Home Care In Liberty, SC

South Carolina Superintendent Ellen Weaver met with students, parents and educators at Liberty STEAM Charter School in Sumter on Friday morning.

SUMTER, S.C. — State Superintendent Ellen Weaver stopped in Sumter Friday morning to see the county's first charter school.

Weaver visited with students, parents and teachers at Liberty STEAM Charter School, which continues to expand in the area as charter schools grow throughout the state.

The South Carolina Public Charter School District (SCPCSD) said it's now the sixth-largest district in the state. As its popularity increases with students and parents, it's also gaining attention from state leaders.

"It has been the best decision that we've made for Henry," Parent Teacher Association President Jamie Lotts said about her son attending Liberty. "We love the public school system, but we just really thought 'Wow, let's try this charter school. What do we have to lose? If he doesn't like it or we don't like it, we'll move him into the elementary school down the road from us,' but I just really fell in love with Liberty since day one and we've been here ever since."

The school is getting attention now from leaders like Weaver.

"I think we're building the education ecosystem of the future here in South Carolina," Weaver said. "We know that flexibility and customization is how we approach every area of our life, and it's so important that parents have that same level of customization and flexibility when it comes to their children's education. So I'm so excited to see schools like Liberty steam taking off all over South Carolina."

"The reason is, is because what we saw coming out of COVID is that all parents want their best educational opportunity for their children. So the South Carolina Public Charter School District just continues to grow," SCPCSD Superintendent Chris Neeley said. "Charter schools are local community schools that are publicly funded by the state of South Carolina. And they are open and free to all children who can get access to them."

Neeley said there are 38 public charter schools in the state.

He said there will be over 50 in two years with about 22,000 students.

"Charter schools are actually not privately run. They're they're publicly run. And it's set up in the state law that they would be run like this. They're public schools, and the boards are public bodies," Neeley said. "So they're actually not much different, structurally-wise when it comes to the governance of the school. It's just that our boards are a lot more closer to the parents. And I think that's why you're seeing the results that we have."

Liberty's founding board member Marion Newton agrees.

"I think one of our strong points is community. I love the school because the school involves community," Newton said. "Parents, grandparents, pastors, leaders, corporate world leaders, community."

But that's not always the case regarding charter schools, South Carolina Education Association (SCEA) President Sherry East said.

"Different charters have different board regulations. They have different board setups. They have different ways in which the board is established in these charter schools," East details. "I hope parents pay attention to that. If you choose to pull your student out of a traditional school setting and put them in a charter school, that you're asking all the right questions as a parent to make sure that you're going to feel comfortable sending your child there."

As a high school science teacher in Rock Hill, East said she's an advocate for the traditional public school system. She says that as more parents start turning to the charter school system, it's important to understand how each specific school is run.

"Go visit that school. Go ask the questions. How many certified teachers do you have? What's your teacher turnover here? What's your class size? What kind of offerings do you offer, course offerings? Do we have electives? Do you have a sports program?" East recommends parents ask. "Let's look at charter schools overall and make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing for our students because we really need to make sure that all of our students in South Carolina get the quality education that they deserve."

SCPCSD said none of the schools in its district are for-profit, although East said she has seen interest in for-profit charter schools owned by businesses entering the state.

Local Sumterite Greg Thompson and board members like Vice Chair Dexter Davis lead Liberty STEAM.

"With a lottery, you have an opportunity where it's just totally equal," Davis said about the system for admitting students. "You can… doesn't matter what your complexion is, doesn't matter what community you grew up in. If you get into the lottery, your scholar has an opportunity to be a part of something special where education is second to none here."

"We are trying to reach out to solve generational poverty, to really do something about the wealth gap and try to give the children of Sumter County opportunities to succeed," Director of Finance and Development Gifford Shaw adds about the school's vision. "We've given them a first class education, not based on where they're from or what their socio-economic background is, but it's a free public school."

