Canty new chair of Sumter school board; Baker vice chair

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The Rev. Ralph Canty is the new chairman of Sumter School District’s Board of Trustees, and former Superintendent Frank Baker is the new vice chairman.

That’s how the votes stacked up Monday night for the board’s two top officers at the trustees’ “organizational meeting” — their first meeting after the Nov. 6 election, in which five new board members were elected to office. Every two years immediately following the November election, the board has the organizational meeting to reorganize, if necessary.
With the five new trustees on the nine-member board now, a split vote on the new officers was likely — and that’s how it turned out.

The first order of business was the election of the new chairman, and there were three nominations from the board. Johnny Hilton nominated Canty. Baker nominated fellow new board member Brian Alston, and new Area 2 Representative Sherril Ray nominated Barbara Jackson.

Canty received four votes to be the new chairman, Alston got three, and Jackson earned two.

Next, for vice chairman, Ray nominated Baker, and Shawn Ragin — another new board member — nominated Alston, who now represents Area 1.

Baker received five votes to be the new vice chairman and Alston two. Two board members abstained from voting on the vice chairman post.
For the new clerk of the board, the Rev. Daryl McGhaney, who just held the chairman position until Monday, was the only nomination and received a unanimous vote.

Canty has served on the consolidated district’s board since its beginning in 2011. For two years prior to that, he was a Sumter School District 17 trustee.

After the election, Canty, to other board members around the table and a standing-room-only crowd of about 75 residents and family members, said the board must work together at becoming one.

He also emphasized a theme that the organizational meeting was not a restart or a new “beginning” for the board — but that the trustees need “to build upon the legacy” passed on to them.

“This session tonight is not our genesis; it’s not our beginning,” Canty said. “We’ve been at it now for a while; so, we cannot and we do not start over tonight. We simply turn a corner and reach another milestone. So, we are to build upon the legacy passed over to us, and I pray that we will do that with a distinction that will make former board members, former superintendents, former staff and students proud of our efforts.”

Baker served as the district’s superintendent from 2013-17. In July of last year, he and the board mutually agreed that it was in everyone’s best interest for him to retire as the district was coming out of a financial crisis from fiscal 2016 that revealed $6.2 million in overspending.

Then, what was at that time still a seven-member board unanimously elected current Interim Superintendent Debbie Hamm to take the district’s head position. This is her second and final year in the role.

The Sumter County Legislative Delegation created the board’s two at-large seats after the financial troubles last year and appointed those two new trustees, expanding the board to nine members.

Baker filed this summer for the non-partisan at-large seats, which were up for the public’s vote for the first time in the November general election. He was the top vote-getter in an eight-person race for two seats.

Baker said he is happy about Monday’s vote.

“I’m just thrilled to be the vice chairman, and I look forward to working with all the board members,” Baker said.

Monday’s meeting began with Third Circuit Solicitor Ernest “Chip” Finney III swearing in the five new trustees — Baker, Alston, Ray, Ragin and Matthew “Mac” McLeod — along with Hilton, who ran unopposed for the Area 4 seat.

The board’s next scheduled meeting is set for Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. at the district office.