‘Too much’: Beaufort Co. school board’s Okatie rep will not seek re-election in 2020
Beaufort County School District board member John Dowling has announced that he will not seek re-election to the board of education in November 2020, citing the “very taxing” nature of the position.
Before winning his District 6 seat in a special October 2017 election to represent Okatie, Dowling was an activist who often spoke out against then-superintendent Jeff Moss and called for the resignation of several board members. Six months prior to his election, he was removed from a meeting by a district administrator for confronting then-board chairwoman Mary Cordray.
As a board member, he’s built a reputation as a contrarian and advocate for transparency — but he said three years in that role is “enough.”
“Swimming upstream all the time is very taxing,” Dowling said Monday. “The amount of incidents and outrages this new board and old board got to wrestle with is much more than a normal school board.”
Though he’s known as a critic, Dowling said he has seen “concrete improvements” to the district in his board tenure, namely in the election of six new board members and Moss’ resignation in 2018.
While Dowling said there have been small improvements to transparency, he still believes the board is “too heavily weighted toward doing business in executive session.”
Dowling was the first board member to expose an FBI investigation into the building of May River High School and River Ridge Academy, making a motion in early 2018 to tell the public about subpoenas sent to district officials. The district acknowledged it had not intended to make information about the investigation public.
Among the highlights of his board tenure, Dowling said, were the subpoena vote, his boycott of the board’s sessions with an expensive “marriage counselor” in 2018, his role as chairman of the board’s ad hoc policy committee and his participation in the search and selection of new superintendent Frank Rodriguez.
“I’m also proud of the fact that I’ve never gone along to get along,” Dowling said. “The board is 11 members elected by district and must think and act as individuals. Their primary responsibility is not to the other board members, but to the owners of the district who elected them.”
Four districts will see a school board election in Nov. 2020:
District 1, which covers the Northern tip of Beaufort County, including Sheldon, Lobeco and Gray’s Hill, represented by Earl Campbell.
District 6, which covers most of Okatie and Sun City, represented by Dowling.
District 9, which covers Southern Bluffton and Dafuskie Island, represented by board chairwoman Christina Gwozdz.
District 11, which covers the South end of Hilton Head Island, represented by JoAnn Orischak.
Dowling said he does not have anybody in mind as his successor, though he’ll “explore different clubs in Sun City” to gauge interest. He said he hopes the next District 6 representative will weigh fiscal responsibility with student achievement, and is “not in awe of their own position” or the superintendent.
“Even though I’m announcing very early, I’m very confident my constituents in Sun City would have returned me to office,” he said. But “it’s just too much.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 3:15 PM.