Sumter School District Teacher Forum will host Meet The Candidates Oct. 22

With four school board seats on the ballot in November, the Sumter School District Teacher Forum will host a Meet The Candidates night for the public on Tuesday, Oct. 22.

A district spokeswoman distributed a flyer on the event, which will be held at Sumter High School, to The Sumter Item this week.

A total of seven candidates are on the ballot in three contested races and one uncontested race. The forum will begin with a meet-and-greet in the main lobby at Sumter High from 5:30 to 6:20 p.m., according to the flyer. The public should enter the school's campus through Gate 1.

A panel discussion with questions for each candidate will follow from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. in the school's auditorium.

The three contested races are for Area 1, where incumbent Daniel Palumbo faces Brian Alston. In Area 2, incumbent Brittany English is running against Chris Patten, while incumbent Bonnie Disney faces Desaray Ross for the Area 9 seat.

Gloria Rose Lee, a former trustee from 2020 to 2022, is the lone candidate on the ballot for Area 7. Her only competition will be from write-in candidates. Current Area 7 Trustee Shery White is not running for reelection and instead is the Republican nominee for Sumter County Council District 5, where she faces incumbent Vivian Fleming-McGhaney.

All school board races are nonpartisan seats. After all nine board seats were up for election in 2022, the four seats up in this election cycle only served essentially two-year terms to stagger the board for the future. Palumbo, English and Disney have only been in office since January 2023.