COASTAL OBSERVER

Sixteen months after being placed on administrative leave, Chris Bergeron is back this week as director of Coastal Montessori Charter School.

“I’m very excited just to come in, build some relationships and help our school any way we can,” Bergeron said.

In September 2023, he was put on paid administrative leave after an Horry County woman filed a complaint with the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office about a “possible sex assault” of her 13-year-old daughter in October 2020 at Waccamaw Middle School. It named Bergeron, who was a physical education teacher at the middle school at the time, as the suspect.

A year later, the sheriff’s office said its investigation was complete and there would be no charges.

The charter school board voted last month to bring Bergeron back as director under the terms of his current contract “contingent upon full participation in a structured transition process.”

The charter school is a public school sponsored by the Georgetown County School District, but it is run by its board.

Bergeron said the last 16 months, during which he was not allowed to have contact with anyone at the school, have been a challenge.

“I see me being back at the school as validation. What occurred was untrue,” he said. “It was unfortunate that I was accused of something that I didn’t do. It was shown that I did not have anything to do with it. But it took a long time to get to that point.”

The investigation process was “difficult” on him and his family, Bergeron added.

“We’ve wanted to be here,” he said. “I’ve wanted to continue working ever since 16 months ago.”

Bergeron said before he was reinstated the board hired a company to do an “environmental scan” to assess the condition and culture of the school. He plans on studying that information and conducting his own assessment as well.

“Things have changed. I know a lot of the people are the same, but we have a lot of different challenges now then we did 16 months ago,” he added. “I need to make my own assessments of what’s going on and work with everyone to drive this process for our school forward.”

Although teachers don’t return until Monday, followed by students on Tuesday, Bergeron spent time this week helping to prepare the building to reopen and meeting informally with parents who stopped by.

“It’s like my first day all over again. Basically that’s how I’m approaching it,” Bergeron said. “I worked for three months and we started to do some things and obviously we got halted. I’m just going back to square one.” 

Bergeron praised the staff for their work during the 16 months he was gone.

“I’m very proud of what’s going on at the school and I’m excited to be a part of it again,” he said.

Bergeron was the charter school’s physical education teacher when he was named director in May of 2023.

He and his wife, Tia, have a deep connection to the school. Tia Bergeron began working for the school a few months after it opened and Bergeron was the physical education teacher and assistant director before he took the job at the middle school.

“We’ve got a lot invested in this school and we take a lot of pride in it,” Bergeron said.

He is looking forward to Tuesday when students return, with the understanding that there will be parents and students who have never met him.

“It’s going to be cool. It’s going to be great,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to being outside at the car pool, high-fiving all the kids coming in and getting to know them again.”