CHERAW, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Pinned to a lone bulletin board tucked into a back corner of the Northeastern Technical College was a public notice. It notified the public that the NETC board was planning an unscheduled meeting.
The notice was the only public posting Queen City News could find. Although the S.C. Freedom of Information Act required NETC to also post the meeting notice and agenda to its website, QCN could find no evidence of it anywhere there.
If not for a source providing us with a copy of the agenda the day before the meeting, we’d have no idea a meeting was happening. If anyone in the public wanted to know this meeting was happening, they would’ve had to drive to the college, find a parking spot, walk into the main office, give their name and phone number, have their picture taken, put on a visitor’s pass before they’d be allowed to walk down the administration office hallway to see the bulletin board.
The bulletin board notice listed one item: executive session.
This is a meeting where a public body is lawfully able to remove the public from the meeting room and meet in private; however, public bodies are supposed to discuss only limited issues. Things like personnel matters, secret economic development negotiations, or receiving legal advice.
This article previously included a line that claimed it’s a crime for an official inside an executive session to later publicly disclosing what was said in an executive session. S.C. first amendement attorney Jay Bender contacted Queen City News Chief Investigative Reporter Jody Barr to set the record straight on that misconception.
“There is nothing in the FOIA or any other law that prohibits a person who attended an executive sesssoin from discussing the contents afterward,” Bender, who’s litigated landmark cases and defended multiple media outlets for access to public records during his 50-year legal career.
“To prevent someone from talking about what happened in an executive session would be an unconsititional prior restraint. There has to be a compelling govenrmental interest to impose prior restraint on someone. I can’t think of anything in local government that would meet that, particularly if its an illegal discussion,” Bender said.
Bender also pointed to the perceived gag order many public officials believe they’re subject to when it comes to executive sessions where economic development projects are discussed. These projects are always discussed behind closed doors at local meetings across the Carolinas. In these projects, local government bureaucrats often give away taxpayer dollars and other incentives in an effort to entice private businesses to move into their cities, towns, and counties.
These deals often result in bidding wars between local governments and the public doesn’t find out about the details until after a project is approved.
“The only people kept in the dark about these projects are the people who pay for it. The only people who don’t know what’s being offered are the people who are paying for it,” Bender said, “The only people who benefit from confidentialy are companies and consultants, not the public.”
Bender believes elected and appointed officials involved in those discussions also have a constitutional right to discuss them, especially since there is no law in the S.C. Freedom of Information Act making it a crime to discuss the contents of these secret meetings.
A personnel matter and negotiations surrounding a contract were listed as the nature of the closed-door NETC board meeting.
Not long after the board removed QCN and others from the board room and started its private discussion, NETC President Dr. Kyle Wagner walked out of the meeting and down the hallway to his office. QCN never saw Wagner return to the closed-door meeting.
The board continued meeting for more than an hour. Wagner was walking between the enrollment and registrar’s office as his bosses continued their meeting without him.
Wagner and his administration have had a rocky past 12 months.
‘WASTE OF TAXPAYER FUNDS’
In December 2024, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC, placed NETC on “Warning,” regarding its accreditation. The organization touts itself as “…an institutional accreditor for quality assurance in higher education,” and schools throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia are members of SACSCOC.
All of the flagship universities in North and South Carolina are accredited through SACSCOC.
To be accredited, a college or university must prove compliance with the organization’s standards. NETC was last accredited in 2018 and wasn’t due for a reinspection until 2028; however, the organization came back in 2024 – four years early – and voted to place NETC on warning status until at least December 2025 when SACSCOC’s board reviews an NETC Monitoring Report.
The organization “determined that the institution failed to demonstrate compliance with the Principles of Accreditation,” according to the 2024 warning notice. The organization found that NETC was not in compliance with five standards, detailed in the letter below:
Also in December 2024, the S.C. Office of Inspector General finalized an investigation into NETC’s Dual Enrollment and Fiscal Affairs. In a 23-page report, the OIG reported opening an investigation into NETC on Dec. 5, 2023, after receiving a “confidential complaint.”
The tipster “alleged mismanagement and wrongdoing at Northeastern Technical College,” according to the state report.
The SIG did not identify criminal activity in the materials reviewed. However, the fraud risk level is assessed at the moderate to moderately-high level due to significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in its fiscal practices and lack of internal controls in its governance.
S.C. Office of Inspector General December 2024 report
The OIG detailed multiple issues it found in the Dual Enrollment program, a system where high school students are enrolled in NETC and receive college credits. The tip alleged NETC “senior officials purposefully enrolled high school students in the college’s Dual Enrollment Program without their knowledge or consent, nor permission of their parent or guardian,” the report showed.
The OIG reported finding evidence to support the tipster’s allegations.
The OIG also detailed evidence of high school students not having the Grade Point Average needed for admission and not having the prerequisite coursework to get into the program. NETC added those students to the enrollment numbers anyway, the OIG reported.
Not only did the “inflated” enrollment numbers hurt the rural students the program was designed to help, the OIG found, “NETC’s continued practice of automatic enrollment of students into multiple courses without their permission or knowledge constituted an exploitation of a rural population that included minors,” according to the report.
“Due to the inadequacies of NETC staff, some students were left with grade discrepancies, issues with financial aid eligibility at future institutions, and unreconciled student account balances,” the report found.
Those “inflated” enrollment numbers did help NETC’s administration, according to the OIG report.
“Inflated enrollment numbers provided additional funding to NETC, which served select faculty and staff, justifying salary increases and/or bonuses,” the OIG report found.
