KCSD announces administrative transfers and a new hire for 2024-2025 

Following the June 4 meeting, the Kershaw County School Board announced several administrative transfers and a new hire for the 2024-2025 school year. Leigh Abee is moving to Lugoff-Elgin High School as an assistant principal, Harriet Boykin-Garity moves to Jackson School as an assistant principal, and Kimm McDonald transfers to Midway Elementary as an assistant principal. Melissa Rabon will serve as an assistant principal at North Central High School.

Leigh Abee has been an administrator in Lugoff-Elgin schools since 2017. She served as assistant administrator for four years at Lugoff-Elgin High School, and then most recently served as assistant principal at Lugoff-Elgin Middle School for the past three years. Prior to becoming an administrator, she taught English at Saluda High School for a year and at Lugoff-Elgin High School from 2007-2017. She was the LEHS English department chair for two years and served as the LEHS focus team leader for the High Schools that Work Curriculum and Instruction Group. She was the 2015 LEHS Reading Teacher of the Year. Abee completed the SCDE's Instructional Leadership Academy for Assistant Principals, as well as the Silver and Gold strands for SCASA's Center of Executive Education Leadership's Assistant Principal Foundations Program. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College and a Master of Arts in Education in Administration and Supervision from Southern Wesleyan University. She is a member of the South Carolina Association of School Administrators and the South Carolina Council for Teachers of English. She enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews.

Harriet Boykin-Garity has served as the assistant principal at Blaney Elementary School for the past four years. Prior to this role, Boykin-Garity taught at Jackson School for eight years, where she served as the first grade team leader, response to intervention coordinator and reading interventionist. Boykin-Garity completed the Kershaw County School District Developing Administrators Program and was named Jackson's Reading Teacher of the Year in 2015. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Carolina, a Master of Arts degree from Walden University and an elementary school principal certification from Gardner-Webb University. She is a member of the South Carolina Association of School Administrators and Palmetto State Teachers Association. She is married to Patrick Garity and they have one son.

Kimm McDonald has been an assistant administrator at Jackson School for two years. Prior to this, she taught fifth-grade at Jackson School and was named the school’s Teacher of the Year in 2021. In her 23 years in education, she has served as an elementary teacher and curriculum coordinator, and has been named a teacher of the year six times. She received a Bachelor of Education from the University of South Carolina, a Master of Education degree from American International University and an educational specialist degree in educational leadership from Capella University. She is a member of the Kershaw County Education Association, South Carolina Education Association and the National Education Association. She is married to Kennard McDonald and they are blessed with a beautiful blended family.

Melissa Rabon is the founding Executive Director of the Palmetto Achievement Center for Excellence (PACE) Academy, a public charter school dedicated to students with dyslexia, in Columbia. Prior to this role, she taught English at Lugoff-Elgin High School for ten years. She was named the LEHS Reading Teacher of the Year in 2018. She received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of South Carolina, majoring in marketing and minoring in English and a Master’s of Special Education in Learning Disabilities degree from Coastal Carolina University. In 2023, she earned a School Leadership endorsement from Lamar University. Rabon is a member of the International Dyslexia Association, National Education Association, South Carolina Association of School Administrators, and South Carolina Education Association. She is married to Jason Rabon, a Kershaw County native. They have two children, Wyatt, who is a sophomore at Lugoff-Elgin High School, and McKenzie, who is a seventh grader at PACE Academy.