Quartz CountertopsNear Mount Pleasant, SC

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Parents and students of a Charleston County school are demanding justice from the district after two teachers were recently relocated to other schools.

They claim two teachers from Mamie P. Whitesides Elementary School were moved because they were vocal about their concerns surrounding carbon dioxide levels in the school, and parents are calling the situation “whistleblower retaliation.”

Students and parents stood on the corner of Rifle Range Road and Founders Way across the street from Whitesides on Friday afternoon with signs and chanting “Bring back Ms. Bowman and Ms. White,” two teachers they say were ripped from their classrooms and placed in other schools with just three months left in the school year.

“This is nothing that parents take lightly,” parent Alicia Cledaras said. “These teachers spend more time with our children than we do during the day.”

Whitesides Principal Michelle Connor emailed parents Thursday night saying in part that a long-term substitute will be taking over for Bowman beginning Friday but did not give an explanation as to why.

Parents said this is an unnecessary disruption to classroom learning, and students are devasted to lose their teacher and said they didn’t get to say goodbye to her.

“I think the way Ms. Bowman was dismissed left the children feeling very uneasy about trusting the choices that our school is making,” parent Healther Kramer said.

Parents are now demanding the alleged retaliation stops against teachers who spoke up for their health and the health of their students regarding the CO2 issues, and that both White and Bowman are returned to their classrooms come Monday.

Students are upset and don’t understand why this is happening.

“Yesterday, we were calling [the district] and some of their voicemails said we {students} were the heart of their work, but it’s unfair for them to take away our teachers and if we are really the heart of your work, they need to bring our teachers back, it’s not fair,” student Carolina Kramer said.

“She (Bowman) was one of the nicest teachers I ever had during my years at Whitesides,” student Mila Doldan said. “She opens the window for us to have fresh air.”

“I want Ms. Bowman back because she was trying to get us healthy classroom conditions and she got transferred for it and that’s not fair,” student Jake Mayer said.

The Charleston County School District released the following statement:

Both Ms. Bowman and Ms. White have been transferred from Mamie P. Whitesides Elementary School but continue to be employed by CCSD at East Cooper schools. The decision to transfer both teachers was to address concerns raised by both teachers regarding issues specific to Whitesides and ensure their safety as valued employees. The district cannot comment further as this issue is a personnel matter. The limited information is not intended to disenfranchise members of the community but rather to protect the privacy of our employees.

Parents and students also said they still have concerns about the CO2 levels in the school, despite all the district has done to ensure it is safe. Students said they often experience headaches while at school.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) – Charleston County is holding a public meeting Monday night to get feedback from the community on potential road projects for the Town of Mount Pleasant.

This will be the fourth out of five meetings discussing projects in different municipalities in the county including Johns Island, West Ashley, James Island, Mount Pleasant and North Charleston.

The meeting Monday night will focus on five potential projects. These projects could be financed as part of the potential third transportation sales tax which will be voted on in November. Since the county will not be able to fund all five projects for each municipality, leaders want to hear which projects the public is most interested in.

These projects include improvements for intersections, bike and pedestrian safety and overall traffic congestion. They will be looking at the following projects for Mount Pleasant:

At the meeting, they plan to show how much money was spent in the first two halves of the sales tax and how much they plan to spend if the third gets approved. This tax also pays for CARTA, rapid transit, and the Greenbelt Program. If approved, the sales tax would provide around $5.4 billion towards different road projects and improvements across the county including highways, streets, bridges, green space preservation and mass transit systems.

Mount Pleasant Town Council member Howard Chapman, who also serves on the town’s Transportation Committee, said that the town did a survey and found the number one issue in Mount Pleasant is transportation. He said they value what the community desires and that is why they want feedback on what projects come to the town next.

“I hope that residents will look at the improvements planned for Mount Pleasant, and see that they’re critical in order to help make Mount Pleasant a better place to travel, a better place to live and get rid of some of the major congestion we have,” Chapman said.

