LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — The teacher shortage in South Carolina is nothing new, but one school district in the Midlands is taking a new approach to fixing it, an approach that some educators say will only make things worse.
“Teachers are going to be walking into class, underprepared, because they weren't given the time to adequately prepare,” said Patrick Kelly, a teacher and director for government affairs for the Palmetto State Teacher’s Association.
Lexington-Richland School District Five is working to get a state limit waived, to allow teachers in the district to teach more.
Some teachers, like Kelly, say it’s a band-aid fix.
“I certainly understand why school districts are looking at this because we have a critical educator shortage in South Carolina and we need to get certified highly qualified teachers in front of every student. But at the end of the day, this approach is short sighted.”
Sherry East, president of the SC Educators Association, agrees.
“Is that the best case scenario? Absolutely not,” East said. “Do we think it should be the habit or the norm? Absolutely not. But we're in tough times right now.”
The waiver allows teachers to temporarily fill some of those vacancies during planning periods.
State rules say teachers can’t teach more than 1500 minutes a week, and can’t be assigned classes that require more than 4 preparations.
“But you need time to craft a learning experience,” Kelly said. “You need time to design assessments. You need time to grade assessments.”
With the waiver, teachers will be allowed to teach over that limit, not required.
East says this makes all the difference.
“If a teacher voluntarily gives up their pay for, you know, their planning time for money, that would be an option that we are not opposed to,” East said. “We don't want anyone to go without planning as a requirement.”
Lexington-Richland 5’s hiring portal shows 83 openings as of today. 25 of those are labeled as teaching positions.
Lexington-Richland 5 was not available for an interview Friday, and referred us to a letter they presented to the school board about this issue.
It says, in part, “recruitment continues to be an issue in critical needs areas throughout the school district”. “Releasing schools from this requirement will allow the district to continue to provide additional prime instructional time to students”.
The state board decides whether or not to grant these waivers to districts, so they’ll have the final say on whether this program is implemented in Lexington-Richland 5.
In the Midlands, the state board approved the same waiver for Sumter County Schools.