Jeff Moss named finalist for Bamberg schools superintendent. Why he won’t get the job
For a short time this weekend, it looked like Jeff Moss, the controversial Beaufort County schools superintendent who resigned in 2018, could be returning to South Carolina.
Moss, who has worked as an education consultant in his native North Carolina since leaving the district in 2018, was announced Friday as one of three finalists for the interim superintendent job in Bamberg School District 1.
According to the Orangeburg Times and Democrat, the district’s board of education decided in March not to renew the contract of current superintendent Phyllis Schwarting, who has led the district for nearly 20 years.
Instead, the board began a search for an interim superintendent “for a maximum of two years with the understanding that there may be a consolidation of the two county school districts in the near future,” the Times and Democrat reported.
Bamberg 1 is one of the smallest school districts in S.C., with just 1,315 students in the 2018-19 school year compared to Beaufort County School District’s 22,282 students that year. For months, officials there have been debating consolidation with Bamberg 2 to lower overhead costs.
Moss was described as having “experience in working with a merged school district” in Bamberg 1’s press release for the interim superintendent finalists.
However, Moss said Monday that he withdrew from consideration in Bamberg County as soon as the finalists were announced, citing personal reasons and a proximity to family in North Carolina.
Officials from Bamberg 1 did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday to confirm Moss’ withdrawal or to discuss the interim superintendent position.
The Bamberg 1 school board will meet April 28 and 29 to continue its interim superintendent interviews. The other finalists, Kedra Hill-Rivers and Dottie Brown, are education professionals in the Bamberg County area.
Jeff Moss in Beaufort County
Moss’ last superintendent job in Beaufort County was filled with controversy, including a hiring scandal, multiple trips to the SC Ethics Commission and an ongoing FBI investigation into the construction of May River High School and River Ridge Academy.
In 2016, he was found “unintentionally” guilty by the S.C. State Ethics Commission of two ethics violations because the district hired his wife for a district-level job paying $90,000 per year.
Moss acknowledged the violations in a deal with the commission to avoid an ethics hearing and a third charge over his removal of a portion of the district’s nepotism rule dealing with the hiring of the superintendent’s relatives.
Moss is still the subject of an ongoing investigation by the FBI, which the district was notified of two years ago.
Though not much is known about the investigation, the FBI appears to be looking into the procurement process used during the construction of May River High School and River Ridge Academy, as well as former superintendent Jeff Moss’ association with a North Carolina-based architect and a controversial organization that brings together education vendors and school superintendents.
At least four subpoenas have been sent to the district or district officials since December 2017, including one focused on Moss’ five-year tenure with the district and his association with the controversial Education Research and Development Institute, an organization that charges vendors to meet with superintendents across the country.
Moss previously told the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette he is “not aware” of any investigation into him by the FBI, and that he has not been contacted by the agency.
In November, Moss was found guilty of violating South Carolina Ethics laws on economic interests, which was investigated as a result of a 2018 complaint to the SC State Ethics Commission from Hilton Head Island school board rep JoAnn Orischak.
Moss was charged with one count of using his public employment to obtain other work with the controversial Education Research and Development Institute, which charges vendors to meet with superintendents across the country. The commission found probable cause for another charge of improperly accepting speaking fees from ERDI but agreed to dismiss the second charge in exchange for Moss’ acknowledgement of guilt in the first.
SC State Ethics Commission chairwoman Childs Cantey Thrasher and Moss agreed to the ruling, which required Moss to pay $6,659.72 to Beaufort County School District and $500 to the commission by March 31. School officials confirmed he paid the fine to the district.
This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 3:25 PM.