Community questions price District One paid for Pelion land purchased from former school board membe

Pelion, SC (Paul Kirby) The community is very vocally questioning a land purchase in Pelion made by Lexington School District One from former school board member and district employee Jean Haggard. It has had social media buzzing and several candidates for an open seat on the board are openly commenting negatively regarding what took place. The land, which is connected to Main Street (Hwy. 178) in Pelion, is said to be slated to for use to replace aging schools, or to build a new one entirely, in the Pelion area.

At question is the price that District One paid for the property, not Haggard's integrity. On the district’s website, it says that in a meeting last week, the board approved the purchase of 54.61 acres located on Hwy 178 in downtown Pelion. The consideration for this property is $982,980. The property owner was Jean Haggard, former employee and former board member of Lexington One. The property is known by Lexington County as TMS #011700-010. A quick check of Lexington County’s interactive website that anyone can access shows that the property had an appraised value of $144,400. That, not necessarily the fact that Haggard had helped lead the district several years ago, or that she worked for the district for decades and retired as a respected employee and the principal of Pelion High School, is what’s being called into question. The difference between the appraised value and the actual sale was $838,580. It is not uncommon for someone to sell property above what a county appraises it for however, the community is calling into question the massive difference in the two values.

In 2007, Haggard purchased the land from a family member’s estate for $5 and “distribution from trust” according to Lexington County property records. The county’s appraised value puts the land's value at about $2,645 per acre. The school district paid just over $18,000 per acre. That equates to roughly seven times more per acre than the appraised county value; this is an amazing business deal for Haggard. The county’s records also show a large tract adjoining the current high schools property that has a house on it. County records indicate that this property, with the house that would probably need to be torn down by the district if used for a school, equates to roughly $6,000 per acre. Another large piece of land that also connects to Main Street in the same general area would divide out to about $4,000 per acre according to Lexington County’s records. It isn’t known if either of those pieces was on the market or if their owners would have been willing to part with them. Large land tracts that have been available in the area have traditionally been bought by the big farming operations that surround Pelion if they become available.

For years, the community has also been screaming for a school to replace Pelion Middle School, one of the district’s oldest. It’s also a school that has had some of the most maintenance problems. There have been complaints from the community about brown water from the faucets, mold and mildew, and a host of other problems. At a meeting at the school last year, Dr. Greg Little, the District’s superintendent, told parents and staff that the District planned to replace Pelion Middle School in stages. He said the school would be demolished in sections and those would be rebuilt a portion at a time.

The Pelion area should expect growth in the coming years as a new sewer line connecting the area to the Joint Water and Sewer Commission’s system near Bluefield Road is almost complete. That will certainly bring growth. The center of the county is also being built out and development is going to the west all over Lexington County. As growth comes, so will more children and the need for more and larger schools. Once again, the community isn’t questioning the need for new or rebuilt schools in Pelion, they are vocally questioning whether the school board was being good stewards of the public’s money in this purchase. We have asked the district for comment and are awaiting their response.

Editor's Note: The author of this story has two children in Pelion area schools. One of those children is a student at Pelion Middle School.