‘They deserve this’: Beaufort Co. teachers to get raise, bonus in June, school officials say
This story will be updated.
Beaufort County public teachers will receive a 3% cost-of-living raise in June that’s retroactive to the beginning of the school year following the school board’s approval of the increase in March, according to a press release from the district.
“This pay increase comes at a crucial time for our employees,” Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said. “Our educators and staff worked extremely hard during the pandemic to keep learning moving forward, and they deserve this.”
The funds were approved by the board during a work session March 25, according to school spokesperson Candace Bruder. The announcement was not made until Tuesday because the district was working on the “logistics” so that they could “provide people with complete and accurate information from the onset,” Bruder said.
The money for the salary increase comes from the district’s 2022 General Fund operating budget and will cost $5.5 million. Teachers will receive the salary increase on June 10, the press release said.
Assuming a teacher is paid $54,360 as an annual salary, Bruder said, “the average teacher will get a retroactive payment of $1,630 before deductions.” This salary is based on a teacher with 10 years of experience and a master’s degree, she said.
Figures for teachers who are lower on the salary scale with less experience were not immediately available.
A call-out for job candidates on Indeed, an online job-posting platform, welcoming candidates to apply for a high school teaching position within the Beaufort County district advertised an annual salary ranging from $37,100 to $46,900. A fourth-grade teaching position at the district is advertised as having an annual salary anywhere from $37,200 to $47,200. Based on those figures, a teacher making $37,100 a year could receive $1,113 before deductions.
In addition to the salary increase, teachers who had to teach lessons online and in-person for the 2021-22 school year due to the pandemic will receive a bonus. In December 2021, teachers were paid $1,000 to prepare for virtual and in-person instruction after a state legislature bill stipulated schools must pay educators extra for the dual-modality classes.
Those who had students in quarantine who delivered virtual teaching will receive additional compensation ranging from $250 to $550, depending on how long they taught both online and in-person, the press release said. The bonuses will be taken from the school’s Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) federal funds totaling up to $2 million of the $82.1 million received from the government for COVID-19 relief.
The bonuses were approved in September the same week an outbreak of the virus forced at least one Beaufort County school to go completely online, according to previous reporting by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
Meanwhile, at a scheduled board meeting Tuesday night, the contracts of at least five of the district’s 1,700 teachers were not renewed for the 2022-23 school year. This comes as schools across the country struggle with a national teacher shortage following the pandemic. Bruder declined to speak about the specifics surrounding the contracts, saying it is a “personnel matter.”
According to data from a survey conducted by the National Education Association in January 2022, at least 55% of educators plan on leaving the profession “sooner than planned” because of stress, burnout and other pandemic-related issues. Of those surveyed, 86% said they saw more colleagues leaving in droves or retiring early because of the pandemic.
Currently, there are 44 positions open in the elementary schools, 41 in middle schools and 38 high school openings within the Beaufort County School District, according to Frontline, a recruiting and hiring platform used by the district.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 1:27 PM.
