepair, narrowly avoided destruction, and, for the past 14 years, operated on a limited basis.

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That is set to change.

The state and Greenville County are investing $1.3 million to breathe new life into the nearly century-old building.

The project will stabilize the structure, fully refurbish the interior and open up the top two floors which have long been closed for public use.

At a March 29 event announcing the project, state Rep. Mike Burns said the renovation will provide an asset to the community, as well as preserve a cherished part of the area’s past.

Greenville News

“The kids who grew up here, I’m telling you, they spent their whole lives up here on this hill, in this building, on these grounds, in the swimming pool that was here back in the day,” he said. “This was the magnet for the community.”

At one point, the once-bustling community center was in danger of being demolished.

The Slater Community Association gifted the building to Greenville County’s parks and recreation department in 1984. But the county lacked the resources to upfit the already deteriorating structure, and it closed several years later. It remained unused for decades.

At one point, the county planned to raze Slater Hall and move limited programming to an annex building on the property.

But community pushback, with help from then County Councilman Joe Dill, saved the community center from demolition.

Bill Cashion, who was at the March 29 event, said his parent’s played a role in saving the historic building, which first opened its doors in 1934, and he’s continued to advocate for its preservation.

A portion of it reopened in 2010, and the facade and roof have been completely refurbished. But its uses remain limited and the interior still shows signs of decay.

Lexington County’s largest school district has zeroed in on three candidates to eventually replace its current superintendent.

The Lexington 1 school board unanimously voted Tuesday to move forward with three finalists for its newly created superintendent-elect position, revealing those candidates publicly two days later. The board voted earlier this year to transition its opening for a deputy superintendent to hire someone who will be on hand to take over when Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait retires.

Postlewait, who was hired in 2022, has said she intends to serve the district of more than 27,000 students through the end of her current contract, which runs through 2027, but that she has been in education for more than 50 years and her career is likely winding down in the near future.

The three candidates who emerged from the application process, which started in January, are Chris Ballenger, Keith Price and Eric Slater.

While the vote on the finalists was unanimous, the board did debate shortly after coming out of an executive session to discuss the candidates. Referring to the candidates by assigned numbers, the board mentioned four as strong possibilities before settling on the three finalists.

“I thought it was a great palette of candidates,” said board member Brent Powers. “I always enjoy the interview process, because you get to hear about what’s happening in different districts. But in this process, we heard about not just districts in the state, but outside of the state. And so hearing about education and some of the struggles that superintendents are having across the nation, it was just very affirming with some of the things we’ve worked through.”

“It was a very diverse slate, as well, like you said, from different states,” responded board member Michael Anderson.

Board Chair Anne Marie Green noted that the community will have a chance to meet the candidates after the district’s spring break, which is April 1-5. Per a news release, that public meeting is set for April 8 from 5 to 6 p.m.

Chris Ballenger

Ballenger is currently the superintendent of Virginia’s Warren County Public Schools, which serve more than 5,000 students in an area about an hour-and-a-half west of Washington, D.C.

Before coming to Warren County in 2020, he served for three years as assistant superintendent in another Virginia school district and for 13 years as superintendent in a school district in Oklahoma, where he started his career in education in 2000, working as a physical education, teacher, coach, athletic director, teacher and principal on his way to taking the district’s top job.

He holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Southwestern College, along with a master’s degree in educational leadership studies and a bachelor’s in physical education/health and safety, both from Oklahoma State University.

Keith Price

Since 2020, Price has been the superintendent of South Carolina’s Georgetown County Public Schools, which serve more than 8,000 students in that area along the Palmetto State coastline.

He previously served for six years as assistant superintendent for secondary schools and athletics in the Richland 2 school district, for three years as principal of Blythewood High School and for four years as principal at E.L. Wright Middle School, both in Richland 2. He has worked in education since 1996, teaching math before moving into administration.

He is currently pursuing a doctorate in education at the University of South Carolina, from which he also holds an education specialist degree and a master’s in education administration. He has a bachelor’s in secondary education from Clemson University.

Erin Slater

Slater is the superintendent for Iowa’s Fort Madison Community School District, where she has served since 2016. That district fewer than 2,000 students.

She previously served as an assistant superintendent, director of K-12 curriculum and instruction, director of elementary education, and principal at two school districts in Illinois. She has been in education since 1995.

She holds three degrees from Northern Iowa University, including a doctorate and master’s in educational administration and education specialist degree. She also holds a bachelor’s in elementary education from the University of Iowa.

This story was originally published March 22, 2024, 5:30 AM.

The State

Jordan Lawrence is a reporter for The State covering Lexington County. He has worked for newspapers in the Columbia area for more than a decade, having previously served as the lead editor for Free Times and the Lexington County Chronicle. He has won several South Carolina Press Association Awards, including recognition for breaking news reporting, business reporting and arts and entertainment writing.

