COLUMBIA — The Richland County School District Two board made no moves on the future of Superintendent Baron Davis after adding his contract to the agenda of a Jan. 5 closed-door meeting that lasted four hours with more than 60 people waiting outside the room to hear the outcome.
Many in the crowd believed the board would either fire Davis or persuade him to leave the state’s fifth-largest school district by presenting him with contract changes he would not sign.
“I don’t understand what the confusion was over my contract,” said Davis, who sat outside the closed meeting while the board discussed his contract.
Richland Two Board Chairwoman Lindsay Agostini said the special-called Jan. 5 meeting was meant to discuss the investigative report from the Office of the State Inspector General in November that criticized the dysfunction of board members running the Northeast Columbia district.
But she moved to add the superintendent’s contract to the agenda because four newly elected members had come to her with questions about the performance evaluation process and his relationship to the board.
Board members cannot make changes until Davis’ next annual evaluation in the summer, Agostini said.
Many parents and residents who attended the Jan. 5 meeting came to show support for Davis, who became Richland Two’s first Black superintendent in 2017.
Supporters included former Richland Two board members James Manning and Cheryl Caution-Parker, who left office last year after not seeking re-election, and Aaron Bishop, a board member of the neighboring Richland County School District One.
“I just had to see it for myself,” Bishop said.
Angela Nash, one of the newly elected Richland Two school board members, blamed social media for spreading rumors that the superintendent’s contract was in any danger.
“This is a lesson in Facebook,” Nash said. “Quote me on that.”
Agostini declined comment whether terminating Davis’ contract came up during the closed session.
The superintendent’s time in Richland Two has been marred by conflicts and arguments among members of the previous school board, some of which got personal.
Davis was involved in a confrontation with a parent in January 2022 that appeared to almost get physical, ended with a temporary ban of the parent from board meetings and with calls from board members for he superintendent to step down.
Those rifts had resulted in mandatory leadership counseling in February after which a consultant advised the group to get along better with each other.
An April incident resulted in one former school board member pressing charges against another board member for threatening her during a meeting.
Gov. Henry McMaster had cited “dysfunction” and parents complaining of a “toxic environment” in the school district for why he called on the Office of the Inspector General to conduct an investigation of the district’s leadership in June. The request was the first under a new law that allows the governor to seek reviews of troubled school districts.
The investigative report that followed months later was scathing about board members’ ability to work with one another, citing “petty disagreements and personal attacks” for undermining the district’s educational mission.
Richland Two staff told investigators that the district’s reputation has been damaged by the board conduct problems with “job candidates seeking employment elsewhere and experienced teachers leaving the district for other teaching positions or leaving the profession altogether.”
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