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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - It’s never too late to start something new.

That’s the message from 85-year-old Joann Dehardt, of Prosperity, who’s serving up food hot off the grill at her new hot dog stand.

However, grilling hot dogs and sizzling fries is just a small part of what Dehardt, or Boss Lady Jojo, does daily at J’s Hot Diggity Dogs.

“I love people and I love helping people and that’s what it’s all about,” said Dehardt.

Back in 1980, Joann and her husband opened Frandeena’s, one of the few restaurants serving up hot food in Prosperity.

“After my husband passed away in 2010, I volunteered at a thrift store in Chapin, Good Works,” said Dehardt. “I said ‘You know the old restaurant is still standing, why don’t I do that?’ and one of the workers said ‘Joann that’s a fine thing for you to do.’”

Inspired by the thrift store, Joann got to work. She turned the old Frandeena’s into Heart and Hands Thrift Shoppe, which serves people all throughout the community off Macedonia Church Rd.

People can get furniture, kitchenware, antiques, clothes, and the list goes on. If you name it, Joann probably has it.

To keep it all running smoothly, Joann has one volunteer who’s been with her from the very start, Jan Acquisto. Their friendship all began at that thrift store in Chapin.

“Joann happened to be in there and she came walking up and she said well I need help and I’m opening a thrift store on Macedonia Church Rd. in Prosperity, and I said I live on Macedonia Church Rd. in Prosperity,” said Acquisto.

After Jan Acquisto lost her daughter to colon cancer, Joann Dehardt was by her side every step of the way.

“If I would bring something in of my daughters to donate, she’d say it’s a good thing Jan, it’s a really good thing. Because you’re passing it on for someone else to enjoy,” said Acquisto.

But Joann still felt like something was missing.

“Nobody had anything to eat around here, so I said ya know why don’t we do a similar small hot dog stand?”

That is how J’s Hot Diggity Dogs was born.

The small hot dog stand now sits right in front of Heart and Hands Thrift Shoppe.

If you’re wondering what you should get when you stop by, Boss Lady Jojo has a suggestion.

“Get a hot dog all the way. With chili, mustard, onion, everything.”

Running a thrift shop and a hot dog stand, you’d think Joann Dehardt would have her hands full, but it turns out the only thing full is her heart.

“I just love people, and I love doing what I’m doing. It’s a joy to come to work.”

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Final scores from this week’s high school football action locally and across South Carolina.

