← Election Series · Down-ballot coverage · South Carolina
No endorsement
The race
This school board election is on the November 3, 2026 general-election ballot in Charleston County School District (Charleston County). 5 seat(s) are at stake in Board of Trustees Districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 - Nov 3 2026.
Five seats are up, one in each of five single-member districts — Districts 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 — and 15 nonpartisan candidates are running across them, per SCIWAY's Charleston elections compilation: three in District 1, four in District 3, two in District 5, four in District 7, and two in District 9. Each district's voters decide their own seat, head-to-head or by plurality where three or more run.
The verified roster is: Char Fitzwater; Keith S. Grybowski; Mark Little (D1); Joseph Bennett; Stuart Day; Bethany Nemitz; Tressa Pankovits (D3); Carlotte M. Bailey; Libby Tisdale (D5); Francis Marion Beylotte; Joy Brown; Darryl Ray Griffin; Leah A. Whatley (D7); Karen Luhrs; Carol Tempel (D9).
The candidates
Char Fitzwater — District 1 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Keith S. Grybowski — District 1 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Mark Little — District 1 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Joseph Bennett — District 3 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Stuart Day — District 3 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Bethany Nemitz — District 3 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Tressa Pankovits — District 3 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Carlotte M. Bailey — District 5 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation (spelling as in the source). No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Libby Tisdale — District 5 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Francis Marion Beylotte — District 7 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Joy Brown — District 7 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Darryl Ray Griffin — District 7 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Leah A. Whatley — District 7 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Karen Luhrs — District 9 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Carol Tempel — District 9 candidate, per SCIWAY's compilation. No platform, occupation, or endorsement was verified in this pass.
Pros / Cons
- Pro, for the field as a whole: every name printed above is on a sourced roster for this race — a voter can verify each candidacy from the source named below. Con, for the field as a whole: beyond the roster, no sourced record — no platform, no board votes, no named-organization endorsement aligned with parental rights, curriculum transparency, fiscal restraint, or school choice — was verified for these candidates in this pass. A ballot line is a candidacy, not a record, and we grade it as exactly that.
OUR CALL
Our call: insufficient record — no endorsement. What would earn one here: a published platform or a sourced record on parental rights, curriculum transparency, fiscal restraint, or school choice — or an endorsement from a named organization aligned with those values — verified claim by claim. On a roster alone, LiberalMind does not guess at what a candidate believes. Per-seat: District 1 — no endorsement. District 3 — no endorsement. District 5 — no endorsement. District 7 — no endorsement. District 9 — no endorsement. Fifteen names across five districts, all of them roster-only in this pass.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.
Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Sources
- SCIWAY - Charleston Elections & Candidates 2026 — the verified roster for this race (accessed October 25, 2026) — http://www.sciway.net/sc-elections/charleston-voting-candidates.html
- Roster grade: compilation. Record gaps: candidate records, campaign materials, and fiscal analysis beyond the roster summary above were not verified at this pass's sourcing depth, except where a fact is stated and attributed in the text.
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.