SC investigation finds cost overruns and safety concerns at Sumter County school’s new stadium

COLUMBIA — Sumter School District overspent taxpayer dollars and overlooked potential safety hazards on a new athletic stadium, according to the South Carolina inspector general.

A months-long investigation into the Crestwood High School project did not turn up any evidence of criminal activity or fraud, though it did find “excessive spending of taxpayer funds” and violations of both state and local rules about how to spend public money. Inspector General Brian Lamkin also raised safety concerns after discovering the stadium opened before getting all the right permits, according to his report.

The state education department asked for the review last May, after questions from the community and school board members over the rising cost of the project. Initially estimated between $3 million and $3.5 million, the price tag for the stadium rose to more than $5.8 million, according to the report.

“Superintendent Ellen Weaver requested this investigation to ensure transparency and accountability for taxpayers, and we appreciate the State Inspector General’s thorough review,” spokesman Kinard Lisbon said in a statement. “The South Carolina Department of Education looks forward to working with the new leadership to restore integrity and responsible management within the Sumter School District.”

Mismanagement and overspending but no fraud in SC school district, inspector general finds

Former Superintendent William Wright, who oversaw the district when the investigation began, resigned last August for personal reasons. A new superintendent took the reins last week, according to the district.

Superintendent Gerald Gary will come in to find some policies about how the district awards contracts already changed, according to the report. District officials plan to make the changes suggested, acting Superintendent Anthonese Gamble and school board chairman Shawn Ragin said in a letter last week responding to the investigation.

“This report will serve as a guide for the District’s leadership and the Board to ensure policies and procedures are being followed,” read the April 16 letter the two submitted in response to the investigation. Gary is on board as well, a district spokeswoman said.

The investigation itself sparked allegations of potential misconduct after one board member requested all the documents and interviews the inspector general’s office received. Lamkin notified Ragin and Gary of vice-chair Brian Alston-Carter’s August email in a letter made publicly available Monday.

Alston-Carter’s request “unnecessarily hindered” the investigation and compromised its integrity, Lamkin wrote in the letter, which was also addressed to Gov. Henry McMaster.

State law requires all information for an investigation to remain confidential until the report is posted. And board policy requires all communications on board business to go through the board’s chair, according to the letter

When reached by text message, Alston-Carter declined to comment, deferring instead to the board’s chair, as per the policy. Ragin did not respond to questions from the SC Daily Gazette.

‘Excessive spending’

Plans to build a new stadium for the 1,100-student high school started in 2021. Despite having a varsity football team, the school had never had its own stadium, instead playing home games at a nearby high school, according to reporting by The Sumter Item.

Home games moved to the new stadium in August.

The district plans to continue expanding the stadium, adding a field house, more fencing, another press box, additional seating and more parking, at a cost of $4.8 million to the project. That wasn’t part of the initial estimate but came up during construction on the project’s first phase, according to board budget documents.

For the most part, there’s no problem in approving additional funds for a project that comes in over the expected cost, according to the report. What did create concern was money Lamkin determined was improperly approved.

All told, the district spent nearly $1.3 million more than the board agreed upon. Nearly $5.3 million failed to go through the correct channels for approval, the report found.

The district pulled a total of about $144,000 from a fund intended to pay for different district-wide projects for the stadium without board approval, according to the report. District officials entered contracts with companies that didn’t submit enough information about their work to satisfy state and local laws. And the district didn’t always choose the best deals, the report found.

A contract for artificial grass, better known as turf, on the field came in about $260,000 above what the board approved for the project. The same company installing the turf offered to install bleachers and a press box as well, but the district hired a different company for that work, paying $475,000 more for a faster turnaround, according to the report.

Lamkin counted the $3.5 million contract for turf as improper spending because the district later changed what it wanted from the company without asking for more bids from interested companies, a violation of state law, according to the report.

Costs for electrical work and inspections came in higher than necessary because the district treated both as emergencies, wanting to finish the work ahead of the season’s first football game. But an upcoming football game doesn’t qualify as an emergency under the law, Lamkin wrote.

Problems with permitting also increased the project’s costs, the report found. For instance, renting portable toilets and hand-washing stations because the permanent ones lacked the correct permits cost the district $39,000, which wouldn’t have been the case if district officials had gone through the right processes.

“These deficiencies and weaknesses unnecessarily elevated the risk of fraud over the expenditure of Board-approved funds for the construction of the Crestwood Project,” the report reads.

Permitting problems

Students started playing on the field and spectators sat in the bleachers before the project received all its permits, according to the report.

The district got started on the project before even notifying the education department’s permitting office of the plans, which is required of any new facility, Lamkin wrote. The stadium received temporary approval from the county but only on the plans for the stadium, not on the construction itself.

Only after the stadium was finished and the investigation had begun did district officials reach out to the Department of Education’s Office of School Facilities for the legally required permits, according to emails included in the report. By then, students were already using the stadium for practices and games.

Two separate inspections from outside companies each found more than a dozen safety concerns that needed fixing, including trip hazards on the track, uneven portions of turf and malfunctioning gates, according to the findings.

The state education department gave the district temporary permission to use the track and field, but because the bleachers and press box were still under construction, both needed to be off limits, the office decided. On a surprise visit, though, inspectors found spectators sitting in the untested bleachers.

That put visitors’ safety at risk, Lamkin wrote.

By opening the stadium before receiving permits, “the District exposed itself to wasteful expenditures, contractual liabilities and risked public safety, health, and welfare,” Lamkin wrote.

The permitting issue went beyond the stadium, the report found.

A new building including a concession stand and restrooms at Mayewood Middle School received no permits, and the state’s facilities office had no record on it at all. No one from the state reported inspecting the building to make sure it met health, fire and safety codes, according to the report.

Sumter High School and High Hills Elementary School both received new floors in their gymnasiums without prior approval from the state’s office, the report found.

Getting rid of ‘junk’

Unrelated to the stadium construction, per the request from the state superintendent, the inspector general found that the district improperly got rid of nearly 15,000 old desks, cafeteria tables and chairs.

After every school in the district got new furniture, the wrong district official declared the items “junk” so they could be thrown out, meaning other schools couldn’t use the furniture. After urging from the state administration department, the school kept the furniture, placing it in a storage facility for nearly two years for a cost of $42,000.

The district eventually sold the items, getting back $550. Instead of selling it privately, however, officials should have redistributed it to other school districts or government agencies, as its policy requires, Lamkin wrote.

“The District’s failure to comply with its own procurement code, established policies and procedures, and lack of documentation has the potential to further erode public trust,” Lamkin wrote.

The job of South Carolina’s inspector general is to investigate allegations of waste, fraud and abuse by state agencies and public schools.