As for how charter schools are funded, SCPCSD said funding is calculated per student under the new "State Aid to Classrooms funding formula. According to SCPCSD, the current K-12 per-pupil average funding is $11,070, comprised of state and federal funding.

"This means that a school district receives this amount for each student, with the actual funding being adjusted based on student characteristics and programs," a representative for SCPCSD said.

As Weaver begins her second year as state superintendent, she tells News 19 that a primary focus is making sure that students and teachers have the resources they need to build reading skills early on, regardless of what type of school they attend.

"Strong public schools are the backbone of our education system in America," Weaver said. "That has historically been the case and that's going to be the case for as long as any of us are alive and so ensuring that we have a great teacher in every single classroom, whether that is a traditional public school, whether that is a public charter school, or a magnet school or any other kind of school, we have to ensure that we're focusing on supporting teachers, and again, on giving parents those options that they need, so that their child can get exactly what they need when they need it."

LIBERTY, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - A few years ago, Liberty Football hadn’t fielded a JV team for back-to-back years and didn’t have recreational teams for kids. However, Paul Sutherland has led major improvements during his three years as the varsity team’s head coach.

Although he gives a lot of credit to his players and the athletic and school administrators, Sutherland has led the charge to turn around the program by setting standards that create a culture of accountability.

Senior lineman Brady Fuller listed off some of coach Sutherland’s standards.

“Don’t miss practice without an excuse, be here on time, make sure the locker room stays clean, don’t do nothing to hurt the team,” Fuller said.

In addition to his standards, Sutherland explained the factors that have led to his program’s improvement, which go far beyond the playbook.

“If you think turning a program around is about X’s and O’s, you’re not very knowledgeable about football,” Sutherland said. “It’s about, number one, the relationship with the kids. There is no close second.”

Sutherland explained both sides of forming those relationships with his players.

“I scream at them, I yell at them. I’m not perfect, I make mistakes,” he said. “But I also hug them. The standards, yes. But the standards are a distant second to the relationship with the kids.”

Fuller said the coach’s standards have also become the players’ standards.

“I feel like there’s a structure,” Fuller said. “We all expect something from each other. And once we get out there on Friday night, we know we can trust each other with anything.”

Fellow senior Jason “JJ” Hernandez said this year’s program looks a lot different from the varsity team he joined 3 years ago.

“To love this sport, to love this town. To be from here, it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come,” Hernandez said. “The love that I have and to see the city give it back is a very good, very amazing feeling really.”

Hernandez imagined how he’d think about this senior class and coach Sutherland’s impact once the season ends.

“To be able to leave here knowing that I made a difference, that we made a difference as a class, it feels very good, very good,” Hernandez said.

Coach Sutherland also said comparing the progress the Liberty program has made during his time here with trying to knock off defending state champs Abbeville on Friday is like comparing night and day. Sutherland said he has a long-standing friendship with Abbeville Head Coach Jamie Nickles, who has won eight state titles with the Panthers.

Sutherland said the two will have talked on the phone three or four times this week leading up to FOX Carolina’s Game of the Week on Friday.

FOX Carolina’s Tailgate Tour will be at Liberty, covering all the fun festivities before kickoff during the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts followed by highlights of the game in the 10 o’clock newscast.

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Three candidates for Charleston City Council appear to be backed by the local chapter of national right-wing political group Moms For Liberty, which previously supported several winning candidates for the Charleston County School Board in 2022.

Three city council candidates — District 3’s Jim McBride, District 5’s Ron Call and District 9’s Mike Gastin received contributions worth a total of $5,000 from a pair of donors who also gave to school board candidates backed last year by Moms For Liberty, according to an analysis of campaign disclosure reports from the S.C. South Carolina Ethics Commission (SCEC).

Gastin said he and his wife are involved with the local chapter of Moms For Liberty, but that he has not received any money from the organization directly, nor had he had any meetings or discussions with the group personally.

“I would suspect that based on values, they would appreciate some of my goals,” he said.Call declined to comment on any support he has received from the political group, and McBride did not respond to requests for comment.

