Community members gather to discuss state of Tri-County public schools

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Educators and community leaders from across the Lowcountry came to Trident Technical College to discuss the state of public schools across the Tri-County area.

For two hours Thursday evening, people from gathered in the College Center to participate in the Tri-County Community Education Center.

“The idea is to get people,” Dr. Jacqueline McLemore, who is volunteer for Charleston Shared Future, said, “constituents, community members, everyday people sitting at the table together; identifying what their priority issues are, what they’d like to see done about them and hearing from each other.”

Those in attendance talked about the potential they envision for area public schools in small groups made up of people from Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties.

“Just hearing some of the things that I feel and believe in from other people around the table we sat at,” Donna Brown Newton said, “made a big difference. It opened up my mind to a lot of things.”

Organizers say having that variety of voices come together to share ideas is invaluable in their pursuit to improve the public education system.

“We want to bring people who represent very different perspectives,” McLemore said, “who have different roles in the community, are different ages, have had different experiences with education.”

So many different perspectives means differing opinions, but one thing Merrill Towns Chapman says her group agreed on is the need for better student equity in schools.

“We believe that are kids are not being treated fairly between white children and Black children,” Chapman said, “and we want to see that change.”

With such a large, diverse group of people participating in Thursday’s conversation, leaders say it’s evident education is a top priority in the Tri-County area.

“Everybody believes here that every child should be successful,” John Read, who serves on the board for The Charleston Forum, said. “That everybody should be concerned with the disparity that separates kids of color and kids who live in poverty from other kids. That needs to come to an end. I think we all want that.”

Organizers say they plan to take the recommendations made tonight and send them to each county’s school leadership.