Horry school board members ponder giving themselves a raise

A pay raise could be in the works for the Horry County school board.

On Monday, David Cox of District 4 brought up the topic as a board discussion item. Board governance policy requires the board to review its pay every odd-numbered year.

“I’d say that it may be time for us to consider giving ourselves somewhat of a raise,” Cox said, adding that school visits and advisory board meetings take up valuable time.

Cox didn’t offer any specifics on the amount of increase.

The last time the school board voted for a raise was in 2007, when the board made $5,400 per board member per year and $7,560 for the chairperson per year.

The vote raised their compensation to $9,600 per year for board members and $13,440 for the chairperson, making it one of the highest-compensated school boards in the state.

Only Greenville County board members earn more, at $10,749 per year. The Greenville County chairperson makes $12,017 per year.

Horry County board members also get $300 per month for travel.

“I know that I wish that I could be at more events, that I wish I could be more informed, but the person who owns my mortgage really doesn’t care,” said Cox. “They just want their money.”

Board chair Joe DeFeo said he would support a pay raise if asked to vote on it, saying that the job doesn’t pay enough for most people to run for office and that school board pay should mirror County Council.

“I think the work is very equivalent,” said DeFeo. “I think, personally, those who do their work and do it well at County Council are underpaid at this point. The council members and board members that I know just do what they have to do to get their work done.

“And if that requires 15 hours this week, fine. If it requires 30 hours this week, if it requires me to drive to six meetings this week, then that’s what I do.”

Horry County Council members make almost $16,000 per year and the council chair makes over $25,000.

“It’s close to twice what we make,” said DeFeo. “And the jobs are the same. They’re different in the nature of the beast, but I do believe in talking to the council members, some of their problems take longer to solve because they’re associated with businesses and roads and things like that.

“However with ours, we have a lot more problems, they’re just ones that we can hopefully fix quicker.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2017 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Horry school board members ponder giving themselves a raise."