For two Saturdays so far this year, cities in Laurens County have taken on the title of Science Town, South Carolina. The first was Feb. 28, as Presbyterian College for the second year played host to the South Carolina Science Olympiad. Team Clinton, composed of junior scientists from Clinton High School and Clinton Middle School, took home the state competition’s highest awards -- State Champion. The second was March 28 as the City of Laurens played host to STEAM on the Square, a free community event celebrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. The celebration, by School District 55 in conjunction with School District 56 and invitations issued to Laurens Academy and Thornwell Charter School, gave a much-deserved pat on the back to junior scientists of local high schools and middle schools, with singers, musicians, and painters, and to patrons of the Arts & Sciences throughout Laurens County.
The event attracted the attention of a United States Senator. District 56 Assistant Superintendent Dr. Brenda Schrantz read a letter of congratulations and encouragement from South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott. He said, in part, “Education is the closest thing to magic that we have here in America. We must encourage young people to make the most of their educational experience. Students like all of you are the future of our country. Continue to dream big.”
In her remarks, Schrantz emphasized that Businesses and Industries run on people “who know how to think, to create, and to adapt, and that’s what we do in education. ... This is what happens when schools and communities stay connected.”
The schools are committed, she stressed, to keeping students college- and career-ready, and “We are right on track.” To do that, we need help - and this is not a “revelation” to local school officials -- we need to have a Careers and Science Technology Center in Laurens County.
School officials have the plans. They have the place. They can explain the need, including the fact that Laurens County’s workforce falls behind on a competitive basis every day that we DO NOT HAVE what most other school districts in the fast-growing Upstate have. Piedmont Technical College has done a great job helping to fill this gap with the Center for Advanced Manufacturing (Hwy 221N., at I-385, Laurens).
It was such a great success in Laurens, that the Greenwood campus just knew they had to have their own technology center, too.
State money followed, and now there are two - plus technology options at all PTC campuses. THAT is not enough. We cannot afford to wait until students are in college to gauge their apptitude in science and technology, and offer them pathways to success in those areas. Also, we do not have a Performing Arts Center in Laurens County but, in our humble opinion, this is not as pressing a priority right now as a high school-level technology center. The State of South Carolina has the money -- we are the fastest growing state in the nation and all those new people (along with us SC “veterans”) are paying considerable taxes. Instead of giving some of those tax revenues back in Pennies-on-the-Dollar rebates and tax breaks, let’s use that money to address the “forgotten needs” of our State (some of which are outlined in a separate article on the front page of today’s newspaper). We - in Laurens County - have unlimited STEAM potential in Districts 55 & 56 and in Laurens Academy and in Thornwell Charter School. We do not, however, have the tax base to build and operate, on our own, a Careers & Technology Center.
We are asking The State for its help, and if it does not answer, we guess that is their answer.
