Nearly a quarter of Beaufort Co. teachers call off on day of protest. Schools stay open
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story reported that 415 Beaufort County School District teachers had request off for Wednesday. The district revised the number late Tuesday afternoon after a review of its numbers showed that 27 teachers were expected to be absent for reasons other than personal leave.
Beaufort County Schools will open on Wednesday despite nearly 400 district teachers — about 23 percent of the total teaching staff — taking personal leave on the same day that educators across the state planned to walk out in protest and rally at the capital for higher pay and more resources.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” spokesperson Jim Foster said Tuesday afternoon.
Thousands of South Carolina teachers, fed up with what they see as a continuing lack of action from state lawmakers, are expected to march at the state’s capital Wednesday morning. The protest is organized by the grassroots group SC for Ed.
On Monday, state superintendent of the Department of Education Molly Spearman said she did not support the walkout and accused teachers who planned to attend the rally of “walking out on their obligations.”
Most South Carolina public schools will remain open Wednesday, but in the days leading up to the march at least seven districts have announced closures due to low teacher attendance, according to WLTX TV station in Columbia.
Beaufort County’s school district, which employs around 1,700 teachers, has more than 250 substitutes lined up to help cover for the 388 teachers expected to be absent Wednesday, Foster said.
Schools that aren’t as heavily affected by the absences will loan staff to schools with lower teacher attendance. Bluffton schools had the highest number of teachers asking for the day off, Foster said.
About a third of the district’s office staff will also pitch in.
All told, the district was able to minimize the impact to about three classrooms per school that won’t have teachers, Foster said.
Last week, Hilton Head Island Middle School teacher Bridgette Frazier called on the district to close the school for the day so that more teachers could attend.
“I challenge Beaufort County School District and its Board of Education to show solidarity with its educators and close school on May 1st, 2019, so we can exercise our right to exist and educate the minds of the future with respect and equity,” she wrote in a Facebook post last week.
This story was originally published April 30, 2019 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Nearly a quarter of Beaufort Co. teachers call off on day of protest. Schools stay open."