School district’s budget looking ‘teacher-friendly, employee-friendly’
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The Darlington County school board has launched next fiscal year’s budget plan, a proposed $95 million package that would give every school district employee at least a 4 percent pay raise.
The board, without debate, gave preliminary approval to the proposed 2019-20 budget during its May 13 meeting.
The debate – if there is any — is expected when the board holds a work session on the budget May 24.
The budget plan would set the starting salary for first-year teachers in Darlington County at $40,000, officials said. The average pay raise for all Darlington County School District teachers would be about 6.8 percent. (These numbers could change if the Legislature’s state budget plans change.)
School board chairman Warren Jeffords of Lamar, who has served on the board for about 25 years, expects to see little or no blood on the floor as a result of this year’s budget talks. “I don’t see any particular land mines,” he said in an interview.
“We feel good about the budget,” Jeffords said. “It’s teacher-friendly; it’s employee-friendly.”
With raises for all school-district employees plugged into the budget as it now stands, Jeffords said, everything seems to be going “fairly smooth.”
In other business, the school board approved a plan to relocate third-grade students at Washington Street Elementary in Hartsville to West Hartsville Elementary for the next school year. The reasoning behind the move involves the way that the state records and reports students’ “grade sets,” officials said.
Grades 3-5 are reported in one “set,” said school district spokeswoman Audrey Childers. Washington Street Elementary is set up as grades K-3, she said. This past year, Washington Street’s scores were “lumped together” with West Hartsville’s, she said. That effectively denied Washington Street third-graders the “credit” and recognition they otherwise would have received.
The school district took this problem to the parents of rising third-graders at Washington Street and asked for their thoughts, she said.
A meeting of parents resulted in the solution that the school board endorsed. But it’s only for the next school year; after that, area students will be attending the new elementary school the district is building in Hartsville.
Also during the May 13 meeting, the school board voted to award Goforth, Brown & Associates contracts for “architectural services” at both the new Hartsville elementary school and the new elementary school being built in Lamar. The contracts total more than $300,000.
The school board also recognized more than two dozen county students or groups for accomplishments during the school year, including:
— Chauncey Ryan Goodson, Darlington High School: 12 years’ perfect attendance
— Milaysia Faye McGee, Rosenwald Middle School: Eight years’ perfect attendance
— Joshua Johnson, Darlington Middle School; Curtis Lear, Hartsville Middle School; Ashley Niu, Hartsville Middle School: Recognized by Duke Talent Identification Program, which supports academically gifted students
— Martayshia Williams, DCIT/Hartsville High; Shayla Walters, DCIT/Hartsville High; Jaelyn McDonald, DCIT/Hartsville High: First place in DECA Inc.’s Virtual Business Accounting Challenge, an online team event
— Eric Douglas, Mayo High School for Math, Science & Technology; Christopher Colclough, Mayo; Deidre Currin, Mayo: First place, digital video production, 2019 S.C. Future Business Leaders of America conference
— John James, DCIT/Hartsville High; Neil Martin, DCIT/Darlington High: 2019 SkillsUSA state competition top honors
— Hartsville High School Band Program: Outstanding Performance Award, S.C. Band Directors Association
— Darlington High School Symphonic Band: Chosen to perform in the SCBDA State Concert Festival
— Hunter Thompson, Hartsville High: Chosen to perform in the SCBDA All-State Band Clinic; also recipient of Archibald Rutledge Music Scholarship, top music scholarship in the state
— Fara James and Mary Hannah Parker, Hartsville High: First place, 2019 State Fair Student Art Competition
— Kerlyn Mondesir, Hartsville High: First place, SCETV’s “Deconstruct the Reconstruction” contest
— Madie Andrews, Darlington High: Selected as a member of S.C. Coaches Association of Women’s Sports 2019 All-State Softball Team
— TeAsia McPhail, Hartsville High: Selected to play on the S.C. Coaches Association of Women’s Sports North-South All-Star Softball Team
— Tyler Twiford, Lamar High; Garrett Gainey, Hartsville High: Selected to play in North-South All-Star Baseball Game
— Kadasia Evans, Darlington High: 2018, 2019 S.C. AAAA High Jump Champion
— Caleb Caldwell, Hartsville High: Selected to compete in S.C. High School Soccer Coaches Association North-South Soccer Classic
— Mitchell Vance, Hartsville High: Selected by S.C. Athletic Coaches Association to play in 2019 North-South All-Star Golf Match
