Horry County Schools will soon fill its vacant board seat. Here are the candidates.
The Horry County School board is planning to fill its vacancy in District 8 next month, choosing one of three candidates it agreed to interview.
The vacancy was created after longtime board member and former vice chairman John Poston died Jan. 30, several weeks after being hospitalized with COVID-19.
By state law, that vacancy must be filled by appointment of the board until the next general election, in November 2022, when the person elected will serve the remainder of the term through 2024, according to HCS attorney Kenneth Generette.
The board voted Monday to move forward with interviewing three candidates: Christine Rockey, Melanie Wellons and Amanda Whyland. They will be interviewed prior to the board meeting Apr. 12, then the board will vote on who to appoint and that person will be sworn in Apr. 19.
Rockey, is a longtime instructor at Coastal Carolina University, teaching First Aid and exercise science, for which she has a PhD, according to her application.
An Horry County resident for 18 years, Rockey also mentioned in her application that she has children in the district and helped start a fitness club at Ten Oaks Middle School.
“While no two people can completely agree upon anything, I feel like I would do my best to try to think like the citizens I would be supporting would want me to think,” she wrote, noting that she was a neighbor and friend of Poston. “... I feel like I would represent both the people and John’s memory well.”
Wellons, a swimming pool contractor, also mentioned working closely with Poston in her applications.
“It is his passion and integrity for the job that has led me to apply and put forth my knowledge and love for Horry County Schools,” she wrote.
Wellons, who graduated from Conway High School in 1991, wrote that her children have graduated from the district, but she remains on the advisory board for the Carolina Forest district.
Whyland, who is self-employed, is on the Forestbrook Elementary Improvement Committee and a former union representative in New Jersey, according to her application.
She emphasizes her work as a former educator and after-school tutor in driving her belief that more can be done to aid the development of students.
“Every action I have taken since the day I graduated my teaching program has been driven by one belief- the children can and want to learn!” Whyland wrote.
District 8 represents parts of Carolina Forest and Socastee, and all applicants have attested to living in that area.
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 1:35 PM.
