Charleston County School board members approve budget with $8,000 teacher pay raise (2024)

Charleston County School District board members unanimously approved the fiscal year 2025 budget during a June 24 board meeting, making the district the statewide leader in teacher pay.

It also makes Charleston the first school district to implement a weighted student model whose funding method is expected to help students in poverty, multilingual learners and students with special needs.

The district’s new budget for the fiscal year 2025 is $845.5 million, nearly a 20 percent increase over the budget for 2024. The bulk of these funds — 69 percent — will go to personnel and salaries.

Superintendent Anita Huggins said in a statement to The Post and Courier the unanimous vote shows the district's commitment to serving students and supporting schools.

"I am incredibly grateful for the dedicated team of leaders, community members and district staff who have supported the work developing this budget," she said.

The budget also includes a 3.9 millage (rate of taxation) increase, which district leaders have explained will have no impact on primary residencies. For those who own second homes and businesses, the increase translates to $23.40 for every $1000,000 in taxable value.

The budget raises teacher salaries by $8,000 across the board, taking first-year teacher salaries to about $56,000. The budget also brings pay for classified staff pay, meaning employees such as clerks and teacher assistants, to 100 percent of market value.

Originally, the budget recommended a $7,500 raise for all teachers, but board members began discussing the possibility of giving them more money at a June 10 meeting.

District Chief Finance Officer Daniel Prentice said it was possible to add an extra $500 to teacher salaries by reallocating about $2.6 million from a contingency fund without an additional tax increase.

Keith Grybowski, the board’s chair, affirmed at the June 24 meeting the $8,000 teacher raise is financially sustainable for the district.

Bill Briggman, chief human resources officer,said in a statement it was exciting for him to witness a historic investment in district teachers and employees.

"My goal for many years has been for Charleston County School District to lead the state in teacher recruitment and retention," he said.

Members of the district's teacher compensation task force thanked board members, Huggins, Prentice and Briggman during the public comment section of the meeting.

Michelle Nichols, assistant director of the Charleston Teacher Alliance, who was a member of the local task force to raise teacher pay, said the salary increases are a step in the right direction to ensure district students receive education from “quality teachers.”

“I would like to applaud your leadership and understanding the severity of the teacher shortage and acting now before it’s too late,” Nichols said.

Patrick Martin, another member of the task force, said in an email to The Post and Courier that the increases would have not been possible without the support of district leadership and members of the community.

“This success will serve as a beacon for the rest of the state to make similar improvements in compensation, continuing the upward trend until our schools in South Carolina are filled with the very best for the students of our state,” he said.

The budget also implements a weighted student formula, a funding model that will provide all district schools with additional funds to support students in the categories of pupils in poverty, multilingual learners and students with disabilities.

Huggins first proposed implementing the model in March, saying its goal is to offset the end of the COVID-19 pandemic federal relief funds, also known as ESSER. The budget dedicates $32.8 million for this purpose.

The allocations are determined through ratios that target the three student demographics. For every three, four and six students that fit the three categories laid out by the formula, an additional student would be added in elementary, middle and high schools, respectively. Such a formula will increase the amount of funding each district school receives.

The model also places principalsas financial leaders of their schools, where they will be responsible for deciding how to distribute the funds they receive. The district has defined the use of productivity metrics to monitor how the additional funds correlate with student achievement at each school and will compare the progress and performance of students targeted by the three categories against all students.

Through the budget creation cycle, the district has also developed guardrails in partnership withEdunomics, an education research center located in Georgetown University, to specify areas in which principals are allowed or not allowed to allocate their funds.

Guardrails for what funds can be used include bringing additional teachers and staff to schools such as counselors, social workers or associate teachers, as well as to address urgent student health needs, translation services for multilingual students, classroom materials, student uniforms and summer programs.

Funds cannot be used to pay for more than one administrative personnel position, construction, grounds or maintenance at schools, custodial or food services, or to fund contracts with non-authorized organizations, IT devices or software.