By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Five years into his tenure, Beaufort County School District Superintendent Frank Rodriguez seems to continue to impress.
The Beaufort County Board of Education (BCBOE) recently released the results of Rodriguez’s fifth annual evaluation, and they found his performance during the 2023-2024 school year to be “highly effective overall.” He earned a total composite score of 3.53, which puts him solidly in the “highly effective” category for his score, which ranges from 3.26 to 4.0.
Board members completed evaluations individually and the results were collated and shared with Rodriguez and the Board. The evaluation is comprised of 32 questions that are included in five components of Professional Practice.
Government and Board Relations counts for 20% of the score, Community Relations is 15%, Staff Relations is 15%, Business and Finance is 20% and Instructional Leadership is 30%. There are also three areas of Measurable Components – student achievement, teacher recruitment and retention, financial oversight.
According to the release from Christina Gwozdz, chair of the BCBOE, Rodriguez scored highest in the areas of Business and Finance in the Professional Practice section and Financial Oversight in the Measurable Components portion.
Per the release, the budget was spent with 0.7% remaining and the Beaufort County School District (BCSD), along with Greenville, continues to maintain a Moody’s Aa1 bond rating, which is the highest rating for the 73 public school districts in South Carolina.
Additionally, for the fourth year in a row, the district earned a “perfect score of 10 indicating low overall financial risk” on the Subrecipient Risk Assessment by the South Carolina Department of Education.
Evidence used to grade Rodriguez’s emphasis on quality classroom instruction includes the fact that the BCSD has been ranked in the top in South Carolina for teacher compensation for three years in a row, they maintain staff childcare opportunities, they provide on-going quality professional development for educators, more than half of BCSD schools have been ranked as Excellent or Good on the 2023-2024 S.C. School Report Cards and improvement in students’ Meet and Exceed scores for S.C. Ready English Language Arts (ELA) and Math, End-of-Course (EOC) exams for Algebra and Biology and meeting college or career readiness standards.
The release pointed out that Rodriguez has also been named the 2025 South Carolina State Superintendent of the Year and was chosen as a 2023 Superintendent to Watch by the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA).
The BCBOE also praised Rodriguez’s oversight of the construction projects of the $344 million 2019 school boar referendum and securing the $439 million bond funding approval in 2023 with a landslide vote of 72% approval.
“The Board sincerely thanks Dr. Rodriguez for his effective leadership, his many efforts and for his dedication and commitment to the District,” Gwozdz said in the release.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
