Lexington-Richland 5 board will change after election. It could look like the old one
The direction of a Midlands school board could be up for grabs in November’s election, as key seats are opening up, board members are stepping down, and familiar faces are angling to grab a spot.
The shakeup on the Lexington-Richland 5 school board will come as voters are also considering a $240 million bond proposal in a Nov. 5 referendum to pay for a slew of new school improvements, including the construction of a new Dutch Fork Elementary School, classroom renovations and new facilities for all of the district’s high schools. The newly constituted board will also have to contend with issues such as how to handle controversial books and lesson plans, a frequent hot button in the district, now that state law on the subject has changed.
Three seats will be on the ballot in in the district covering schools around Irmo and Chapin — two in the Lexington County side of the district, and one in Richland County.
After a single term, board Chairwoman Rebecca Blackburn Hines of Lexington County and Vice Chairman Matt Hogan of Richland County are both stepping down.
Incumbent Catherine Huddle is seeking a second term in the Lexington County side of the district, along with former board member Ken Loveless, who narrowly lost reelection in 2022, and Scott Herring, another unsuccessful 2022 candidate.
The single Richland County seat will go to either landscaping company owner Jason Baynham or cybersecurity firm owner Mike Ward.
The results of the election could decide where the school district goes for at least the next two years. On the current board, Huddle and fellow board member Elizabeth Barnhardt are often on the losing end of 5-2 votes. But Loveless was often aligned with Huddle when he served on the board from 2018 to 2022, and both could win seats in the at-large Lexington district. Huddle has also shared content from Baynham on social media.
“I need help on this board,” Huddle said in response to a question from The State’s opinions team.
The candidates addressed questions from teachers, students and members of the public at an Irmo Middle School forum on Oct. 8.
Many candidates agreed, amid an ongoing shortage in the number of teachers in South Carolina, getting and keeping teachers in the classroom should be a major focus of the district.
Both Huddle and Loveless said the district should look at raising teacher pay to keep step with neighboring districts, with Loveless saying some kind of step increase would be necessary for longer-serving teachers.
“We are competing with other districts, and the best teachers are usually the teachers with the most seniority,” said Loveless, a building contractor.
While also supporting a step increase, Herring, a music professor at the University of South Carolina, said that Lexington-Richland 5 also needs to show teachers that it supports them in other ways, including having adequate time to prepare their lessons without added responsibilities.
“Respect is a big part of it,” he said. “We have to have confidence in teachers to do their job.”
Among the issues raising concerns among teachers are new state-imposed rules on when and how books or another materials can be removed from the classroom or a school library. Candidates expressed different views about those requirements, which school districts statewide are required to implement this year.
“There have been laws passed about that, and it’s our job to make sure the law is enforced,” Loveless said. “It’s not our job to make policies to go around the law.”
While acknowledging that the law applies to Lexington-Richland 5, Herring said he was uncomfortable with the State Board of Education now being able to overrule the decisions of local school boards on what should or shouldn’t be included in their schools.
“That’s a reason we need an educator [on the board] who can just books on an educational basis,” Herring said.
The current policy being considered by the school board would give teachers autonomy to choose their own classroom materials as long as the material is age and developmentally appropriate and aligned with the district’s instructional program. Teachers would have to get approval from their principal to use material that could be considered controversial, including “issues involving race or sex, religion, personal values and beliefs, political philosophy, culture, or other issues considered partisan.”
Feedback from teachers on the issue solicited by the district found that teachers much preferred the ability to select their own materials without having to get their principal’s approval.
Candidates also said stronger school security features should be a focus.
Ward said he would want to see an improved security system that would alert authorities to any breech to a school, including “updating cameras that can identify strangers in a building.”
“Every school should have an SRO [school resource officer], and the schools that are having issues should have additional SROs,” Baynham said. He supports efforts to add create secured “vestibules” where visitors will need to be admitted to the rest of the school, and the addition of “sturdy walls” in elementary schools that currently have an “open classrooms” format.
Those security features will be part of the $240 million bond proposal that Lexington-Richland 5 voters will accept or reject at the same time as their new board members.
Herring told The State in a questionnaire that he supported the bond issue. “There are additional facilities needed in the district and many long-overdue repairs, upgrades, and restorations that need to be done throughout the district,” he said, citing aging infrastructure in the Dutch Fork and Irmo areas. “While those will come at a substantial cost, the longer we wait, the more we will have to spend in terms of rising labor and materials costs.”
While Ward told The State, “I understand that we cannot continue operating the way we’re operating,” he added that “When the bond referendum passes, we need to make sure we have a board that will hold the district accountable for making sure the money is spent wisely and on the projects promised to the public.”
Without addressing the bond referendum, Loveless touted his background as a contractor as an asset in evaluating how the district is handling its capital needs.
“School districts are constantly building, maintaining and remodeling,” Loveless said on Facebook. “I understand construction contracts and building systems and I have already saved the district and taxpayers money due to my expertise, resources which could then be used in the classroom. When I am elected, I will ensure that the waste stops and the quality improves.”
Loveless is currently appealing a $6,000 fine leveled by the S.C. Ethics Commission. In 2023, the Ethics Commission found that Loveless had violated rules prohibiting a board member from engaging in decisions about a business he was involved with. Loveless’ company joined with Contract Construction on an outside project even as Contract Construction built the new Piney Woods Elementary School for Lexington-Richland 5.
The former board member later filed a lawsuit against three other former board members — Michael Cates, Beth Hutchison and Ed White — and school district attorney Michael Montgomery, claiming the ethics charges were a result of the four and others conspiring against him. That suit was dismissed by a federal judge last month.
Loveless also has an active state defamation lawsuit against current school board member Kevin Scully, over Facebook comments Scully made referring to Loveless as “crooked” and “a loser.” After that lawsuit was filed, Scully was elected to the board in 2022 for a Richland County seat in the same election in which Loveless lost.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story published online had an incorrect amount listed for Ken Loveless’ ethics fine. It was $6,000.
This story was originally published October 17, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
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