How LR5 school board members spent taxpayer money on trips in 2025
A review by The State of expenses claimed by local school board members showed similar travel itineraries, but a range of charges filed with district taxpayers.
The State received all requests for reimbursements from members of the Lexington-Richland 5 school board from 2025 through a Freedom of Information request. In total, those reports showed the Chapin-Irmo school district spent $6,416.33 on travel expenses for board members in 2025.
The payments covered travel to one of three conferences hosted by the S.C. School Boards Association: 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.
Five board members traveled to the February conference, at that represented most of the expenses for the year at a total cost of $5,054.25.
The main differences between the board members came in their lodging details. Jason Baynham and Scott Herring both stayed all four nights at the Embassy Suites in Myrtle Beach, for a cost of $913.92. Including meals and mileage, the two ended up spending $1,242.92 for Herring and $1,241.52 for Baynham.
The two newer members, both elected to the board in 2024, stayed longer because of the structure of the conference, Board Chair Kimberly Snipes said.
“The first day is for new board members, it’s an orientation for them,” Snipes said.
In the four years she’s served on the board, Snipes said she’s grown to appreciate the conferences put on by the School Boards Association. They offered training when she became board chair last year, guidance on applying Robert’s Rules of Order and handling Freedom of Information requests, and training on managing divisions and personality conflicts within a school board.
“I’ve learned a lot of information I’ve been able to put into practice,” Snipes said. “If you’re unsure on how to answer a question or if you’re divided on what is the right way to handle a certain process, that’s what the work sessions are for.”
Snipes herself claimed $496.16 for a two night stay, including a $75 early departure fee, for a total of $852.49 for the trip.
“Most years, I would wake up that morning and drive,” she said. “I came back really late Saturday, about midnight, and I just didn’t attend the closing plenary session.”
Snipes and Herring also attended the SBA legal conference in August, at a cost of $652.68 for Snipes and $691.32 for Herring.
For the February conference, board member Kevin Scully only expensed one night in a hotel room for $181.08, but with other expenses his trip still added up to $567.68 — $125 for meals, $118 for mileage and a $25 parking fee.
Mike Satterfield expensed $1,149.64 for the Myrtle Beach trip, including a two-night $100 room upgrade charge that boosted his lodging expenses to $824.24.
Satterfield told The State the upgrade was because he and his wife arrived for the February conference to find his assigned room had suffered water damage.
“When we got in ours, it was horrible,” Satterfield said. “It had water stains and the carpets were musky and it smelled bad. It was not a very nice room.”
The Satterfields were able to change rooms for the remaining two nights of the conference, but he told The State he was unaware the move resulted in an additional charge.
“They still had overflow rooms in another building just on the other side of that one, but the room was the same size,” he said.
Satterfield was also the district’s only representative at the S.C. School Boards Association’s legislative advocacy conference in December, but for that event he only drove in for the day and had $190 in mileage expenses.
“I felt like somebody, because that’s where you vote on various things for the SBA, and if there’s nobody there the district doesn’t get a vote,” he said. “I drove down early that morning because I didn’t want to add any expenses.”
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