The following was written by Stephen DeVita of DD2 Unwrapped
A yet undisclosed 700-page salary study commissioned by DD2 will increase the FY24 budget by $17.9M if fully implemented for teachers and classified staff. Finance staff also floated a less costly option for teacher and classified pay raises at a total first-year cost of $7.9M.
At a Board Budget Workshop Monday, the 5 members present (Ms. Hughes & Ms. Crosby absent) voiced no positions or preferred option (options A1 & A2 or B1 and B2 below). Staff further raised the trial balloon of teacher signing bonuses for ($869k) and longevity bonuses for ($1.5M). Staff pointed to “current year savings” to fund these additional costs.
When pressed by Mr. Farnsworth, staff was unable to identify those savings in any specificity except to refer to anticipated added revenue of about $2.5M from State funding due to rising enrollment.
Similar to last year when then-Superintendent Pye proposed a failed out-of-budget pay increase that was ignored by County Council, pay data or district pay comparisons have yet to be publicly presented to support increases.
On March 15, the SC House approved a $2,500 teacher retention increase to the State’s minimum salary schedule which is under consideration in the Senate and likely followed by conference committees to work out any differences in the Senate and House versions. If passed, the increase would bring the State minimum starting salary to $42,500. DD2’s current starting teacher salary is $41k.
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