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Lancaster County and Chester County voters chose not to approve massive school bonds, unofficial election results show.

Almost 60% of voters picked “no” on the school bond in Lancaster County, with all precincts reporting. Results won’t be official until they’re certified later this week. The bond would’ve built new Indian Land schools and renovate facilities elsewhere. The four northernmost precincts supported the bond and everything farther south opposed it, among posted results.

The Lancaster County School District asked voters to approve what may be a state record $588 million school bond.

The proposal included a new high school and elementary school in Indian Land. Two more new elementary schools would consolidate four facilities in Lancaster, Kershaw and Heath Springs. The bond included renovations and upgrades throughout the district.

The South Carolina School Boards Association tracks referendum results back to 1978.

Only two votes put more money to schools than the one voters saw on Election Day in Lancaster County. Neither of them were true bond votes. Each was a sales tax to fund schools.

The Lancaster school bond was debated in numerous school district and community forums. Groups like Vote Yes Lancaster School Bond and Lancaster Vote No School Bond formed online.

Support came from parents concerned with school overcrowding, particularly in Indian Land. Opposition focused on the high price, the amount of resources devoted solely to the county’s panhandle and the need for a new high school.

More than than half of the registered voters in Lancaster County cast ballots before Tuesday. More than 38,000 early and absentee ballots make up 54% of all voters. York County had 53% of its registered voters participate early. Chester County was at 45%.

The York School District asked voters for $90 million to pay for a new middle school, expansion and renovation of district facilities. The plan included the conversion of the district’s alternative learning school, York One Academy, into an early childhood learning center.

More than 64% of the votes supported the bond as of 11 p.m., with 94% of precincts reported.

The Chester County School District asked for $227 million to replace Chester and Lewisville high schools with new facilities. The bond also included money to upgrade classrooms, security, gym and fine arts space.

Like the even larger amount in Lancaster County, the bond request in Chester County is higher than any approved school bond amount on record in the Rock Hill region. A $226 million bond approved by Fort Mill voters in 2015 was the highest heading into Election Day.

Chester County voters did see the only one larger, when they turned down a $263 million bond two years ago.

About 54% of votes were against the school bond once all precincts reported.

A Flourish chart

Coming into election day, six school districts across the three-county Rock Hill region had a 71% passage rate for 38 bonds all-time.

Lancaster County (67%) and Chester County (17%) fell below that mark. York (80%) passed bonds at a higher rate.

The Lancaster County bond Tuesday was more than twice the amount of all three of its prior referendum questions combined. Voters turned down a $30 million school bond in 1991 and a $37 million bond in 1999.

The school district went the other way in 2016. That’s when 74% of voters approved a $199 million bond for a new high school in Indian Land, an elementary school and other upgrades.

York approved four bonds from 1985 to 2007, combining for $119 million. Voters there voted against a $69 million bond in 2003.

Chester County last passed a bond in 1996.

Since 1989 there were five failed bonds, including three in the last six years. Before Tuesday’s decision, Chester County voters turned down $482 million worth of bonds while passing only the $19 million vote almost three decades ago.

This is a developing story.

This story was originally published November 5, 2024, 8:29 PM.

Lancaster County won’t get a new transportation tax, while the path looks clear for a new Pennies for Progress campaign in York County.

Almost 53% of Lancaster County voters opted not to start a new road tax. That’s with all precincts reporting. Results aren’t officials until they’re certified later this week.

It would have been a one-cent sales tax that could’ve lasted up to 15 years. It was expected to generate $405 million.

Pennies for Progress is a one-cent sales tax to fund road work in York County. It has more than 71% support with 62% of precincts reporting.

It began in 1997 as the first of its kind in the state. Now dozens of counties have similar sales tax programs. Campaigns run seven years in York County. Tuesday’s vote was the fifth Pennies referendum, to continue the tax when the 2017 program expires next spring.

The record $410.7 million campaign Tuesday included $225 million for projects that appeared on prior referendum ballots. They weren’t completed due to soaring projects costs from post-COVID inflation, Pennies manager Patrick Hamilton said prior to Election Day.

Some of the biggest road jobs that hinged on Tuesday’s vote are five-lane widening of U.S. 21 from S.C. 160 to Carowinds Boulevard in Fort Mill, and of Fort Mill Parkway near Interstate 77.

The most expensive new project on the ballot was a $44.9 million widening of U.S. 21 from S.C. 160 to Sutton Road.

