Public expresses concern about superintendent turnover, Sumter School District board

Concerned and frustrated described the voices and expressions of five attendees Wednesday night at Sumter High School for a consultant's focus group meeting on the local district's new superintendent search.

The South Carolina School Boards Association, which is assisting Sumter School District's Board of Trustees in the recruitment process for a new leader, put on three focus groups that ran concurrently at the district's three high schools Wednesday. Total attendance was 13 members of the public, who continue to ask questions about what went wrong with current Superintendent Penelope Martin-Knox and why there has been continuous turnover in the district's top post.

Since the consolidation of two local school districts into one county-wide district in 2011, the Sumter board is now looking for its fifth superintendent in 11 years when including an interim leader who served two years. That is after a 5-4 split vote on Jan. 10 when the trustees voted down a motion to extend Martin-Knox's contract for another three years.

To date, the board has not issued any statement on the majority's rationale for not extending Martin-Knox.

Tia McDuffie, a parent of a Sumter High student, was one member of the public in attendance and said she is concerned with the multiple superintendents the district has had in the last decade or so and expressed her support for Martin-Knox.

"I don't know why we are here," McDuffie said at one point Wednesday.

Judy LeGrand, the state association's superintendent search coordinator, facilitated the meeting, and its purpose was to gather the public's input on characteristics and qualities for the board to consider in selecting a new leader.

McDuffie, fellow parents Kimberly White and Laurie Merchant, and Master Sgt. Duane Kyles, an instructor in Sumter High's Air Force Junior ROTC program, were the adult attendees, and all spoke.

Their desired characteristics in a new superintendent include someone who is engaged in the local community and the schools, accessible, mindful of finances and with a strong interest in extracurricular activities.

Most said Martin-Knox possesses those qualities.

LeGrand explained multiple times that the association is helping the board with the search process, but the board ultimately makes the vote on the superintendent, and in the end it is the "board's search."

Since consolidation, the board has been tangled and struggled in numerous ways. Those started with the naming of its first superintendent, Randy Bynum, in 2011 from Atlanta Public Schools. Bynum served a tumultuous two-year term before resigning in 2013.

Other struggles have included a district budget crisis in 2017 and the board's attempt to reopen a recently closed, low-enrollment school in 2018-19. Then, after state Superintendent Molly Spearman intervened at the time and placed the district on "fiscal emergency" for violating its own state-approved financial recovery plan, the board appealed her decision to the state Board of Education.

The trustees announced their decision to appeal during the same week it interviewed Martin-Knox and two other finalists for the current superintendent post.

In April 2019, the state board denied the school board's appeal and unanimously affirmed the state superintendent's declaration, 10-0.

After Wednesday's meeting, McDuffie expressed her concern about the lack of consistency in district leadership.

"You've got to have someone who is going to be in place to have things run efficiently," she said. "When you are getting different people in, then things change. It's very concerning that we have not had an established leader for years now. It's just been one thing after another with the school board."

While LeGrand facilitated the meeting at Sumter High, state School Boards Association Executive Director Scott Price led a focus group at Lakewood High School. Gene Moore, a consultant for the association, facilitated the focus group at Crestwood High School.

MORE ON ASSOCIATION'S WORK THIS WEEK

LeGrand said the three-member team was planning to hold a total of 28 meetings locally this week on the district superintendent search. They also had sessions to gather input from business leaders, Realtors, district teacher representatives, school principals, the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce and clergy members, she said.

The team will report the summary results of its work to the full board Monday at its next regularly scheduled meeting, which will be at Millwood Elementary School at 6 p.m.