ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Rock Hill School District is suing the city, claiming Rock Hill did not follow through on a deal signed back in 2020.

It involves what’s called a Tax Incremental Financing plan, or TIF. The school district said it has partnered with city council and the city on TIFs historically.

The school district says in 2019, it gave $85 million to help develop the Knowledge Park area.

District officials allege the city has not met certain terms from that deal.

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“As of today, the City of Rock Hill has failed to report their spending of the school district’s money in a requested independent audit, the zoning issue is still not resolved, there is no opportunity for students to learn in a dedicated space in Knowledge Park and the City of Rock Hill has fraudulently overcharged the district for utilities for the sum of $23 million dollars,” the news release reads.

The City of Rock Hill addressed the lawsuit in a statement, saying it had fulfilled the obligations outlined in the deal. It said the school district’s lawsuit is “without merit” and called the district’s strategy an “aggressive, confrontational tactic to bully the City.”

>> Read the lawsuit here.

Read the full statement from the City of Rock Hill below:

“The City of Rock Hill and the Rock Hill School District No 3 have enjoyed a long history of cooperation and mutual assistance to benefit their common taxpayers and serve the children of Rock Hill. Our children are our primary mission and should be the focus of every decision we make. The leadership of the School District has clearly lost its focus with regard to this mission.

“This dispute stems from agreements related to the critical textile corridor revitalization project, which has been a resounding success for the citizens of Rock Hill. The City has met all obligations required under this agreement with the School District – an agreement that has already resulted in the City providing over $6,000,000 in costs savings for the School District since 2020 .

“We are disappointed with the current dispute and have made every reasonable effort to work with the School District – as we have always done in the past. Regrettably, the School District has chosen this aggressive, confrontational tactic to bully the City and extract terms more favorable for the School District than the terms provided in the parties’ written and executed agreement.

“The School District’s complaint against the City is without merit and the City will address the legal merits in that forum.

“The City does not believe in addressing, through a public back-and-forth, its differences with another party.”

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The district claims the city is charging them a fee for electricity that's not consistent with South Carolina law or any previous agreement.

ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Rock Hill School District is now suing the City of Rock Hill over what it calls "funding issues."

The district claims the city is charging them a fee for electricity that's not consistent with South Carolina law or any previous agreement. The district wants millions of dollars in tax revenue returned back to them after the alleged failed promises by the city.

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Rock Hill Schools issued the following statement:

“The school district can be a partner in economic development when it benefits our students, but our only mission is to educate our students; the District’s goal is not being the financial mechanism for the City’s development projects. We are disappointed in the lack of follow-through from the City of Rock Hill, and are forced to take this step in order to protect the educational future of our students,” said Helena Miller Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Rock Hill Schools has historically partnered with the City of Rock Hill and County Council in several Tax Incremental Financing Plans or TIFs, and the Downtown TIF in question was a consolidation of many of these past agreements. The school district forfeited $85 million dollars of tax income from the Knowledge Park area over a thirty-year time period in exchange for a series of agreed-upon terms such as educational space in Knowledge Park for student education and experiences, help with zoning on a property that the District hopes to sell, and renegotiation of utility rates among others.

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As of today, the City of Rock Hill has failed to report their spending of the school district’s money in a requested independent audit, the zoning issue is still not resolved, there is no opportunity for students to learn in a dedicated space in Knowledge Park and the City of Rock Hill has fraudulently overcharged the district for utilities for the sum of $23 million dollars. “We entered this agreement in good faith, and it is heartbreaking to see our students being taken advantage of. We have tried to work with city officials to resolve this over the past two years, and this is our last option to make sure our students are given what the agreement states they should be afforded,” Miller said

The City of Rock Hill has issued the following statement:

"The City of Rock Hill and the Rock Hill School District # 3 have enjoyed a long history of cooperation and mutual assistance to benefit their common taxpayers and serve the children of Rock Hill. Our children are our primary mission and should be the focus of every decision we make. The leadership of the school district has clearly lost its focus with regards to this mission, This dispute stems from agreement related to critical textile xxxxx revitalization project which has been a resounding success for the people of Rock Hill. The city has met all obligations required under this agreement with the school district, an agreement that has already resulted in the city providing over $6-million in cost savings for the school district since 2020.

