Richland District 1 will part ways with Superintendent Craig Witherspoon effective June 2025.
The district school board voted unanimously on a mutual separation agreement at a board meeting on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, he will receive a full year pay — his last contract extension raised his salary to $258,121 — plus accrued compensation for annual leave and six months of health insurance coverage.
“The board wants to use this moment to thank Dr. Witherspoon for almost a decade of tireless service to this district,” school board chair Aaron Bishop said.
Board members Jamie Devine and Cheryl Harris thanked Witherspoon personally.
“Dr. Witherspoon, I want to thank you publicly for being one of the mot innovative leaders that this district has ever had,” Harris said.
His last day will be June 30, 2025, though he can ask the board to leave at any time prior with a written 30-day notice.
“We’ve done some amazing things in this district, it continues to be a pleasure,” Witherspoon said on Tuesday.
Witherspoon was hired in 2015 by a 5-2 vote of the board after resigning as the leader of Birmingham City Schools in Birmingham, Alabama. Even then, he was controversial. At the time, some community members were concerned over a perceived lack of vetting, The State reported, and many teachers and parents felt that they hadn’t received a fair chance to meet him before he was hired.
Throughout his tenure in Richland 1, Witherspoon had often been supported by a staunch majority of the board. But several controversies surfaced during the last two years.
First, Richland 1 was placed on “fiscal watch” by the state Department of Education after a state-ordered audit revealed faults with the district’s procurement card policy. That’s the least severe financial rating issued by the state Education Department.
In October 2023, Witherspoon and the district administration came under fire after 11 teachers were abruptly reassigned nine weeks into the school year. Richland 1 officials were adamant that such transfers were “not uncommon,” and were made to maintain ideal student-teacher ratios in each district school. The reassignments were criticized by several Richland County legislators.
Even so, Witherspoon received a positive evaluation last year in a 5-2 vote by the board. Members Robert Lominack and Barbara Weston voted against that assessment, as well as the move to extend Witherspoon’s contract through 2026 and to give him a 3% raise.
For more than a year, the district’s efforts to build an early learning center in Lower Richland have been heavily criticized by state and county officials. They claim the district didn’t get the proper permits before beginning construction on the $31 million center.
The state Department of Education refused to issue a permit for the center in December 2023 because the building was intended to serve children as young as infants. The age range meant the building could not be considered a school, the Education Department said. The district kept building anyway.
Richland County officials also said the district did not obtain the proper permits before beginning construction.
On Jan. 19, the district announced that it would stop construction, and Witherspoon maintained that it was done on the district’s own accord. Public records obtained by The State showed that by that time, Richland County had already posted a stop-work order.
The controversy led to an investigation by the state Inspector General, which condemned the district’s work on the center and its procurement practices. Richland 1 had broken state law and wasted taxpayer money, the Inspector General said. Weeks after the July report, state education Superintendent Ellen Weaver placed Richland 1 on “fiscal caution,” the second most severe level of concern by her department.
The district was required to submit a recovery plan. But the state Education Department rejected the plan last month and ordered another audit.
In last week’s elections, two incumbents — Tamika Myers and Cheryl Harris — who had supported Witherspoon were defeated by challengers Ericka Hursey and Richard Moore, who said Witherspoon and the administration needed to be held more accountable.
Witherspoon told reporters on Tuesday that he had been considering “other options for a while, prior to the election.”
“That’s the truth,” he said.
Bishop said there was not yet a timeline for an interim or future permanent superintendent.
“At this point, it’s still about keeping the district toward steady progress,” Bishop said. “That’s where we’re at right now.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2024 8:58 PM.
