JOHNSTON – The chief financial officer of the Edgefield County School District and two school administrators at Merriwether Elementary School have resigned.

Confirmation of the resignations of Teresa Clark, the district’s CFO, and Merriwether Elementary Principal Gene Huiet and Assistant Principal Robert Ellis was received on Wednesday, and vacancies for the three positions are already listed on the district’s website.

Edgefield County School Board member Andy Livingston, said the resignations were a cause for concern, and that they would be discussed at the board’s next meeting on June 23rd.

“I am surprised and concerned, especially with (Ms. Clark),” said Mr. Livingston. “She was a great employee and knew what she was doing. As far as the specifics on (why the resignations came down), I don’t know anything. It was not expected and it really surprised me. I didn’t know any of them were coming. With three resignations in two week’s time we will have to talk about that.”

The resignations come on the heels of explosive accusations levied at the district and Superintendent Dr. Mary Rice Crenshaw on Tuesday by an as yet unnamed member of the district’s Teacher Advisory Council regarding a controversial measure that saw some district teachers forego their local supplement income ($1,250) in an effort to save jobs.

The district had previously stated that the “yes” or “no” form – a “voluntary submission form” – was brought forward by the Teacher Advisory Council and that there was no involvement on the part of district officials.

However, the unnamed source, called “DT” by local news website Edgefielddaily.com in a Tuesday article, told the website’s editor that the initiative was brought to the council by Dr. Crenshaw and district officials.

“It was presented to the Teacher Advisor Committee by Dr. Crenshaw,” said the source. “She even said it was illegal for them (the district) to do it that’s why she was bringing it to us. It was not our idea.”

The source, said the council was called to a meeting on May 4th attended by Dr. Crenshaw, Human Resources Director Shawn Clinkscales, and then Chief Financial Officer Teresa Clark. The source says district officials presented the council with a complete breakdown on the potential action.

“The first question after that was presented was would the administrators do the same thing,” added the source. “We were led to believe that, yes, the administrators would probably do the same thing if the teachers did it. They (Dr. Crenshaw and District staff) wanted to present it to the School Board that Thursday night.”

The source said there was no vote even taken on the matter.

“I don’t think we even voted on it,” DT said.

According to the source and the website’s article, the next morning, May 5, envelopes containing the submission forms with each teacher’s name were at the schools ready for distribution.

The validity of the form was later questioned by an attorney, who stated in a letter to Dr. Crenshaw that the “voluntary” form “will be perceived as intimidating and that teachers will ‘voluntarily’ relinquish pay in fear of retaliation … as you are aware, there are statutes that prohibit school districts from reducing local supplements to teachers.”
A response to the letter was sent to the attorney by attorney Charles J. Boykin of Boykin & Davis LLC, an outside attorney, and not the district’s own attorney Greg Anderson.

In that response, Mr. Boykin asserts that the form was a directive of the “Teacher Advisory Cabinet” and was therefore voluntary and exclusive of the School District. According to DT, however, that is not the case.

“Dr. Crenshaw was the one that presented us with this thing,” the source said.

Mr. Livingston said the hiring of outside legal help by district officials will not happen again, at least without the matter first going through Mr. Anderson.

“(Dr. Crenshaw) was given direction that (Mr. Anderson) is our attorney,” he said. “I think she has gotten the word on that. There may have been a lot things that could have been handled by Greg.”

Mr. Livingston said with the impending arrival of stimulus funding, that the collection of local supplement money by the school district would not take place.

“Just speaking for myself, since the stimulus money came down that would be something where we would take the stimulus money and probably the first thing we would do is replace the money contributed by teachers,” he said. “I would say that’s (taking the money from the teacher’s supplement) not going to happen.”

While that move may alleviate pressure from one area, Dr. Crenshaw was already facing harsh criticism from some county residents, several of which have come together to form the Edgefield County Citizen Taskforce Against Corruption in Education. The group’s website, www.firecrenshaw.com, features an online petition that requests the firing of the superintendent by the Edgefield County School Board.

The petition currently has 156 signatures.

The State Ethics Commission also sent down an investigator to Edgefield last week at the request of the group, which claims that Dr. Crenshaw has mismanaged the district’s finances and mistreated teachers while serving the interests of her own private nonprofit company, M.K., Inc.

Results of the commission’s investigation have not been released.