top stories of 2017: education big plans · n business 10a n calendar 2a n classifieds 5b-8b ......
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2 SECTIONS, 18 PAGES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2017 DAILY $1, SUNDAY $2
VOL. 99, NO. 285
indexjournal.com
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Insiden BUSINESS 10An CALENDAR 2An CLASSIFIEDS 5B-8Bn COMICS 6A
n ENTERTAINMENT 7A
n MARKETS 4B
n OBITUARIES 4A
n SPORTS 1B-3B
n VIEWPOINTS 8A
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By CONOR [email protected]
ABBEVILLE — Judson Arce has big plans for Natty’s on Trinity Street.
Since buying the well-known Abbev-ille watering hole in July, the 49-year-old Charleston native has about doubled its size and has more changes in the works.
Arce, a painter and sculptor, already owned the building next to Natty’s — he’d previously used it as a studio — when he bought the bar. About three months after officially taking over, he knocked out the wall that separated it from his former studio, and used the ex-tra space to create an open event venue.
Since the expansion, Natty’s has host-ed a diverse range of events, such as a drag show last month and a number of local musicians.
“People love it,” Arce said. “They can’t believe the difference it makes opening up the space and having a venue like this. It’s really helped business and we’ve had positive feedback so far.”
Natty’s opened about five years ago and quickly became a staple of Abbev-ille’s historic square — drawing patrons in with a large selection of craft beers and an atmosphere unique to the area.
Shortly after it opened, Arce start-ed working there and began running it about a year and a half ago when previ-ous owners Ren’ee Smith and Edie New bought another well known business on Abbeville’s square, the Belmont Inn.
Smith said when considering who to sell the building to, it was important the restaurant’s next owner continue
what she and New had started, and Arce seemed like the perfect fit.
“Since he’s opened it up, which is what we had envisioned doing with the arches, he’s just carried on with what we didn’t have time to do anymore,” she said. “And the main thing about Natty’s is it’s where all the locals really like to
hang out and where they’re comfort-able, and so they’re very supportive of what he’s done. One of the reasons Edie and I chose Judson was because he was a local also and we didn’t want someone to come in and take away from what people liked.”
Arce said he has no plan to stop at the expansion.
He recently received approval from the city’s Historic Properties Preserva-tion Commission to renovate the facade of his old gallery and he expects to finish by February.
The renovation will draw the front of the building back from the street, Arce said, creating an outdoor dining area.
Owner of Natty’s wants to make bar a destination
PHOTOS BY CONOR HUGHES | INDEX-JOURNAL
Judson Arce, owner of Natty’s on Trinity Street, points to an area of the bar’s exterior he plans to renovate.
Natty’s on Trinity Street has become a favorite of many in Abbeville after open-ing about five years ago.
Natty’s on Trinity StreetAddress: 101 Trinity St., AbbevillePhone: 864-366-6288Hours: 4-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to midnight Satur-day; closed Sunday and Monday.Facebook page: facebook.com/Natty-sonTrinity/
Big Plans
By ARIEL [email protected]
When 12th-grader Olivia Lane decided to write a paper and put together a short film about dress code policies in schools, she had been written up for three dress code violations in the past.
Twice in middle school and once while at Emerald High School.
Lane said the topic is one that affects nearly every female student at the school and at other schools across the country that have dress code policies.
“My thesis for my essay was that dress codes are sexist and they target girls more than they do boys,” Lane said. “I picked it because I’ve violated dress code — I’ve ex-perienced that first-hand,” Lane said.
In Lane’s video, words such as “whore” and “revealing” cross the screen before
showing female students holding a sign with words such as “strong” and “creative” scribbled across a small whiteboard.
In Greenwood County School District 50, the dress code requires students to wear pants above the hips and bans clothing or accessories that depict alcohol, drugs, ra-cial slurs, sexual suggestion, inappropriate language and gang associations.
Lane said this portion of the policy is the only section that really addresses clothes male students wear.
