With nearly all votes counted, here’s who is leading the Richland 2 school board race

Two incumbents are likely to hold off challengers to fill three seats on the Richland District 2 school board.

Incumbent Monica Elkins led with 32,061 votes and 98% of precincts reporting. Lindsay Agostini was in second with 26,451 votes, and challenger Lashonda McFadden was in third with 21,385 votes, according to state elections data.

The only other incumbent running, James Shadd, was in fourth place, with 17,336 votes.

SCVotes.org had previously said 100% of precincts were reporting, but it has since changed that number because Richland County is still counting absentee ballots. As of Wednesday morning, officials were counting as many as 10,000 mail-in absentee ballots and more than 400 military ballots.

All Richland 2 school board seats are elected on an at-large basis, which means school board members represent the entire Richland 2 district. Elected officials serve for four years.

What’s at stake?

With 28,000 students, Richland 2 is the largest school district in the S.C. Midlands and the fourth-largest school district in the state (behind Greenville, Charleston and Horry), according to S.C. Department of Education data. The district had a budget of $301 million last fiscal year, meaning board members will oversee more than $1 billion in public money throughout their four-year term.

What’s more, Richland 2 is in the midst of $467 million worth of bond projects that include new schools, safety upgrades, HVAC and roof repairs and more. The district will be paying on that debt for the next 15-20 years, according to a previous article from The State.

Richland 2 is facing pressure from parents and teachers about resuming some in-person classes on Nov. 4. While many parents have pushed for the district to resume face-to-face classes, many teachers who say they have underlying health conditions also say their requests to work remotely have been denied, according to a previous article from The State.

The outraged teachers brought those concerns to a school board meeting last week, demanding that their requests for remote work be granted given their underlying conditions. The district has said it is sticking to its plans to reopen school based on the spread of COVID-19.

Coronavirus has uprooted all forms of education throughout the country, but has been especially devastating to Richland 2. After Superintendent Baron Davis tested positive for coronavirus and recovered, a 28-year-old Windsor Elementary School teacher died following complications of COVID-19.

The actual number of coronavirus cases in Richland 2 have been relatively low, as of Oct. 29. Of Richland 2’s 33 schools, only eight have had coronavirus cases and none have had more than 10 cases of COVID-19, according to data from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. In the last 30 days, Richland 2 has seen cases at only one school, North Springs Elementary, where there were fewer than 5 employee cases.

That number will likely increase now that Richland 2 has resumed in-person classes, as it has for other school districts — such as Lexington 1 — that have increased in-person classes.

Here are the vote totals as of Wednesday afternoon, by candidate and listed in alphabetical order:

Lindsay Agostini (incumbent): 26,451

Monica Elkins (incumbent): 32,061

Deon Jacobs: 6,647

Lashonda McFadden: 21,385

Rhonda Meisner: 11,828

James Mobley: 11,498

James Jamie Shadd (incumbent): 17,336

Lawrence Superstar Terry: 4,293

Dee Bell Williams: 14,403

Maryann Wright: 12,326

This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 12:52 AM.