School board taps Williams to take helm

The Halifax County school board appointed an acting chairman last week, supplanting vice chair Dr. Donna Hunter from leading the board.

Hunter has been leading the board since August, when chairman Charles Swindell took a health-related leave of absence.

The board voted 3-2 to install board member Tyrell Williams as acting chair, with Hunter and Carolyn Hawkins casting the dissenting votes.

Keith Hoggard, a spokesman for the school system, also said the school board may wait until receiving the 2005-2006 audit before approaching the Halifax County Board of Commissioners to ask for an additional $840,000 over the current year’s budget.

The school system needs the money to pay back overspending from state coffers from the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years. Last month the school board learned from state officials the school system had overspent by more than $800,000, and with interest added, the system owed the state more than $840,000.

The school system has little recourse other than to ask the board of commissioners for the money, but Hoggard said the board had decided to wait for the audit, more than a year past due, to be completed before approaching the commissioners.

“They (the school board members) know the county commissioners are going to ask questions. We know we owe the state … but when the commissioners ask how did you get into this fix, they want to be able to answer those questions,” Hoggard said of the reason for waiting.