Chapman said that the town has also implemented seven additional projects totaling over $54 million to improve roads in Mount Pleasant.

“We’ve gotten impact fees and things like that, plus federal funds to do a lot. But there’s still a lot more needed because of the growth and population and traffic obviously in Mount Pleasant,” Chapman said.

He said he appreciates the help of the council members and the county.

“We’re working together to make improvements for the town. And I want to congratulate all of our council members and the mayor on the work we’ve been able to accomplish by working together with civility and respect,” Chapman said.

Charleston County Council Chairman Herbert Sass said he believes getting the community’s feedback is imperative in making these decisions.

“We think that’s important. We’re citizens. We work for the people. We want everybody to get the projects that they think are the most important for their area” Sass said. “That’s why we hope people will come out and talk to us at this meeting.”

Sass said that these five projects were selected based on recommendations from each municipality.

“We went to each municipality and asked them to give us a list of projects that they would like to see completed. Now, we will not be able to do all five of these from Mount Pleasant. There’ll be some combination of these projects that will be part of the half-cent sales tax,” he said. “And I think that we’ve got a good program and I’d sure like to see this third half-cent sales tax progress because these are projects we really need.”

Sass said they were able to get a lot done with the first two sales tax programs and he hopes that can continue in November.

“We got a lot of projects going. We’ve completed over 300-and-some projects, intersection improvements and things like that, which helped out all communities in all the regions, not just Mount Pleasant. We spread these things all around the county and so we try to pick the roads and improvements that we need to make the most difference,” he said.

Sass said they should have a decision on which projects will be considered after all five meetings take place.

The Monday meeting will take place at Moultrie Middle School in Mount Pleasant. It will go from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will be drop-in style. Anyone in the community is welcome to attend. County officials request that those planning on attending park in the back of the school.

The next meeting will be for North Charleston and will take place Feb. on 26.

Click here to see the potential projects for each municipality.

If you cannot make the meetings, you are still able to submit feedback online until March 6.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) – Charleston County is holding a public meeting Monday night to get feedback from the community on potential road projects for the Town of Mount Pleasant.

This will be the fourth out of five meetings discussing projects in different municipalities in the county including Johns Island, West Ashley, James Island, Mount Pleasant and North Charleston.

The meeting Monday night will focus on five potential projects. These projects could be financed as part of the potential third transportation sales tax which will be voted on in November. Since the county will not be able to fund all five projects for each municipality, leaders want to hear which projects the public is most interested in.

These projects include improvements for intersections, bike and pedestrian safety and overall traffic congestion. They will be looking at the following projects for Mount Pleasant:

At the meeting, they plan to show how much money was spent in the first two halves of the sales tax and how much they plan to spend if the third gets approved. This tax also pays for CARTA, rapid transit, and the Greenbelt Program. If approved, the sales tax would provide around $5.4 billion towards different road projects and improvements across the county including highways, streets, bridges, green space preservation and mass transit systems.

Mount Pleasant Town Council member Howard Chapman, who also serves on the town’s Transportation Committee, said that the town did a survey and found the number one issue in Mount Pleasant is transportation. He said they value what the community desires and that is why they want feedback on what projects come to the town next.

“I hope that residents will look at the improvements planned for Mount Pleasant, and see that they’re critical in order to help make Mount Pleasant a better place to travel, a better place to live and get rid of some of the major congestion we have,” Chapman said.

Chapman said that the town has also implemented seven additional projects totaling over $54 million to improve roads in Mount Pleasant.

“We’ve gotten impact fees and things like that, plus federal funds to do a lot. But there’s still a lot more needed because of the growth and population and traffic obviously in Mount Pleasant,” Chapman said.

He said he appreciates the help of the council members and the county.

“We’re working together to make improvements for the town. And I want to congratulate all of our council members and the mayor on the work we’ve been able to accomplish by working together with civility and respect,” Chapman said.

Charleston County Council Chairman Herbert Sass said he believes getting the community’s feedback is imperative in making these decisions.

