Sumter school board Area 8 runoff is Tuesday

And then there were two.

If you live in Sumter School District Area 8, there is one more time to go to the polls to get an elected school board representative, and it is Tuesday.

That day will be the runoff election between Phil Leventis and Keith Schultz to serve the remaining two years of Sen. Jeff Zell's term as the school district's Area 8 representative. Zell ran for and won the state Senate District 36 seat in the November 2024 general election.

School board seats are nonpartisan races in Sumter County.

Any registered voter in Sumter School District Area 8 is eligible to vote in the runoff, and it is important to note that they can do so whether they voted in the Feb. 11 special election or not.

Early voting closed on Friday, Feb. 21.

Leventis and Schultz are in the runoff because they were the top two vote-getters in the special election, and no one received more than 50% of the total vote to earn a majority. Their bios can be found in a free story on The Item's website at theitem.com.

After the Feb. 11 election, Schultz challenged Leventis to a debate, but the former senator turned down the idea, suggesting Schultz was seeking "free publicity."

Leventis added that people can say whatever they want to say at election time to whatever audience they want.

"What's a lot more important - especially with mature candidates, and both Keith and I fall into that category - is what a person has done in their working life, civic life, business and in the community," he said.

School board members' jobs are to provide oversight of local schools and hold their leaders accountable. They are fiscal watchers of the district's budget, approve school curricula, evaluate the superintendent and monitor student progress, among other duties.

Five precincts in Area 8, also referred to as District 8, will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for voting. They include Causeway Branch 1, Ebenezer 2, Green Swamp 1 and 2, St. Paul and Wilson Hall. Eligible voters will not be able to vote Tuesday at the Sumter County Voter Registration and Elections Office in downtown Sumter.

Area 8 in Sumter School District includes the western and northern portions of the City of Sumter. Major roadways include Wilson Hall Road, Loring Mill Road, Patriot Parkway and others.

Sumter County Voter Registration and Elections Director Pat Jefferson encourages Area 8 registered voters to have their photo I.D. ready and available to vote at their precinct Tuesday.

Before making the trip to vote, if registered voters are unsure if they reside in Sumter School District Area 8, they can call the county voter registration office on Monday or Tuesday, and staff will verify if they are eligible. The office's phone numbers are (803) 436-2310, -2311, -2312 and -2313.

Also, Jefferson said new county voter registration cards were mailed last year to all registered voters, and at the bottom of the new card there is listed all the districts that residents live in. If individuals look under the heading of "School," the number there is voter's school district area.

If an Area 8 resident does not have a voter registration card, she added, they can go to the county voter registration office, at 129 E. Liberty St., with the proper information and identification and staff can print one for them in two minutes' time, and then they can vote Tuesday at their precinct.

"Every vote counts, and every vote matters," Jefferson said. "We put a lot of effort and time in conducting these local elections. People often stay home and gripe about elected officials, but we don't want to do that."

The Item will post election results Tuesday night on its website.

2 RELATED STORIES:

The Item's interview of the Area 8 candidates (from Dec. 18, 2024, edition)

Two candidates' Q&A's (from Feb. 1, 2025, edition)