“We are disappointed with the current dispute and have made every reasonable effort to work with the school district, as we always have done in the past, Regrettably the school district has chosen to file a lawsuit and this aggressive confrontational tactic to bully the city and extract terms more favorable for the school district than the terms provided for in the party's written, understood and executed agreement. "The school district's complaint against the city is without merit and the city will address the legal merits in the legal forum. The city does not believe in addressing, through a public back and forth, its differences with another party and will hold to that going forward."

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ROCK HILL, S.C. — Surveillance video from a Rock Hill coffee shop shows a break-in, where someone left with thousands of dollars in just a few minutes.

The robbery happened at Knowledge Perk Coffee Company on West White Street, where a man walked the back door empty-handed and left with a safe filled with cash.

Ryan Sanderson, the owner of Knowledge Perk in Rock Hill, couldn’t believe his eyes when he was watching the video, saying they haven’t had a problem since opening their location in the small South Carolina town.

“It was just really alarming that, oh, wait a second. This is really my store. This is my video,” Sanderson said.

The person only spent about 10 minutes in the store before making off with the safe. Sanderson says it has nearly $2,000 inside, and some of that was made up of employee tips.

But the break-in itself wasn’t the most unsettling aspect of the story; it was the time it happened: just before the first employee clocked in for work.

“Just a little bit longer than an hour after that, and we have employees coming into the store,” Sanderson said. “If you’ve got enough guts to break in someplace and steal, or what else can happen?”

For an early morning employee, Jacob Weis, something was off after clocking in. When he looked down, at where the safe normally sits, it was completely empty. Now, a thought continuously runs in the back of his mind: ‘What if’?

“It’s a little nerve-wracking knowing that somebody could have been in here while I was in here,” Weis said.

>>>In the video at the top of this story, take a look at the surveillance footage and steps the owner plans to take to ensure the safety of his employees and his store.

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ROCK HILL, S.C. — Rock Hill students who head back to school on Monday will no longer be able to use cellphones during school hours.

Leaders made the change saying the phones have become a distraction from learning, but some parents and students told Channel 9′s Tina Terry this will create more problems and could even be dangerous.

The policy says kids can have cellphones, but they just can’t pull them out and use them. One parent told Terry that kids need their phones for emergencies, so she thinks the policy is a bad idea.

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“Sometimes kids have bad days,” Rosie Jones said. “They’re not doing too well in school issues.”

Jones said she’s always a phone call or text away when it comes to her three children. But she said Rock Hill Schools is taking away her kids’ ability to communicate with her in an emergency.

“He might go in the bathroom and call me and say ‘mom I’m having issues,’” she said.

The district recently implemented a policy saying students have to turn phones off and put them away -- out of sight -- during school hours.

“We have an environment that is free of distractions, and the cellphones have become very big distractions on our campuses,” said Keith Wilks, the assistant superintendent of support services.

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“It’s a modern-day tool now, and for you to try and take it out of school, it’s going to cause a whole lot of conflict,” Jones said.

But some parents agree with district leaders, saying the change will enhance learning.

“I think it’s a distraction,” said parent Ruth Harris. “I think that there are negative things happening on social media, and not having them out during the school day is a good idea.”

Channel 9 reached out to several local school districts to find out what their policies are on student cellphone use.

In Rowan County, the district leaves it up to the school to make the policy. There is none for Rowan-Salisbury Schools as a whole.

In Iredell County, the district says students attending Iredell-Statesville Schools must turn their phones off during instructional times unless authorized. Read more here.

In Union County, students can use their phones in class with limitations. Read more here.

In Mecklenburg County, students cannot use their phones in class. Read more here.

In Lancaster County, there is no specific policy on cellphones. The district leaves that up to the school’s discretion.

To view Rock Hill Schools’ complete policy and associated consequences, click here.

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ROCK HILL — Rob Masone has cooked around the world — in Afghanistan, Las Vegas and most recently, in Rock Hill, where he owns Kounter, a popular downtown restaurant that he calls his “baby.”

But none got Masone pumped up like this next project.