OPINION AND COMMENTARY

Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters.

Opinion

This is part of the Lowcountry Swamped series. Read about the problem of over development in the Lowcountry and the history behind a tract of Jasper County land being considered for conservation.

For once, a yellow-throated warbler bid me good morning deep in the South Carolina Lowcountry instead of the usual full-throttled leaf blower.

I was touring a great new wonder — the 5,000-acre Slater tract in northern Jasper County that will not only be saved from development forever but also be open to the public.

“It’s one of the most beautiful pieces of property I’ve ever seen,” said Dana Beach, the retired founding director of the Coastal Conservation League.

He calls it “the epicenter of biodiversity in the South,” and retired Lowcountry Institute director Chris Marsh says it has “an incredible mosaic of habitat because of the topography” that make it as critical as any land in the state.

And since that tour more than a year ago, the adjacent 7,000-acre Buckfield tract is also being purchased for preservation, and public access.

This is the answer the problem of Lowcountry sprawl.

This is the only way the Lowcountry will be saved from the Atlanta-style development that has swamped Bluffton and Hardeeville and is now snaking its way into unincorporated Jasper County.

We’re at a tipping point and the saving grace, if it happens, will be public land ownership, public acquisition of development rights, and private landowners setting up voluntary conservation easements.

We now know the future of the Slater and Buckfield tracts.

They sit almost a dolphin’s leap from Exit 28 on Interstate-95. It’s easy to envision intense development there. We’ve witnessed the dark and lonely McGarvey’s Corner intersection half an hour away morph into an overcrowded cloverleaf outside Sun City Hilton Head.

And these tracts are laced with the Coosawhatchie and Tulifinny rivers, forming a horseshoe of environmental protection around the headwaters of Port Royal Sound.

“We’re trying to change people’s mindset,” said Charles Lane.

He was an early instigator of the ACE Basin movement that has protected 320,000 acres between Hilton Head Island and Charleston over the past 30 years, and active in the Slater and Buckfield deals.

“If people think development is inevitable, they are unlikely to be a player for conservation. If they think conservation is a more likely outcome, they are more willing to talk.

“What Buckfield and Slater do for us is provide an anchor up here. We can build on that.

“And we’re going to have to find other anchors.”

Land conservation has a lot of momentum in South Carolina.

The Slater and Buckfield deals show it.

It helps conservationists when land is still held in large tracts, as it is in the Lowcountry. Big tracts were often plantations, then tree farms or hunting preserves, now often owned by interests nationwide as timber investment management organizations (TIMOs).

Hampton County native Wise Batten, who owns a forestry management and real estate brokerage firm based in Estill, calls them “a timber hedge fund.”

They would approach pension plans, endowments, insurance companies and very wealthy people and say ‘we can earn you 5% over a long period.’”

In Beaufort County and in Hardeeville, former timber land was often sold in big tracts to developers who got it annexed into a town with a development agreement in hand, then flipped parcels to national homebuilders such as D.R. Horton and neighborhoods sprang up overnight.

On the other side, a couple of national organizations that made the Slater and Buckfield deals possible came seeking long-term conservation of environmentally sensitive land for it to remain in traditional uses and thwart sprawling development.

The Open Space Institute (OSI) bought the Slater tract in three chunks for about $20 million. It will get that money back when the state buys the land and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources manages it for wildlife and land protection, as well as public uses such as hiking, fishing and hunting.

The Nature Conservancy bought half of the Buckfield land for about $16 million and OSI is expected to buy the rest by the end of the year. The state is to buy that tract as well, setting up a 12,000-acre wildlife management area with public access.

To make this possible, private foundations and donors got help from the federal government with the aid of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, and allocations from the state legislature, the state Conservation Bank, and the S.C. Heritage Trust program.

“We’ve seen an unprecedented amount of state resources for conservation,” Lane said — more than $100 million recently. The same is true at the federal and county levels, he said.

The Lowcountry also has a collaborative conservation community, with OSI, the Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, land trusts, and private property owners working together with state and local governments — and working across county lines.

“There is more money than there ever has been to do this at the federal, state, local and private level,” Beach said. “And there’s more landowner awareness. There’s a more competent big-land conservation movement now.

“If we look back and see the evolution of the protected land base, it’s not only better zoning and better public policies, but also a better attitude with local citizens and local government.”

The Lowcountry’s golden goose is not the beach or military that have drawn so many people here.

It is the land itself, with graceful trees and stirring wildlife, its meandering creeks and rivers, and marshes cackling with life.

And private property owners who appreciate that have led the way in land conservation.

“South Carolina has quite a conservation story to tell the nation,” said Kate Schafer with the Open Land Trust based in Beaufort.

The ACE Basin story is based on private landowners making individual conservation easements.

