UPDATE: Here’s who won Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Chester, more area school board races.
Two incumbents and a challenger will take seats on the Fort Mill school board.
Results from the election Tuesday aren’t yet certified. Yet with all precincts reporting, results show Kristy Thames Spears (21%) and Scott Frattaroli (20%) will keep their seats. Anthony Boddie (16%) will join them.
Three seats came up for election Tuesday. Incumbents Frattaroli and Kristy Spears opted to run for new terms. Tom Audette didn’t, instead opting to run for a York County Council seat. Joining the incumbent school board candidates were challengers Boddie, Hazel Cooke Frick, Desareta Jones, Nichell Newton and Takesha Pollock.
The next highest candidate, Frick, fell more than 2,000 votes shy of third place.
The final results mirrored early voting. A little before 10 p.m. Tuesday there were more than 31,000 votes in the Fort Mill school board race. All of them were in-person absentee or failsafe votes. Election day, absentee by mail and provisional votes hadn’t posted.
The early voting data showed Spears (20%), Frattaroli (18%) and Boddie (15%) in the top three spots. Frick (13%) was closest at fewer than 700 votes out of third place.
The Fort Mill School District covers Fort Mill and Tega Cay, plus unincorporated areas between and around them. It’s geographically the smallest district in the state but annually ranks among the fastest growing. There are 18 schools with one set to open in January and another in summer 2021.
Rock Hill School District
The Rock Hill School District had two contested and four total races.
Mildred Douglas and Shawanda Erby each ran for Seat 3. James Burns and Terry Hutchinson went up for the same at-large seat.
Patrice Reid Cherry ran unopposed for Seat 1. Windy Cole ran unopposed for Seat 5.
Douglas won more than 63% of the vote once all precincts reported. Neither Burns nor Hutchinson (49% each) won a majority of votes in that contest. Burns finished 300 votes ahead with candidates collecting more than 20,000 votes each.
York School District
In the York School District, Wade Anderson and incumbent Maria Duncan faced off Tuesday for Seat 1. Wendy Counts and Betty Johnson were up for Seat 4. Incumbent Austin Dawkins and Tracy Morton Miskelly each ran for Seat 5.
Scott Childers, incumbent Amber Floyd, Shirley Harris and Kevin Walker vied for at at-large seat.
Incumbent Chris Revels ran unopposed for Seat 3.
Anderson (53%), Johnson (almost 69%) and Miskelly (almost 64%) finished on top once all precincts reported.
Clover School District
The Clover School District had three contests. Jessica Cody and Bill Jenkins ran for Seat 3. Jay Rawls, Tracy Bell Stiff and incumbent Jay Young were up for an at-large seat. Incumbent Ginger Gibson Marr ran unopposed for Seat 4.
With all of precincts reporting, Cody (almost 59%) and Stiff (41%) topped their races.
Chester County School Board
Nakia Houston-White, 38, has been re-elected to the Chester County School Board District 5 seat. She has served since May 2019, when she was elected to replace the late Patricia Hampton.
She was challenged by Steve Jackson, who also ran against her in her first race.
Houston-White won 60.64% of the vote, with Jackson winning 39.36%.
“I am so grateful and honored for the opportunity to continue to serve my community in this capacity,” Houston-White told the Herald Tuesday night. “I’m so excited about what’s on the horizon for Chester County School District, and I’m so blessed to be apart of it.”
Sandy Lovern ran unopposed and will return to the District 1 seat. Brenda S. Fort also ran unopposed and will fill the District 2 seat.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 10:09 PM.
