Was Bond Referendum Won by Untruths?

Clover High School, Clover, SC. Photo courtesy Heraldonline.com.

 

Largest bond referendum in South Carolina history passes with clouds over it.

 

While some local government officials have spent “big bucks” pushing to have a large school bond passed for the Clover School District (CSD), a very vocal group of Clover residents also fought hard over two years to stop the bond. The project to be funded by the bond is the construction of a new Lake Wylie High School, and the “anti-bond” group has voiced negative results of the bond being pushed on citizens with what they call “lies.”

The school bond struggle began in 2020 with a proposed $197 million bond which landed on the ballots of the September 21, 2021 election for district voters. Through hard work by the opposing group called “Cloverians Arise”, voters firmly rejected the bond with a vote of 5,639 “No’s” to 2,353 “Yes’s.” But that wasn’t to last long. Unwilling to take “no” for an answer, the school district began a new campaign to pass a construction bond to be placed on the November 8, 2022 ballot.

This time, the amount had been reduced from $197 million to $156 million, and a special website was created exclusively for the bond campaign. Even a “Clover School Bond Media Day” was held October 19, 2022 to which were invited “members of Charlotte metro-area media outlets,” according to their site.

On this election day, the Clover School Bond passed—by a slim margin. Out of 17,958 votes, the margin of victory was less than 2% at only 344 votes more in favor of the massive bond—the largest ever in South Carolina history.

 

Cloverians Arise Voice Real Concerns About the Bond

The Cloverians Arise group’s spokesman, William Carter, editor of The Conservative Action Report and a county leader in politics, stated several reasons in a “VOTE ‘NO'” flier for opposing the school bond: (1) the Clover School District administrative untruthfully stated as “facts” information about overcrowding in classrooms, using wrong figures; (2) the proper approach was for the Lake Wylie area citizens to incorporate and build their own high school; (3) by splitting the Clover High School students into two schools, the athletics programs will automatically lower from a 5A to a 3A (or lower school ranking); and, (4) Clover School District residents will see increases in house and personal property taxes.

Regarding student ratios and “overcrowding,” spokesperson Carter stated that the number publicized by the CSD officials was greatly exaggerated.

“Clover School officials say there are 25 students to 1 teacher. This just is NOT true,” Carter stated. “By their own published statistics, there are 2,612 students at Clover High School and 168 teachers—creating a REAL student to teacher ratio of 16 to 1. This number includes 171 new students who came in the past year. In fact, the South Carolina standard allows up to 28 students to 1 and Clover High School is way below that number.”

Carter also stated that population growth concerns presented by the CSD were inaccurately publicized. “Fort Mill’s population growth since 2020 is 11.29% per year, Lake Wylie’s is 3.49%, and Clover’s is a bare 2.3% per year,” he stated. “That’s fairly modest overall. These figures are from World Population Review.com.”

 

Vast Differences Across the County—So Shouldn’t Lake Wylie Incorporate?

Cloverians Arise believe that the area called “Lake Wylie” in South Carolina could and should incorporate into its own town. That’s what many people in the area are saying, including William Carter and Cloverians Arise.

“The Lake Wylie community could very well incorporate and build its own school,” Carter stated. “Why not? And why should they cause other Clover School District students to lower their athletic standards to only 3A?”

“The Clover School Board chairperson stated that it is ‘inconvenient’ for Lake Wylie residents to drive 10.38 miles to Clover High School’ and that ‘when you’re living in Lake Wylie, you want to establish your own identity,'” Carter said. “It’s an identity they can establish by building their own school.”

In fact, Mr. Carter is right, The Lake Wylie, South Carolina area population overall is very different from that on the other, western side of the county, and that of the town of Clover (and York, South Carolina, also, whose residents are in York School District 1). Many new homes and some developments which feature the feel of “vacation properties” have sprung up on and near the large lake’s edge. On the North Carolina side of the lake are a number of gated properties and a fine country club and equestrian development.

As an example, two developments on the South Carolina side of the lake—Autumn Cove (with 68 homes) and Paddlers Cove (still under construction)–feature nice homes. Autumn Cove’s prices average around $460,000, while Paddlers Cove homes run from about $560,000 to over $800,000. One area home sold for a whopping $3.2 million, and the land alone was valued at $690,000!

On the other hand, residents of Clover, S.C. come in at around $54,000 annual income (York even lower at $42,000) and housing values around $176,000, Lake Wylie area residents average $99,000 annual income. Poverty rates in Clover are 16.3% which is far above the national average of over 12%. It seems the Lake Wylie residents could build their own school.

“The entire Clover School District taxes are going to increase fairly significantly,” Carter stated. “On their CSD website, a tax calculator shows that for a house valued at $200,000, property taxes will go up by $200 per year. In addition, $5,000 in personal property will bring an increase of around $8.00 per year.”

“With our current Marxist-inspired government’s unstable economy and inflation—not to mention the unstable world scene at present—who knows HOW high our daily expenses will rise within this coming year anyway,” he said.

 

Comparing Cities and Towns: Clover—a Big Bond for a Small Town

The truth is that a $156 million bond package is a very large amount considering the total budgets of the area involved. The annual budget of the town of Clover is around $11.2 million, according to their audit. In Clover, there is one Food Lion, a bingo house, Bethel Presbyterian (historic) and a downtown listed on the National Register of Historic Places—but not lots of money.

The town of York’s budget recently was around $21.2 million (source: audit). In fact, the whole county of York was only around $371 million in 2020 (down $99 million from previous year, according to The Rock Hill Herald). If you considered the entire county of York—and the Clover School District comprises only half, the Clover School bond at $156 million is more than one third of the amount of its entire annual budget.

To add some perspective, the city of Charlotte has a current whopping budget of $3.24 BILLION. Recent bonds were voted in on the November 8 ballot—three in total—amounting to a total of $226 million, which is only $75 million MORE than the single Clover School Bond. And $226 million out of a $3.24 Billion budget is a fraction of the overall amount, totaling LESS THAN 1%!

So by comparison, the Clover School Bond is a much greater financial burden for those South Carolina residents than Charlotte’s three bonds totaled together—for Transportation, Housing and Neighborhood Improvement. Those bonds were also approved, but the difference is astronomical.

 

Lisa C. Rudisill, M.T.S., is a magna cum laud graduate of NC State University and Liberty University where she earned a Master of Theology. She writes novels about her family history during the Civil War in North and South Carolina. She is a freelance writer, editorialist and a contributor to The Standard newspaper. Please “like”, comment, share with a friend, and donate to support The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.