Gov. Henry McMaster has issued an executive order giving Charleston County School District board trustee Darlene Dunmeyer-Roberson formal notice that she may be heard by a special three-member panel, a step that could ultimately lead to her removal from the board. The order followed a 27-page report from the state Inspector General’s office covering conduct dating from November 2022 through late August, an investigation McMaster requested in January after concerns about the trustee’s dealings surfaced.
The executive order lays out three specific charges against Dunmeyer-Roberson: disclosure of executive session material, unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, and a conflict of interest. The Inspector General’s underlying report went further, alleging six areas of possible misconduct including fraudulent billing tied to her consulting company, failure to report state taxable income, and improper board quorums that incurred legal costs for the district. Dunmeyer-Roberson has not responded publicly to requests for comment, and no criminal charges have been filed against her.
If she chooses to exercise her right to a hearing, her case will go before a special panel made up of attorneys Thomas A. Limehouse Jr., Adair Boroughs and Clarence Davis, who will weigh her response and any evidence before making a recommendation. That panel’s findings are due back to McMaster by Oct. 5, setting up an early-October decision point on whether the governor moves forward with removing her from the CCSD Board of Trustees.
The Inspector General’s report also recommended a forensic audit of invoices and payments connected to Next Level Educational Services LLC, the vendor tied to Dunmeyer-Roberson’s consulting business, along with mandatory fiduciary-oversight training for all board members and tighter limits on individual trustees’ ability to incur legal expenses on the district’s behalf. Those recommendations, layered on top of the removal proceedings, point to a broader push by state officials to tighten financial guardrails around the school board well beyond this single case.