The rest of the policy addresses tank tops, halter tops, see-through clothing, cleavage, shorts, miniskirts and “cu-lotte-type” clothing. Emerald expanded the policy to also include chains, head cov-erings, pajamas and jeggings, which are leggings that look like jeans.
Shorts, skirts and dresses must reach the knees, with or without leggings, and can’t
be made from a form-fitting material. The end of the policy says it’s virtually impos-sible to write a regulation addressing ev-ery detail of appropriate dress, and so the administration reserves the right to make judgments on attire.
“I do understand that some outfits that girls wear can be a little risque and too much showing, and at that point, that’s when the dress code needs to be enforced, but most of the time at Emerald, when you see someone being dress-coded, it’s for something small,” Lane said.
The first time students violate the dress code, they get one day of in-school sus-pension (ISS), for the second offense they get three days of ISS and for the third of-fense it’s five days.
“It’s kind of disrupting our education,
Student’s senior project takes aim at dress code policies
ARIEL GILREATH | INDEX-JOURNAL
Olivia Lane poses with a sign reading, “I AM Brave” after a video she created about dress code policies gained attention online.
TOP STORIES OF 2017: EDUCATION
2017 HEADLINES
By ARIEL [email protected]
When Erskine College an-nounced the creation of its Charter Institute in July, it sparked a wave of change for charter schools in the state.
Now, charter-seekers don’t have to rely on the South Caro-lina Public Charter School Dis-trict or their local school dis-trict to open their own charter schools. Instead, they can do so under a private, Christian col-lege in Due West.
As the only private college to sponsor charter schools, there was some question about it receiving state funds because of the way the South Caroli-na Charter Act is worded, but the Attorney General’s office released a statement at the re-quest of Gov. Henry McMaster that said it should be able to do so.
In order to open a charter school, it has to have a sponsor, also known as an authorizer,
which acts as its local educa-tion agency. The sponsor’s role is similar to a school district without the same oversight.
Charters are created with the purpose of retaining their own autonomy while being held accountable by their sponsors. In South Carolina, sponsors can receive up to 2 percent of a charter school’s state budget.
After Erskine’s announce-ment, two virtual charter schools immediately expressed their interest in transferring out of the public charter school district.
Seven schools followed their lead over the course of a few months.
The charter school district has never had a school request to transfer out, so there wasn’t a policy in place. In September, its board battled over a pro-posed transfer policy to address the requests that also attempted to prevent authorizer shopping
A year of change for charter schools in South Carolina
From staff reports
Teacher shortage grows in South Carolina
A study released in January showed more teachers are leaving classrooms and fewer college students are gradu-ating with teaching degrees each year in South Carolina.
The study, conducted by the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement (CERRA), said 4,800 teachers did not return to any class-room in South Carolina for the 2016-17 school year.
The study sparked a renewed effort to attract more teachers to a state with many poor, rural districts that are hit the hardest by the shortage.
McCormick County School District initiated its Rural Teacher Residency program where the district pays student teachers to be in their class-rooms.
Greenwood County School District 50 increased its presence at job fairs
and universities across the state to try to get people to come to Greenwood to teach.
The state’s Teacher Employment and Retention Incentive (TERI) program has also put a dent in the shortage. The program helped retain teachers who retire from the district for up to five years. The program ends in 2018.
OIG General looks into Lander Foundation
In June, the Office of the Inspector General released a report blasting Lander University’s foundation for filing misleading financial statements that overstated contributions.
The report said the university ended up providing money to the Foundation — an organization that is supposed to support the university — and that the Foundation’s endowment hadn’t grown in 15 years as a result of underper-forming fundraising efforts.
Changes in education
PHOTOS BY ARIEL GILREATH | INDEX-JOURNAL
Lander University student teacher Ashley Giordano helps a student at McCormick Elementary School after a test.
See YEAR, page 4A
See CHANGES, page 4A
See NATTY’S, page 4A
See PROJECT, page 3A