Charleston Co. teachers concerned after budget delay

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Teachers are making their concerns known after the Charleston County School Board voted to delay next year’s budget in favor of continuing this year’s budget.

This is the first time in recent memory that the board has voted to use the previous year’s budget instead of adopting a new one. What that means is spending will be frozen at its current level, all while inflation has made everything more expensive.

Board members were fairly well united in the decision, wanting more detail about the district’s various accounts and time to consider all of the new proposals. They could still approve the new budget which comes with a tax increase and dip into the district’s savings account, but time is running out which is why the board wants to continue the current budget until they get all of their questions answered.

The problem is, the proposed budget would have boosted teacher starting salaries to more than $50,000 while the continued budget would simply give teachers a $5,000 bonus. A third of which would be taken out for taxes.

Jody Stallings, a teacher and member of the Charleston Teacher Alliance, says teachers have been working with the administration all year to get teacher salaries raised to a livable wage, and the raises are highly anticipated.

“It would be a disaster if it ends up that we don’t get this raise because I think there’s an expectation of it and if that takes place, I think you’re looking at an Armageddon situation in terms of being unable to fill the empty classrooms because teachers are just going to walk away,” Stallings said.

There is still hope that the board can get the proposed budget approved before the end of the month.

The timeline is somewhat convoluted now, but a new draft of the budget could be presented early next week.

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