Horry County School Board chairman shares goals before stepping down at end of 2022

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - Ken Richardson’s term as Horry County School Board chairman is coming to a close at the end of this year, however, he has some goals before he steps down.

Richardson gave up the chairman seat to run for the 7th Congressional District. He will be replaced by David Cox.

Richardson said one of his goals before he gives up his seat is to make sure students have a traditional school year experience.

“These kids need a normal year. If you go back starting four years ago, we had hurricane problems and we missed 17 days of school, and we had covid issues and it’s just been one thing after another and you know the kids deserve a break,” said Richardson.

Richardson met with new teachers coming into the school district who say they are excited to teach without the interference of masks and plexiglass dividers.

Horry County is not requiring students to wear facemasks to school this year.

Richardson said while COVID set some back, now, students are on track to getting test scores back up.

Richardson is also looking forward to seeing students get back into the football stands.

He said most schools now have brand new athletic facilities.

Another goal of Richardson’s is to make sure to get kids to school and home safe over the full 180-day school year.

“School safety is a top priority for us, and it always has been. We want to try to be on top of it if something, God knows we hope we never see, but if we do see it, we want to be prepared for it to the best of our ability, the best we can,” said Richardson.

That’s why the school district spent an extra $150,000 this year on school safety. This includes active shooter training, where the district’s safety team learned about different tactics such as knocking down and shooting through doors.

Horry County Schools’ head of safety and his team also went through their emergency plans to find out where they can improve.

Schools also have metal detectors and ways to report any threats and rumors.

Both students and parents can make reports of threats or rumors on the district’s website, through its app or even send an email to an account monitored by the Horry County Police Department.

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