“I mean,” he said, “I don’t know that I’ve been excited about something like this in a long time.”

On Aug. 15, Masone announced his newest concepts: Kounter Longue, a cocktail lounge, and Elsie’s, a speakeasy named after his grandmother.

Slated to open in spring of 2024, the two establishments will occupy the current Edward Jones office downtown, with the lounge on the first floor and speakeasy on the second floor.

They will be located across the hall from and serve as an expansion of his flagship Rock Hill restaurant, Kounter. Masone said it will offer an experience that doesn’t exist in the area.

“This will not be a standard bar,” Masone said. “I’m not opening a bar. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re doing a high-end cocktail lounge. Upstairs is going to be very swanky, very fun and funky.”

Honoring his family

But it’s more than that to Masone, a Rock Hill native.

It’s an ode to his family — his parents Hank and Alice, and his grandmother, Elsie. His parents were active in the Rock Hill community. His father served in the Marines and coached baseball. His mother worked for the Department of Health and Environmental Control, where she won childbirth educator of the year. Both attended the First Presbyterian Church on Main Street.

After his parents passed away two decades ago, Masone found himself with countless family binders of photos. They sat untouched in a warehouse for years. That is — until he realized that he wanted to use the new establishment as a way to honor his family.

Now, he will hang pictures of his family in the stairwell leading up to the speakeasy, Elsie’s, located on the second-floor. He called it a “very personal space” — a space where he hopes everyone can celebrate their family.

“I miss my mother every day,” he said. “It’s a way that I could see her every day. … It’s a way that I can share them with the public.”

A new dimension to downtown drinks

While Rock Hill has multiple breweries and bars in the downtown area, Masone saw the opportunity to develop an upscale cocktail lounge, with everything from homemade cocktails to smoking drinks to imported wines. It will also offer charcuterie and desserts.

The speakeasy upstairs, however, will have a different feel, Masone said. Visitors will have to buzz into the section, where they will find a more vintage look, with Chesterfield furniture, a house piano and “a fun, funky, old-school” speakeasy based on the prohibition era.

He hopes the new establishments will be a place that clients can grab a drink after Kounter closes at 9 or 10 p.m.. Or a place where they can sip cocktails while watching the Christmas parade. Or a place they can host business meetings.

“We’re going for the attorneys and the businessman and the entrepreneur and the small business folks and just the regular Joes that want to come in and experience a cool, funky entrance and go upstairs and be a part of something,” he said.

Most of all, Masone wants it to bring more people to downtown Rock Hill.

For decades, downtown Rock Hill was considered dark and desolate. At one point, an awning covered Main Street.

But in recent years, that has changed, as city leaders and business owners have sought to revitalize the area.

A downtown boom

Once a mill town, Rock Hill’s population has exploded due to its proximity to Charlotte and efforts to reinvigorate the town by, for example, investing in sports tourism. In 40 years, the population in Rock Hill has more than doubled to 75,000, making York County one of the fastest growing areas in the state.

The growth has coincided with multiple new businesses downtown, such as The Mercantile and Common Market. Even more are scheduled to open in coming months, such as Rock Hill Coffee and Rock Star Taco.

In 2020, Masone joined the downtown boom.

He has cooked all around the world. He has owned a restaurant in Fayetteville, N.C., competed in a food competition in Afghanistan and worked at casinos in Las Vegas. He currently owns open-air creperie and Cuban restaurants in Florida.

But Masone, who is a South Carolina Food Ambassador, wanted to return home. In 2020, he opened up Kounter.

The restaurant is located at the site of the former McCorey’s Five & Dime, where the Friendship Nine, a group of Black college students, were arrested after they sat at the segregated lunch counter. Kounter pays homage to the nine men through the original counter where they sat and an exhibit in the hallway that tells their history.

Now Masone sees Elsie’s as another way to help Rock Hill develop its downtown.

It’s not just about creating establishments that are important to him, he said. It’s about creating establishments that will attract people to Rock Hill, the place he grew up umpiring baseball games and went to church.

“Rock Hill has a need. Rock Hill is ready to grow,” he said. “We’re gonna kick the carton a little bit and help it grow.”