J.L. Mann High School's new principle, Charles Mayfield. Greg Beckner/Staff
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Mann’s new leader

Principal hopes to build on school's past successes

by Anna B. Mitchell

Published August 26, 2:50 p.m.

When Ware Shoals High School was rocked by a scandal that made national headlines two years ago, the superintendent there turned to Charlie Mayfield.

A cheerleading coach at Ware Shoals was caught providing alcohol and cigarettes to her students and arranging sexual liaisons between a couple of them and local National Guardsmen. The principal at the time did not survive the scandal when charges arose that she knew something was amiss with her cheerleading coach and hadn’t done anything to stop it.

“He took over in a very trying time in our district,” said Fay Sprouse, Greenwood District 51’s superintendent. “I appointed him principal. He stepped in in the middle of the year in the middle of all that, with investigations and all that stuff. I would call him courageous. Who would want to step into that role when that’s going on?”

Over the next two years, Mayfield led the school’s teachers, administrators, about 500 students and the community through a process of building back trust. Ware Shoals High also earned excellent marks in its annual Department of Education report card under his leadership.

“Whenever something like that happens, people take sides,” Sprouse said. “He tried to keep things centered on the kids.”

This year Mayfield is bringing that experience and focus to J.L. Mann Academy, where he is replacing Susan Hughes as principal of the 1,600-student school.

He is matter of fact about his goals there – keep the school safe, don’t change anything that’s already working, and build on the school’s record of academic success.

“My predecessor was highly organized and left the place in great shape,” said Mayfield, wearing a J.L. Mann Patriots golf shirt. “My goal is to do like what I did at Ware Shoals. I hope to build. I’m the educational leader. I hope I’m up to the job.”

So far, Mayfield said he’s been leaning on the expertise of J.L. Mann veterans – including a secretary who has been there for 20 years.

“I’m asking teachers what they want to change, and what they want to stay the same,” he said.

Mayfield, a Simpsonville resident who commuted to Ware Shoals, comes from a long line of educators in Anderson. Two of his three siblings are assistant principals in middle schools there. His mother taught math, and his grandfather was a college professor, having earned degrees at Furman and Harvard. His great-grandparents – the Sullivans – founded Anderson University and the school’s administrative building is named after them.

But for Mayfield, education was a Plan B.

“I was waiting for God to tell me. I was waiting for the thunderbolt. I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Mayfield said. “When I did my student teaching, I knew one thing – that I didn’t want to be a teacher.”

The Presbyterian College graduate pursued jobs in sales until he was asked a simple question at an interview in New York City.

“He asked me, ‘Why do you want to be a salesman?’ I was conflicted. I told him I wanted to do it for the money. I didn’t get the job. I wanted to work with children.”

He soon got a call from D.R. Hill Middle School in Spartanburg for a teaching job – and he took what he would describe as his life’s hardest job.

“The planning and organization needed and required – and you are doing everything from scratch,” he said. “And learning the material is very different from teaching the material.”

Mayfield steadily rose through the ranks of education over the next 15 years – moving to Mauldin Middle, rising to assistant principal there and then becoming principal at Ware Shoals Middle School.

He was at Ware Shoals Middle when tragedy struck his family.

Mayfield’s second oldest child, 6-year-old Ellis, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002. The boy would endure two years of excruciating drug therapies and surgeries at Duke University before succumbing to the tumor just shy of his eighth birthday.

“We suffered through that with him,” Sprouse said. “It was traumatic for everybody what they went through.”

Mayfield describes in a steady voice the day his son died. He woke up early and put on one of his nicer suits. Ellis was downstairs in the living room, where he’d been sleeping since he found climbing stairs too difficult. Mayfield’s wife, Shea, noticed Ellis was lethargic and unable to sit up, and they decided he needed to go to the doctor. She went to take a shower as Mayfield got the rest of the kids ready for school and checked on Ellis.

The boy was in pain, and Mayfield tried propping him up. When that didn’t seem to help, he laid the boy back down and knelt down to pray beside him. He said he maintained hope until the end that Ellis would get better.

“I asked that God take his suffering away,” Mayfield said. “My prayer was answered. Just not in the way I wanted.”

Ellis had been happy and singing tunes from “Shrek” during a family visit to Anderson just days before.

“He knew he could die,” Mayfield said. “I told him daddy wasn’t going to let that happen. I don’t know if that was more for him or me.”

A foundation he and his wife set up in Ellis’ memory has raised about $150,000 for Upstate families with children who have brain tumors. They have paid heating bills, made mortgage payments and bought reclining chairs, food, fuel and tires for families traveling sometimes hundreds of miles for regular treatment.

Mayfield said he practices his Christianity at work through example. He said he is driven to help kids because he owes it to his family and his little boy.

“I don’t proselytize,” Mayfield said. “I try to be a good servant.”

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