COLUMBIA, S.C. — Parents at Burton-Pack Elementary School like mom, Tara Frazier say she is looking forward to a smoother school year ahead after the recent Richland One teacher transfers.
“I would speak with my daughter and she would say, 'We have a new teacher'. She's in second grade, she's been through three teachers this year. It was up and down at first... now, she's settling," Frazier explained.
Earlier this month, the Richland One School District announced that there would be 12 teachers being moved around to various schools within the district to help fulfill needs in classrooms.
Schools like Bradley Elementary and Meadowfield Elementary lost a teacher while other schools like Brennan Elementary and Satchel Ford Elementary lost two.
On the receiving end, most schools gained a teacher but Burton-Pack Elementary database specialist, Venita Bland says her school was fortunate enough to gain two.
"Burton-Pack did not start with one-second grade teacher but our principal moved around the staff she needed to move around until the district made their decision to make the transfers so those positions could be filled," Bland said.
Although parents and teachers at some of the schools losing staff weren’t too happy about the change.
Burton-Pack Elementary Administrative Assistant, Renell Livingston says the need at their school was plain.
“I knew we were lacking teachers in our school. We were missing three second-grade, one fifth-grade, and the week before school opened, we lost our Pre-K teacher, so we're happy they're [the new teachers] there and we're going to treat them just like anybody else," Livingston said.
Now the school's PTO president, Marketa Bennett is hopeful that the school will continue to grow in a positive way with the addition of the needed teachers.
“Our students will get the quality education, get that one-on-one help if they can and those teachers that have had to step in, hopefully, they can go back to the positions they were hired to do," Bennet stated.
Richland District One did confirm that all of the reassigned teachers have started at their newly assigned schools, except for one.