White Oak Conference Center set to be sold Sept. 30

The South Carolina Baptist Convention’s White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro is scheduled to be sold Sept. 30 for $5.4 million and will become a public charter school.

White Oak, which has been operated by the state convention since 1979, is slated for purchase by Midlands STEM Institute. (STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.) Midlands STEM Institute is authorized by the South Carolina Public Charter School District.

The SCBC Executive Board voted in April 2016 to sell White Oak, citing underuse of the facility by SCBC churches, the cost of subsidizing the facility’s annual operations ($600,000 each year), and deferred maintenance costs of up to $4 million.

The Sept. 30 closing date for the sale will not impact SCBC events and camps at the facility planned for this summer, convention executive director-treasurer Gary Hollingsworth told SCBC Executive Board members at their spring meeting in Columbia April 24.

A 90-day transitional lease will also allow the charter school to begin offering classes at the White Oak facilities in August, Hollingsworth said.

According to an SCBC press release, Hollingsworth expressed to board members his confidence in the purchaser’s intent, given that the institute has already invested more than $300,000 in physical improvements to the White Oak property. Hollingsworth asked Executive Board chair Tommy Kelly to appoint a five-member ad hoc committee to assist in reviewing the contract.

White Oak Conference Center includes 140 motel-style rooms, a 400-seat dining hall, 23 classrooms, an auditorium/gymnasium with a capacity of 850, a 230-seat lecture hall, a lake, swimming pool and other facilities.