Richland Two Board takes no action on superintendent’s contract

RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - After more than three hours in executive session, the Richland Two School Board did not act on Superintendent Dr. Baron Davis’s contract Thursday night.

Davis remains under contract with the district until 2026. His contract and relations with the board were both executive session items on the agenda heading into the meeting.

The board voted to remove the superintendent/board relations item before heading into an executive session.

After the executive session, there were no motions or votes on the contract.

The contract had been a point of contention with the previous board. Three members walked out during a 2021 meeting over a lack of time to review the contract before voting and there was a 4-3 vote to extend it in 2022.

Going into Thursday’s meeting, former Board Chair James Manning raised the prospect of the new board firing Davis.

Current Board Chair Lindsay Agostini voted against the 2022 contract extension and joined the 2021 walkout.

She said the contract items were put on the agenda after other board members had expressed an interest in seeing the contract changed.

“There have been several comments and statements from different board members that were commenting on different things that they’d like to see changed. I felt it important to bring in the board attorney so that the new board members especially could have a better understanding of how the board contract worked, and how it was developed, and what can and cannot be done,” she said.

Agostini said one of the main questions from the new board members was, why there are annual reviews of the contract if it runs through 2026. She said it was standard procedure.

She declined to comment on if the question of firing Davis came up.

WIS asked if the board would change the contract in the near future.

“I have no comment on that. Well, actually I’ll say no, we’re not going to address the contract or change a contract if that’s what you’re asking. We can’t do that, looking at the contract would take place at the end after his evaluation which is done in the summer,” she said.

The vote to extend the contract took place in September 2022.

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