How statewide increased teacher pay is set to fight teacher shortages in Lexington County’s 5 school districts

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - WIS took a look at how the state-wide teacher shortage is impacting the five school districts in Lexington County.

This comes after the legislature approved raising the statewide minimum salary for first-year teachers from $42,500 to $47,000.

This is what each of the five districts in Lexington County will be paying their teachers for the upcoming school year:

Lexington 1--- $47,000

Lexington 2--- $50,000

Lexington 3---$47,500

Lexington 4--$50,000

Lexington Richland 5--$47,500

WIS also looked at the correlation to the number of teacher vacancies or openings for those 5 districts:

Lexington 1---Reports 23

Lexington 2--- Reports 14

Lexington ​3--?

Lexington 4--- Reports 3

Lexington ​5---?

According to Lexington School District 2 superintendent Dr. Brenda Hafner, the district anticipates the salary changes for the 2024-2025 school year will make a significant difference.

“Our Board of Trustees spoke, loudly and clearly, of the value they hold for this profession by approving a starting salary of $50,000 for our first-year teachers, as well as increases for every other teacher and district employee,” Dr. Hafner said. “There are few things more important than the education of our future generations, and valuing the contributions of every employee who plays a role in that process every day is so very important,” said, Hafner.

But money isn’t the only reason causing a shortage according to the State Department of Education

“There’s no one thing that is causing this, it’s a variety of things. I’d say student behavior and cell phones are a big part of that. That’s just something we hear about over and over again, student discipline. And the common denominator between student behavior and discipline is cell phones”, said a spokesperson with the SCDE.

According to a memorandum sent by the SCDE to school districts across the state:

There are a number of things contributing to the teacher shortage, like salary, student behavior, and cell phone usage. The SCDE conducted a survey for teachers across the state specifically regarding the use of cell phones in school.

That survey showed:

92% of teachers supported a supported policy that would limit student cell phone access and 55% of those supported a complete ban during the school day.

83% of high school teachers say that cell phones distract students in the classroom.

Some themes that were found among the teacher surveys were cheating/academic dishonesty, social issues, cyberbullying, behavioral issues, teacher morale and lost learning.

The SCDE found some of the most alarming data came from instructional time that was missed due to cell phone usage.

“The federal chronic absenteeism threshold (for when a student is absent from school) is set at 10% of instructional time missed. Applying that same methodology to teachers’ estimations of learning time lost due to cell phones would mean that between 55-70% of students are “chronically absent” (while still being physically present) due to cell phone distraction.”

-

Just recently the general assembly included a state budget proviso that would direct each district to implement a policy banning cell phone use during the school day.

“We are hopeful with this new policy and these new initiatives that we will address this and keep those teachers that may be frustrated, to stick around,” said a spokesperson with the SCDE

While retirement is adding to the vacancies. the SCDE found that teachers who do leave are teachers who have only been working in the field for less than five years. They say by targeting cell phone use, student behavior, and teacher salaries, they hope to make a substantial difference in teacher shortages across the state.

-

Below is the study the SCDE conducted on cellphone use in schools:

Feel more informed, prepared, and connected with WIS. For more free content like this, subscribe to our email newsletter, and download our apps. Have feedback that can help us improve? Click here.

Copyright 2024 WIS. All rights reserved.