COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Richland One school district met at AC Flora high school Tuesday evening, but the meeting was barely underway, board members announced they would not be discussing or making any decisions about the Vince Ford Early Learning Center, which has faced legal challenges and criticism.
The grade levels and what programming the center would feature has been the center of confusion, with the officials originally presenting the project as serving children from birth to 4-years-old but was subsequently changed to serve children up second grade, according to the district's website.
The State Superintendent of Education, Ellen Weaver, requested an investigation into the procurement of the Vince Ford Early Learning Center in January.
In a letter last week, Weaver urged district officials to stop construction on the project, citing the district's "build-it-now, figure-it-out-later approach" and saying officials have a pattern of disregard for legal authorities.
The State Inspector General's Report in July found the district broke the law in the procurement process by not securing the proper permits, but found no criminal activity or misuse of funds.
The agenda for Tuesday's district one board meeting opened the door for the school board to potentially approve a $25 million contract to continue construction at the site, which has seen no activity for months.
We reached out to Richland One Superintendent Dr. Craig Witherspoon for additional comment on the Vince Ford project, but he declined our request.
Richland resident Scott Barber, who spoke at Tuesday's meeting said the time has come to reconsider the project.
"Is it necessary? Is it a good use of our $31 million that they want to spend? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg I think. From what I understand $31 million is to build the building, it’s not to staff the building. It’s not to operate the building. I wonder why that money isn’t better spent in our K-12 classes who are already understaffed,” Barber said.
The next Richland One school board meeting is set for September 10th at the Stevenson administration building.
There is no word on whether the Vince Ford Early Learning Center will be discussed at that time.