Tag Archive

Sparkle City Headlines: The Racial Divide Surfaces In District 7

By Steve Shanafelt

Just in case you haven’t been following it, there’s been considerable controversy over who will helm the Spartanburg District 7 school board. Considering the district has had plenty of headline-grabbing problems in the last year — a religious-education lawsuit, waffling about showing the Presidential address to students, and a failed attempt to spend $325,000... »

Gifts, trees and science all found at The Chapman Cultural Center

By Sylvie Galloway

If you are looking for ideas for the holiday then a stop by the Chapman Culteral Center may have just what are are looking for. There are things for the shopper as well as activities to keep the kids entertained. If you are looking for that special gift for that person on your list... »

Big Idea: Fixing The County Schools

By Steve Shanafelt

With the Spartanburg school board elections over, and with many new faces elected specifically to make big changes in how local schools do their jobs, I thought it would be a good time to bring up the subject of what exactly it is those changes should be. After all, it’s easy to agree... »

Sparkle City Headlines: Chocolate Milk Is Not News

By Steve Shanafelt

Since I generally don’t watch TV, I tend to forget about the level of non-news filler that ends up on the airwaves every day. Most of this stuff is harmless, if banal, so even when I run across a story that has been video encoded and posted to something like Google News, I... »

Post-Election Discussion Central

By Steve Shanafelt

Now that the election is over, I thought we could all use a place to talk about the contest and what it means for Spartanburg. Junie White will be Mayor, Cate Brandt Ryba and Jerome Rice will be joining Linda Dogan on City Council, and tons of shakeups have happened in the school board... »

Spartanburg County School Board Election Results

By Steve Shanafelt

With 97.14 percent of precincts reporting, here are the tentative results of this year’s Spartanburg County School Board election. In a few cases, the results were a little too close to call definitively, particularly in the event that a recount is called for. Final, confirmed results should be available on Friday, and if there... »

Video-O-Rama: Belenchia, The George, Nature Walk, Annoying Skater and Mozart

By Steve Shanafelt

Let’s start this week’s video roundup by getting all political. Here’s Spartanburg City Council candidate for District 4, Thomas Belenchia, talking to the Piedmont Republican Club at their recent forum at the Beacon. It’s not a huge leap to go from the business of politics, to the business of development. And one of the biggest... »

Sparkle City Headlines: District 2 School Board Candidates Decline Forum, Cite Possible Bias

By Steve Shanafelt

You might not think something like a non-partisan, single District debate among school-board candidates could become so rife with concerns about fairness, but that’s exactly the case on Spartanburg County School District 2. Out of the 14 candidates vying for seats on the board, only 5 have actually agreed to participate. Why? What could possibly... »

Sparkle City Headlines: State Rep. Rita Allison Sues “John Doe” Over Defamation

By Steve Shanafelt

It’s not every day that a state legislator sues someone for defamation, let alone sues them without really knowing for certain who they are. Yet, according to the AP wire, State Rep. Rita Allison from Lyman is suing … well, someone … over an anonymous letter to her constituents. COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina... »

Spartanburg County School Board Ballot

By Steve Shanafelt

2009 Spartanburg school board candidates, by district, in alphabetical order, from the Nov. 3, 2009, ballot. We’ll be updating it with links and additional information as we can. Spartanburg School Board District 1 Hugh Burnett (incumbent) Henry Gramling (incumbent) Harry McMillan (incumbent) Joel Pack Mark Rollins (incumbent) Michael Smith (incumbent) Spartanburg School Board District 2 Tom Bogan Chris Byrd Douglas Campsen Michael Coggins (incumbent) Terrence Dover Jim Hardin Harriette... »

Big Idea: The Shape Of Downtown To Come

By Steve Shanafelt

Yesterday afternoon, I spent about a few moments looking at a space in downtown Spartanburg with my stepfather, Bob of Bob’s Pretty Good Bookstore, who is vaguely considering moving his shop downtown. The space was right off of Main Street, and while it had a lot of things going for it, the location alone... »

Sparkle City Headlines: District 7 Decides To Show Obama Address After All

By Steve Shanafelt

Props to WYFF for getting this story out. The uproar over a planned address to students by President Barack Obama at noon Tuesday continues to grow with at least one planned protest and countless parents speaking out for and against the speech. Late Monday, Spartanburg School District 7 officials decided to go ahead and air the... »

Sparkle City Headlines: Districts to delay showing Obama’s message to kids

By Steve Shanafelt

What a bunch of un-American, small-minded, morally empty, intellectually dishonest, professionally petty cowards we have running the Spartanburg County School System. I’ll let the Spartanburg Herald-Journal’s Jason Spencer explain. None of the seven school districts in Spartanburg County will broadcast President Barack Obama’s message to students next week. It will air at noon Tuesday on... »

Want To Know Where The Stimulus Money Went In Spartanburg?

By Steve Shanafelt

ProPublica’s “Recovery Tracker” has a handy outline of where the Federal cash went in Spartanburg County. And it was a big chunk of change, too — $36,816,116 — specifically dedicated to Spartanburg County. Some interesting highlights … Spartanburg School District 7 landed a $1,551,321 grant from the Department of Education. School District 3 merited a mere... »

Sparkle City Headlines: A peek inside new charter school

By Steve Shanafelt

Since I’m giving out media kudos today, I thought I’d mention the coverage of the Spartanburg Charter School open house over on Spring Street in Hampton Heights. The SH-J’s Lee G. Healy doesn’t get too deep into what the Spartanburg Charter School is, why it’s important, how it’s different than other schools or... »