With most ballots counted Tuesday evening, apparent election winners for the Columbus County Board of Education were Ronnie Strickland in District 2, William Irvin Enzor III in District 3 and Chris Worley in District 4.
Results are unofficial until the Columbus County Board of Elections conducts a final canvass on Nov. 18.
In District 2, election night results showed Strickland with 7,773 votes compared to challenger Timothy Lance with 4,098 votes.
District 2 was the only race with an incumbent. Strickland was elected in 2018 and is the current board chair. He is a pharmacist. When reached by phone Tuesday night, he said he thanked the voters for their support, which he took as “a vote of confidence for all we’re trying to do for the school system. People are satisfied with the direction Columbus County Schools is going,” he said. “They see improvement.”
Strickland said his priorities in the coming term will be to raise the performance of struggling students while also challenging high performers, to address overall school improvement and to “find funding for a new school on the eastern end” of the county.
Lance was a public school teacher and counselor for 22 years; he also has 28 years of active and reserve Army service. He is pastor of Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church and serves on the Southeastern Community College Board of Trustees.
Lance said his first political campaign had been “a true learning experience,” and he would continue doing his best to serve the community and schools. He thanked his supporters and said he might run again in the future.
District 3
Irvin Enzor and Frankye Boone competed for the District 3 seat being vacated by Dan Strickland. Election night tallies showed Enzor with 6,895 votes, Boone with 3,855 and Jerome McMillian with 1,520 in spite of the fact that McMillian dropped out of the election months ago.
Enzor is an assistant vice president at Truist who said he ran to be “an advocate for education, community service and leadership.” He applied unsuccessfully to fill the unexpired term of the late Monte Herring last year.
In the coming four years, Enzor said he hopes to “continue the good work the board has been doing.” Priorities include a school on the county’s eastern end and teacher recruitment. He said he was “excited to move forward” and appreciated the confidence put in him by voters.
Boone is a former public school teacher and has a marketing business. She has experience in the mental health field and is an instructor at Southeastern Community College. When called Tuesday night, she stated that, “Across the board Columbus County voted for the least qualified candidates, who are out of touch with a huge portion of the demographic in the county.” She also commented that, “Columbus County Schools definitely lost tonight.”
District 4
Chris Worley had 9,939 votes in Tuesday night District 4 results, compared to 1,061 for Donterius Rich, the write-in candidate.
Worley is a licensed general contractor who previously said he wanted “to be a positive voice for students and staff members of Columbus County Schools.” Tuesday night he said he was thankful for the support and “ready to move forward and make a difference in our school system.” A priority in the coming term, he said, would be “getting teachers.”
Rich is a special education bus aide and school custodian, and he has also worked as a substitute teacher. He was unavailable when called Tuesday night.
School board races are nonpartisan. Candidates must live in the districts they represent, but are voted on by residents of all five county districts. Terms are four years. The board of elections will certify final results on Nov. 18.
Pictured from left: Ronnie Strickland, William Irvin Enzor III and Chris Worley.
