LEXINGTON, S.C. — Teachers in Lexington School District One will be seeing an increase in their pay soon. This comes after the school board voted on the increase at their board meeting Tuesday night.
“Our budget amendment last night really addressed the priority that we have placed in our teachers ,” Anne Marie Green said.
Green is the chair of the board of trustees for Lexington One, she says the board voted to increase teacher pay for certified and licensed professionals by $2,000 totaling salaries to $49,000.
“Once the board votes on it, the process is pretty quick, and it's going to be retroactive to the beginning of the fiscal year, which was July 1st. I'm not really sure what the payroll schedule is. I know what the paperwork is, but I expect that that will probably be in their paychecks in the next couple of pay periods,” she said.
The South Carolina budget for this year was passed back in June, which included a statewide minimum teacher salary schedule, requiring teachers to be paid $47,000 for their first year.
“Anything we pay above that minimum salary schedule comes from local dollars, and because we can't project with 100% accuracy what our revenue is going to be, because tax assessments in our local dollars, the auditor helps with our finance and they talk frequently, but we don't really know what those tax assessments are going to reveal as far as revenue until after the first of the year when tax bills go out.”
Before this increase, Lexington One paid their teachers the state minimum. Surrounding districts in and outside of Lexington are paying teachers up to $3,000 more.
“If we're going to recruit and retain a world class teaching workforce in the state, which is what the children of the state deserve, we have to address the issue of compensation,” Patrick Kelly said.
Kelly is the director of governmental affairs with the Palmetto State Teachers Association, he says with the ongoing teacher vacancies statewide, the increase in pay is crucial for students’ experiences in the classroom.
"We had 1,600 vacant teaching positions at the start of the year, which means literally tens of thousands of students across our state started the year without access to a highly qualified teacher in their classroom,” he said.
Kelly says while there’s still progress to be made, South Carolina has come a long way.
“This year we're up to $47,000, that's more than a 50% increase over seven years ago. It's a significant increase to when I entered the profession 20 years ago, and my starting pay was below $30,000. This is going to start to have a compounding effect on our recruitment and retention efforts in a positive direction,” he said.
An increases in pay not only benefit teachers, but their students as well
“Research consistently shows the number one in school factor on student achievement is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. If we want to have the highest quality teachers in South Carolina, we're going to have to provide the most competitive pay and benefits possible," Kelly said.