Election could shift power on school board

Only two seats on the Beaufort County school board will be contested next month, but the outcome of those races could have a dramatic effect on the immediate future direction of the board.

If the races fall a certain way, Beaufort County could see the start of a power shift that wrestles control from supporters of Superintendent Jeff Moss and empowers his critics, possibly even leading to his ouster.

Both of the seats that are up for grabs Nov. 8 — District 6 in Okatie and District 9 in Bluffton — are currently held by members of the board’s so-called majority, the seven members who tend to support the status quo and Moss, their sole employee. And both races include candidates who align with the minority that has found fault with both Moss and the school board’s handling of his nepotism scandal last year during which Moss secretly altered the district’s nepotism policy and approved the hiring of his wife to a new $90,000 district office job. Moss admitted to wrongdoing and was fined by the S.C. Ethics Commission.

“Dr. Moss has six to seven votes on any issue. It doesn’t matter what it is,” said Michael Rivers, a member of the board’s minority and a vocal critic of Moss. “There’s just some people who want to project that the sun’s always shining and want to ignore the rainy days.”

That 7-4 bloc could become 6-5 in the opposite direction. But another wrinkle is in play, as Rivers is running for a spot in the S.C. House of Representatives and will have to resign if he wins.

Therefore, to bring about lasting change, voters would have to do three things:

▪  Unseat incumbent Paul Roth, one of Moss’ biggest supporters who was reprimanded earlier this year for calling a fellow board member a “hot chick” and describing Moss’ critics as “loony.” He has one challenger.

▪  Replace outgoing board member Laura Bush, also a Moss supporter, with one of the three candidates who have all campaigned on increasing transparency and accountability and who have criticized Moss or the board. A fourth candidate appears to more closely align with the current majority.

▪  Assuming Rivers wins his House bid, replace him with a similarly minded board member in a special election, possibly held in February. Rivers would have to resign from the school board in late December in this scenario.

If all of that happens, the body’s bi-weekly meetings would get a lot more unpredictable.

That may provide the impetus for some board members to re-examine their positions, said District 2 representative David Striebinger. And with enough support, the board could take another look at Moss’ employment with the district, he added.

“I think (the majority) feel the criticisms are coming from a very small handful of people, and so there’s really no reason for them to change,” Striebinger said. If there was a shift, “it would certainly give Jeff (Moss) a certain amount of pause to know the board had changed and his very staunch allies are not so much in control anymore.

“I think that would be really good.”

Geri Kinton, a majority board member and District 5 representative, said it’s possible some of her colleagues would change their minds based on an influx of new members. But so is the reverse, she said — new members could veer from their platforms once they join the board.

“I understand why some people are critical. I just think there’s a lot more to it than what they probably know,” about the district, Kinton said. “They cannot have the full story just reading the paper.”

Controversial Roth is only incumbent with competition

The race in District 6, which includes the communities of Berkeley Hall, Mill Creek, Oldfield, Pinckney Colony and Sun City, is the only contested school board race with an incumbent on the ballot.

Roth, elected in 2012, is running against Patricia Felton-Montgomery, an educational consultant and former superintendent of Lawnside School District, a 300-student public school system in Camden County, N.J.

Two other incumbents are also seeking re-election but are unopposed: JoAnn Orischak of Hilton Head’s District 11 and Earl Campbell of far-northern Beaufort County’s District 1. Campbell’s one-time competitor, Caleb Brown, dropped out last month.

But something else sets Roth’s race apart.

Roth has suffered a series of faux-pas over the past year, most notably his censure by the board in June for calling Orischak a “hot chick” in a phone interview with a reporter.

Roth said in the interview he was not being sexist but was was stating a “plain fact,” and added that “if she was 50 pounds heavier, and she had a big wart on her nose, I don’t think people would react to her the same way. Let’s say it that way.”

Roth has also called his fellow board members “screw ups” and “thick,” has said citizens who question Moss’ ethics are “loony” and has referred to District 1 in Gray’s Hill and Lobeco as an “African community.” He’s often complained that he didn’t know what the board was discussing or voting on.

That aside, Roth’s and Felton-Montgomery’s platforms and resumes are starkly different.

Roth boasts a long fiduciary background, service on several boards, and a deep trust and confidence in Moss. He also considers himself the biggest supporter of the district’s proposed $282 million educational sales tax, also on the November ballot.

Felton-Montgomery, meanwhile, spent her career in education, has argued for stronger management of the superintendent and does not support the district’s proposed educational penny sales tax.

She also has the support of Citizens Advocating Responsible Education, a community group that formed in the wake of Moss’ hiring debacle, and former competitor Stephen Bacon, a fellow educator who withdrew from the District 6 race to back Felton-Montgomery.

“I believe a coalition of board members who hold integrity and transparency in high regard can be the catalyst for changing the culture of the present board,” she said in a candidate survey last week. “This election provides an opportunity for a new majority of the board to be elected and bring about this kind of change.”

Bluffton to get new representation no matter what

District 9 — including all of Bluffton south of Bluffton Parkway from Buck Island to Malphrus roads, everything south of S.C. 46, and Daufuskie Island — will see a new representative no matter what.

Vice chairwoman Laura Bush, who has served 13 consecutive and 26 collective years on the school board, announced in January she was stepping down at the end of her term.

As one of the tightest-lipped members of the board, Bush has often declined to comment and failed to return phone calls from the newspaper since September 2015, when The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette began reporting on the hiring of Moss’ wife to a district-level, administrative position.

In August, for example, she declined to comment when Moss admitted he “unintentionally and inadvertently” violated two ethics laws and was fined by the S.C. Ethics Commission.

Competing for Bush’s seat are three people who are outspoken against Moss or the school board — architect Chris Epps of Incircle Architecture, ENT Dr. Christina Gwozdz and educator Bridgette Frazier. The fourth candidate, UniSource Mortgage Services president Bill Fletcher, has said little about the nepotism issue.

Epps has pulled no punches, calling Moss “the biggest bully of them all” at a recent candidate forum at Rose Hill Golf Club and vowing to work toward the superintendent’s firing.

Gwozdz, at the same forum hosted by the Greater Bluffton Republican Club, said the community should elect her because she values ethics and integrity above all else, would manage the superintendent and would listen to voters.

In response to a candidate survey distributed by CARE, which endorsed Gwozdz, she said the “board leadership seems to be overly concerned about losing control if they allow any type of give and take with the community.”

Frazier has said the board must hold itself accountable for setting goals and rules for Moss and should think critically about the facts and evidence behind his proposals, not base decisions on either trust, distrust or group think. She also would like the board to re-examine the superintendent’s job description and expectations.

Fletcher, at the candidate forum, said it’s unfortunate some in the community view all district decisions through a lens of distrust, and said people should be aware of the timeline of the nepotism controversy. He did not speak directly to it.

The Rivers race

If successful in the House race, Rivers would resign in December, just two years into his four-year term and a month before the District 6 and 9 winners are sworn in.

A special election to replace him would not be until February at the earliest.

His district includes Lady’s Island and St. Helena Island, portions of Beaufort — Bay to Boundary streets, Polk Village, Water’s Edge — and Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.

Rivers said he thinks there remains enough tension in the community for voters to elect someone as critical of Moss as he has been.

“The nepotism scandal has been the elephant in the room, and it’s not going away,” he said. “The only thing we can do is incrementally get board members who are committed to always being reminded they’re an elected official rather than being a politician.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Election could shift power on school board."