JOHNSTON – When is panic not an option?

When you have thousands of students and parents and hundreds of teachers and scores of staff members all looking in one direction for leadership and support – yours.

So panic is not an option for Edgefield County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mary Rice Crenshaw. It never has been and it never will be.

But it’s not because the reasons to fear aren’t out there, they are. They are all around her.

If ever there were ever a time for a school district superintendent to panic it’s right now as the state continues to suffer and pass down budget cuts due to a staggered and staggering economy.

Then continue to be a legion of other concerns (especially in 2009) – some more pressing than others to be sure, but all occupying space in the great heap of all things to be considered – such as faculty and staff defections, pressure from outside sources and detractors who do not believe in her vision, retaining teachers and looking to the future.

There are days when the pressure mounts and it all seems like too much.

She has them like everyone else, after all.

But it’s what she does with them that’s the difference and what will continue to matter in 2010 as she navigates the district through such difficult times – she resolves to persevere, and it’s a tiny rock that sits on the corner of her desk serves as the reminder.

It’s a courage rock, with a tiny turtle sitting on the top.

She looks over at the rock and smiles as if her closest friend just walked into the room. It’s quite obvious that the item holds a special place in her heart.

“It reminds me to be positive and to have courage no matter what happens to be going on at the time,” she said. “I like the turtle and I like my little courage rock. I know that every day I come to work that we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”

It also comes in handy when you’re trying to move forward into a new decade while operating on purse strings from two decades ago. Not so long ago, the district learned that due to the latest round of budget cuts, the average number of dollars to be spent on students had fallen to $1,764 – a number that once supported students way back in the early nineties.

That’s nearly 20 years ago.

“It’s a challenge,” she admits. “The (government) stabilization funds really helped on October, but it’s hard when you’re trying to maintain the current staff, buy needed supplies and equipment and basically just keep the budget as it is. You want to have upgrades, but the funding is just not there.”

Still, the district finds a way to get things done. And projects currently being discussed and worked out include (but are not limited to) the following items which would further support promise that students in the district have already displayed toward varying disciplines:

- An art magnet school at W.E. Parker Elementary to further bolster the already robust arts program currently being utilized at the school.
- More single-gender classrooms at Johnston-Edgefield-Trenton Middle School.
- A math and science magnet program and similar program for law and political science at Strom Thurmond High School.
- An engineering magnet program at Merriwether Middle School.
- Foreign language programs at Merriwether Elementary School.
- A Montessori program for Douglas Elementary.

“We don’t want to stifle ideas and dreams, that’s not what we’re about,” Dr. Crenshaw added. “We want to do our best to support these dreams and ideas and we’re going to do that.”

Many of the programs will go a long way toward providing parents and students with more choice within the school district. If a parent of a student at Douglas Elementary has a child who is interested in the arts, that transfer could be made possible to accentuate the strengths and interests of the student. Also, a parent in Parker’s area may actually need the Montessori program offered at Douglas – and so on.

“It’s all about more choices and it’s interwoven together,” Dr. Crenshaw said.

But dreams require dollars, and to that end, the district will be pursuing every available bit of funding possible, including a national program called Race To the Top in which schools compete for cash with which districts may pay for new classes and programs.

“This is going to be something big for us (in 2010),” said Dr. Crenshaw. “This is some of the only new money that’s out there so we’re going to go after it.”

But whether or not the district succeeds in what will be an ultra-competitive competition for around 4.3 billion dollars of new aid, its leader will continue to move in one direction – forward – even if that means looking back every once in a while at a certain rock.       

“There’s so much potential here in Edgefield (County),” she said. “We have some excellent people here in this district. All we have to do is go out there and make it happen.”