North Main charter school threatened by neighborhood opposition, traffic concerns
Two North Main neighborhood associations — Earlewood and Cottontown — have started a petition drive opposing a proposed charter school in the Cottontown neighborhood.
The Clear Dot charter school is planned for the former Jim Moore Cadillac dealership on the 2200 block of North Main Street. The proposed 5-year, $20-million renovation project will cover 5.45 acres, or nearly the entire block bordered by Main, Franklin, Sumter and Scott streets.
The school this year began teaching about 200 students in grades K-6 at a temporary location on Marion Street just south of Elmwood Avenue. But it wants to expand to 1,300 students, K-12, on the Jim Moore property.
By comparison, at 1,300 students, it would be the second largest school in Richland District 1. And also by comparison, Lexington District 1 recently purchased 50 acres for a middle school in Pelion — about 9 times the acreage of the Jim Moore site.
Neighbors say an influx of up to 1,300 cars dropping off and picking up students (most charter schools don’t run buses) would clog adjoining neighborhoods, choke off the area’s budding retail district and cause the mother of all traffic backups on North Main.
“Just do the math on 1,300 cars” coming at the same time, twice a day, said Jennifer McBroom, president of the Earlewood Community Citizens Organization. “The backup will be miles.”
The S.C. Department of Transportation has the same worries.
In response to a Traffic Impact Analysis, DOT this month listed a litany of 18 unresolved traffic concerns on such issues as restricting left turns off adjoining streets to guide traffic flow into and out of the site and creating a traffic circle at Scott and Sumter streets.
The response also noted that Clear Dot’s engineers provided incomplete or inaccurate information to the agency and failed to adequately communicate with area residents.
Ryan Brown, chief communications officer with the S.C. Department of Education, said that without an approved traffic plan, the school would not be approved by the education department’s Office of School Facilities.
“If DOT says it’s not feasible, it’s dead,” he said.
A Clear Dot official said the school is operating in conjunction with a Miami-based for-profit charter school company called Academica. Academica operates or supports scores of charter schools in five states.
Charter schools are open to any student regardless of where they live, Brown said. They receive state and federal funding and are authorized in South Carolina by either the state Department of Education or Erskine College in Due West, under state law. Clear Dot has received its authorization by Erskine, Brown said.
Academica makes money by charging the school for its services, Brown said.
Lindsey Ott, of Columbia, superintendent of the Clear Dot school, directed questions to the school’s Academica support service provider Kendall Artusi in Miami. Artusi said she could only address academic questions, rather than traffic, land procurement or facilities issues.
However, she is listed on a sign on the Jim Moore property as the contact for Main Street School Development LLC.
The property has been deemed polluted by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, and Main Street School Development has applied for a voluntary cleanup permit.
A spokeswoman for DHEC said a contract had been issued to the Main Street School Development for a voluntary cleanup, but “we haven’t yet received a report of assessment activity.”
The pollutants stem from automotive fluids such as gas, oil, transmission fluids and others.
Despite the concerns and opposition, Artusi said the land is still under contract, but by whom is murky. She said neither Clear Dot, Academica nor the contractors, M.B. Kahn Construction Co. were purchasing the property.
But the DHEC contract indicates the buyer to be Main Street School Development LLC, which is registered in Florida.
Will Thrift, president of the Cottontown Neighborhood Association, said the petition has nearly 600 signatures.
“We are not against the charter school,” McBroom said. “We just don’t want it there.”