Trustees Chairwoman, was asked in a letter to resign her seat on the Board by members Robert Drake, Harold Heath, Rebecca McSwain and Henry Miller.
In a letter to McDaniel, the Board members also asked that she make restitution to the District of all costs associated with her recent trip to New Orleans and apologize to her fellow Board members for her actions including “publicly implying that we were complicit in your using public funds for personal travel.”
The letter begins by saying that a majority of McDaniel’s fellow school board members believe that she acted improperly in charging her recent sorority - related trip to New Orleans to the Fairfield County School District.
“We also believe that your asking for a district credit card and using it for personal travel constitutes serious misconduct in office,” the letter said. “Furthermore, since you are the chairperson of the School Board, this behavior constitutes abuse of your authority and power as chair.”
McDaniel attended a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. - sponsored “National Education Symposium” held from Sept. 13 - 16 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Expenses for the trip were placed on the credit card. Some Board members have said that they were unaware of the trip until McDaniel, at a recent Board meeting, thanked the them for the opportunity to take the trip. Board members also expressed surprise that McDaniel possessed a credit card for District business.
Disagreement exists among Board members as to whether a policy which requires employee travel costing more than $600 to be approved by the Board also applies to Board travel.
The letter goes on to say that the entire Board was embarrassed by a recent front page article in The Herald Independent about an “illegal” executive session where those matters were discussed.
“Despite school Board members’ attempts to discuss these matters legally, on the record, you, as chair, forced us into a private off-the-record conversation, discrediting the entire school Board,” the letter states.
The letter concludes by saying that if McDaniel does not comply with the requests of the four Board members, they will make the same requests in public and will also pursue their concerns to the South Carolina Ethics Commission.
The four Board members asked McDaniel to let them know her decision by Oct. 15. The letter states that if the four do not hear from her by that date, they will begin a more public process aimed at bringing positive change for the people of Fairfield County.
Efforts to reach McDaniel were unsuccessful as of press time.
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