Ex-Guard Chief Chosen For Ed Panel Manning Named Interim Boss While Board Assesses The Job

The state Board of Education on Monday appointed retired state Adjutant Gen. Darrell Manning as its interim executive director.

Manning was chosen unanimously during a 35-minute telephone conference call to replace Rayburn Barton, the director for the past decade who becomes the director of the South Carolina Higher Education Commission in July.

The board agreed to pay Manning up to nearly $94,000 a year to keep existing projects on track and maintain office operations. Barton has been paid $104,000 a year.

Manning retired as head of the Idaho National Guard in 1995 after a decade. The former Democratic state senator from Pocatello was named director of the Department of Transportation by Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus when it was created in 1974 until Democratic Gov. John Evans named him adjutant general.

He was a member of Republican Gov. Phil Batt’s transition team after the 1994 election and headed Batt’s economic stimulus task force during the governor’s first year in office. He has also been involved in the governor’s task force on personnel policy.

Manning currently serves on the Higher Education Research Council and has done some private consulting since his retirement.

While there were a number of applications for the interim job, Barton said no other candidate was seriously considered. Early on, the board decided against naming anyone involved with the state educational system because it wanted an administrator with no vested interest in the existing system to implement the management study being completed by Deloitte & Touche.

The board hopes to hire a permanent replacement within six months. But board members this morning indicated they wanted to completely reassess the executive director’s duties before seeking candidates.