Vote 2022: 4 Seats Split By County Line on Ballot for Lexington-Richland School Board

The Chronicle has assembled a guide to what will be on ballots in Lexington County in the November election. Find the full guide at lexingtonchronicle.com.

Lexington-Richland School District 5 has four seats that will be up for a vote in November.

 Scott Herring, a music professor at the University of South Carolina, is one of five people running for two available seats for District 5 in Lexington County.

 He said he  wants to be an advocate for students and teachers throughout the district.

 “Prepare all students to be college and career ready by providing a challenging curriculum in a safe, secure, diverse, and equitable learning environment focused on academic, social, and emotional growth and development.” he said. “ALL means ALL. I believe ALL District Five students deserve the same high-quality education ensuring academic and personal success.”

 Herring said a good board member is someone who makes themselves visible to the community – attending academic events, sporting events, performances and other functions.

 Major issues he mentioned include the board spending too much time looking into the past, saying it needs to be focused on solving current problems. He said the board is too consumed with recent lawsuits, audits, FOIA requests and subpoenas.

 If elected, Herring said his top priority will be teacher retention and recruitment along with being a unifier within the board.

 “Concert attendees do not enter the concert hall with political agendas or divisive attitudes toward what will be performed,” he said. “Individuals in my field come from diverse social, political, and economic views.”

Mike Satterfield, who is also running for the Lexington County seats, said he noticed academic performance on decline in the district, and, as community members reached out to him, he knew he had to take matters into his own hands and run for school board. His goal is to make the district respectable again. 

According to Satterfield a good board member is someone who can work with others regardless of opinions. They must have a general sense on how schools operate, be able to solve problems and relate effectively to the public.

Satterfield believes that someone on the board should have experience in the field of education. He comes to the campaign with 33 years of educational experience, having worked as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal and special education placement chair.

“You cannot serve on a medical (or any other) board without proper training and experience.” Satterfield said.

If elected, his top priorities are teacher salaries. Satterfield told the Chronicle that teachers have long been underpaid for what they do, and that needs to be fixed, which may require increasing the budget, demanding more from the state and possibly raising taxes to help pay for it. 

When it comes to the recent lawsuits within the district, Satterfield said it is a waste of money and can discourage teachers from wanting to join its schools.

Elizabeth Barnhardt (co-owner of Barnhardt Heating and Cooling) and Renard Green along with incumbent board member Ken Loveless are also seeking the Lexington County seats. They didn’t respond to the Chronicle’s questions.

Incumbent Nikki Gardner is one of four people seeking two seats for Richland County.

She said having experience on the board is a quality that leads her to stand out from other candidates.

“There is a big learning curve for new board members to understand all of the policies, laws, and practices of school board and school district management.” she said “I feel that my previous four years of learning on the board has enabled me to start pursuing the things that are important.”

According to Gardner, a good board member is someone capable of managing the district’s policies, laws and practices. They must also be able to trust and rely on the superintendent while also holding them accountable.

Gardner told the Chronicle that the board has gotten much better at collaborating and that her top priority is to continue to make policies and to update them to solve issues such as unequal use of facilities. She also said that the board relies heavily on attorneys to give counsel on items, but sometimes following their advice is not the correct path.

 Tifani Moore, also running for the Richland County seats and also an incumbent, said she believes it is her responsibility as a parent to teach her children the importance of servant leadership, initiative and involvement. Instead of just complaining about the issues at hand Moore said she wants to help solve them.

Her top priority if re-elected is mental health and substance abuse. Moore told the Chronicle that self-injury and suicide in kids ages 5 to 17 have gone up 45% in the first half of last year; and currently one in six youths are diagnosed with depression or anxiety. She continued with statistics that show that 56.2% of 12-17-year-olds in South Carolina were unable to receive the proper treatment last year. 

One of the major issues that Moore brought up was a lack of transparency.

“With the challenges and community division during the past few years we have to work hard to bring transparency and sensible decision-making to the school board with a keen focus on supporting all of our students, as well as the outstanding professional educators and staff in District Five.” she said

One the board, Moore said she sees herself as the person who is constantly asking questions – by asking these questions she hopes to ensure that people understand the reasoning for the board's decisions.

 Kevin Scully, the lone newcomer on the ballot for the Richland County seats, said he’s watched neighboring school districts become the destinations Lexington-Richland 5 used to be.

 He told the Chronicle that the district is losing its best teachers and resources to other districts at an alarming rate. 

 “During the last two years, our district has lost more than 630 teachers and staff, that is roughly 25 percent of the district's entire faculty,” he said.

 If elected, Scully said his top priority would be to improve teacher retention and recruitment. He plans to put a stop to any actions by the board that cause teachers to feel intimidated, harassed or afraid to speak up. 

 Other major issues that Scully brought up included the board being focused on the wrong priorities. He went on to say that the board is fighting battles of the past rather than the challenges facing it now and going into the future.

 According to Scully, a good board member is someone who listens to and gets input from community members and stakeholders and objectively considers requests from the superintendent; they must also make good decisions that are based on facts, data and authoritative information.

 Kimberly Snipes, also running for the Lexington County seats, said the district needs leaders to represent their children, who will fight for all students and who will make decisions that are in the best interest of the children, teachers and entire school district.

Snipes told the Chronicle that one of the major issues with the board is the lack of transparency, and another is the damaged trust between the board and community,

According to Snipes, a good board member is someone who is transparent, accountable and focused on serving children. They also need to be willing to collaborate with other board members and to work with the community.

Though she doesn’t fully know the role she sees herself playing on the board, Snipes said she knows that she wants to help fill the gaps in areas that the board needs more support, and she believes that her outside perspective can help her bring new insight to situations.

She said she will bring an understanding of governance and the roles of a board member, in addition to her experience working with the schools in the district.