Friday

Airport 35, Fox Creek 18

Batesburg-Leesville 28, Newberry 26

CA Johnson 48, Swansea 27

Camden 52, AC Flora 27

Cardinal Newman 53, Heathwood Hall 14

Chapin 38, Brookland-Cayce 31

Crestwood 37, North Central 13

Dutch Fork 41, North Augusta 12

Fairfield Central 27, Keenan 8

Faith Christian 52, Newberry Academy 6

Fort Mill 25, Lugoff-Elgin 15

Gilbert 14, Lexington 3

Goose Creek 31, Blythewood 28

Hammond 25, Wilson Hall 7

Holly Hill 37, Richard Winn 22

Irmo 35, Hartsville 21

Mid-Carolina 29, Columbia 6

Midland Valley 37, Westwood 14

Porter-Gaud 42, Ben Lippen 9

Providence Athletic Club 56, Tri-Cities Christian (Tenn.) 0

Richland Northeast 49, Spring Valley 27

Ridge View 40, Dreher 14

River Bluff 44, Lower Richland 6

White Knoll 67, South Aiken 6

Andrew Jackson Academy 22, WW King 6

Saturday

St. John’s (DC) 42, Gray Collegiate 28

Abbeville 21, Crescent 6

Academic Magnet 62, Palmetto Christian Academy 23

Andrew Jackson 21, Lakewood 0

Ashley Ridge 63, St. James 34

Barnwell 26, Aiken 12

Beaufort 16, May River 13

Beaufort Academy 28, Orangeburg Prep 21

Belton-Honea Path 52, Emerald 14

Blacksburg 42, Chesterfield 6

Blackville-Hilda 34, Denmark-Olar 13

Bluffton 56, Battery Creek 21

Boiling Springs 31, Greer 14

Broome 58, Berea 6

Calhoun Academy 7, Dillon Christian 6

Calhoun County 62, Williston-Elko 0

Carolina Forest 38, Stratford 21

Carolina High and Academy 37, Southside 28

Chapman 22, Clinton 21

Chester 30, Catawba Ridge 17

Christ Church Episcopal 51, Calhoun Falls 0

Clarendon Hall Academy 46, King’s Academy 14

Clover 35, Dorman 13

Colleton Prep 3, Memorial Day, Ga. 0

Cross 54, Lake Marion 8

D.W. Daniel 54, Pickens 7

Dillon 48, Socastee 25

East Clarendon 21, Hannah-Pamplico 14

Eastside 21, Travelers Rest 15

Edisto 36, Branchville 32

First Baptist 42, Hilton Head Prep 31

Fort Dorchester 52, Berkeley 0

Green Sea Floyds 25, Carvers Bay 12

Greenville 21, J.L. Mann 19

Hampton County 26, Hilton Head Island 3

Hickory Home, N.C. 27, Great Falls 20

Hillcrest 52, Powdersville 14

Hilton Head Christian Academy 31, Northwood Academy 14

Hunter-Kinard-Tyler 56, Wagener-Salley 22

Indian Land 13, Trinity Christian, N.C. 12

James F. Byrnes 28, Wren 7

James Island 28, Cane Bay 7

Jefferson Davis Academy 40, Conway Christian School 6

Kingstree 54, Hemingway 0

Lake City 33, Georgetown 3

Lake View 22, Central 6

Lamar 29, McBee 10

Latta 54, Johnsonville 23

Lewisville 71, Ridge Spring-Monetta 0

Loris 33, Conway 14

Lucy G. Beckham 57, R.B. Stall 0

Marion 40, Cheraw 3

Marlboro County 38, Ridgeland-Hardeeville 24

Northwestern 49, Gaffney 24

Patrick Henry Academy 33, Greenwood Christian 20

Pendleton 53, Fountain Inn 0

Philip Simmons 55, Aynor 30

Pinewood Prep 48, John Paul II 28

Red Springs, N.C. 20, Mullins 8

Silver Bluff 49, Orangeburg-Wilkinson 0

South Florence 22, South Pointe 19

Spartanburg 49, Riverside 6

St. Joseph 61, Ware Shoals 12

Strom Thurmond 33, Evans, Ga. 7

Summerville 47, Sumter 10

T.L. Hanna 38, Greenwood 7

Thomas Heyward Academy 34, Dorchester Academy 8

Timberland 28, Hanahan 24

Union County 20, Laurens 17

Waccamaw 23, Andrews 18

Wade Hampton (G) 33, Blue Ridge 32

Walhalla 20, Palmetto 14, OT

Westside 56, Mauldin 10

Williamsburg Academy 34, Pee Dee Academy 28

Wilson 14, Darlington 6

Woodland 20, Bishop England 3

Woodmont 28, Easley 14

Woodruff 40, Chesnee 15

York Comprehensive 51, Rock Hill 48

This story was originally published September 15, 2023, 7:00 PM.

COLUMBIA — Lexington-Richland School District Five is asking the S.C. Department of Education to waive a state regulation limiting how long its teachers are allowed to instruct each week.

The request is part of the Irmo- and Chapin-area district’s efforts to mitigate the teacher staffing issues which have plagued school districts around Columbia and much of South Carolina in recent years, according to Superintendent Akil Ross.

“I just want another tool in the toolbox,” he said.

Columbia Education

Under regulations set by the State Board of Education, teachers can’t be assigned classes requiring more than four preparations per day or instruct more than 1,500 minutes, or 25 hours, per week.

But administrators in Lexington-Richland Five said it’s necessary for teachers at Dutch Fork High School, Dutch Fork Middle School and Irmo High School to be allowed to go over that limit in order to account for vacancies.

