No plexiglass, more teachers: Here’s Horry Schools’ preliminary plans for next year
As the unprecedented 2020-21 school year impacted so heavily by COVID-19 precautions comes to a close, Horry County Schools officials are working to finalize plans for 2021-22.
While the school board finalized the budget Monday night, many plans are still preliminary and open to changes as the district attempts to balance safety protocols and addressing student learning losses. Here are some of the primary questions facing the district, and what officials have revealed so far:
What safety protocols will remain in place?
Superintendent Rick Maxey announced Monday that the plexiglass barriers installed in the classrooms will be removed this summer. The district used more than $5 million in federal funds to install those barriers as a prerequisite to fully reopening each school, but they became a point of contention among many teachers and parents.
Maxey noted the district will have to hire an outside contractor to disassemble and haul the barriers away, but that contract will need to go through the procurement process.
Face coverings, another controversial safety measure, will continue to be required for students unless their parents sign the opt-out form as long as they continue to be recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Maxey said.
District officials also provided an overview of their safe return plan, required in order to receive additional federal funds, and are seeking public input before that plan is finalized.
Velna Allen, HCS director of student services, explained as part of the plan that schools will continue limiting nonessential visitors and activities, monitoring spread of the virus and promoting hygiene initiatives.
How will student learning loss be addressed?
The latest round of federal funds through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund is set to provide an additional $125 million to HCS, and at least 20% of that money must go toward addressing academic loss.
Boone Myrick, chief academic officer, noted that the district has submitted and is awaiting on approval of its academic recovery plan, which spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said would be provided to The Sun News after state approval.
Directors of each school level presented their proposal for how to spend those funds, including hiring additional reading and math interventionists in each school and purchasing outside instructional materials and programs.
Board members suggested seeking even more interventionists than the directors were requesting, which each indicated they’d be happy to accept, though Myrick and Maxey noted the pool of potential employees available to hire could be limited in certain areas as they’ll be competing with other districts across the state that also received federal funds.
Their requests added up to about $26.7 million spread across three years, which is the time frame permitted under federal guidance.
How will the district retain teachers and employees?
The board unanimously approved the 2021-22 comprehensive budget Monday totaling about $777 million, including more than $485 million from the General Fund.
Included in the budget, notably, is the implementation of its employee compensation study from last year, adding more than $9.4 million to bring all employee salaries in line with other similarly sized school districts and businesses in surrounding areas.
The pay increases come as South Carolina school districts face “a potentially catastrophic teacher retention crisis,” according to survey results an educator-led advocacy group released in March.
The SC for Ed survey, which garnered more than 2,000 responses from teachers and school staff in November, showed that 39% of respondents were not planning to return to their current positions.
Survey data showed 185 staff, including 166 teachers, from HCS responded, and more than 37% stated they were planning to quit before the start of the 2021-22 school year.
Concerns about safety in the classroom and not being respected as professionals were among the primary issues that respondents listed, though the most prominent complaint was about the lack of salary increases.
The budget, which will also include the return of a district-wide athletic director, will require the use of about $19.8 million in unassigned fund balance, though Chief Financial Officer John Gardner has frequently pointed out that fund balance is rarely actually used due to ongoing staff vacancies throughout the school year.