Batten and his wife have placed a large tract near Estill in a permanent easement, for example, and he points to neighbors doing the same, such as the John D. Carswell family.

The Slater tract was sold by Glover Real Estate LLC of Bluffton.

Buckfield is being sold by Richard L. Chilton Jr. of Connecticut, owner of a global investment management firm. He also owns White Hall Plantation in Colleton County, and Bull Island in the May River near Bluffton.

He told The Island Packet in 2001, “We’re preservationists, not developers.”

Jasper County administrator Andy Fulghum sees the future 12,000-acre Wildlife Management Area as a perfect fit for the region.

He says it is part of recreational economy, which includes private hunt clubs and the Congaree Golf Club nearby, where the PGA Tour recently held its second tournament.

Combined with the quiet industry of solar panel farms that produce about $1 million annually for the county without demanding any services, Jasper County now sees a better option than hoping residential development will pay for itself, which it never does.

“Slater is going to be huge for us as sort of economic development and for providing recreational amenities for folks that we don’t have to pay for as local taxpayers,” he said.

Michelle Sinkler, special projects manager for OSI, said, “This is not only an anchor for homeowners but an anchor for leadership, to show Jasper and Hampton county leaders that this can be done. So when they do have, perhaps, a nonconforming project come in front of them, they have confidence in saying ‘no’ perhaps to annexations or inappropriate development proposals.

“We hope 12,000 acres in public lands can inspire leaders to make hard decisions.”

David Lauderdale may be reached at LauderdaleColumn@gmail.com.

This story was originally published October 28, 2022, 5:00 AM.

Hampton County, S.C. -- The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Open Space Institute (OSI) recently announced a joint, two-phase effort to permanently protect more than 7,300 acres in Coastal South Carolina’s Hampton and Jasper counties. The protection of the property, known locally as “Buckfield,” will link ecologically significant landscapes, creating a 12,000-acre stretch of protected land in this fast-growing region, and make way for publicly accessible recreation land in the near future.

On June 30, The Nature Conservancy acquired 3,654 acres marking a bold first step in the permanent protection of Buckfield. “Buckfield’s enormous size, extensive river frontage and healthy longleaf pine forests have long made it a property of interest for conservation in county comprehensive plans and by the conservation community,” says Dale Threatt-Taylor, executive director, TNC in South Carolina. “We’re thrilled to be joining OSI in this significant conservation achievement and to be opening these lands to the people of South Carolina in the near future.”

OSI intends to acquire the remaining 3,672 acres later this year. The entire Buckfield property (parts I and II), along with the adjacent 5,000-acre Slater property secured by OSI last year, is expected to be transferred to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) to become an approximately 12,000-acre WMA. The land will be open for public access.

“The conservation of Buckfield in this vulnerable region is a momentous achievement on its own. When combined with Slater, these 12,000 acres offer largescale connectivity and limitless public recreation opportunities,” said Nate Berry, OSI’s Senior Vice President. “This is an unparalleled triumph for the people and wildlife of this region.”

Buckfield is an ecological treasure with upland longleaf pine forests providing habitat for rare gopher tortoise populations, 36 miles of river frontage on the Coosawhatchie River, Tulifinny River and many braided streams. This immense watershed drains into the Port Royal Sound, providing clean, abundant water for citizens downstream and replenishing the estuaries on which recreational and commercial fisheries depend.

Additionally, the property, along with adjoining protected properties, creates a “nature bridge” of undeveloped land that spans from the 300,000-acre Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto (ACE) Rivers Basin to the 450,000-acre South Lowcountry-Savannah River (SOLO).

Until recently, the area between the ACE Basin and the SOLO – where Beaufort, Hampton and Jasper counties intersect – had few protected properties and almost no publicly accessible land. It also faces development pressure from the rapidly growing communities of Beaufort, Bluffton and Hilton Head, located less than 20 miles away.

“Buckfield is a huge success and helps fulfill Jasper County’s community vision for the protection of land for public recreation, water quality and economic development,: commented Andy Fulghum, Jasper County Administrator. “We applaud TNC and OSI for partnering to get this deal done and look forward to working together on future conservation victories.”

In 2021, OSI purchased three properties, known as the Slater assemblage, totaling slightly more than 5,000 acres, in the heart of this unprotected region. The Slater project kickstarted the acquisition of adjacent Buckfield.

About Open Space Institute

A national conservation leader, the Open Space Institute protects land for clean water, improved public recreational access, a healthier planet, stronger communities, and wildlife habitat. Over the past decade, the Open Space Institute has protected more than 100,000 acres in the Southeastern US, including 35,000 acres in South Carolina. Since 1974, the Open Space Institute has partnered in the protection of 2.3 million acres across the eastern US and southern Canada. Learn more about the Open Space Institute online at openspaceinstitute.org.

About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at nature.org/sc.