Ridge Spring residents fear losing school

Tucked behind the heart of downtown Ridge Spring, Ridge Spring-Monetta Elementary/Middle School keeps the beat of the town's daily life.

Main Street store owners say they set their clocks by the bus schedule and enjoy seeing children walk home in the afternoons.

The 58-year-old school, which serves about 660 pupils, is one of six facilities the Aiken County school district has targeted for an upgrade if the school board pursues a bond referendum. Plans call for the school to be moved from the current Ridge Spring site to the high school site, a little more than three miles across country roads on the outskirts of Monetta.

The 90-acre high school site offers more room for construction, and school officials would like a K-12 concept. That would allow the schools to consolidate services in such places as the library and cafeteria.

The elementary-middle school could use the upgrades. The facility is over capacity, and pretty much every system and technical function, including the roof, plumbing and electrical system, were deemed inadequate by maintenance crews when the district was compiling a list of the worst facilities.

But the prospect of moving the school has people in the town asking whether it's the best thing for the community.

"I'd hate to see that life of all the students in the community be removed," said Converse Cone, a Ridge Spring-Monetta alumnus and longtime resident.

Cone, who owns rental properties in Ridge Spring, says many of his tenants walk to school and would have to be bused to the Monetta campus.

Ridge Spring Mayor Pat Asbil says she's patiently awaiting Monday's input session to see what district officials have to say, but she's approaching the idea with caution.

"We would love to have a new school; we'd be fooling ourselves if we didn't," she said. "But I'm not sure how that's going to affect the town. It's a part of our identity."

Asbil said residents also wonder whether attendance lines would be redrawn so pupils would be sent to Saluda County schools.

In 1967, district lines were redrawn to allow Saluda County students who lived closer to Aiken County to attend Aiken County schools, according to Aiken school district attorney Bill Burkhalter. Ridge Spring is in Saluda County.

Because the legislation is state law, Burkhalter said, residents don't have to worry about attendance changes.

Aiken County would also still receive taxes from Saluda County to account for those students who attend Ridge Spring-Monetta schools.

"There's no reason that anything would change," Burkhalter said.

Teachers and parents want a new school, Burkhalter said. However, Ridge Spring is a town of nostalgia. The original high school remains as part of the town center, and Asbil says there's no plan to take it down. Cone said he'd hate to see the site of so many memories and one of the town's locations for plays and other events disappear.

"I would like to see it preserved instead," he said.

Reach Julia Sellers at (706) 823-3424 or julia.sellers@augustachronicle.com.