OPINION: Thumbs down to closing hearing without meeting

Thumbs down to Darlington County Magistrate James Thomas of Hartsville for setting bond, during a hearing closed to the public, for a man charged in connection with a boating accident that killed a Darlington man. John Henry Newsome III of Hartsville is charged with boating under the influence and later was released from the Darlington County Detention Center on the $997 personal recognizance bond Thomas set Oct. 9. Deagose Fertron “Tron” Robinson, 35, died as a result of the Oct. 7 accident. Carmen Maye, an attorney for the S.C. Press Association, said such proceedings usually are open to the public. “Normally, before a judge would close a hearing like that, he or she would hold a hearing and let the media and any other interested parties speak,” Maye said. “Normally, there has to be some sort of finding on the record.” Bill Rogers, executive director of the S.C. Press Association, also said Thomas was wrong to close the bond hearing. “There has to be a motion, and it has to be ruled on separately,” he said. Thomas gave no reason for the closed hearing for Newsome, who is well known in the Darlington County area. His father, John H. Newsome Jr., is the owner/dealer principal of John Newsome’s All American Showcase in Hartsville. Although that may not be the reason Thomas closed the hearing, it certainly appears that way, and it’s wrong.

Thumbs up to Florence School District 1’s Linda Black, Dana Turner, Sandy Coward, Sissy Smith, Sharon Howarth, Sarah L. Quinn, Carol Hill, James W. Cooper and Kim Kinley-Howard, who have received a FULFILL $498,688 grant to improve school media centers at South Florence, West Florence and Wilson high schools. Funds from the grant will purchase updated book collections, computers, iPods, Playaways and book/research databases for student access inside and outside the media center. As a result of receipt of the grant, high school media center hours for students will increase by at least four hours per week, including before and after school. The grant will allow added hours for media center parent orientation and summer hours, as well. FULFILL is an acronym for Funding Libraries in Florence to Improve Lives through Literacy. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Academic Improvement and Teacher Quality. Goals of the grant are to provide students with increased access to updated book and media resources; increase student access to technology; facilitate teacher-librarian partnerships in learning; and positively impact student reading skills and academic performance on end-of-year assessments.

Thumbs up to the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics for its recent receipt of a $5,525 grant from the Monsanto Fund, a private foundation and the philanthropic arm of Monsanto Co., to fund laptops for biology and chemistry labs. The school is a two-year, public, residential high school in Hartsville specializing in the advanced study of science and mathematics. The Monsanto grant will enhance advanced studies in biology and chemistry, both for the school’s residential educational program and for its annual outreach camps offered through the Summer Science Program (SSP). Incorporated in 1964, the Monsanto Fund’s primary objective is to improve the lives of people by bridging the gap between their needs and their resources. It is focused on grant-making in four main areas: nutritional well-being through agriculture; science education, primarily on professional development for teachers; healthy environment, which includes conservation, protection of biodiversity, clean water and restoration of wildlife habitat; and improving the quality of life in communities where Monsanto employees live and work.