This Horry County Schools board member is now running for chairman in 2022
This year’s race for Horry County school board chairman now includes two current board members and a longtime educator.
Helen Smith, district 6 representative, announced her run for chairman Wednesday, joining current district 4 representative David Cox in gunning for the leadership position of the Horry County Board of Education. Darrell Ricketts, a 37-year employee of Horry County Schools, also announced his candidacy in January.
Ken Richardson, the current chairman, is leaving his post after this year as he attempts to unseat U.S. Rep. Tom Rice (R - Myrtle Beach) in Congress. Richardson has endorsed Cox as his replacement, according to a news release.
Smith represents Carolina Forest, Socastee and St. James. She previously served as chairman of the school board 1996-2002, following her first stint as a district 6 representative 1982-96.
“This isn’t where I thought I would be 20 years ago, but I am excited to offer my service as the Horry County School Board Chairman to our children, our educators and our citizens,” Smith’s campaign announcement stated.
Smith is retired, previously running her own salon and working as a project manager for the S.E. Smith Construction Company. She lives near Socastee.
In her campaign announcement, she pointed to Horry County’s booming population as an opportunity for the district to grow and improve.
“As a native of Horry County, experiencing our growth, improvements and prosperity shows me we can always do better, always be better and always provide a better educational community of knowledge, hope and prosperity for all our citizens, especially our children,” the news release read.
Smith told The Sun News the district will need to evolve and adapt to the ongoing growth in the county. She said more schools will likely need to be built in the coming years to keep up with the population increase.
Horry County school board members are paid about $20,000 per year.
Smith said the changing landscape of the pandemic will continue to present challenges, but getting students back in school was the right call and addressing academic setbacks will be a top priority going forward.
“There’s only one way that we can address it, to catch up students who have (gotten) lost or fallen behind ... we’ll have more resources so that they can have extra teaching, extra attention in the classroom,” she said.
She noted that more teacher aides and other staff could be added to help mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic on students, and smaller class sizes could be a way to improve learning.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 12:20 PM.
