Mobile Home Sales in Woodville, SC

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - A plan to bring faster internet to nearly 600 homes is in the works, but one service provider says that number should be a lot higher.

The homes are in parts Berkeley and Charleston Counties – they’re getting part of a statewide $132 million investment.

The service provider, Home Telecom, says they applied for funding that would have originally impacted thousands of underserved homes in Berkeley County. However, Gina Shuler, vice president of marketing for Home Telecom, says she’s disappointed that they only received 25% of what they asked for.

This funding comes from the South Carolina Broadband Office American Rescue Plan Act, which is COVID-19 relief money from the central broadband hub spot for the state. Of the more than $100 million investment, Home Telecom received just under $3.3 million for this project.

The homes impacted are in a small area near New Hope and a larger area in Huger in Berkeley County. Woodville, that’s located near Awendaw, will receive their service in Charleston County.

When Home Telecom asked the state Office of Regulatory Staff why Berkeley County didn’t receive more funding, they said other areas across the state, like Allendale and Bamberg counties needed more help.

“It’s disappointing because there’s a need in areas such as Cross,” Shuler said. “St. Stephen, I think, is where the loudest amount of complaints that we receive from customers that do not have access to internet. So, it was disappointing that we could not get more than $3.2 million.”

Shuler says Home Telecom has started to talk with Berkeley County about using some of their ARPA money to expand this help to St. Stephen and Cross. She says they’re going to continue applying to different grants to help meet the needs of these communities.

The South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff has an interactive map to view all areas across the state that received this funding.

Click here to read Berkeley County’s full press release.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – Power companies in South Carolina say they’re back to normal operations following the Christmas weekend.

A combination of below-freezing temperatures and what officials called ‘unprecedented demand’ led to some issues.

Utilities asked customers to voluntarily limit their energy usage beginning on Christmas Eve morning through most of the weekend. They also said they would institute rolling blackouts for limited times to help prevent extended outages system-wide.

At one point this weekend, there were about 500,000 Duke Energy customers in North and South Carolina without power. Ryan Mosier, a spokesperson for Duke Energy said, “The combination of temperatures that were lower than forecast, customer usage that was higher than projected, and limited options for additional capacity from outside of our service area due to extreme cold weather that impacted the eastern half of the United States created conditions that resulted in the need to conduct temporary outages.”

According to the company, Duke Energy customers impacted by the coordinated rolling outages had their power restored on Saturday by 6 p.m.

Mosier said the company will be evaluating this event, “We were not able to communicate as proactively as we normally do, given the dynamic nature of the situation and fast-moving events occurring in the early morning hours.”

This weekend, Dominion Energy asked South Carolina customers to conserve energy. In a media release sent out Saturday, the company said, “Customers in South Carolina are asked to reduce their energy use at least through Dec. 27 to help protect the stability of the electric system. As the company works to meet customers’ energy needs, Dominion Energy may implement a controlled load shed in its South Carolina service territory, which may result in brief outages.”

A spokesperson for Dominion Energy did not respond to our requests before the deadline on Tuesday.

State-owned utility Santee Cooper also implemented measures to protect their electric system. Manager of Corporate Communications Nicole Aiello said, “We had unprecedented customer demand because of statewide arctic weather and we really had to be smart to make sure the grid was stable.”

Aiello said Santee Cooper had to do one rolling outage that lasted about 15 minutes. Officials say it impacted about 12,000 customers.

According to Aiello, due to the widespread impact of the event, they were not able to boost capacity like they normally would when demand increases. She said, “We always have the plan to have purchase power ready but the whole state was in the same situation as our neighboring utilities.”

Aiello said customers curtailing energy usage helped provide some relief during the event.

LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster issued an executive order Wednesday afternoon ahead of potential impacts from Ian.

The Governor declared a state of emergency and activated the state’s emergency operations plan. The emergency order lifts certain state regulations and allows the state to draw down federal disaster funds if necessary.

Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida around 3:05 p.m. as a category four hurricane near Cayo Costa.

South Carolina is expected to see impacts from the storm as early as Friday morning. The Governor said the state is ready and urged South Carolinians to prepare as well.

“We do have time now for people to make those arrangement and decisions. We don’t think it’s going to be as bad as some we’ve seen but we think it’s going to be worse than some we’ve seen,” McMaster said.

No evacuation orders have been issued at this time. Governor McMaster said, “It’s not necessary based on all the information we have. It’s the expert opinion and common sense opinion as well that it’s not necessary to evacuate. An evacuation entails a lot of disruptions,” he said.

The Governor also said any decisions to close schools or government offices will be left up to local leaders at this time.

According to officials, every part of the state could be impacted by Ian. Meteorologist John Quagliariello National Weather Service in Columbia said, “It’s really important not to focus on the intensity of the storm. It could be a tropical storm or a weaker hurricane. We really need to focus on the expected impacts across the state.”

Qaugliariello went on to say, “We expect some higher winds. We expect some areas to see flash flooding. We expect to see high water to come in from the ocean inundating parts of the coasts and isolated tornadoes.”

Officials say there could be some sporadic power outages but there are no fuel issues expected.

The state Emergency Management Division said they have moved to Operational Condition Level Two.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — After a student in his classroom had yet another outburst, Tyler Wright couldn’t bear to see him get written up again. Wright, then a student teacher at a Charleston elementary school, led the child out to the hallway for a chat.