Such work would be optional, and teachers who work over the limit would be paid both for the extra class and the additional planning it requires, Chief Human Resources Officer Tamara Turner told the district’s school board Sept. 11, which soon after voted unanimously to proceed with the request for a waiver.

“It is something that we engage in, a process to ensure that it’s something the teachers are willing to assist with, it is a conversation that we have,” Turner said, adding that some of the vacancies the waiver is meant to address are temporary, such as medical leaves.

Ross said in a Sept. 13 interview that he didn’t know exactly how many teachers would be affected by waiving the regulation at the three schools.

His district described its request as necessary for meeting the goals laid out in its strategic plan, a state-mandated document in which S.C. districts establish their priorities every five years, specifically the goal that its schools will “provide challenging curricula and implement researched-based instructional practices to ensure the academic development and college or career readiness of all students.”

If granted, the waiver would last through the 2026-27 school year, which is when the district’s current strategic plan will end, Vann Holden, director of planning and accountability, told the board.

It’s the first time the 17,500-student district has applied for a waiver since 2016, according to a list of approved requests on the S.C. Department of Education’s website last updated June 21. Waiver applications in S.C. aren’t uncommon — eight other districts have already requested and been granted exemptions for various state regulations in 2023, including one to the Aiken and Greenwood 50 school district waiving the 1,500 minute rule.

When a district submits its waiver request online, department staff reviews the request to ensure everyone understands the request and “to identify any unintended consequences that may arise if it is granted, and to determine if additional assurances may be needed in order to proceed,” according to Laura Bayne, department spokeswoman.

The State Board of Education ultimately decides whether to grant the requested waiver.

Columbia Education

Teacher staffing issues in Lexington-Richland Five are significantly less acute than at some other districts around Columbia. About 98.3 percent of its teacher positions are filled, Ross said Sept. 13, and its online hiring portal listed about 25 teaching positions as of Sept. 14.

That’s a far cry from the neighboring Richland One district, which serves just under 1.3 times more students than Lexington-Richland Five but whose hiring portal lists over 160 teaching positions.

Columbia City Council members may soon give themselves a raise.

Council will vote Tuesday on an ordinance to raise council members’ salaries to $20,350 per year from $13,350, a more than 50% increase.

Outgoing Councilman Howard Duvall said the raise has been 17 years in the making — Columbia council members have been making $13,350 per year since at least 2006, according to the South Carolina Municipal Association.

“It won’t affect me because I’ll be gone,” Duvall said with a laugh.

Duvall, who is not running to keep his seat, will leave the council at the end of this year when his term expires. But he said he wanted to get a raise passed to ensure that running for City Council isn’t a financial sacrifice for anyone and so that candidates can come from a diverse range of economic backgrounds.

Duvall lobbied his fellow council members to support raising the council salaries before the last City Council election, he said, but couldn’t get enough support. He believes this time, he has at least the four votes he would need.

He believes other council members are more willing to support the raise in light of Richland County Council voting in November to raise their own salaries to $17,777, up from $14,500.

The proposal would not change the mayor’s salary, which would remain at $75,000 per year. The raise, if approved, would take effect Jan. 1, 2024.

Currently, Columbia council members make less than elected officials in other large South Carolina municipalities.

Rock Hill council members make $17,844 per year. Greenville council members make $15,000 per year, raised in 2017 from $11,772, according to Municipal Association data.

If Columbia’s council passes the new salary, Columbia would have among the highest-paid city council members in the state, according to that data.

Of the municipalities larger than 20,000 people that responded to the Municipal Association’s 2022 and 2023 compensation surveys, just North Charleston reported council salaries above $20,000, at $20,657. The city of Charleston did not respond to the municipal association survey in 2023 but recently approved a raise for council members as well, bringing Charleston council salaries up to $20,131, according to city ordinance.

Columbia City Council is expected to take the first of two required votes on the salary ordinance during a regular council meeting Tuesday.

COLUMBIA — Less than two-thirds of South Carolina college graduates are taking jobs with companies in the Palmetto State within a year of graduation.

While many in the state have complained about a so-called brain drain of college-educated young people treating their diplomas as a ticket out of South Carolina, a new state study confirms and measures it over the last decade.

