WEST COLUMBIA, SC -- Lexington Two welcomes several new members of the administrative team in the 2023-2024 school year.
Principals
Dr. James “Vance” Jones, Brookland Cayce High School
Dr. Jones is a veteran South Carolina educator with more than two decades of experience. He most recently served as principal at Spartanburg High School, which U.S. News & World Report named as among the top 12% of all high schools in the country. Dr. Jones started his teaching career in 1999 as a business educator at Allendale-Fairfax Comprehensive High School, where he also coached football, basketball, soccer and track. While in Allendale County Schools, he also served as coordinator of technology from 2000-2001. He joined Lexington Two’s Airport High School as a business education teacher from 2001-2003 and entered his first job in school administration as Airport’s Administrative Assistant from 2003-2004. He was later named assistant principal at then-Busbee Middle School, now Busbee Creative Arts Academy, from 2004-2005. From 2005-2011, Dr. Jones served in leadership roles as principal or assistant principal at a number of the state’s schools, returning to Allendale-Fairfax Comprehensive High School before moving to Mayewood Middle School in the Sumter School District; Blackville-Hilda High School in Barnwell District 19; and Spartanburg High School/Madden Learning Center in Spartanburg 7. Starting in 2011, Dr. Jones spent five years in the School District of Newberry County, working as director of the Freshman Academy, director of the Newberry Alternative Program, and as principal at Newberry High School. In 2016, he joined the Lee County School District as director of Student Services, Operations, and Tech. He rejoined Spartanburg 7 and Spartanburg High School in 2018, first as assistant principal and then as principal in 2019. Dr. Jones received a bachelor’s degree in 1999 in finance from Wofford College; a M.Ed. in Secondary Administration in 1999 and an Ed.S. in 2010, both from Cambridge College; and an Ed.D. from Liberty University in 2020.
Dr. Tiffany Hall, Northside Middle School
Dr. Hall has nearly two decades of education experience. Prior to her most recent position as principal at Leavelle McCampbell Middle School in the Aiken County School District, she has served as an assistant principal at Jackson Middle School, also in the Aiken County School District, as well as at North Middle/High School and Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, both in Orangeburg 5, and at Woodland High School in Dorchester 4. She was also a social studies instructional supervisor and fine arts liaison with Clover School District, and prior to that taught social studies at White Knoll High School in Lexington 1, St. James Middle School in Horry County School District, as well as at Mullins High School, where she started her teaching career in 2004. Dr. Hall received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Coastal Carolina University, M.Ed. from Grand Canyon University, and M.Ed. Specialist and doctoral degrees from the University of South Carolina.
Brandon Brantly, Saluda River Academy for the Arts
Brantly most recently served as assistant principal at Riverbank Elementary. He joined Lexington Two in 2019 as an instructional facilitator for Riverbank and Saluda River before moving into his current role at Riverbank in 2021. Prior to that, Brantly taught in several Midlands area schools, among them Forts Pond Elementary (third and fourth grades), Deerfield Elementary (fourth grade), and Carolina Springs Elementary (third grade), all in Lexington 1. He started his teaching career in 2011 at Lexington-Richland 5’s Nursery Road Elementary (fourth grade). Brantly received a bachelor’s degree and M.Ed. from the University of South Carolina.
Sam Masone, Busbee Creative Arts Academy
Masone is a familiar face with the Busbee community, having most recently served as assistant principal. Masone has spent his education career in Lexington Two. Before becoming Busbee’s assistant principal in 2018, he was an English teacher and administrative assistant at Airport High School from 2016-2018. His first job was as an English teacher at Airport, from 2007-2016. Masone received his bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree from University of Phoenix.
Assistant Principals
Tiffany Aull, Brookland-Cayce High School
Aull most recently served as an assistant administrator and business teacher at Brookland-Cayce, a role she held since 2022. Prior to that, she served as a GradPoint-Business teacher at Brookland-Cayce for a year and as a business teacher at Airport High School for nearly five years. She started her education career in Lexington Two in 2003 as coordinator of extended daycare, serving through 2013. Aull received her bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina, an MBA from Southern Wesleyan University, and an M.Ed. from Capella University.
Kendall Skelton, Riverbank Elementary
Skelton’s most recent role was as STEM coach at Riverbank, a role she held since 2021. She previously worked at Cayce Elementary, where she served as an instructional facilitator for two years and as a fourth-grade teacher for two years. She started her education career in Lexington Two in 2012 at the former Taylor Elementary, where she taught third grade for five years. Skelton received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of South Carolina.
Taylor Bundrick, Airport High School
Bundrick has more than 10 years of education experience. He has been a math teacher with Airport since 2013, and prior to that, taught math at Westwood High School in Richland Two. He received a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University and master’s degrees from The Citadel and Arkansas State University.
