It’s pay raises all around for county’s school district

By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net

Every employee in the Darlington County School District gets at least 4 percent more pay under the district’s new budget plan, which quickly won final approval from the school board June 10.

The $95 million budget for fiscal 2019-20 also gives teachers in the district raises averaging 6.8 percent, officials said. The budget sets the starting salary for new teachers at $39,000; new teachers also get a $1,000 sign-up bonus.

The school district’s budget plan raises property taxes by 4.3 mills, but only owners of commercial properties will feel this slight hike. It won’t apply to homeowners.

School-board members have said they were pleased with the budget-writing process, especially the “much-deserved” raises for all employees.

The school board found other things to praise as well during last week’s meeting:

— Fourteen Darlington County Institute of Technology students have been named to summer internships at Hartsville’s Sonoco Products Co. A “signing day” ceremony was held at Sonoco June 10.

The board members lauded the internship program. “We’re preparing our students for the real world,” said board chairman Warren Jeffords.

— All of Darlington County’s public high schools held their 2019 graduations June 6-7, and school officials said the ceremonies were “incredibly well-organized.” County schools superintendent Tim Newman said, “It was a great week. … I shook a lot of hands.”

— Newman reported that the school district got a positive evaluation from AdvancED, a Georgia-based nonprofit group that conducts “on-site reviews” of school districts and educational institutions “to help these institutions continuously improve.” The district received a score of 310, which is above the average score of about 280 achieved by other institutions AdvancED has reviewed in the past five years.

The county school district “has a strong leadership team that has provided a clear focus for improvement efforts,” AdvancED said in its review.

“ … The system has had three superintendents over the past three years. The current superintendent (Newman) is in his first year and has already gained the respect of internal and external stakeholders.”

One parent, the group said in its report, told the AdvancED review team: “School leaders are willing to change and improve. There are no sacred cows in this district!”

Newman, the report said, has set up quarterly “cabinet” meetings with business leaders, religious leaders, teachers and others. He plans to add cabinet meetings with students next year, the report said.

The report had some criticisms. “There is a tendency for the schools in the system to operate independently of one another, which leads to the inconsistent implementation of improvement initiatives and can impact student learning,” the report said.

“Staff members at each school visited by the (AdvancED team) shared information related to improvement initiatives that had been implemented. When asked if other schools in the system had also adopted the promising practices, the team was often told, ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t think so.’”

School board member Jamie Morphis said he was surprised to see that the report ranked the district’s use of “digital resources” in teaching and operations as only “emerging” rather than a higher rank such as “meets expectations” or “exceeds expectations.” Morphis said the district is far ahead of other districts in the area in the way it uses technology.

“I’m kind of wondering, how could you be any more engaged than we are” in using technology, Morphis said.
Newman said that, by the standards AdvancED uses, the district got a pretty positive assessment on technology.

Looking at the report overall, Newman said, “I think it was a positive experience for the district. … I believe this is confirmation we’re on the right path.”

Author: Stephan Drew

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