Since the first Pennies vote narrowly passed in 1997 with 51% support, no campaign got less than 73% approval coming into Tuesday’s election. York County voters cast more than 61,000 votes combined in the prior four programs, with 70% of those votes opting for the sales tax.

Tuesday’s campaign was, however, the first Pennies vote held in a presidential election or an even year.

Unlike Pennies, the Lancaster County transportation tax on Tuesday’s ballot was a first-time effort.

The county asked voters for the transportation tax largely as a way to create a funding source for improvements on U.S. 21, or Charlotte Highway. A list of road jobs the county expects to complete is heavy with road widening, especially in Indian Land. It puts $165 million to major road widening like U.S. 521.

A second question asked voters whether the county could borrow up to $250 million against the tax to get the road jobs started quicker. The tax would pay back bond money issued by the county in a deal that would front money to road jobs before its collected through the sales tax.

That second question was, of course, dependent on the transportation tax passing.

The more than 105,000 early and absentee votes is 53% of the registered voters in York County. Lancaster County had more than 38,000 pre-election day votes, 54% of its registered voters.

This story was originally published November 5, 2024, 8:19 PM.

Thanks to a new proviso in the South Carolina state budget, at least one public library system in the state has made the decision to acquire no new books for those under the age of 18. In a statement released across York County Public Library’s social media late last week, the library board chair announced the moratorium on new purchases until the State better clarifies what is and is not permitted in public libraries.

York County Library’s statement reads as follows:

On behalf of the York County Library (YCL) Board of Trustees, we wish to inform the public of an important decision made by the YCL board at its October 10, 2024, meeting. The board voted to place a moratorium on purchasing any materials for minors (17 and under) until further clarification and guidance is received from the state regarding Proviso 27.1 and until the Attorney General makes a ruling providing libraries with guidance for collection development.

The motion passed with a 4-3 vote. Those infavor were Dennis Getter, Carol Herring, Susan Piening, and Tim Steele. Those opposed were Wendi Michael, Charles Robinson, and Anne Witte.

This moratorium is in effect immediately and will be in place indefinitely as we work to ensure we are in full compliance with any new regulations or requirements or until the board chooses to dissolve the moratorium. The motion and resulting action refer to information in a memorandum issued by the State Library to SC library directors regarding State Aid which reads “The State Library is in the process of requesting an attorney general’s opinion on the matter related to authority of collection development in public libraries.

The memorandum also outlines the requirements the State Library determined for compliance with Proviso 27.1 to receive State Aid. York County Library meets all the requirements and the YCL board signed the Certification Form in June of 2024.

Please know that we understand the impact these changes will have, and we are committed to working diligently to find solutions that address the needs of our community while meeting the requirements set forth by our state legislature.

In Service,

Dr. Anne Royal Witte on behalf of the York County Board of Trustees

The state budget increased funding for public libraries across South Carolina for the first time in years, but that increase came with strings. In order to get their annual budgets, public libraries would now be required to “certify to the State library that their county libraries do not offer any books or materials that appeal to the prurient interest of children under the age of seventeen in children’s, youth, or teen book sections of libraries and are only made available with explicit parental consent.”

The proviso does not define “prurient interests,” though per state code, that refers to “a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion and is reflective of an arousal of lewd and lascivious desires and thoughts.” In other words, the types of books that do not exist in any public library in the United States. As noted in earlier reporting on the proviso, the vagueness was the point. It allows for the type of interpretation seen across the country and the state itself, deeming books by or about LGBTQ+ people among those most likely to be targeted as “inappropriate.”

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York County Library’s post spawned immediate reaction on social media from community members and library supporters:

“Minors require a parent signature on the application for a library card. Permission granted. Now let’s get back to stocking library shelves with books for kids!! Unless the ultimate goal is to keep the next generation ignorant so the same people stay in power?”

“York County residents should be ashamed of leaders who would take such action against basic freedoms of information. “

“Why doesn’t the library board value professional librarianship? I’m so disappointed and baffled by this decision. It’s preventing librarians from doing their work, and stopping the public from getting what they need from the library. I do not understand how the board thought this would be in the best interest for anyone, even after reading the proviso.”

The split vote from the York County Library board is unsurprising. The board has been stacked with extremists, and books in the collection have been a point of contention for more than a year. Like elsewhere, the moral panic over “inappropriate” material in children’s books has led to the board considering several proposals to ban items that some members simply don’t like.

