Sumter school board to appeal state-declared fiscal emergency in district

Sumter School District’s Board of Trustees will appeal the head of the state Department of Education’s declaration of a “fiscal emergency” and intervention in the district despite the interim superintendent “respectfully encouraging” the board not to do so.

At a special called meeting Thursday night, the trustees voted 7-2 in a motion to appeal to the State Board of Education the decision of the state department, a move they can make according to protocol detailed by State Superintendent Molly Spearman in a letter to the district and news release on Wednesday afternoon.

Board members voting in favor of the appeal motion were Brian Alston, Frank Baker, Barbara Jackson, Matthew “Mac” McLeod, the Rev. Daryl McGhaney, Shawn Ragin and Sherril Ray. Trustees Johnny Hilton and Chairman the Rev. Ralph Canty voted down the motion.

Canty, who by being the chairman of the board serves as its spokesman, said he could not speak on the majority of the board’s rationale in its appeal at this time. He did say those points of contention in the appeal will be fleshed out this weekend and that he will be able to discuss them early next week.

Spearman declared the emergency on Wednesday due to the district’s failure to comply with its own financial recovery plan and the possibility of more fiscal problems stemming from the board’s recent vote to reopen Mayewood Middle School, which was not part of the district’s previously submitted plan from May 2018 that established benchmarks for increasing its fund balance. After overspending its budget by $6.2 million in fiscal 2016, the district’s general fund balance had fallen to $106,449.

According to a 2-year-old state law, school districts must have plans in place to reach one month’s operating expenditures in their general fund balance. For Sumter, that means the district must have about $12 million in its bank account by June 30, 2020.

On April 10, 2018, the full board at the time — albeit consisting of five different trustees that changed over in the November midterm election — voted to close Mayewood and F.J. DeLaine Elementary School at the end of last school year because of what it said was low enrollment and an effort to save money.

The revamped board voted 6-3 on Feb. 11 to rescind the closure of Mayewood and reopen the school. Canty, Hilton and Ragin were the three to oppose the reopening.

Before the vote Thursday evening to appeal, Interim Superintendent Debbie Hamm made a statement encouraging the board against their eventual decision, saying that it could produce further discord in the district:

“I respect that it will be the board’s decision whether or not to appeal the action of the South Carolina Department of Education to declare a fiscal emergency. However, I want to go on record as respectfully encouraging the board not to do so. We do not need further discord in our district. Sumter School District is moving forward, and we need to maintain that momentum. Fighting the Department of Education’s decision will steal our focus and energy away from the heart of our work. It will distract us from the real need to address looming financial issues that we must face as a result of declining enrollment and loss of revenue.

"This controversy is about more than Mayewood. This is about short- and long-term consequences for all of our students, schools and our district. I am committed to help us focus on continuous improvement and finding financial solutions that will keep students in all of our schools foremost in decision-making as long as I am superintendent.

"I recommend that the board not appeal the decision of the state Department of Education and that it follow the advice of the Finance Committee and reverse the decision to reopen Mayewood, begin the process of finding a new location for Brewington students and discontinue further discussion of reopening [F.J.] DeLaine Elementary School.

"These actions will be consistent with our financial recovery plan and allow us to move forward expediently with work on a 2020 budget that will allow us to meet the requirements of S.C. Code 59-20-90.

"To Sumter School District’s faculty and staff, I say let’s keep the main thing the main thing and finish the school year strong. Please don’t let this impede the good work you are doing in our schools.”

Canty only said after the vote that there is a commitment among the majority of the trustees to move forward with the reopening of Mayewood Middle School next year and re-examining the district’s overall budget where necessary.

“There is a commitment to revisiting the budget,” Canty said, “and making whatever cuts are necessary to conform with the wishes of the Department of Education.”

The board’s appeal will include some of the basic explanations in its rationale and will be due next week to the state board, he said.

The state board must hold a hearing on the appeal within 30 days after it is filed.

Canty said the school board and district administration will have 60 days to submit a new financial recovery plan to the state department.

It was determined from the state department earlier Thursday that Sumter’s school district is the first in the state to be handed the fiscal emergency declaration in the two years since legislation passed in the General Assembly establishing structures for all districts to reach one month’s operating expenditures in their general fund balance.

The special-called meeting at Central Carolina Technical College’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Training Center on Broad Street preceded a planned meeting for executive session to conduct a final interview with Cynthia Ambrose, one of the three job candidates who are finalists for the district’s superintendent position.

Ambrose spent the day touring schools and meeting district, county and community personnel and leaders. The two other finalists are scheduled to do the same today and Monday, with one visiting each day.

Hamm is finishing her second and final year in the role.

Hamm’s predecessor was Baker, one of two at-large board members elected in November to represent the entire district. He and the school board at the time mutually agreed he would retire in July 2017 after the $6.2 million in overspending occurred while he was superintendent.