“We think that’s important. We’re citizens. We work for the people. We want everybody to get the projects that they think are the most important for their area” Sass said. “That’s why we hope people will come out and talk to us at this meeting.”

Sass said that these five projects were selected based on recommendations from each municipality.

“We went to each municipality and asked them to give us a list of projects that they would like to see completed. Now, we will not be able to do all five of these from Mount Pleasant. There’ll be some combination of these projects that will be part of the half-cent sales tax,” he said. “And I think that we’ve got a good program and I’d sure like to see this third half-cent sales tax progress because these are projects we really need.”

Sass said they were able to get a lot done with the first two sales tax programs and he hopes that can continue in November.

“We got a lot of projects going. We’ve completed over 300-and-some projects, intersection improvements and things like that, which helped out all communities in all the regions, not just Mount Pleasant. We spread these things all around the county and so we try to pick the roads and improvements that we need to make the most difference,” he said.

Sass said they should have a decision on which projects will be considered after all five meetings take place.

The Monday meeting will take place at Moultrie Middle School in Mount Pleasant. It will go from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will be drop-in style. Anyone in the community is welcome to attend. County officials request that those planning on attending park in the back of the school.

The next meeting will be for North Charleston and will take place Feb. on 26.

Click here to see the potential projects for each municipality.

If you cannot make the meetings, you are still able to submit feedback online until March 6.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

It’s been eight years since Mount Pleasant enacted a moratorium halting the construction of multifamily developments in town. Set to expire next month, council members have indicated they will extend the moratorium for a fourth time.

Council adopted the moratorium in 2017, renewing it in two-year increments until March 2023, when they voted to extend the multifamily moratorium for one more year instead of two.

At the time, officials cited ongoing updates to the town's zoning code to justify the extension, expecting the rewrite to have been completed by March 2024.

An audit of the town’s code in 2020 revealed inconsistencies and deficiencies, which prompted the rewrite, Planning Director Michele Reed said. The code hadn't seen a refresh since 1979 and didn't reflect a current need for things like housing diversity or tree preservation, she said.

But the rewrite has been a slow process, with drafts bouncing from staff to the town’s Planning Commission and Planning Committee. A hopeful projection by Reed estimated the code will be ready for a public hearing in May and adopted by council by late summer or fall.

On Feb. 13, the council passed the first reading of a two-year extension to the moratorium. Mount Pleasant's Planning Committee Chair, G.M. Whitley, said she’d like to amend the ordinance so that the moratorium’s expiration is contingent on the completion of the new zoning code or for one more year.

“We're coming up on a time frame where the zoning code is the last thing that needs to happen before we can let this moratorium go,” Whitley said.

When the moratorium does expire, developers will still see limits on the types of housing they can bring to town. The town’s Building Permit Allocation System limits the number of permits available for single-family housing and multifamily housing developments until 2029.

In those five years, the town will have 2,400 single-family permits available and 500 multifamily permits. Affordable housing developments are exempt from both the moratorium and the permit cap.

Councilman Daniel Brownstein said he's concerned about the affordability and availability of housing for Mount Pleasant's workforce if the moratorium lasts much longer.

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“It's time to let our zoning processes do their job,” Brownstein said.

The last multifamily developments constructed in Mount Pleasant before the moratorium are Legacy Apartments and South Bay, a retirement community Reed said.

“Once the moratorium goes away, we're not going to see this huge influx of building permits, but there are areas of opportunity for redevelopment that we want to have these policies and ordinances in place to address it when they happen,” Reed said.

Those areas are older commercial and multifamily areas approaching the end of the development cycle, like the area surrounding the intersection of Interstate 526 and Highway 17, and around Houston Northcutt Boulevard.

The reasoning for Mount Pleasant’s moratorium has evolved since 2016, when it was first proposed by state Rep. Joe Bustos, then a town councilman.

