Letter: School sales tax dodges issue of teacher pay

Unfortunately, the Beaufort County Board of Education has decided to put a 1 percent sales tax referendum before the voters in November. The only reason it is doing so is because the de-facto chairman of the school board, superintendent Jeff Moss, realizes that the makeup of the school board will change in November and his proposal may not be approved by the new board.

There is no legitimate reason the proposal should be on the ballot this November or even the following November. It doesn’t make sense building new school rooms when you are unable to staff the existing school rooms with qualified teachers. The biggest problem facing the school board is hiring and retaining qualified teachers. That won’t happen unless and until teachers are compensated with fair salaries.

Why is it that Moss is paid a salary comparable to school districts in the state with twice the student population of our school district? This while our teachers are paid less than their counterparts in those districts.

Moss now faces a state Ethics Commission hearing on ethics charges that the majority of the school board ignored. The board was not only satisfied with Moss’ handling of his nepotism rule change but it basically adopted the change.

Voters don’t listen to board members who falsely claim we are hurting the children if we vote “no” on the referendum. It is they who are hurting the children by not raising the salaries of teachers. New classrooms without qualified teachers do not help our children.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 11:53 AM with the headline "Letter: School sales tax dodges issue of teacher pay."