HAMLET — The Richmond County Board of Education re-elected Cory Satterfield as chairman and elected Scotty Baldwin as vice chairman during its June 30 close-out meeting after re-elected board members took the oath of office.
Bobbie Sue Ormsby was sworn in by Superior Court Judge Ashley Gore, her daughter-in-law. Satterfield, Baldwin and Daryl Mason were sworn in by Richmond County Clerk of Court Vickie Daniel.
Following the oaths, the board elected its chairman. Board member Bess Shuler nominated Bobbie Sue Ormsby as chairman, while board member Jerry Ethridge nominated Satterfield. Satterfield retained his chairmanship in a 5-2 vote.
Following his re-election, Satterfield thanked the board.
“Thank you mister Ethridge for the nomination and thank you board members,” Satterfield said. “And we have a lot of work to do and I appreciate everybody’s time and talents on this board as we move forward, so thank you.”
For vice chairman, board member Ronald Tillman nominated Baldwin, while Baldwin nominated Ormsby. Baldwin was elected in a 4-3 vote, succeeding Ormsby as vice chairman.
“I’ve been seeking the vice chair position for a couple of years, and I’m glad to be here,” Baldwin said. “I hope that I can do the position justice. Thank you all again. I look forward to serving.”
The board approved amended budgets reflecting an increase of $596,361.10 in state funds, bringing the state’s total to $59,616,611.08 for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Federal funds increased by $18,051, ending the year with $11,979,106.43, while other local funds increased by $306,438.27, ending the year at $4,937,325.19.
Board members also approved operating under a continuation budget to “ensure uninterrupted services and essential operations.”
Executive Director of Finance Dawn Jordan shared positive financial news, saying the district is projected to end the fiscal year without using fund balance.
“I’ve run our end-of-the-year balance sheet. Right now, where we used over a million dollars in fund balance last year, I can tell you we’re right at breaking even— that we’re not going into fund balance this year,” said Jordan.
Satterfield said that the district’s cost-saving efforts are beginning to pay off.
“So, just for everybody to understand this, Dawn, if I’m correct, is that the $1 million savings that the superintendent and his cabinet have been trying to do along with the school board to save money, those savings are finally now showing up to where we do not have to go into the fund balance to balance our budget,” said Satterfield.
Jordan shared that the district’s fund balance is currently stands at $1.6 million.
“I just want to say, personally from Cory Sattefield, what tremendous work that is… the forward thinking that was used to save this money… if you look all over Facebook, all over the papers, all over the internets, counties who are just slashing everybody, closing buildings, doing everything, we are slowly doing that,” Satterfield said. “Now, this doesn’t say that we have to stop because we need to try to build back up so all the stuff that we are doing we need to continue to look at to continue to build this back up where we are—at least we’re not slashing.”
The board also approved the 2026-2027 traditional calendar changes, setting for Ashley Chapel Educational Center’s graduation for June 3, 2027, and Richmond Senior High School’s graduation for June 4, 2027.
In other business, the board approved the policies on:
• Parental involvement
• Board meeting agenda
• Parliamentary procedures
• Technology responsible use
• Use of wireless communication devices
• Student searches
• Electronically stored information retention
• Operation of school nutrition services
• Licensure