Dr. Gary L. Burgess, Sr. Questions Community Silence on Issues Related To Timmonsville District Four

Truths and Deceptions: Distorted Narratives Have Been Largely Ignored

Why is it that the majority media has not picked up the ongoing, blatant story of the

State’s attempt to destroy Florence County School District Four-Timmonsville? The State along with certain media outlets in the region have built an ongoing narrative of the Timmonsville area as one in decline. That story is not accurate. What is accurate is that there is a systematic scheme by those in power, from the State House to Florence

1, to drain Timmonsville of its resources- human, material, and financial. The latest

example is the 2020-2021 State Report Card of Florence County School District Fourthat the media has allowed it to go dormant except for the Florence Morning News article highlighting the fact that Florence Four has the lowest teacher salaries in the area. Why was that highlighted?

Let’s take the headline- “Florence Four has the lowest non-charter average teacher salary in South Carolina”. The fact is accurate, Florence Four is the lowest paying non- charter district in the state. However, the article fails to mention that the district is completely controlled by State Superintendent Molly Spearman,who can make the unilateral decision to increase teacher pay in the district to attract more teachers. Why is that not the issue, the fact that Spearman allowed the salaries of Florence 4’s teachers to be the lowest in the state? Or why not make an issue concerning information regarding whether or not CARES ACT Funds have been used to augment educating students in Florence Four?

Let’s continue to look at the directory information on the report card. Superintendent Spearman does not list herself as the superintendent of the school district (she is in absolute control), she does not list the board chair, she does not list a phone number and she does not list a physical address for the district. It appears that she has completely wiped out the district before her unlawful decree occurs in July 2022. Why has that not been questioned by the media?

A closer analysis of the report card reveals that since State Superintendent Spearman, and the State Board of Education, have overseen District 4 since declaring a “state of

emergency” in 2018 that things have taken a drastic change for the worse in a district that was improving. Here are the statistics according to the state (Overview - SC School

Report Card):

1. The graduation rate has dropped 21.9% since 2018

2. Last year alone, the graduation rate dropped 19.2%

3. The dropout recovery rate is 0%

4. No data listed under Career and Technical Education

5. Students who are College Ready and/or Career ready near 0%

6. Student Safety Information, nothing reported (a Federal requirement)

Why is this not big news? Superintendent Spearman has systematically cut programs

while complaining about the lack of programs, not increased teacher salaries, drained the district of their students to field athletic teams in Florence One, overseen, I would imagine the highest dropout rate of any district in the state and probably the nation, and not reported any safety statistics. Should this be statewide news in South Carolina?

Spearman has terrorized, bullied, intimidated, and belittled the Florence 4 Board, while painting a false narrative that Timmonsville is dying, and that it is a failed district and town. Why has she and her acolytes gotten away with this without exposure? Am I overreacting? I don't think so. She has chronically mismanaged the district without accountability and/or oversight- such a disgrace. However, much like her cancelling alawful election, without it being a “big deal”, because apparently citizens of American slave descent, and working-class whites, do not inherit the American birthright of self- representation, nor do their children, as they are being treated less than first class students.

So, the majority media- except for a handful, plays to the narrative that the majority districts of students of American slave descent, and working-class whites, just cannot meet standards, and therefore must be absorbed by other more capable districts or controlled by more abled entities. Like the counterfeit integration initiatives of the last quarter of the 20 th Century, where the schools of students of American slave descent were closed and those students were absorbed by larger white districts, and all students now walk through the same doors of the desegregated school only to be resegregated in academic programs; so too is this now happening to the students of Florence CountySchool District Four in the 21 st Century. A Consolidation Transition Team was created

by Superintendent Spearman with no elected officials from Florence Four serving on the committee. This is a clear and deliberate act of taxation without representation heaped onto the backs of taxpaying citizens who live in Florence 4.

Nonetheless, the traditional sports teams are looking good- Go, Fight, Win- Florence 1.

Shameful!!!

Regards,

Dr. Gary L. Burgess, Sr., Spokesperson

Florence County School District Four Board of Trustees