Richland 1 will demolish partially built early learning center
Richland School District 1 will dismantle the partially-built structures at a now-abandoned early learning center site after the school board voted to disband the $31 million construction project earlier this year.
The project, a proposed early learning center slated for the Lower Richland community, had already been underway for several months when Richland County ordered the district to stop work in January 2024. With a foundation laid and walls raised, the site sat untouched for 14 months before the board took action to end it for good.
Board member Jamie Devine made the motion to work with the necessary authorities, including Richland County, project engineers and contractors, to “remove any built structure or improvements,” to maintain and improve stormwater retention and to leave the property in “a physical state that maximizes its potential use for future purposes.” The site’s poor stormwater retention has been central to two lawsuits filed against the district by Lower Richland homeowners.
Devine’s motion passed unanimously and was based on the legal advice the board received at a meeting Tuesday. The State has asked how much it might cost the district. That information was not immediately available.
Board chair Robert Lominack made it clear that the site land still belongs to the district and its future use remains in their hands.
“This board still controls what happens to that land,” he said.
Discontinuing the early learning center project meant terminating contracts with at least four companies: Bunnell-Lammons Engineering Inc., Jumper Carter Sease Architects, Contract Construction Inc. and KCI Technologies. Fees to end those contracts early are still being determined, district spokesperson Karen York told The State.
Board member Richard Moore made the motion to pull the plug on the project in March.
“The district is bleeding this money everyday,” he said at the time. “I just don’t think that’s an appropriate way to use funds.”
Moore told The State that based on the options presented by the district’s lawyers, he felt it was the only foreseeable path forward. To date, Richland 1 has spent nearly $7 million on the early learning center, York said.
But not everyone on the board agreed with the decision. In March, school board member Aaron Bishop called the project a “political football.”
“Where’s the plan?” Bishop said at the time.
Richland 1 has yet to discuss the future of the sprawling property on Caughman Road.
The state Department of Education refused to issue a permit for the early learning center in December 2023. Because the center was initially intended to serve children as young as infants, it could not be considered a school, the education department said.
But the project was already in motion, however, and when Richland County officials caught on, they issued the stop work order. Those issues prompted state Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver to ask the state Inspector General to investigate the project.
The department, citing the ongoing investigation, denied the district a permit again in February 2024 when the district attempted to shift the age range to preschoolers through second grade. A July 2024 report by the Inspector General found Richland 1 broke state law and wasted more than $350,000 in taxpayer dollars when it began construction on the early learning center without proper permits.
The Inspector General’s report did not find any criminal conduct, however, so Richland 1 school board moved quickly to regroup in August 2024. Superintendent Craig Witherspoon told The State that it would restart the permitting process for the early learning center. Instead, the efforts were met with further criticism from Weaver, who escalated concern about the district’s financial practices and urged leaders to abandon the project, which she said already cost taxpayers $6 million.
Weaver’s office ordered another audit of Richland 1 in October 2024, and rejected the district’s financial recovery plan for being “deficient” and “incomplete.”
“Some of the District’s seemingly cursory responses have amplified the Department’s concern regarding the District’s apparent failure to grasp the gravity and full implications of the SIG’s findings,” wrote Kendra Hunt, the department’s chief financial officer.
The defunct learning center is still the centerpiece in two active lawsuits against Richland 1, which say the district’s construction site is to blame for new, routine flooding that has damaged at least two homes in the Creekside neighborhood in Lower Richland. Homeowners say it is a result of the district’s inadequate stormwater management plan for the site.