In May 2023, York County Library revised their collection development policies. Key in the revision conversation was that decision that LGBTQ+ books for children would remain in the children’s section of the library. The decision came following a complaint from a county councilman who demanded the library review every children’s book in the collection and remove those featuring gender or sexuality content.

Complaints continued.

Just a month later, county leaders made the surprise decision to shrink the size of the library board from 10 members to seven, making it possible for a smaller number of voices to dominate decisions about the library and its collections. In other words, because the councilman didn’t get what he wanted by banning LGBTQ+ books, he used his power to change the structure of the board.

Choosing to cease purchasing materials for young people is censorship. The York County Board has allowed the county council to make its decisions, and now, anyone under the age of 18 in York County will be unable to access any new material in their public libraries.

South Carolina did not only introduce the proviso in this year’s budget to target books. A second law that addresses public school libraries also undermines the professional capacities of library workers and educators in the state. The State Department of Education has a two-prong test that school boards need to use to determine whether or not materials are appropriate for those under the age of 17. The first prong is that the material is age and developmentally appropriate while the second prong is that aligns with state educational instructional programs. R-43-170 creates a “uniform process” for school board trustees to use when a book complaint is filed and sets up an appeal process through the SC Department of Education, whose decision on any given book would apply to books statewide. This provision is similar to the recent Utah bill which bans books in every state school if it is banned in at least three districts.

Ellen Weaver, the South Carolina Department of Education Supervisor, has been actively working to create more power for her department when it comes to schools and libraries. Last fall, she ended a 50-year relationship between the Department and the South Carolina Association of School Librarians. Weaver wrote in a public letter about the dissolution of the relationship that it was because the association shared resources and language around how to fight book bans happening throughout the state.

The SC Department of Education knew R-43-170 would be a deeply unpopular bill. To continue in their pursuit of the bill, the Department of Education under Weaver hired Miles Coleman, attorney and president of the Columbia chapter of the Federalist Society, an organization that supports conservative and libertarian lawyers. Weaver authorized up to $25,000 in taxpayer money to have Coleman show up to State Board of Education meetings in support of R-43-170 on her behalf. He is not an employee of the Department of Education but he, like Weaver, is a graduate of the fundamentalist Bob Jones University. He was hired by Weaver specifically to advocate for this censorship bill and protect the department from potential litigation–almost as if it was clear from the start that this was not only an unpopular bill and one rooted in fundamental doctrine but also a potential violation of the First Amendment.

What begins in the schools when it comes to book censorship never ends there. In the case of York County partisan politics, leaning into a manufactured crisis now leaves those under 18 without much access to materials that would support their growth, learning, and acceptance of both themselves and those different from them. That is, of course, the point.

The county has almost 300,000 residents.

The next York County Library board meeting is November 14 at 6 p.m. in the Clover library location. There is a group working in support of the public libraries as well, which you can learn about at Support York County, SC, Libraries.

York County residents with damage from Helene are now eligible to apply for federal disaster aid heading to South Carolina.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency added the county and the Catawba Indian Nation Monday to the state’s list of counties and governments eligible for individual assistance, FEMA said in a statement. The tribe’s reservation is located in eastern York County along the Catawba River.

Homeowners and renters who had uninsured damage or losses caused by Helene can apply, FEMA said.

FEMA may be able to help with temporary lodging, basic home repair costs, personal property loss or other disaster-caused needs, the agency said.

The change comes after York County emergency officials and area politicians pushed for inclusion as damage assessment continued. And it’s just days after federal officials added Mecklenburg County in North Carolina to that state’s disaster declaration list.

“This is a key component to getting the people of York County back on their feet,” York County Emergency Management Director Chuck Haynes said Monday. “Now, we need people themselves to apply and tell others who may need assistance.”

FEMA included York County Monday after it initially was not among the counties eligible for assistance. Currently 21 counties in South Carolina are eligible after Helene slammed through the state on Sept. 27.

People can apply online or by phone, FEMA said.

▪ Online, go to DisasterAssistance.gov.

▪ You can also apply using the FEMA App for mobile devices or calling 800-621-3362.

▪ To view a video on how to apply look up “Three Ways to Apply for FEMA Disaster Assistance” on Youtube.

FEMA said people must have certain information when applying.

▪ A current phone number where you can be contacted.

▪ Your address at the time of the disaster and the address where you are now staying.

▪ Your Social Security number.

▪ A general list of damage and losses.

▪ Banking information if you choose direct deposit.

