The state Department of Education building in West Columbia on Friday, July 18, 2025. (Photo by Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
WEST COLUMBIA — The state education department will take over the finances of a rural Pee Dee school district, pausing a plan to consolidate schools to make up a hole in the budget, the state Board of Education decided Friday.
The decision comes a week after the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division launched an investigation into another district under state financial control following an inspector general investigation that found evidence of potential fraud and criminal activity…