Two of the three candidates are running for seats with no incumbent. In District 3, Jason Sakran gave up his seat in a redistricting proposal to allow Johns Island to have its own representative for the first time. In West Ashley’s District 9, incumbent Peter Shahid is running for mayor, leaving his council seat open. And the election field is packed.

“You have to wonder sometimes, when you have such a packed field, why would someone throw their hat into the ring in the first place,” Gastin said. “But when I looked at the other candidates, I bring something to the table that maybe they don’t — a lifelong history in business and entrepreneurship in the private industry.”

In the new District 3, McBride is running against Bill Antonucci and Stephanie Hodges.

In District 5, which also covers outer West Ashley, Call is running against incumbent Karl Brady and Tarah Swetman. Call is a retired chemical and environmental engineer who lives in West Ashley. He holds more than 20 patents for developing lithium-ion battery technology. He said he wants to make managing growth and infrastructure improvements his top priority if elected.

“I believe the city of Charleston can better manage how it grows as a community,” Call said. “Traffic congestion must be addressed. A thriving city should offer better opportunities for bicyclists and for pedestrians as well.

“We are continually putting high density development in random places because of a lack of planning,” he added. “We must build infrastructure before we continue to push higher density further out of the urban core.”

In District 9, which predominantly covers the Northbridge area of West Ashley, Gastin is running against Francis Marion Beylotte III, William Gilliard, Kenneth Marolda and William Tinkler. Gastin, a self-proclaimed transplant who has spent the majority of his professional career in marketing, says he is not trying to make a political career out of his bid, but wanted to target specific problems facing the local area.

The city of Charleston municipal general election is set for Nov. 7.

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GEORGETOWN — An Australian firm plans to purchase Georgetown’s downtown steel mill, potentially preserving one of the coastal city’s longtime factories and dozens of jobs.

InfraBuild, which is run by the parent company of the mill’s current owner, announced May 29 that the company had closed on a $350 million loan to buy GFG Alliance’s American-based steel industry assets, which includes Liberty Steel USA’s plant. No date was released on when the sale could be completed.

James Sanderson, president of United Steelworkers Local 7898, said that after speaking with the potential new owners that the mill, a mainstay of Front and South Fraser streets for over half a century, is in Georgetown to stay.

“We’re just very excited about this transition,” Sanderson said.

InfraBuild did not respond to a request for comment May 31. GFG Alliance declined to comment.

Georgetown’s economy relied heavily on the lumber industry in the early 20th century before the arrival of International Paper’s plant in 1936. Georgetown Steel helped further diversify the community’s industrial base in the late 1960s, but the mill cycled through various owners and changes in the industry that reduced its workforce before it was purchased by Liberty Steel in 2017.

The plant that makes steel wire used in tires and bridge cables closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic but started operating again in January 2022 with about 65 workers, well below the hundreds of employees that made the plant one of the city’s largest employers.

The reopening, however, was challenged under a city ordinance that would rezone the plant site if operations ceased for a year. The mill is near Georgetown’s main business district and the 50-acre plant site is considered a prime spot for tourism development. But Liberty and its supporters defeated rezoning efforts.

The mill’s owner recently announced a workforce expansion of more than 50 percent.

Sanderson said he has met with InfraBuild in the past, but he had not spoken with the company’s interim CEO, Dak Patel, since the May 29 announcement. Sanderson said he’s confident company representatives will visit the city and mill soon.

GEORGETOWN — Elizabeth Humphrey’s passion for mentoring students in Orangeburg County recently earned her a trip to not only Washington, D.C., but also to the White House.

Since graduating from Claflin University in 2005, the Georgetown County native has dedicated her career to serving others through education or by just simply lending a hand. Those are two values the 41-year-old received from her parents growing up in rural Plantersville.

Georgetown Times

“They instilled in me the value of education, helping people, being humble and keeping God first,” Humphrey said. “Those are the biggest things I can say my parents did in shaping my life to where I am today.”