Within minutes, the student started crying.

“He was telling me that he really doesn’t get to see his dad and stuff like that,” Wright said. “That his dad was supposed to come see him but never did. At the end of the day, that was the root cause for the outbursts, because the child was angry.”

Wright told him that he grew up in a similar situation, but he still paid attention the best he could, despite what was going on at home. The conversation was all it took, Wright said, for the student to open up and improve his behavior.

Wright became a full-time teacher at Stono Park Elementary in January, thanks to a program in Charleston aimed at making the teaching profession more accessible to Black men, who are vastly underrepresented in classrooms in South Carolina and around the United States.

Just 7% of America’s public school teachers were Black during the 2017-18 school year although Black students make up 15% of the student population, according to the most recent available data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Their absence in classrooms is deeply felt, especially in states like South Carolina, where almost a fifth of students are Black and Black males account for less than 3% of teachers.

Having teachers who reflect the identity of their students can foster connections between teachers and students — and help avoid the kind of misinterpretation of behavior that can contribute to disparities in discipline for Black students, experts say. Research shows that Black teachers can lead to improved academic performance and higher graduation rates for Black students.

At a time of teacher shortages in South Carolina and around the country, the presence of Black teachers also can make it more likely for Black students to pursue careers in education themselves.

“The issue starts fairly young,” said Eric Duncan, a member of the policy team at the Education Trust, a nonprofit advocacy organization. “They get negative impressions of school because they are traditionally overdisciplined or misidentified in terms of behavior challenges, when they may have some other issues or challenges that should be addressed in a more culturally proficient way.”

There are other barriers to the teaching for Black men. Many come from low-income families and face pressure to find higher-paying jobs, and there are license requirements that were deliberately created to prevent people of color from becoming teachers, Duncan said.

The program in Charleston, Men of CHS Teach, is a partnership between the University of South Carolina and the Charleston County School District. It places new teachers in elementary classrooms even if they haven’t participated in a student teacher program and creates an alternative pathway for them to get teaching licenses.

CCSD decided to focus on recruiting elementary teachers because it’s typically difficult to fill those positions with men, and research shows that if Black students have a teacher of color in elementary school, they’re less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to consider college. For Black boys of low-income backgrounds, those effects are even greater.

Program organizers hope to hire 20 male teachers of color within the next five years. Close to half of the district’s student population is non-white.

Wright was one of the program’s first inductees. He decided he wanted to teach after working as a student concerns specialist at one of the district’s high schools. A few years later, Wright is leading a classroom of his own.

The South Carolina districts that have seen the greatest increase in Black male teachers in recent years are Charleston, York 3, Richland 1 and Aiken, with a net total of almost 80 new hires from 2017 to 2021. However, they still have a small share of Black male teachers overall.

Statewide, the racial demographics of teachers barely changed between 2016 and 2021, according to an analysis of state teacher workforce data.

The program in Charleston was partially inspired by Call Me MiSTER, a Clemson University program that aims to recruit, train and certify men of color to become elementary school teachers in South Carolina.

Mark Joseph, the program’s director, said they’ve seen a decrease in applicants in recent years and have had to put more effort into recruitment. It’s a new era of teaching after the pandemic, Joseph said, and the program has had to adapt.

“We took a different approach in terms of talking about leadership, talking about college, talking about what it’s like being a part of a program that provides support, encouragement, brotherhood and teamwork,” he said.

One realization, he said, has been that teachers are ambassadors for the teaching profession.

After all, the teachers they’re looking to recruit aren’t coming out of thin air — they’re sitting in classrooms across South Carolina.

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This story is part of Tackling Teacher Shortages, a collaboration between AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Fresno Bee in California, The Hechinger Report, The Seattle Times and The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, with support from the Solutions Journalism Network.

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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) — A new coalition of educators, school counselors, pediatricians and others are sharing ways to improve school safety in South Carolina.

The South Carolina Coalition for Safer Schools, made up of the Palmetto State Teachers (PSTA), South Carolina Counseling Association, South Carolina Association of School Psychologists, Institute for Child Success and the South Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, released their recommendations Friday morning.

The coalition said their work began following the March shooting at Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville.

The coalition’s agenda released on Friday looks at 10 “needed policy areas.”

“When we talk about children’s safety, we’re talking about physical safety, psychological safety and social safety,” said Institute for Child Success Policy Director Deborah DePaoli. “Right now, more than ever this is a crucial need for all our children.”

You can read the full list of recommendations below:

SC-Coalition-for-Safer-Schools-2023-Policy-AgendaDownload

Some of the recommendations include improving school facilities, addressing the counselor-to-student ratio in South Carolina schools, tackling the law enforcement staffing issue so there are school resource officers (SROs) in every school, and addressing firearm theft.

PSTA Director of Governmental Affairs Patrick Kelly said some of these recommendations are proactive to prevent future tragedies.

“We need to do everything we can now. If we can save one life that’s enough for us,” Kelly said.

Coalition members say children deserve to learn in an environment free of fear.

“Students can’t perform and do the things we expect them to do if they feel unsafe,” said 2023 South Carolina Teacher of the Year Deion Jamison.

According to the coalition, ultimately it’s up to school boards, local, state and federal lawmakers to implement some of these recommendations. They said they will advocate for these changes and hope state lawmakers tackle these issues when they return for regular session in 2023.