Greenville County School Board of Trustees
By Ame Sanders
At our February 27 meeting, we heard from Dr. Carolyn Styles, Chairperson of the Greenville County School District (GCSD) Board of Trustees. As a professional and recognized educator and administrator, Dr. Styles brings deep on-the-ground expertise to her role. Dr. Styles provided insight into her role as Chairperson as well as the Board of Trustees’ responsibilities. She emphasized that, for our school system, “the vision needs to start from the top.”
Greenville is growing, and so is our school system! Dr. Styles affirmed that nearly every school in our county is experiencing some level of growth. To support this, we are building new schools and expanding existing ones. With over 77,000 students, GSCD is the largest in the state and the 44th largest in the country.
Dr. Styles also reminded us of how important it is to know our local school board member and to do our homework on these important candidates during election season! In the 2024 elections, a significant percentage of voters did not bother to cast a vote for their school board candidate, which suggests they probably had not done their homework to learn about the candidates.
Dr. Styles also shared about the programs aimed at recognizing outstanding schools (of which we have quite a few) as well as educators and all district employees. She also shared about some of the innovative solutions they are using to support and strengthen schools that require improvement. Recently, the news has reported on potential federal cuts and we’ve already seen reductions in federal grant funding in neighboring counties. Dr. Styles informed us that, while we’ve not yet faced local cuts, she reassured us that the GCSD has a robust reserve fund, which would serve as a safety net and allow time to adapt to any federal cuts, should they occur.
Dr. Styles answered questions from the floor and provided written responses to questions sent in advance. You can review her written responses HERE.
Get involved and learn more:
Our new Observer Corps will be observing public meetings, including GCSD Board Meetings. If this interests you, reach out to Jo Singer and join the group. Here’s a link to the County’s page about the School Board, which gives you the school board meeting schedule as well as information about your school board member.
Here’s a recent Overview of Greenville County Schools, from US News and World Report.
For those of you interested in digging into the subject of school funding, here’s a great reference: SC League’s Citizen Guide to School Funding from 2009.
