Rural South Carolina School District Regains Some Control Six Years After State Takeover

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COLUMBIA — The Williamsburg County school board will be able to start making decisions again with oversight from the state Department of Education, marking the first move toward regaining local control in six years.

The rural, county-wide district of 2,800 students — located in the Pee Dee between Sumter and Georgetown — has been under the state’s control since 2018, meaning the district Board of Trustees can meet but can’t make any decisions for the district.

The return of some power is the first step in returning control to the locally elected board members, according to a Tuesday news release.

“We’re excited to serve in the capacity the citizens elected us,” said board Chair Marva Cannion, who was elected in 2019.

A report on the district’s improvements, which a state budget clause requires the state education agency to produce, could offer other poor, struggling school districts some insights into how they might boost performance and avoid a state takeover, Rep. Roger Kirby, D-Lake City, told the SC Daily Gazette on Wednesday. The directive in the state budget was his idea.

When the state first stepped in under then-state Superintendent Molly Spearman, the district was in dire straits financially and academically.

Officials had to repay more than $280,000 to the federal government and use another $368,000 to hire help in following federal spending and reporting requirements, The Post and Courier reported at the time. Less than a quarter of all students could read on grade level, and even fewer third- through eighth-graders were passing their state-required math tests, according to state education data.

The district had been under notice for three years by that point, but little had changed, Cannion said. When Spearman declared a state of emergency and outlined the issues, Cannion agreed something had to happen, she told the Daily Gazette.

“At the time, it was warranted,” Cannion said of the state takeover. “But it is now time, definitely, for local governance.”

Improving grades

District officials thought they had hit the goals Spearmen set for them by 2022. The district’s finances were in order. The past several years of audits found no major issues. And students were improving academically, Cannion said.

When state Superintendent Ellen Weaver started her term last year, she gave a more specific benchmark. All eight of the district’s elementary through high schools needed to be rated at least “average,” Cannion said the department told board members. As of 2022-2023, the district still had three schools falling behind that goal.

When the state released test scores for last school year, though, officials saw marked improvements.

The scores were enough for all of the district’s schools to receive at least an average rating, which takes into account student progress: Five received an “average” rating, two were rated “good,” and one — an arts magnet middle school — rated “excellent,” the highest possible.

Scores in every subject increased from the school year before. The largest jump was in the number of students passing their end-of-course Algebra 2 tests, which went from 20.7% to 59.2% — an increase of nearly 40 percentage points.

Improvements were even more significant when compared with scores during the 2017-2018 school year, the year before the state education agency took over.

On average, the percentage of third- through eighth-graders able to pass the end-of-year English test — showing they can read on grade level and are ready to advance — jumped from 24% to 42%.  In the same group, 25% received passing math scores at the end of last school year, compared to 18% six years before.

Still, just 13% of students in the district’s Class of 2024 were considered ready for college, while 60% met benchmarks for being prepared to enter the workforce.

Students’ performance remains below the state’s already-low average, showing the district has more work ahead of it. But the improvements are promising, Kirby said.

“It certainly is an indication that improvements are being made, but I don’t think anyone would argue there’s not progress to be done,” Kirby said.

The state department will continue to monitor the district’s progress over the next year and will discuss next steps with district leadership when the 2024-2025 report cards are out, according to the news release.

How it happened

Monitoring student progress and helping those who lagged behind played a major role in improving test scores, said district Superintendent Kelvin Wymbs, who was hired by the state agency.

After the takeover, the district started assessing students weekly to check their progress, Wymbs said. Teachers could then use those scores to determine which students needed extra help.

Teachers shifted their focus to what is known as tiered instruction, grouping students based on their skill level and giving them different versions of the same lesson in an effort to make sure every student grasped the concepts being taught, Cannion said.

That gave students who were struggling smaller groups to work in, she said.

Beginning in 2022, the district started offering specialized classes for eighth- through 12th-graders who had to repeat a grade at any point and were not on track to graduate.

Students in the program, known as Flexible Academy, could enroll in middle and high school-level classes simultaneously, with smaller class sizes than typical, in an effort to make up any credits they may have missed, according to the district.

“These were students who may have been counted as dropouts,” Cannion said.

Partnerships with outside groups have helped give students access to opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have, such as a new program that offers cybersecurity courses. That, in turn, encourages students to engage with their other schoolwork, Kirby said.

He credited Wymbs’ leadership in pursuing those sorts of opportunities.

“It’s those types of things that could create exceptional outcomes, innovative things that previously were lacking,” Kirby said. “There are new ideas that are yielding results that point to visionary leadership.”

Part of the change came from a shift in culture, Cannion and Wymbs said.

Teachers and administrators tried to drive home a sense of ambition and confidence in students, more than 90% of whom live in poverty, Wymbs said.

“Our students are competent. They want to compete academically,” Wymbs said. “I think we’ve done a good job of instilling the idea that poverty, your ZIP code, none of that matters if you really engage in what we’re trying to teach you.”

The district also hired security officers and started using wands as metal detectors at school entrances in order to bolster security and students’ feeling that they were safe at school.

And a hired consultant helped officials come up with plans and coached teachers, especially the district’s growing population of teachers from other countries, Wymbs said.

“It comes down to personnel and having people who truly care about student success,” Wymbs said.

What comes next

Other school districts, particularly those at risk of a takeover under state law, could use similar methods to improve their own academic performances, Kirby said.

Kirby’s proposal for the state budget directive came out of frustration from Williamsburg County’s board of trustees, who met with him. Inserted by the House during floor debate on the budget, it required the department to give legislators a report on why Spearman took over the district, what the state has done since then, and what specific benchmarks the district must meet to receive full governing powers.

The budget clause, which ended up in the state’s final spending package, was meant to give clarity to the school board, which was “truly almost in the dark for the past four years,” Kirby said at the time.

The report is due by Jan. 1. It must be provided to legislators representing the county. The entire delegation consists of one senator and two House members, with Kirby representing the majority of the county.

The report should give district officials in Williamsburg County a more detailed idea of what to expect moving forward. It could also help other districts understand what, exactly, the department considers success in struggling schools and what help is on the table, Kirby said.

Agency spokesman Jason Raven said the department offers extra support to districts underperforming academically to keep them from getting to the point of a state takeover.

Three districts “facing potential takeover” — Colleton, Jasper and McCormick counties — improved in their report cards this year, he said in an email.

Spearman, the former state superintendent, took over three failing districts in a span of 14 months. State law has authorized such takeovers of schools and entire districts since 1998, but no other superintendent had attempted to take control of so many.

The other two were Allendale County, which remains under state control, and tiny Timmonsville (Florence 4), a district so small that all of its students were on one campus. State control ended there following a forced merger in 2022 with neighboring Florence 1, the county’s largest school district, which includes the city of Florence.

Kirby said the agency’s report could give Allendale County officials a better idea of what benchmarks it needs to meet.

Without that information, Kirby’s not sure what must happen to improve rural districts’ performances, he said.

“I’m anxious to see what the department is recommending,” he said. “What is their answer to this?”

SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on Facebook and X.

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