I’ve served on the school board 16 years (four terms). Board members usually fall into two broad categories: those who follow the district administration, and those who follow the public.
The district administration’s point of view is already overly represented on the current board. You saw this when the public wanted to keep Holly Springs and Albert R. Lewis open, but the administration and most of the board members ignored the public and closed the schools anyway.
I fear with the new board members coming on from Easley and Clemson ( two former school administrators), we’ll see a school board that is less responsive to the public.
Alex Saitta is uniquely qualified for many reasons, but mostly he is independently minded and has an attentive ear to the public. He is a much needed counter weight on the side of the people. We all saw how he spoke out and voted against closing our two country schools. He has taken-up for the taxpayer and for Christians when it comes to school board prayers.
Alex not only listens to the public, but keeps us informed with his letters to the editor, mailers and being accessible to the media. The public cannot afford to lose that, or we’ll never know what is truly going on.
Years ago the board had at-large seats that were stacked in Clemson and Easley. When they did the end run around the voters and passed the Greenville Plan six to three, all those voting for the plan were from Clemson and Easley. Alex along with State Senator Larry Martin and House member Rex Rice led the effort to eliminate those extra seats, giving each area of the county equal representation.
Alex has saved untold tax dollars and has unmatched financial knowledge of the school district. When Clemson City Council was over charging the county and school district $10 million on the TIF, Alex uncovered what was going on, researched the law, and led a successful lawsuit to get our money back. Now it is being repaid and used to educate students in Pickens County.
I visited the Pickens County Career and Technology Center and was greatly impressed. Ninth through 12th grade students are engaged in most exciting career training from Auto Robotics to Biomedical Science to Construction. Many graduating students are placed with local companies in the upstate. Current and past board members, administrators, teachers and staff have made the Career Center a jewel of the Pickens County School District.
Alex says what he means and does what he says. He fixes injustices, solves problems and has a list of concrete accomplishments on the school board to support it.
Dan Winchester
Pickens