Why did Midlands school board member go to Texas? What expense reports show
Travel expenses for one Midlands school district showed that board members went as far as Texas on school district business last year.
The State received copies of school board members’ expenses for 2025 through a Freedom of Information request, and the numbers show Lexington 1 spent more than $7,000 on travel for the majority of the board last year.
One of the most wide-ranging travels was actually filed by school board chair Kathy Henson, who traveled to the small town of Forney, Texas, in January of last year for a school site visit.
The local school district about 20 miles east of Dallas boasts the huge Keith Bell Opportunity Center, a career opportunity center that doubles as a space for engagement between students and the surrounding business community.
“We have the technology center at Lexington High, but it’s 50 years old now,” Henson said. “This is state of the art.”
Schools from across the country were invited to visit and learn about the center, which rents out space to professionals like an auto mechanic or a bakery in exchange for learning opportunities for students.
“They rent out the space for less money than it would cost elsewhere, and then students are trained there and do internships and do hands-on learning,” Henson said.
Henson expensed $186.16 for the trip. She said Lexington 1 doesn’t have the facilities for that level of community integration, but the trip got her thinking about how else the district in the center of Lexington County might be able to work with local businesses, and what facility upgrades the district might still need.
The other expenses board members wracked up were related to travel for three conferences hosted by the S.C. School Boards Association in 2025: the annual conference in Myrtle Beach in February, a conference on “school law” in Charleston in August, and a legislative advocacy meeting in December, also in Charleston.
No fewer than six of seven members went to all three conferences in 2025, “which is a really refreshing change from when I came on,” Henson said.
Between all three, Lexington 1 spent $7,237.80 on conference attendance between mileage and meals for the traveling board members.
But the school board chair said the conferences serve a valuable purpose for South Carolina’s school boards.
“We had breakout sessions on everything from finance to FOIA to AI, all kinds of things,” Henson said. “But the legislative session, all the (school district) delegations come together to decide what we want to communicate, and where the South Carolina school boards stand during the legislative session.”
The conferences are a chance to connect with other board members across the state, compare notes and see if there are ways they can learn and collaborate on shared issues, she said.
“Most people don’t see professional development happening, but the relationships you make with other school boards is a big thing,” Henson said. “There is value in our voice and one person talking to a senator could be impactful, but if everybody comes together, then another district can get a better idea of what you do.”
.jpg)