▪ If insured, the policy number or the agent and/or the company name.

York County’s governments and nonprofits have also met the threshold for public assistance from FEMA, Haynes said. That includes costs for public damages or services associated with Helene. The public assistance aid is separate from individual assistance money.

For more information, follow FEMA’s South Carolina recovery online at www.fema.gov/disaster/4829.

You can also follow FEMA on X at x.com/femaregion4 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fema.

This story was originally published October 7, 2024, 2:21 PM.

With more than 8,500 homes and businesses still without power in the Rock Hill region, most likely will have it back soon, as recovery continues from Helene.

By 9 a.m. Monday Duke Energy had 4,162 customers in York County and 96 more in Lancaster County still without power. The estimated time for power to be back up is 5 p.m. Monday. Chester County has another 1,074 customers without power, with an estimated 7 p.m. restoration.

York Electric had 3,155 customers without power Monday morning. That is around 90 percent of its customers with power, said Marc Howie, cooperative vice-president. The cooperative hopes to have 95 percent restored by Tuesday, Howie said. No estimate was available for when all cooperative customers will have service restored. Lancaster and Chester counties had a combined 13 cooperative customers without power.

Rock Hill’s city utility department had 14 power outages impacting 66 customers on Monday morning.

As many as 9,100 Duke Energy customers were without power at 6 p.m. Sunday. York Electric Cooperative had almost 5,000 customers without power.

York County reported hundreds of trees had fallen down on Friday. Homes and property were damaged, with some injuries reported, according to a storm update from the county.

The York County Emergency Management set up a website for damage reports. The public can report property damage and post pictures from the storm, which will help the county in continued cleanup and recovery efforts.

County public works crews cleared more than 50 roads between Friday and Sunday, some with dozens of trees down along them, according to the county. Debris removal begins Monday.

County trash and recycling collection centers except the one serving Sharon and Hickory Grove towns are open Monday. Centers without power will accept household trash only.

Six of the 11 Catawba River lakes remained above their full pond levels on Monday morning. That’s the water level where lakes begin to spill if they continue to rise.

Lake Wylie sits just inches below its full pond. Its nearest upstream lake, Mountain Island Lake, is almost four feet above its full pond. Mountain Island Lake crested Sunday at eight feet above its full pond and will continue to drop for several days, according to a notice from Duke Energy.

Lake Norman came within inches of its full pond, but hasn’t topped it. The headwaters at Lake James rose more than six feet above full pond on Friday. On Monday the lake was almost two feet over full pond, but continues to decline.

Lake Wateree, the southernmost lake on the chain, crested Monday at six feet above its full pond. It’s still five feet over as of 9 a.m. Monday and will take several days to drop, according to Duke Energy.

Running water through the Catawba River and its lakes caused significant flooding in riverine areas, too. Parts of Riverwalk in Rock Hill, including the Pump House restaurant, were underwater. Catawba Park in Tega Cay was also underwater.

Heavy rains often bring wastewater spills, or sewage spills. Two were reported in the Rock Hill region during Helene.

A no swim advisory was issued for part of Lake Wylie after a Tega Cay manhole overflowed. The 2142 Manawa Lane spill started at 8:45 a.m. on Friday and ran for more than four hours. It released an estimated 8,500 gallons of wastewater. A pump truck was called in to pump out the extra flow, and lime was applied to the area.

Rock Hill had a smaller spill, of an estimated 500 gallons. A manhole near 310 River Road overflowed when a tree fell onto a power line near a treatment plant causing an electric outage. The spill started at 5 a.m. Friday and lasted more than two hours.

Some area schools brought children to class Monday, while others planned for makeup days.

Fort Mill and Lancaster County schools opened Monday on normal schedules. Rock Hill, Clover, York and Chester County schools were closed.

Rock Hill wasn’t able to run food service Monday due to power outages at some cafeterias. The school district also mentioned families in the area without power as a reason to close Monday. An e-learning makeup day will be Feb. 17, 2025.

At least six Clover school facilities didn’t have power on Sunday, including three elementary schools and the district office. By mid-Sunday, two elementary schools in York didn’t have power. Both of those districts will make up Monday’s classes with e-learning on Jan. 6, 2025.

Power outages and hazardous road conditions led the Chester County district to close Monday, with a weather makeup planned for Nov. 25.

This is a developing story.

This story was originally published September 30, 2024, 10:25 AM.

The Herald

803-329-4076

John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.