Berkeley Co. School Board to take legal action against new law

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – A monthly bill signed into legislation by Gov. Henry McMaster very last month about the Berkeley County University District Board of Instruction is prompting the board to take lawful action, in accordance to a board member.

District 9 board member Kirstin Tanner claimed the monthly bill, S910, infringes on the constitutional legal rights of voters.

The legislation alterations the configuration of the Berkeley County University Board and cuts some of their terms limited. Less than the legislation, the university board will modify from 9 seats to eight seats, with an additional at huge seat. This would unify the school board seats with the Berkeley County Council geographic seats.

Board members who sit in the odd-numbered seats will now be up for election this calendar year, cutting their conditions two yrs quick. The even number seats had been currently up for election in 2022.

“How can you anticipate a board, a board of elected officers, to do the difficult operate that you’ve questioned them to do, that you have elected them to do if we’re worrying about these elections each and every two decades?” Tanner reported.

Tanner claimed she thinks that this is infringing upon the constitutional rights of constituents.

“It cancels the constituents’ votes from 2020, and that is a squander of taxpayer pounds,” Tanner explained.

Voters ended up not supplied sufficient recognize about the modifications, according to Tanner.

“If other powers truly cared about the constituents in just Berkeley County, they would have passed this law in a fashion that gave notice, just like the legislation that was passed in Charleston County two years back,” she said.

Tanner mentioned the only way that they can problem the law is by getting it to the judicial technique. She suggests the subsequent move is to obtain an lawyer to get this circumstance on and to glimpse into the constitutionality of the regulation for constituents.

“I really don’t want my voice lower off, so I surely wouldn’t want it slice off for the people that elected me to sit in this seat and advocate on their behalf,” Tanner claimed.

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