LR5 sues ex-superintendent over ‘malicious, political’ SC school accreditation complaint
A Midlands school district is suing a former superintendent after he raised concerns about how the district handled the search for an interim superintendent.
Lexington-Richland 5 filed the lawsuit against former superintendent Stephen Hefner in a Lexington County court on Nov. 10, alleging Hefner filed a “wrongful, malicious and politically motivated” complaint with the school district’s accrediting agency.
Hefner, along with former superintendents Herbert Berg and Wendell Clamp and former school board chairmen Danny Brabham and Carl Hust, filed a complaint with accrediting agency Cognia in August questioning how the district structured its contract with interim Superintendent Akil Ross.
Ross was named interim superintendent at the beginning of July but not as an employee of Lexington-Richland 5. Rather, he is a contractor providing services through Ross’ consulting firm, HeartEd LLC. The former superintendents and chairmen were “concerned that this arrangement is incongruent with the standards for governance established by Cognia and, therefore, could jeopardize the District’s accreditation,” according to their letter to Cognia.
In the suit filed by Rock Hill attorney Montrio Belton, Lexington-Richland 5 argues this arrangement saved $65,000 because the district won’t pay Ross any employee benefits.
Hefner previously served as the district’s superintendent from 2011 to 2018.
In the lawsuit, the school district accuses Hefner of “interfering” in the management of the school district. It says Ross was informed by Cognia that no action would be taken against the district as “the complaint did not raise an issue that could legitimately impact the District’s accreditation.
“That same representative advised Ross that complaints to Cognia are often politically motivated,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit singles out Hefner by claiming he “contacted (the others who signed the letter) and convinced them to participate in his complaint without providing them with accurate information, particularly regarding his motivation in filing the complaint,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint by Hefner and the others also questions the financial relationship between Ross and board members Ken Loveless and Catherine Huddle, who had both previously donated to the non-profit HeartEd Youth Zone program run by Ross. Lexington-Richland 5’s lawsuit said the complaint contained “false information” conflating the youth zone with the separate HeartEd consulting firm, and “implied wrongdoing” by Ross and the school district.
“Though the District’s accreditation presently has not been impacted by Hefner’s politically-motivated and unfounded complaint, the District has been negatively impacted because of the publicity surrounding the matter,” the suit says. “This loss of goodwill in the community could result in the District losing state funding if students withdraw from the District and attend school elsewhere.”
The lawsuit notes Hefner said in the letter to Cognia that changes to the school’s accreditation were not likely, “further establishing his malicious interference.” Hefner told The State at the time Cognia could take actions short of pulling accreditation to address the issue.
On Aug. 23, the Lexington-Richland 5 school board voted to take legal action against the signers of the complaint, “In the event the individuals who filed the complaint do not withdraw that complaint and apologize to the district and Dr. Ross,” Loveless said at the time.
“To date, Hefner has not apologized to the District or Ross for his intentional interference with the contract,” the lawsuit says.
The district requests a jury trial to assess damages and provide relief. Hefner did not respond to a request for comment before publication of this story.
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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