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LIBERTY, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Multiple topics were brought up during the city of Liberty Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday night, including a controversial rezoning request originally on the agenda that was later taken back by the applicant.

“On a scale of one to ten, I think it’s a nine that (everyone’s) concerned,” said Ricky Fowler.

Fowler’s property touches 175 Airport Road, a little more than 12 acres zoned industrial that a rezoning applicant wanted changed to residential. Planning commission members say the application was withdrawn on Tuesday morning. Fowler says he and his neighbors weren’t given what they felt was proper notice about the rezoning request in the first place.

“I think they’re trying to rush things through,” said Fowler.

The area was annexed by the city of Liberty from Pickens County earlier this year. Annexation is a topic of worry for Pickens County Councilman Roy Costner, who represents the Liberty district and attended the meeting.

“You’ve got to plan on all of those things that are going to affect that development. If you don’t, it’s going to wind up costing the taxpayers or the constituents a lot of money. I mean it could be incredible amounts of money,” he said.

Another item on the agenda was the city’s comprehensive plan, which hasn’t been updated in over a decade.

“My concern was since they haven’t looked at it in ten years, we may need to make sure we’re aligned in our thinking,” explained Costner.

South Carolina law states a city’s comprehensive plan must be updated at least every 10 years. Planning Commission Chair Bo McDonald says it will take about six months to update.

“We have to figure it out. We have to plan for it. What do we want Liberty to be? So we don’t end up like some other cities that don’t plan for growth, and it’s just a mismatch of everything, and you end up with meetings like we had tonight of people who don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

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About Liberty

LIBERTY, S.C. (WSPA) – Like most small towns, Liberty was started when one key piece of infrastructure was built.

“The railroad built the town of Liberty,” local historian, Chris Hansen, said.

Three people played an important role in that.

Hansen said with the efforts of Senator William King Easley, Colonel Robert Holcombe who wasn’t in the military but got the nickname of “Colonel” because he was an influential figure.

Hansen explained Catherine Templeton deeded the land to the railroad, and the town was then built from that.

Local historians do not know much about being established in 1876 because of the documentation and records were lost over time.

“A lot of it has been personal accounts,” according to Hansen. “It’s been hard finding those records.”

Even after the town was established, it took some time to build the railroad.

For a while, Liberty was a cattle town and instead of the first sheriff catching criminals he had other duties.

Hansen said the sheriff’s name was James Avenger and “he didn’t have much of a town to look after so his daily job was to make sure the cows stayed in the pastures in the area.”

Once the town was established with the railroad, in came the cotton mills which made Liberty grow even more.

“We had two cotton mills,” Hansen said. “We had a cotton gin and that was the main employer for this town. Two mill villages were built because of those cotton mills and that brought in the residents to the town and then the businesses were built and opened up.”

Eventually, the mills left and so did a lot of the residents.

According to Hansen, “When the cotton mills left, Liberty kind of lost it.”

Liberty continues to work towards those days when the town thrived.

When you walk down the street you will see a community that wants to take a step forward without forgetting what makes them love the town of Liberty.

“We definitely want to honor and preserve our history,” Mayor Erica Romo Woods said. “I think that’s important, but we definitely don’t want to live in the past. We want to make sure that we’re building on our past and working towards our future.”

Mayor Woods said Liberty is in the revitalization phase of its life and welcomes businesses downtown while also focusing on the town as a whole.

Hansen said, “Liberty is starting to look like possibly the Liberty of old.”

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

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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."

The leaders of Moms for Liberty, who have made a fine mess of the Charleston County School District, have a new project: starting a “classical” — read conservative — kindergarten through 12th grade charter school, preferably in Mount Pleasant. And the Moms’ kids will be at the front of the line for seats in their new school.

Ashley River Classical Academy has partnered with Hillsdale College, a tiny Michigan school that has become the go-to provider for conservatives like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis looking to overhaul curriculums to counter “leftist academies.” The Christian college has helped open 23 charter schools in 14 states — and many more are on the way. Ashley River would be its first in South Carolina.

Hillsdale, with about 1,570 students, has expanded its influence by providing and helping implement a free, off-the-shelf product for conservatives. Its 1776 Curriculum focuses on Western civilization and American exceptionalism, phonics, Latin, classic literature and traditional teaching methods, not “shiny and new” technology and instruction. It emphasizes “moral character and civic virtue,” Ashley River said in its charter school application.

“ARA is poised to become one of the highest achieving schools in South Carolina,” it predicts.

The school started accepting pre-enrollment applications this month and is scheduled to begin kindergarten through fifth grade classes in August. The six-member board of directors includes Tara Wood, the chair of the Charleston Moms for Liberty chapter; Janine Nagrodsky, the treasurer; and Nicole McCarthy, who heads the Moms’ education committee. The all-white board has hired an African American principal, Alexandria Spry, who previously ran a Hillsdale school in Jacksonville, Fla.

The student body “will be diverse in every way,” the charter application promises. “We want all kids to come to the school,” says Spry.

Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, are often promoted as offering parents an alternative to low-performing schools in urban areas. That hardly describes this school’s preferred home: affluent Mount Pleasant, where the town’s explosive growth has been fueled in part by some of the best public schools in the region. The $104 million Lucy Beckham High School opened there three years ago.