Rapid growth resulted in increased traffic, overcrowded schools and insufficient infrastructure. At the time, the town had added over 11,000 residents to its population in five years, growing from 67,000 to nearly 79,000.

“The town needs to pause and digest those developments, and if not, the town is going to overwhelm the infrastructure,” Bustos said at the time.

In 2021, the town's population hit over 92,000, according to U.S. Census data.

The second time the moratorium was extended, in 2021, this reasoning was changed to accommodate the zoning code rewrite. The council gave the same justification for extending the apartment and condo ban last year.

“It's served its purpose. It has helped as the town has grown, but I think that given the fact that it was meant to be an emergency measure, I think it is justified by a significant need of the town. I think our current need getting the zoning code rewrite complete is high,” Whitley said.

It’s been eight years since Mount Pleasant enacted a moratorium halting the construction of multifamily developments in town. Set to expire next month, council members have indicated they will extend the moratorium for a fourth time.

Council adopted the moratorium in 2017, renewing it in two-year increments until March 2023, when they voted to extend the multifamily moratorium for one more year instead of two.

At the time, officials cited ongoing updates to the town's zoning code to justify the extension, expecting the rewrite to have been completed by March 2024.

An audit of the town’s code in 2020 revealed inconsistencies and deficiencies, which prompted the rewrite, Planning Director Michele Reed said. The code hadn't seen a refresh since 1979 and didn't reflect a current need for things like housing diversity or tree preservation, she said.

But the rewrite has been a slow process, with drafts bouncing from staff to the town’s Planning Commission and Planning Committee. A hopeful projection by Reed estimated the code will be ready for a public hearing in May and adopted by council by late summer or fall.

On Feb. 13, the council passed the first reading of a two-year extension to the moratorium. Mount Pleasant's Planning Committee Chair, G.M. Whitley, said she’d like to amend the ordinance so that the moratorium’s expiration is contingent on the completion of the new zoning code or for one more year.

“We're coming up on a time frame where the zoning code is the last thing that needs to happen before we can let this moratorium go,” Whitley said.

When the moratorium does expire, developers will still see limits on the types of housing they can bring to town. The town’s Building Permit Allocation System limits the number of permits available for single-family housing and multifamily housing developments until 2029.

In those five years, the town will have 2,400 single-family permits available and 500 multifamily permits. Affordable housing developments are exempt from both the moratorium and the permit cap.

Councilman Daniel Brownstein said he's concerned about the affordability and availability of housing for Mount Pleasant's workforce if the moratorium lasts much longer.

Today's Top Headlines

“It's time to let our zoning processes do their job,” Brownstein said.

The last multifamily developments constructed in Mount Pleasant before the moratorium are Legacy Apartments and South Bay, a retirement community Reed said.

“Once the moratorium goes away, we're not going to see this huge influx of building permits, but there are areas of opportunity for redevelopment that we want to have these policies and ordinances in place to address it when they happen,” Reed said.

Those areas are older commercial and multifamily areas approaching the end of the development cycle, like the area surrounding the intersection of Interstate 526 and Highway 17, and around Houston Northcutt Boulevard.

The reasoning for Mount Pleasant’s moratorium has evolved since 2016, when it was first proposed by state Rep. Joe Bustos, then a town councilman.

Rapid growth resulted in increased traffic, overcrowded schools and insufficient infrastructure. At the time, the town had added over 11,000 residents to its population in five years, growing from 67,000 to nearly 79,000.

“The town needs to pause and digest those developments, and if not, the town is going to overwhelm the infrastructure,” Bustos said at the time.

In 2021, the town's population hit over 92,000, according to U.S. Census data.

The second time the moratorium was extended, in 2021, this reasoning was changed to accommodate the zoning code rewrite. The council gave the same justification for extending the apartment and condo ban last year.

“It's served its purpose. It has helped as the town has grown, but I think that given the fact that it was meant to be an emergency measure, I think it is justified by a significant need of the town. I think our current need getting the zoning code rewrite complete is high,” Whitley said.