While Daufuskie students ride free on Haig Point Ferry each day, teachers are on their own
Vague language in the transportation contract between Beaufort County schools and the Haig Point Ferry Company caused teachers who live on Daufuskie Island to question why they’re not allowed to use the boat to get to work on Hilton Head, especially when they did so previously — and the school district pays to transport students taking the same trip.
One teacher bought her own boat to get to school, and despite over 100 job openings, a handful of former teachers who want to work for Beaufort County say they can’t. The public county ferry doesn’t leave early enough or return late enough for teachers.
An annual pass would cost more than $24,000 a year.
Once teachers started raising questions earlier this month, Superintendent Frank Rodriquez signed an addendum to the $145,000 contract explicitly saying that rides were for students only.
The contract reached in August 2021 included language that allowed “BCSD students, teachers and contractors between Daufuskie Island and Hilton Head Island,” and the addendum Rodriquez signed March 15 clarified the ferry is only for staff going to Daufuskie Island Elementary School and island students going to Hilton Head.
“We do not pay for teachers’ transportation anywhere else, so it’s an equity issue for us,” Chief Operations Officer Robert Oettings said, explaining they have many teachers with long commutes to their schools.
Oettings said while it may have been unclear in the initial contract, the service was never intended for teachers going to Hilton Head. Teachers can’t, for example, ride a school bus to school with students, he said.
The Haig Point Club and Community Association, essentially the community’s Home Owners Association, owns and operates the Haig Point Ferry Company. Aside from those included in the school district contract, only Haig Point Club members are allowed on the ferry. Teachers have the option to pay the $24,377 — nearly half of Beaufort County’s $56,357 average teacher salary — yearly to join the club to get access to the ferry along with other amenities.
The Haig Point Club said they’re merely following the contract awarded through a public bidding process.
“Where we’re drawing the line is what we’re contractually obligated to do,” said Henry Criss, Haig Point Club director of marine operations. “If we’re going to let (teachers going to Hilton Head) ride the ferry, the question is, is it right for me to subsidize this person’s commute with (Haig Point Club members’) money?”
Although parents were never included in the contact, for the past couple of years they’ve been able to use the Haig Point ferry to pick their kids up from school or go to school-sponsored activities, according to parent Laura Cregan.
“Anything that ever occurred outside of the contract was a courtesy of Haig Point,” said Kaylee Yinger, who coordinated the transportation contract. ”That is something that we’ve discussed with them and so if that is something that they decide to continue to do, it will be offered as a courtesy from Haig Point.”
Cregan’s pass was denied for the first time Wednesday. It was for the same trip she’s been taking four times a month since school started.
“When I registered my child for school and went to go pick up his ferry passes from school I was told (by an administrator) that should I ever need to go over for something , as a protocol you contact me. I will get you a pass. It’s valid for one day,” Cregan said. Now, “(they) basically told me that I chose to live here and I have to deal with it.”
The July 2014 contract allowed teachers to ride the Haig Point Ferry to get to schools on Hilton Head until a 2017 amendment, similar to the one Rodriguez recently made, was added by then-superintendent Jeffery Moss.
“I guess that this is kind of a repeat history,” Yinger said. “There was an explanation of scope to define working only on Daufuskie Island and that was issued in 2017.”
Then, from March 2019 to June 2020 teachers were allowed to use the Haig Point Ferry to get to schools on Hilton Head, according to Yinger. During that time, the district paid the Haig Point Club $370 a month per teacher.
Commuting to work via water
When teacher Ashley Hollingsworth moved to Daufuskie, she had “no issues and no (Haig Point) membership” riding the Haig Point Ferry in 2016, which aligns with previous contracts.
She’s since been told she can’t ride the ferry, and now her commute to work looks a lot different. She can’t ride the public county ferry because the first boat leaves at 8:30 a.m. and the last boat returns at 4 p.m, which doesn’t accommodate a teacher’s schedule, according Hollingsworth.
Instead, she boards on her own small, personal boat before dawn. Her friend, Stewart Yarborough, navigates the boat around 40 minutes to Hilton Head, where she then drives her car to the island’s Early Childhood Center.
Yarbourough’s family first came to Daufuskie in 1921 as fishermen and keepers of the local lighthouse.
“We’ve experienced some really, really terrible weather. Fog to where you couldn’t see past the boat,” Yarborough said. “It’s extremely dangerous and we’ve experienced high winds and waves 3 and 4 feet tall in the Sound.”
The ferry would be a lot safer, he said. Those boats have radar, unlike Hollingsworth’s which can’t detect if there is another boat in the water, and are larger. Recently, Hollingsworth’s boat sunk while docked and Yarbourough drives her to Hilton Head with one of his own boats.
There also are at least two former teachers on Daufuskie who say they want to work for Beaufort County schools, but can’t because they can’t find a way to work.
Krisey Moller moved to Daufuskie last year, and has more than 16 years of teaching experience. If she could find a way over to Hilton Head “(Teaching in Beaufort County) would be the first thing I pursue.”
“I love to teach math,” she said. “I would love to go over there and fill one of the empty positions that they have.”
Cregan, the Daufuskie parent, who was a teacher for 20 years in New Jersey, agreed, but said for now she works in educational publishing from home.
“‘The water is wider,” she says, referencing Lowcountry author Pat Conroy’s memoir “The Water is Wide” as he struggles to commute to Daufuskie as a Beaufort County teacher. Except it’s flipped: Teachers are trying to get from Daufuskie to the mainland.
The 15-20 kids who ride the Haig Point Ferry to Hilton Head each morning could also benefit from teacher supervision on the boat, Cregan said, even though the contract mandates a crew member “ensure student supervision and safety.”
As much as they want to help teachers, they can’t make an exception, otherwise anyone could use the private ferry, said Adam Martin, Haig Point Club director of sales and marketing.
“Where do you draw the line from a public service provider perspective? Doctors, nurses, if it’s an attorney that works for the county,” Martin said. “(Transporting public service providers to Hilton Head) was not asked of us in the procurement process.”
It’s unclear whether the contract could be amended to include teachers before it runs out. Neither Haig Point Club or the school district wanted to speculate about future contracts.
“That’s a hypothetical. So I can’t necessarily answer that at this time,” Martin said. “We have a CEO, so we’d go through the proper process to help answer that question.”
School district spokesperson Candace Bruder said the district doesn’t want to speculate on future matters.
“We’re discussing the contract as it currently stands,” she said.
This story was originally published March 26, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
