What was touted as a regional stadium in a 2014 bond referendum may not be so regional after all.
The Charleston County School Board voted last week to build a regional stadium for Wando High, Beckham High and a future school in Awendaw on the Warriors' campus in Carolina Park rather than a neutral location.
An alternate option within Carolina Park and across from Wando High School proved cost prohibitive.
An existing space on the Wando High School campus was identified years ago when plans for the new school were first drawn up. But lack of funding at the time prohibited construction and the Warriors continued to use the stadium at Wando South. As the years went by, talk of a regional stadium surfaced. Several large parcels were considered but residents adjacent to those fought CCSD officials at every turn. The only tract left in town, large enough to accommodate the regional stadium, was at Carolina Park.
"A central location was tried and tried, but we got blocked at every turn by scare mongering. My first choice was to partner with the Town Of Mount Pleasant and industry to build a combined Stadium and Performing Arts Center (and I had commitments from the business community to help with funding) on part of the 250 acres off Rifle Range by Hamlin," said Charleston County School Board member Chris Staubes. "It would have been a game changer, giving us amenities that our neighbors downtown (Galliard) and North Charleston (Performing Arts Center) already have. Unfortunately, the community didn’t want it, and the media thought it beneficial to present our 6,000 seat stadium as a 10,000 seat monstrosity."
The next option was behind the old Laing, but Staubes said the neighboring church and those wishing to preserve the old stadium, as well as logistical issues, led district officials to conclude that it wouldn’t work.
In January of this year the board voted to purchase land in Carolina Park for the stadium, across the street from the campus. This property was zoned as a a commercial and retail hub for Carolina Park and the stadium was considered a perfect compliment. Many of Carolina Park's residents were outraged and complained of potential traffic congestion, light and noise pollution and safety.
The board then held several community meetings with those concerned residents. The most recent was a meeting to present what seemed like an 11th hour option which took a second look at building the stadium at Wando. School Board Chairman Kate Darby closed that meeting by telling attendees that the board would be making a final decision at their meeting the following week so as to ensure that students had a stadium to play in during the 2018 season.
At the board meeting last week board members learned that over $6 million more would be needed to purchase the land and construct the regional stadium across from campus. This changed everything. Carolina Park was said to not be viable due to the discovery during due diligence that required significant financial increases for site preparation.
Staff was able find solutions to saving the Wando practice fields by removing the learning cottages which won't be necessary after moving 1500 kids to Beckham High School. But the need for bringing learning trailers back could rear its ugly head again if plans for the third high school don't get underway soon, Staubes explained.
At Monday's meeting the school board first voted to scrap the Park Blvd. plan in a 5-2 vote. The motion initially failed, but three board members - Chris Staubes, Michael Miller and the Rev. Eric Mack — changed their votes from no to yes.
In the final count, yes votes came from Cindy Bohn Coats, Kate Darby, Staubes, Miller and Mack. Kevin Hollinshead and the Rev. Chris Collins voted against the motion. Todd Garrett and Priscilla Jeffery were absent.
The money came down to this - it would cost just over $13 million to build the regional stadium on the Wando campus and $25.5 million to build it across the street.
Carolina Park residents Neal and Collette Oldford will be directly affected by the stadium being built on campus.
Neal said he knew the stadium was inevitable. His biggest concern with the Park Boulevard location was the traffic it would generate and pedestrian safety for the folks crossing street from Wando to the shared stadium. Then on second thought, looking at what would be ideal for both schools, he felt like building on the Carolina Park property was optimal for Beckham High School and Wando.
"Now that it will be at Wando people will refer to it as Wando Stadium even if Beckham plays there," he said. "I am concerned because we don't know what will go in that space now on Park Blvd. and given the current economic trends of getting away from brick and mortar shopping malls we will not likely see a town center coming into that space. That's probably the reason they pushed so hard for that stadium deal."
The Oldfords both agree that the misinformation going around and the numerous options presented created doubt in people's minds in terms what was going on.
Collette called the entire situation too mucky and frustrating. Frankly I think that if CCSD was willing to purchase land on Park Avenue to build a stadium why didn't they seek another site off of the Wando campus. They could have circled back around to the town park or looked at property off of Faison Rd. There is no existing housing there and it is adjacent to a sport oriented high school.
Neal said board officials couched everything by responding 'at this point...'. This left things open to someone thinking at some point down road it could change."
He added, "I felt it was questionable that at the last minute unforeseen costs came into play to preclude it. Everything isn't as transparent as they say it is."
Neal concedes that East Cooper schools need to have a stadium that fits the states parameters for championship games which is 6,000 seats or more. State championships are played in Columbia because their stadiums can accommodate it. He also thinks that Beckham High School should have their own stadium. "I don't see any reason to tear down that concrete stadium. Put some money into it and freshen it up little bit. It would be a shame to lose that stadium."
And, he said, "in terms not fulfilling the referendum... from what I have seen, they are going to do whatever they are going to do. It's better to know the devil you're going to get than not know the devil."
Collette said that overall, both Carolina Park options have their drawbacks. "No one is ever going to be 100 percent happy. From a Carolina Park perspective the people there got what they wanted. Not us because Wando is located closer to our house. But you can't look at it as a 'not in my backyard' thing. And unfortunately that's what it came down to in Carolina Park. Those for the campus option were about getting it out of their backyard - not Carolina Park as a whole."
So what will be done about the stadium at Beckham High School? Staubes said he will be bringing motion forward at the next committee meeting to do a seismic study on the stadium that is currently there and if the stadium is sound he'll task staff to find out what it will take to modernize it and bring it up to code for 2017 and 2018 and evaluate if the school can keep it or not.
A design was drawn up to place enough bleachers to accommodate 400 but Staubes worked to get that increased to 1,500. And if the concrete stadium must come down part of the studies will include determining what is reasonable as far as seating goes should the school want to play varsity sports on that field.
A lot is happening in District I and II. The sale of the old Laing put more money towards Beckham High School so that it can now accommodate 1,500 students and money will be put towards Moultrie Middle to expand that school to accommodate 300 more students.
Carolina Park Elementary School opens in 2017 and the District I and II boards are getting together to acquire property to build a middle and high school to serve the McClellanville, Awendaw and north Mount Pleasant students.
And lastly District I and II's school board representatives Chairman Kate Darby and Staubes both voted against a school board member $14,000 pay raise effective next pay check.