Bonnie Disney wins reelection to Sumter school board Area 9 race

Bonnie Disney appears to have secured the votes to serve another term as the Seat 9 representative for Sumter County’s school board.

According to unofficial results, Disney secured 67.25% of the votes, or 1,743 votes, over Desaray S. Ross’ 31.91%, or 827 votes. There were 22 write-in votes.

“I'm just very pleased,” Disney said of her win. “I feel like our school board is going in the right direction. I feel like we are comfortable with our superintendent and we know our strengths, we know what we need to do to improve, and we just need to all be on the same page. ... We also need to make sure that we're doing everything we can to keep our teachers and students safe and make our district one of the shining stars in the state, and we can do that. There's no question we can. We just all need to pull together and work as a team and I look forward to being part of this team.”

Disney was appointed by the legislative delegation to fill an at-large seat in 2017. She ran and lost in the general election in the district’s former Area 6 race before winning a term in 2022, which was changed to a two-year term because of redistricting and to stagger future races and replacements.

She was recently selected by her fellow school board trustees to serve as chairwoman after the Rev. Ralph Canty stepped down from the leadership position.