COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Richland One School board meeting Tuesday night discussed the hot-button issue of the Vince Ford Early Learning Center for more than two hours.
The State Education Superintendent, Ellen Weaver wants the inspector general to investigate permit issues and funding for the building.
Although the crowd of attendees at the meeting was sparse, people like Jessica McMillan were there to lend their voices.
“This is not something we need, we have other more important things, can you please address those first before we just start throwing things around," McMillan said.
The district’s Chief Operations Officer, Bob Grant, laid out a timeline for the center’s construction and permitting approval process.
"On November 16, we held with Office of School Facilities (OSF) an additional tabletop review, of those construction documents that had been submitted previously... and we did that with our architectural firm as well as district administration. The OSF reviewer stated at the end of the meeting that we should have our building permit issued within the week, as you can see this is the timeline right around Thanksgiving. So as a common practice, we began working through as though that permit is imminent and will be with us very soon," Grant stated.
The Office of School Facilities is part of the South Carolina Department of Education and is the organization that oversees the approval of construction of public school buildings throughout the state.
Grant pointed out that the district did have a design for the project and was in the process of submitting their construction documents.
The district’s initial intent for the center was for the building to serve children from six months to five years old. However, on Tuesday the board voted to change the age range from 3K to second grade.
The board’s next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 13 at 7 p.m. at the Stevenson Administration Building, on 1616 Richland Street, Columbia, SC.
Richland One’s Board Chair, Cheryl Harris, says the district will work with the Office of School Facilities, and comply with the Inspector General and anything else required to move the project forward.
