Two seek election to Chester school board

A retired Chester educator and a local minister are seeking election to the Chester County school board’s at-large seat in a special election Tuesday.

The Rev. Bill Stringfellow, who served one term in the seat, and longtime educator Anne Holladay Collins have filed to seek the seat held by Richard Hughes. Hughes announced his resignation earlier this year for personal reasons.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, said Chester County elections director Terry Graham. Because the seat is at-large representation, he said, all registered Chester County voters are eligible to cast ballots in the race.

Collins, 68, taught and worked in South Carolina public schools for 37 years, including in Chester County, where she also worked in the district office as public information director. She taught for 12 years at Winthrop University and has a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of South Carolina.

Stringfellow, 74, is pastor at Boozer Chapel Baptist Church in Newberry. He held the at-large seat for one four-year term, from 2010 to 2014, before losing it in an election to Hughes. He said he also served 26 years in the District 5 seat.

Collins, who said she is a believer in following procedure and in staying within budget, said she wants to bring consensus to the board, which was deeply divided after the 2015 forced resignation of former Superintendent Agnes Slayman.

“Whether you call it being a peacemaker or bringing consensus, I want the board to work together, because only by working together can we move ahead. And we must move ahead,” she said.

Collins said the school board “saved a large chunk of money” with its recent decision to name the interim superintendent, Angela Bain, who has served since January, as the permanent leader.

“I wish they had gone through the right procedure to do it, but I think Dr. Bain will do a great job,” Collins said, referring to the absence of a formal search and interview process in Bain’s hiring.

“The public never really had a chance for input,” she said. However, Collins said she has been impressed with Bain, who “has worked hard ever since she’s gotten here.”

Collins said board members need to listen to constituents. She said some voters have complained in the past that the Chester board did not listen to their voices.

“We have to be concerned with what the people who elected us think is important,” Collins said. “And I think one of the things they think is that procedure is important. And taxpayers think the wise use of their money is important.”

She also said the school board needs to work toward “making this a welcome place to encourage industry, to enlarge our tax base.” She said that would allow the district to responsibly update its infrastructure and replace old school buildings.

Stringfellow said he would bring greater racial diversity to the board, which he said is needed. He said he wants to see the district continue to update its educational technology.

He said teacher pay needs to be competitive with pay in surrounding school districts, including schools in Rock Hill, York, Clover and Lancaster. He said good teachers are leaving Chester County for better pay elsewhere.

Stringfellow said he would support pay increases of at least 3 percent annually until teacher pay in Chester County is more comparable with pay at schools in the surrounding area.

“We must get the best teachers we can afford to bring,” Stringfellow said, adding that the board should consider financial incentives such as bonuses to recruit them.

Stringfellow also said the district needs to “come together” and develop a plan to update some aging facilities, including building a new high school and career center.

This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 7:31 PM with the headline "Two seek election to Chester school board."