South Carolina State Superintendent Molly Spearman declared a state of emergency in Florence School District Four in May 2018, stripping the locally elected school board of authority. The declaration, made under a budget proviso, marked the third district takeover Spearman initiated within a year, following similar actions in Allendale County and Williamsburg County.
Financial distress and state authority
The South Carolina Department of Education reported that Florence Four had received the state's highest financial risk rating for three consecutive years. The district had also failed to submit a timely audit because of the condition of its financial records. Its budget at the time was approximately $11 million, and Spearman warned the district faced a possible deficit of $100,000.
Spearman invoked Proviso 1A.12 of the 2017 and 2018 Appropriations Acts, which allows the state superintendent to declare a state of emergency when a district is classified as high risk financially or when financial mismanagement leads to a deficit. Upon declaration, the superintendent may take over management, pursue consolidation, contract with another district or private provider, or convert schools to charter status.
Even before the district-wide takeover, the state had already been managing two of Florence Four's three schools: Brockington Elementary and Johnson Middle School. That arrangement had been in place for two years. Timmonsville High School and the district office remained under local board oversight with a mutually agreed-upon superintendent at the time.
From takeover to consolidation
In March 2021, Spearman announced the decision to consolidate Florence Four into Florence One Schools, effective July 1, 2022. Timmonsville High School was retired under the plan. Spearman cited the difficulty districts with fewer than 1,000 students face in operating financially and programmatically. The state had already seen some academic gains under its management: the consolidation letter noted student growth in English language arts and mathematics at the elementary and middle levels, career and technology certifications for high school students, and successful audit submissions that cleared federal grant non-compliance findings.
A transition committee was appointed in April 2021 to oversee the consolidation. The committee included members from both Florence Four and Florence One Schools and was tasked with making recommendations to Spearman, the Florence One school board, and the Florence One superintendent.
How the same approach played out elsewhere
Allendale County School District was the first to undergo a state takeover in South Carolina, in 1999. Under Spearman, it was taken over a second time during 2017-2018 for what the state described as significant financial and programmatic concerns. Allendale subsequently filed a legal petition challenging the constitutionality of Proviso 1A.12, arguing that the takeover provisions were not germane to appropriations and violated the state constitution's single-subject rule. The petition cited a 2016 state Supreme Court decision that held non-germane appropriations provisions may be excised by a court.
Williamsburg County schools were taken over by Spearman in 2018, the second of the three takeovers that year. Like Florence Four, the takeover was executed under the same proviso authority.
In 2021-2022, the South Carolina legislature passed Bill 3449, which amended the state's takeover statute. Under the revised law, the superintendent must implement improvement changes together with the district board rather than directly assuming management of at-risk schools or districts. The new approach emphasizes capacity building over direct state control.
What the evidence says
A South Carolina Law Review article argued that the state's takeover statute is inadequate for achieving a minimally adequate education. The analysis found the statute lacks specific actions for an interim board to take, provides no additional resources to the district, and includes no recommendations for remedying underperformance. The statute sets a minimum of three years for interim board service but includes no clear exit criteria tied to outcomes.
A University of South Carolina dissertation providing a critical policy analysis of state school district takeovers found that the policy had been used only once before Spearman's term, in Allendale in 1999, and that three districts experienced takeovers between 2017 and 2018 under Spearman. The analysis noted that the 2022 legislative changes shifted from direct state management to appointed local boards, partially in response to critiques of the takeover model.
The state's own consolidation letter for Florence Four presented mixed results. It reported positive academic outcomes under state management, including student growth and successful audits, while simultaneously concluding that the district remained financially unsustainable and required consolidation. The letter thus represents an official acknowledgment that academic gains under state oversight did not solve the underlying structural financial problems of a very small rural district.