Richland 1 names local pastor, Keenan High alumnus as new school board chair

Richland 1 school district has named a new school board chair.

Aaron Bishop was selected in 6-1 vote during a late Tuesday night meeting in which board members met in-person but the public had to stream virtually because of COVID-19.

Bishop, who was serving as vice chair, was the only person nominated for the position, and it was not clear Tuesday night who voted against him. Bishop is a pastor at Grace Christian Church and works at the University of Phoenix as a top corporate education liaison, according to his bio on Richland 1’s website. Bishop graduated from Keenan High School in 1993.

Bishop did not give a speech after he was elected chair, but he gave the invocation at the beginning of the meeting in which he held a moment of silence for the community members Richland 1 lost since the last meeting and called for unity.

“I pray we won’t be strangers in a time like this...not only to break bread but to break barriers,” Bishop said during the invocation.

Bishop will replace Jamie Devine, the previous chair, and will serve for the 2021 calendar year, Devine said at the board meeting.

Board member Cheryl Harris was elected as vice-chair in a 6-1 vote, and Angela Clyburn — who has held the seat for only a month — was unanimously elected as the district’s treasurer.

Once the nominations opened up, there was almost no discussion. However, the executive session portion of the meeting — in which board members typically discuss personnel, legal and other confidential matters — was an unusually long three and a half hours.

During the Nov. 10 school board meeting, member Beatrice King had said the seat she holds, District 3, has not been board chair for more than a decade and the District 3 representative should have a chance to be board chair. District 3 includes parts of downtown Columbia, Five Points, the Rosewood neighborhood and Fort Jackson.

“All the other seats have had their turn, and often, many times over,” King said at the Nov. 10 meeting.

King was not nominated for board chair, but member Yolanda Anderson nominated King for treasurer and King declined.

Bishop takes over as schools throughout the country struggle to balance containing COVID-19 cases and maximizing in-person learning. In the S.C. Midlands, some school districts, such as Lexington-Richland 5 and Lexington 2, have had teachers call out because they felt unsafe in face-to-face classes. In some cases, enough teachers called out that schools were closed.

Richland 1 has not resumed five days per week of in-person classes but is rather using a “hybrid” system where some school work is done online and other work is done face-to-face.

This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 11:12 PM.