Flint Hill & SILFAB
When something affects our students, sitting on the sidelines isn’t an option.
This page sets out Joe’s position in full, including the vote that has been the most misunderstood of his first term.
Because this is a significant issue in Fort Mill, it deserves more than a line in a mailer.
This was never an abstract issue for Joe.
Flint Hill Elementary was built without the district taking on debt.
Joe viewed that as an extraordinary accomplishment when it happened, and he still does. It is the example he points to when he argues that excellence and fiscal responsibility are not in tension with each other. Fort Mill has already demonstrated they can exist together.
The issue became deeply personal for a simpler reason. Joe’s children attended Flint Hill.
So this was not a policy question he considered from a distance. It was the school his own children walked into, and the decision in front of the Board concerned the building they would spend their days in.
Clear, and unequivocal.
Joe strongly opposed SILFAB, and specifically its location near schools and the surrounding community.
His position has not moved and has not been ambiguous.
- He opposed the facility’s location.
- He raised his concerns.
- He stood with community members who shared them.
Zoning is not the School Board’s decision. Joe still believes a trustee should speak.
A school board does not control industrial zoning, and Joe has never claimed otherwise. That limitation is real.
What he does not accept is the conclusion some people draw from it, which is that a trustee should therefore stay quiet. The Board’s authority is narrower than its responsibility to students. When something is going to affect the children in these buildings, silence is a choice, and it is not a neutral one.
Even when an issue falls outside the School Board’s direct authority, I believe a trustee can and should use his voice when the interests of our students and community are at stake.
Joe voted no. Here is what that vote was, and what it was not.
When the Board took action related to opening and zoning Flint Hill for students, Joe voted no. It was a difficult vote, and it is the one he is asked about most.
What the vote was not
A vote against Flint Hill, or against the district.
Joe believed then, and believes now, that the district had done an outstanding job on everything within its control. The school itself was an accomplishment. The people who built it and staff it were not the problem.
What the vote was
Opposition to the circumstances created by SILFAB.
The vote reflected Joe’s concerns about students attending school immediately adjacent to the facility. Given his position on the location, he did not believe he could vote yes and be consistent with it.
A trustee can support a school completely and still vote against the circumstances it was placed in.
This page states Joe’s position and describes votes he has publicly acknowledged. It makes no claim about the facility itself, and it contains no health, environmental, regulatory or legal assertions.