About 63 percent of graduates take a job in state after receiving their diploma, according to the study by S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce. And for South Carolina’s largest, four-year universities, the results were lower.

Economists followed three years’ worth of college graduates — from 2010, 2015 and 2020 — to see how many stayed in South Carolina to work and how many left to pursue a job or further their education elsewhere. The study backs up concerns long voiced by area leaders in Columbia and other college towns good at importing young minds each year but then struggling to convince them to stay.

The trend was most pronounced at South Carolina’s research universities, which over the study’s 10-year period, saw fewer and fewer graduates join the state’s workforce.

The employment opportunities for graduates exist, Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said, but students aren’t informed about them while in school. Graduates leave because they aren’t invested in the communities their campuses border, he said.

“Quality of life is a big piece of what graduates are looking for,” Rickenmann said. “We need to make sure that they understand from a cultural, a social and a living situation that we’re up to par.”

The study, which relied on Unemployment Insurance Wage Records, did not count federal government or military workers. Contractors and self-employed individuals also were not part of the count.

Researchers also adjusted for students who went on to further their education rather than joining the workforce after graduation.

In all, the department collected data on 99,392 students. Here is the breakdown:

When it came to putting students to work at South Carolina companies, the technical schools saw the greatest success, with roughly 82 percent of each group of measured graduates showing up in S.C. wage reports. The 16 schools together accounted for roughly 18,500 workers in the Palmetto State.

The three research universities, by comparison, had just shy of 17,900 students join the payrolls of South Carolina companies, despite having far more graduates. The percentage of students measured who showed up in state wage reports within a year of graduation went from 56.5 percent for the class of 2010 to 51 percent five years later and 50 percent a decade after.

Students with degrees in the high-demand fields of science, technology, engineering and math were the least likely to take or stay long-term at jobs in South Carolina after graduation.

Those in the health fields were among the most likely to stick around.

USC still makes a net gain to the state workforce by admitting more than 43 percent of its student population from outside of South Carolina, USC Provost Donna Arnett said.

USC President Michael Amiridis, in an op-ed, laid out one way the state’s largest college system has sought to grow the South Carolina workforce — through internships.

The school began using state funds to award up to $3,000 to students who take in-state internships in high-demand industries. Over the summer, USC gave out $1 million to 335 students from its Columbia campus for internships in manufacturing, health, energy and financial services. They were placed with employers such as Boeing, Dominion and BMW.

Columbia has started initiatives to engrain students in the city and educate them on local employment. Rickenmann formed a coalition of students from Columbia institutions in February 2022 to create ways for students to get involved with the larger city and explore the job market.

Rickenmann proposed that developing the city’s downtown further.

“They want to be able to live in a building that has nice amenities, but gives them the ability to walk to work, walk to entertainment, walk to services,” Rickenmann said about the young professionals. “They’re interested in being, much like they are in college, able to scoot around.”

Another key research finding was retention of those graduates who became South Carolina workers dropped off again over the first four years that employees spent on the job, with less than 50 percent making it to the five-year mark. But those who stayed at least five years were more likely to stay longer, showing up in South Carolina wage reports a decade after graduation.

This extended data is not yet available for the 2020 graduates.

Finally, those students who came to South Carolina schools from other states were the least likely to remain here after graduation. The portion of out-of-state graduates who went to work for South Carolina companies was less than half in 2010 and dropped to just above a quarter in 2015 and 2020.

In all, South Carolina was able to add 10,766 students from other states to its employment rolls in the years measured. But long-term retention would drop again within five years of graduation — by 35 percent for the class of 2010 and 50 percent for the class of 2015.

City and higher education leaders hope the retention rates improve as South Carolina’s industries continue to develop. Scout Motor’s new electric-vehicle assembly plant will bring 4,000 jobs to the Columbia-area when its first cars drive off the line in 2026. The factory will also draw economic activity to the area, as families move in and workforce training bolstered.

“When you get these better job opportunities and and you get higher paying jobs,” Arnett said, “it just changes the nature of the community.”