Humphrey grew up amid oak trees on 30 acres of land in Plantersville. One of her fondest memories is of her father cutting grass surrounded by chickens and the family’s dog.

“My dad is a pastor, so every Sunday we were in church no matter what,” Humphrey said. “But sitting out there in the summertime with a glass of sweet tea, or just running up and down the yard. Me and my sister used to ride bikes until it was dark. It was just the experience of just being at peace out there surrounded by open land. Just beautiful.”

Yet the Georgetown High School graduate never had an inkling that one day she would walk through the doors of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. that has been the official residence and workplace of every U.S. president since John Adams.

Currently an instructional coach at Robert E. Howard Middle School, Humphrey was invited along with other women from across the United States to the White House for the “Know Your Value Event” with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski. She was recognized for her dedication to mentoring students in the Orangeburg County School District.

“I did an interview with the National Education Association maybe six months ago, but I never heard back from them,” Humphrey said. “They asked me how I mentored students in my current role as a teacher; as an instructional coach, and that was it. I never heard anything else.”

But one day — out of the blue — Humphrey received a phone call from her friend Sherry East, president of The South Carolina Education Association.

“She was like, ‘Liz, you are going to the White House.’ I was like, ‘No way, not me,’” Humphrey said. “So about two days after the call, I got the invite. I was like ‘Is this real?’”

Reality set in Jan. 10 when Humphrey stepped inside the doors of the White House and was greeted with a tea party before going into the East Room where Brzezinski interviewed Biden and answered questions from the invitees.

“Just being inside the White House and the East Room was amazing,” Humphrey said. “All of the people greeted us with a smile, even the security guards and security detail.”

Humphrey said the White House is bigger than it looks on television, describing it as pristine, bright and very neat. She was able to observe the portraits of all of the past presidents.

East said she was not surprised that Humphrey was invited to the White House event.

“She is a very dedicated educator,” East said. “She goes above and beyond for her students and her community. I first came across Liz when she was the district teacher of the year. I met with her and worked with her on a project to create a clothes closet for students in her school. She sees a need and she goes for it.

“If a student’s computer breaks down, she goes to their house. She worries about her students. She becomes part of their lives.”

Humphrey, who will graduate in May with a specialist degree in principalship, said her love for service started years ago when she came to Orangeburg County as a science teacher.

“My most impactful experience was helping one of my students that lost their home and everything,” she said. “Me and a couple of teachers here were able to provide clothing, toiletries, kitchen appliances —whatever they needed. It helped to make them comfortable until the government could kick in assistance to help them recover.”

Every year during Christmas, Humphrey’s class of 30 students would adopt a family, providing gifts and clothing. That effort inspired others and soon the entire school participated.

Humphrey has a long list of honors in her career including teacher of the year, 40 under 40 recognition from Claflin University, NAACP Educator of the Year award and many others.

She credits her parents, Ben and Willie Mae Grate; husband Albert and two of her elementary school teachers, Angela Prioleau and Hermenia Bell, for being role models in her life.

“They (Prioleau and Bell) came to work every day, always dressed professionally and had a great mindset to teach students how to learn,” she said. “They were amazing.”

These days Humphrey continues to mentor students as well as recruit more young women to become teachers in South Carolina. She also strives to instill the same values into her 7-year-old daughter Ashley.

“She was excited to see her mom on TV,” Humphrey said. “She was like, ‘I want to be next.’ Hopefully I will rub off on her that one day her and other girls that I impact can sit in that White House seat and just be amazed.’”

Humphrey also has advice for the youth of Georgetown County.

“Know your why,” Humphrey said. “That’s instilled in my students here. Love yourself and always be willing to help others because you never know what somebody is going through.”

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The Charleston (SC) Cougars (3-3) play the Liberty Flames (6-1) on Friday, December 1, 2023 at FAU Arena. This matchup will tip off at 6:00 PM ET on FloHoops.

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