Lexington-Richland 5 names former principal of the year as interim superintendent
Lexington-Richland 5 has a new superintendent, at least for now.
In a special meeting Tuesday night, the board voted unanimously to appoint Akil Ross as the district’s interim superintendent, beginning July 1.
The appointment comes more than a week after the sudden resignation of Christina Melton as the district’s superintendent last week following tensions with the board. Melton’s term ends June 30, but the outgoing superintendent was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
Ross is an education consultant and former Lexington-Richland 5 administrator who was named the national principal of the year during his time running Chapin High School. At the time, Ross told the story of how he flunked third grade after trying to trick his mother by turning the Fs on his report card into As.
Ross, who grew up in Washington, D.C., later played linebacker for Duke University, and went into teaching with the goal of also coaching football. But his career ended up taking a different path. He taught social studies at Columbia’s Eau Claire High School, got his master’s in education from the University of South Carolina, and joined Chapin High as an assistant principal in 2005. In 2010, he was named principal at Chapin High.
Many Chapin-area parents credit him with making a good school one of the best in South Carolina after he became principal. With his leadership, the school’s graduation rate has jumped from 82 to 96 percent, an improvement cited by the National Association of Secondary School Principals when Ross was presented with the award in 2017.
Ross used his own academic struggles to reach students who faced similar issues. “I tell them academic struggles are a huge part of personal development,” Ross told The State at the time.
In another interview, Ross cited the example of his grandfather, a former sharecropper with a sixth-grade education whose “hard work and sacrifice allowed him to own a home in a prestigious Washington, D.C., neighborhood. It was his actions not his words that inspired me the most,” Ross said.
After holding an administrative post with the district, Ross later left to form the Heart Ed consulting firm.
Board members have declined to answer questions in public in the week since about Melton’s departure, despite allegations of a hostile and abusive work environment between the superintendent and board members, and questions about a closed door settlement reached between Melton and the board that will pay the former superintendent almost a quarter million dollars to leave.
About 45 parents and teachers gathered outside the school district headquarters on Tuesday to protest Melton’s departure. Due to seating limitations, only a handful were able to get inside for the board meeting. One protester outside could be seen holding a phone up to the blinds on the meeting room windows.
Reporter Lucas Daprile contributed.
