Horry County school board deserves pay raise; they worked hard for it
The Horry County School Board deserves every bit of the pay raise they have been recently rewarded.
These are individuals who are most likely genuinely committed to their roles and who are performing to a superior degree. They have not been performing in a sleepy little community in another part of the state. Horry County Public Schools is the third-largest school district in South Carolina, serving more than 42,000 students.
Consider the context. This school board has demonstrated the leadership and teamwork necessary to oversee the planning and development of 19 new schools and two new attendance areas since 2000. The population in Horry County grew from 196,600 in 2000 to 309,000 in 2015. They have done this not only at a time of significant population change, but at a time when digital technology was a new and key consideration in the educational planning of Horry County’s newest educational delivery centers.
I noticed that the result of each school board member’s vote on the pay increase was listed in the March 7th edition of The Sun News. It may be the result of policy, but it is embarrassing to the members. I would submit that most all of our school board members have a deep sense of pride in Horry County Schools and its ongoing improvement. They are givers, not political hacks who are there to exhibit their professional status or support a personal, profit-motivated cause.
Why not figure out a better way to make these financial decisions? Why not make it Horry County’s responsibility to decide on issues of pay structure?
I have also read way too many letters to the editor criticizing the pay increase. These school board members have been through the wars to produce the outcomes that we are witnessing today. School board challenges will continue to increase going forward, given the potential fallout from future educational decisions made on the national level.
In the meantime, I’ll end with where I began. I sincerely thank you, Horry County School Board members, for your efforts to make Horry County one of the premiere public school divisions in the state of South Carolina.
The writer lives in Little River.
This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Horry County school board deserves pay raise; they worked hard for it."