Alston, Palumbo make runoff for Sumter school board District 1 race

The District 1 Sumter School District Board of Trustees race will head to a runoff on Nov. 22 with the seat’s incumbent and a challenger.

Incumbent Brian Alston will face challenger Daniel Palumbo. Alston received the most votes with 37.51%, or 764 votes. Palumbo received 35.4%, or 721 votes. Sharon Tiegue lost after receiving only 25.82%, or 526 votes.

Votes are unofficial until certified later this week.

Alston, a Rembert native, won the pre-redistricted District 1 seat in the November 2018 election, his first time to sit in elected office. He is currently the school board's Policy Committee chairman.

“This election shows the importance that every vote counts,” Alston told The Sumter Item Tuesday night. “To use our vote as our voice, I hope that the community sees that I’m a proven leader that’s always putting our students, our staff and our communities first.”

Alston is a part-time teacher at Ragin Preparatory Christian Academy, a local private school, and he works remotely full time as a grant administrator at a Columbia-based state government agency.

He and Shawn Ragin, another board member and also the founder and headmaster of Ragin Prep, were outspoken supporters of former Superintendent Penelope Martin-Knox. They were on the minority, opposing side of an illegal 5-4 vote made in February to remove her before her contract expired. Ragin won his reelection bid outright Tuesday night.

“Since I took the oath of office as a board member, I think that I’ve spent every day making sure that I’ve been that voice that I said that I was going to be for the community,” Alston said. “Just to see tonight, the trust that we’ve built in the community to gain their vote speaks volumes, and I wish to continue.”

Daniel Palumbo, a Sumter resident since 2013, is retired from the U.S. Air Force and is a small-business owner. In 2018, Palumbo bought and began operating a Kona Ice franchise that serves Sumter, Columbia/Lexington and Clarendon counties.

He has two children attending schools in the district. Seeing the district affect his children’s schooling was what drove him to join the race.

“I’m basically going to keep getting into the community and talking to the community, and I’ll be talking to Ms. Tiegue and see if she’s going to endorse anybody,” he said. “We were only off by 40 votes, and I think we can pull out a victory in the long run.”