Lexington County school boards will see some new faces — and some familiar ones
Lexington County school boards will see some of their top members leave after this fall’s elections, after filing ended Thursday without some incumbents making another run at their seats.
In Lexington-Richland 5, the top leadership on the school board looks set to turnover. Incumbent chairwoman Rebecca Blackburn Hines is not running for re-election. Neither is vice chair Matt Hogan.
Incumbent board member Catherine Huddle, former board member Ken Loveless and USC professor and former candidate Scott Herring are running for two seats in the Lexington County side of the district, while Jason Baynham and Mike Ward are running for Hogan’s seat on the Richland County side.
Hines, Hogan and Huddle ran almost as a joint ticket in 2020, when all three were elected for the first time. But they have often been on opposite sides since then, with Hines and Hogan often voting with the board majority against Huddle since the first two assumed their board officer positions after the 2022 election.
Likewise, in Lexington 1 board chair Anne Marie Green and fellow incumbent Brent Powers are stepping away from the board, even as vice chair Kathy Henson and board member Mike Anderson run for new terms. Four seats are up districtwide in the central Lexington County school district. Among the names seeking a board seat are current County Councilman Scott Whetstone, who lost his June primary in District 1 to Republican Michael Bishop.
In Lexington 2, Beth Dickerson Branham and Cindy Kessler are also not running for re-election, leaving two of the four seats up this year open in the Cayce-West Columbia district. Two incumbents in Lexington 4, Daniel Martin and Chris Pound, did not run for re-election
Who’s running
Lexington 1:
Mike Anderson (i)
McKenzie Flashnick
Adriannah Greyson
Kathy Henson (i)
Dana Homesley
Sharon Maxwell
Nicholas C. Pizzuti
Mariel Taylor
David Terry
Scott Whetstone
Shelton Yonce
Lexington 2:
Craig Aull
Barry Bolen
Abbott “Tre” Bray (i)
Mary Burkett
Liz Chitty Castles (i)
Ivan Earle
Brian Habing
Allen Knotts
Cliff Springs
Lexington 3:
Burgundy Barr
Sonya Winstead Cary
Craig Caughman (i)
Stacy Bickley Derrick (i)
Cindy Etheredge
Lexington 4:
Tina Brantley
Cindy Dibble
Lynne Fallaw (i)
Mark Hardenbrook
Sadie Wannamaker (i)
Dennis Wilson
Lexington-Richland 5:
Scott Herring (Lexington)
Catherine Huddle (i) (Lexington)
Kenneth Loveless (Lexington)
Jason Baynham (Richland)
Mike Ward (Richland)
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