Sumter School District is not only in the process of changing its superintendent, but it will shortly also have openings for its 2nd-in-command administrator and main money officer.

The variations appear as Summerville-dependent Dorchester Faculty District 2 declared Thursday it employed Brenda Hafner, chief of educational institutions in Sumter, as deputy superintendent, and Lexington College District 1 introduced Friday that Jennifer Miller will be its new main economic officer. Both Hafner and Miller’s new positions begin July 1, in accordance to news releases.

Hafner joined Sumter Faculty District in February 2018 as an assistant superintendent under then-interim superintendent Debbie Hamm. When current superintendent Penelope Martin-Knox arrived to Sumter in July 2019, Hafner’s position was changed to chief of faculties, serving as next in command in the university district.

Hafner was in the news in March when a split Sumter school board voted 5-4 on Feb. 28 for her to provide as performing superintendent after they, in the same vote, told Martin-Knox to leave her write-up with prorated pay out 4 months in advance of her contract finished.

Roughly 3 weeks afterwards, on March 25, a point out circuit courtroom decide ruled in a civil lawsuit that the vote by the college board be declared invalid simply because it was not on the agenda. The ruling prohibited implementation of the steps associated in the vote. Following the court docket purchase, the board experienced to reinstate Martin-Knox to fill her contract time period and did so on March 29 with Hafner shifting back again into the main of schools’ write-up. Martin-Knox had requested for the board to not extend her contract into future university 12 months. When it ends on June 30, she will start off as superintendent in the vicinity of Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.



Hafner has been a finalist for a few superintendent positions in the previous three many years, such as Dorchester University District 2 this spring. That situation went to Kershaw County University District Superintendent Shane Robbins last month.

In 2021, Hafner was a finalist for the top place in Newberry County School District and in 2020 was a finalist in Lexington School District 2.

Miller turned the nearby district’s CFO in July 2018 and has been instrumental in supporting to establish the district’s fund stability to $32.6 million through fiscal yr 2021. That is a stage at which it has never ever been prior to, and it arrives just after the 2016 audit confirmed the district’s fund balance at $106,449, revealing thousands and thousands in overspending.

The superintendent who was in cost of the district amid that overspending, Frank Baker, was elected to an at-significant faculty board seat in November 2018 just after retiring the yr prior to.

Miller has been an accounting specialist for 21 a long time and graduated from College of South Carolina in 2001 with a triple key in accounting, finance and insurance plan and hazard administration. She became a certified community accountant in 2004.

By Anisa