But that is where the founders would like to open Ashley River Classical Academy. Coincidentally or not, Mount Pleasant is also ground zero of the Charleston chapter of Moms for Liberty. Half the school’s board lives there. Their kids, and those of school employees, will get preference in admissions, according to the school website.

“The school is not a political project,” Spry tells me. “We are just trying to provide the best education we can.”

Finding a site has been a struggle. Ashley River Classical is looking for a 10-acre campus to build a 50,000-square-foot school that eventually could accommodate 690 students, kindergarten through 12th grade. The school originally looked at five sites in Mount Pleasant, none of which panned out. It’s now looking at a temporary site in North Charleston, near Daniel Island, with plans to eventually build in Mount Pleasant, according to the school’s website.

A location is expected to be announced this month, Spry said. But both she and Tom Drummond, the board chairman, declined to comment further on a site.

Ashley River is one of more than two dozen South Carolina charters sponsored by Erskine College, a small Christian school in Due West. Nashville-based American Classical Education Foundation has committed to help finance the school’s start-up costs.

It was just a year ago that Moms-backed candidates won a majority on the Charleston County School Board, kicking off a chaotic year that included the hiring and departure of a superintendent in a matter of months. Now the Moms and their like-minded supporters will have a chance to implement their own ideas in their own school for their own kids. Tuition-free, thanks to taxpayers.

“The committee has also had positive interactions with members of the Charleston County School Board, with the Chair of the Board expressing support for the proposed school and indicating interest in exploring ways the district could assist the school’s development and start-up efforts,” the charter school application says.

Who would ever think otherwise?

Mount Pleasant has the Wando Warriors and the Beckham Bengals. North Charleston has the Cougars. Whether Mount Pleasant or North Charleston, it’s time to buckle up (again): Here come the Ashley River Moms.

Steve Bailey is a regular contributor to The Post and Courier Opinion section. He can be reached at sjbailey1060@yahoo.com.

Seven years ago, a group of South Carolina historians, archaeologists and other experts gathered to begin plotting an extensive and overdue project to conserve, interpret and promote the state’s most significant Revolutionary War battlefields, and while they have made impressive, some would say surprising, progress, we all should consider how we can help support the emerging Liberty Trail, particularly as the war’s 250th anniversary draws near.

Other states had more famous battles such as Saratoga, Bunker Hill and Yorktown, but South Carolina was home to more battles, skirmishes and other armed clashes than any other state, more than 200 in all. Only four of the state’s current 46 counties don’t have at least one of them. Meanwhile, the patriots’ guerrilla warfare waged here, perhaps best exemplified by Brigadier Gen. Francis Marion, is increasingly seen as pivotal to the ultimate outcome, as British forces, despite major victories in Charleston and Camden, were unable to consolidate their hold on this colony and then focus their forces farther north, on George Washington’s army.

Seven years ago, the expert group agreed on a list of 70 sites that would be part of the nascent Liberty Trail, a driving tour with novel interpretive components, to tell the story. Four major sites, including Ninety-Six, Fort Moultrie and Cowpens, already are owned and interpreted by the National Parks Service; three others, Musgrove Mill, Blackstocks and Colonial Dorchester, are state park sites. But the majority remain in private hands. An existing nonprofit that works on both Revolutionary and Civil war sites, the S.C. Battleground Preservation Trust, took the lead to ensure these pieces of the Liberty Trail would be protected at least, publicly accessible and interpreted at best.

There have been many successes to date, including the latest acquisition of part of the battlefield at Stono Ferry, a 1779 conflict in southern Charleston County, as noted by The Post and Courier’s Adam Parker. And Fort Fair Lawn outside Moncks Corner. And three properties home to the Battle of Hobkirk Hill in Camden. And Parker’s Ferry near the Edisto River. And Hanging Rock in Lancaster County. Meanwhile, the trust expects to announce more progress soon regarding land in the Hammond’s Store battlefield in Laurens County, the Battle of Moncks Corner and Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor.

Doug Bostick, director of the S.C. Battlefield Preservation Trust, says the Liberty Trail’s list of sites has since grown to 79, and 20 of them already are suitable for visiting, and that number should steadily grow, though Mr. Bostick acknowledges he will have retired before the work is done. “We’re not in a sprint,” he tells us. “This is more of a marathon, but we would like to get more of the sites positioned well in time for the 250 anniversary.” Those anniversaries are getting closer, beginning with the 250th anniversary of Charleston’s Tea Party later this year, so we urge other nonprofits, foundations and elected leaders to consider how they can add to the effort’s critical mass.

We are pleased both state and federal governments have made grant money available to assist the trust’s efforts in South Carolina, but local communities and individuals can help ensure there is matching money and further support for the nonprofit’s work. The trust makes the most headlines for its deals to preserve these sites (of the 75 properties it has protected, about 45% were through easements and the rest through purchases), but it also focuses on interpretation. Its Liberty Trail app is an easy way to learn more about these sites and how to visit them. And it soon hopes to unveil new technological devices to help visitors visualize how dramatically different certain landscapes — such as Charleston’s Marion Square — looked during the war.

It’s vital to understand the birth of our nation and the creation of America’s unique identity, and these sites — and the many diverse stories that unfolded there two and a half centuries ago — can go a long way toward teaching us and future generations about the sacrifice, hardship and courage that formed the foundation for who we are today.

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