COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland One officials were limited in their explanation of the next steps following an investigation into their handling of a multimillion-dollar learning center.
The message coming from the Richland One Superintendent, Craig Witherspoon, concerning the Vince Ford Learning Center was a short one. "We're continuing to work through that process. It is halted at this time, of course, but we look forward to bringing a resolution real quickly, as quickly as possible," Witherspoon said.
In late January, State Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver called for an investigation, after being told about permitting issues for the construction of the Vince Ford Learning Center. In her letter calling for the inspector general to get involved, Weaver mentioned that construction on the center began without a school building permit, and continued even after the education department said that they could not issue a permit, the District subsequently halted construction since then.
Board members spent close to an hour and a half in executive session discussing the issue. Outside of the executive session, two items were granted approval, with no public discussion from the board, citing some vague outlines.
"The administration requests approval of the recommendation as outlined in executive session," Dr. Tiffany Richardson with the school districts said during the meeting, "Administration requests the approval as presented the executive session regarding engaging the Wyche Law Firm to represent the district in connection with the inspector general investigation."
The specifics of those recommendations were not highlighted during the meeting. We spoke with both chairman Dr. Aaron Bishop and Witherspoon about the votes, asking for more clarification and the plan for the district moving forward.
"It was dealing with making sure we take the necessary steps to bring resolution with the necessary agencies that we need to speak to," Bishop explained.
"Well we can't divulge what was talked about in executive session," Witherspoon said. "The recommendation, again, is to continue to move forward in what we're doing, to bring resolution and make sure that the project moves forward."
The district did not give us a timeline for when they expect a solution to be made, or when the construction might resume. We did reach out to the Department of Education, which told us they did not have a comment on the ongoing investigation.