Other School-Level Administrators
Shane Fidler, Athletic Director/Football Coach, Airport High School
Fidler most recently served as head football coach at the Class 5A Ashley Ridge High School in Summerville. Fidler took the Ashley Ridge football program from 2 wins to 7 over his three seasons there, with last year’s team scoring more than 60 points twice in the season for the first time in school history. Fidler has grown the school’s varsity and JV football programs from 93 players to 173, even adding a second JV team. Prior to that, Fidler was head coach and co-athletic director at Waccamaw High School for three seasons, where he doubled player participation and turned the team into a winning program during his tenure. From 2010-early 2017, Fidler served as an assistant coach focused on offense at Colleton County High School, Eau Claire High School, and Gray Military Academy. Along with coaching duties, Fidler launched various initiatives to engage players and families at the schools he’s served, among them middle school signing days, a football clinic for moms, free youth football camp, and tutoring for players. He has been active with the American Football Coaches Association and was selected in 2019 to the organization’s 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute, one of just two high school coaches in the United States to be invited. He was the SCHSSCA 3A State Strength Coach of the Year in 2019 and has led several clinics on football skills and programs. Fidler received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of South Carolina.
District Office
Matt Warren, Deputy Superintendent
Warren, who has nearly a decade of experience in operations areas, currently serves as interim chief operations officer in Lexington 1. Prior to his role as interim chief, which he has held since 2022, he served in Lexington 1 as director of operations from 2020-2022, operations program manager from 2015-2020, and as coordinator of student services from 2014-2015. He started his career as a secondary resource teacher for White Knoll High School in 2003, later serving as occupational credentials instructor there before being named an assistant administrator at White Knoll Middle School and assistant principal at Gilbert High School. Warren has a bachelor’s degree from Presbyterian College and a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina.
Sky Strickland, Chief Financial Officer
Strickland has more than 20 years of experience in school district finance, most recently serving in the same position with Calhoun County Public School District, a position started in 2014. She started her career with that district as a senior accountant in 2000. Strickland has a bachelor’s degree in accounting/marketing from the University of South Carolina in 1999. In her new role, Strickland will oversee Lexington Two’s business operations, including district funds, payroll, employee benefits, purchasing, accounts payable, property, and worker’s compensation insurance programs.
Rose Anderson, Director of Finance
Anderson has been in school finance since 2000. She currently serves as Director of Finance at Barnwell County Consolidated School District, a position she has held since 2016. Prior to that, she was a staff accountant for the Richmond County Board of Education in Augusta, Georgia. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina-Aiken.
Stephanie Hucks, Director of Human Resources
Hucks has been an educator with Lexington Two since 1999, all of those years at Busbee Creative Arts Academy. She currently serves as principal, a position she has held since 2018. During her tenure as principal, Busbee has been named a National Schools to Watch and Model PLC School, and the school has received a number of grants for its programming. Prior to that, she served as the school’s assistant principal and, in her first Busbee job, as a math teacher. Ms. Hucks received a bachelor’s degree from Winthrop University, a master’s in administration from Southern Wesleyan University, and a M.Ed. from the University of South Carolina. Ms. Hucks will continue as Busbee’s principal until a successor is named.
Erin Strange, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent and Board of Trustees
Strange has nearly 25 years of experience in executive and administrative support in education. Her most recent roles have included, in Lexington 1, executive secretary at Pleasant Hill Middle School in Lexington 1; and in Lexington-Richland 5, administrative assistant to the director of magnet programs, and executive assistant and executive administrative assistant to the superintendent and board of trustees. Her earliest roles in Lexington-Richland 5 also include administrative secretary, receptionist, clerical assistant, and compliance secretary. She started her career as a law office receptionist in a local law office, later joining a real estate development firm as an administrative assistant.
Jim LeBlanc, Executive Director of the Lexington Two Performing Arts Center (Opening in 2024)
LeBlanc is a familiar face in the Lexington Two community, having served for nearly five years as principal at Saluda River Academy for the Arts – one of the district’s magnet schools and a School of Distinction in South Carolina – as well as assistant principal at Claude A. Taylor Elementary and Springdale Elementary for nearly three years. He came to Lexington Two in 2015, after teaching in Richland 1. LeBlanc’s passion and experience in the arts is extensive, as is his network in the performing arts community. His background includes work in the front of the house, with an emphasis in music and jazz guitar performance, as well as backstage with soundboards, lighting, and tracking equipment. He was co-leader of the L2PAC Task Force that worked to support the board’s vision for the Performing Arts Center and co-facilitator of the Lexington Two Fine Arts cohort. He served as a school representative on three renovation and construction projects that were part of the recent bond referendum, leading the move back into the renovated Saluda River Academy for the Arts school building. LeBlanc works closely with Arts in Basic Curriculum (ABC) South Carolina and serves as a principal mentor for ABC induction principals. LeBlanc is a member of the Columbia College Advisory Board and previously served on the alumni board of the Governor’s School for the Arts. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of South Carolina. The Lexington Two Performing Arts Center (L2PAC), on Platt Springs Road in Springdale, is slated to open in early 2024.