The Inspector General called out Dr. Kyle Wagner’s salary as one of the beneficiaries and created a chart in the report showing how Wagner personally benefited. “The SIG determined that the NETC president received performance-based salary increases justified in part by the increased enrollment numbers. A 1,680% spike in dual enrollment was cited in the 2019 to 2020 agency head performance evaluation. The president’s salary increased from $139,691 to $201,018 during his tenure.”
In NETC’s handling of taxpayer dollars and on at least one grant, the state report pointed to “financial mismanagement and waste,” and found evidence that NETC’s administration of taxpayer dollars was “financially irresponsible,” related to NETC’s travel spending, reimbursements, and its handling of federal grants.
The OIG investigated eight grants NETC took in between 2018 and 2024. The eight grants totaled $5.8 million, with some of the grants tailored to help poor students in rural South Carolina.
In the federal Predominantly Black Institutions Grant, the OIG pulled 224 transactions, and NETC was “unable to provide supporting documentation” for 116 transactions. Those 116 undocumented transactions totaled $448,614.41, according to the report.
“A NETC senior official alleged that an NETC employee responsible for grant management negligently destroyed the files. Subsequently, the SIG was unable to verify the legitimacy of these transactions due to the lack of supporting documentation resulting from the alleged destruction,” the OIG wrote in its report.
NETC also would not produce the grant budgets for 2020, 2021, or 2022 to OIG investigators, “NETC was unable and/or unwilling to provide,” the records the report stated.
READ: DECEMBER 2024 S.C. OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL’S REPORT ON NETC:
The OIG report shows no evidence that the state or federal government held anyone at NETC responsible for failing to comply with the grant requirements to retain financial records on how the grant money was spent.
The OIG report led the Chesterfield County Council to strip NETC of its nearly $400,000 in annual allocation of taxpayer dollars during the county’s 2025 – 2026 fiscal year budget vote. Council voted unanimously to withhold NETC’s funding.
“I think we need to say, ‘We’re not okay with what we’re reading and what we’re seeing,’ Council Chair Mary Anderson told the county finance committee during the May 7, 2025, meeting. “And these are Inspector General findings.”
The county did not take NETC’s funding completely away. The money is still available to the college, but instead of sending the college a no-strings-attached lump sum, the county now requires NETC to come before the council with individual, particularized spending requests.
Council will then decide whether the county’s elected councilmembers believe the spending is justified and will hold public votes to approve or deny releasing taxpayer dollars to NETC.
NETC filed a single funding request with the council, which was discussed during the council’s August 18, 2025, finance committee meeting.
Watch that county council meeting and discussion HERE.
WAGNER’S DEPARTURE
At around 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2025, the NETC board announced it was finished with its closed-door meeting and the public could return to the board room.
Dr. Kyle Wagner also returned and took his seat at the chairman’s table.
It became apparent that at some point before or during the executive session, Wagner informed the board he planned to resign. Perhaps the negotiation listed on the meeting agenda was the terms of Wagner’s separation from the college.
That’s merely speculation, and we have no way to know because S.C. law makes it a crime for any official involved in an executive session to talk about anything that happens behind closed doors, no matter how public a matter it is.
The NETC board ultimately voted to approve accepting Wagner’s resignation, but the board did not disclose the terms of the separation, whether Wagner would be compensated outside of his normal salary, or the terms of any negotiation that might have happened in the private meeting.
The only detail the board gave was that Wagner would stay on as president until June 30, 2026.
Wagner would only say “No comment” when Queen City News Chief Investigative Reporter Jody Barr attempted to ask him about his resignation following the meeting. Wagner would not provide a copy of his resignation letter, telling Barr to ask the board for it.
“Is there anything you want to say to the people here at NETC?” Barr asked.
“We have a lot of good people working at NETC, we’ve accomplished a lot of great things and I’m very proud of what we accomplished here at Northeastern Technical College,” Wagner told Barr. “But why are you leaving,” Barr asked. Wagner did not answer and walked into his office and closed the door.
Board chair Herbert Gould also would not give any details about the terms or conditions of Wagner’s resignation. Here’s a transcript of the interview between Barr and Gould following the Nov. 11, 2025, board meeting:
BARR: “Could you tell us the reasons for Dr. Wagner – or what he stated in his resignation letter?”
GOULD: “Well, basically, he was saying he thanked us for the job that he has done. He talked about the different goals that had been met and the different projects that have been completed. And he just felt it was time to move on.”
BARR: “Did you, as a board, feel that it was time for Dr. Wagner to move on?”
GOULD: “The board feels that a lot has taken place, a lot of good things in Dillon, Marlboro, Chesterfield Counties, a lot of good things under the leadership of Dr. Wagner, and we feel strongly that it’s going to continue. That’s basically all I have to say.”
BARR: “You mentioned the good things. But, you know, there have obviously been some pretty negative things that have happened. The Office of Inspector General, the accreditation right now is at risk…is that a concern of the board, as well, as the shape the school’s in right now?”
GOULD: “Yes, in fact, the board has addressed it and we are addressing it right now and we feel more than confident that it will be taken care of all of those things.”
BARR: “Are you all proud of the past nine months, a year as a technical college?”
GOULD: “We’re proud that we are doing the things that need to be done for our citizens, for our students, for our staff, and our communities. Yes, we are proud of them.”
BARR: “But as far as the technical issues from the Office of Inspector General and these other situations that are brewing as a direct result of the administration of the university, of the college, I’m sorry. Is that a concern? Is that – is that – anything you want to say to the public about the administration of this college over the last year?”
GOULD: “Over the last year, what I would like to say at this time, that Northeastern Technical College is on sound footing. Our goals our mission is strong. Our staff is strong. The students receive very high-quality education.”
We’ve asked Wagner and his administration for a copy of his resignation letter. As of this report, we have not received the letter, much less an acknowledgement of our request. If and when we receive the letter, it will be included in this report.
