Lawsuit between Midlands school district, former superintendent about to settle?
A long-running lawsuit between a Midlands school district and a former superintendent may be winding down.
A federal court filing says a tentative agreement has been reached to end the legal conflict between Lexington-Richland 5 school district and Stephen Hefner, the district’s one-time superintendent.
The filing from Oct. 24 says the two sides have reached a “conditional and tentative agreement that resolves all pending claims” after rounds of mediation.
The State attempted to reach Hefner, the school district and the attorneys involved in the case, but none had commented to the paper before publication.
The agreement is contingent on both parties agreeing to the language of a joint public statement on the resolution of the case, which will need to be approved by the Lexington-Richland 5 school board, according to a joint filing from school district attorney Michael Wren and Hefner’s attorney Jonathan Knicely.
The filing with the court of U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said the parties expect a resolution within 45 days of the filing.
Three days later, Lewis issued a 60-day notice that the long-running suit will be dismissed without prejudice, with the proviso that either side could move to reopen the case within that timeframe or ask the court to enforce any settlement. If no action is taken within 60 days, the case will be dismissed in its entirety, Lewis ordered.
The dispute dates back to a letter Hefner and other former Lexington-Richland 5 officials wrote back in 2021 challenging how the district had hired a new superintendent. The group sent the letter to the district’s accrediting agency after the district contracted with then-Interim Superintendent Akil Ross’s education consulting firm to provide the district with “superintendent services” rather than the district hiring Akil Ross directly for the role.
The letter did not lead to any action against the school district, and Ross was ultimately hired on as superintendent full-time. But the district school board later voted to sue Hefner over the letter, arguing it constituted “malicious interference” in the management of the school district that was “politically motivated.”
The board later voted to drop the lawsuit, after spending almost $9,000 on the case, but Hefner hit back with his own suit saying the district violated his First Amendment rights with their initial suit.
Hefner previously served as the district’s superintendent from 2011 to 2018.
The case has dragged both Hefner and the Chapin-Irmo area district through the federal court system since then, but the latest filing indicates that one way or another the case will soon be over.
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