All teachers at these 2 SC schools must reapply for their jobs, officials say. Here’s why
The Greenville County school board approved a pilot program calling for everyone who works in two schools, one of which is at the bottom of all South Carolina schools, to reapply for their jobs, and whoever is hired would receive up to $12,500 in bonuses based on performance.
More than a dozen present and former teachers at Lakeview Middle, which has had low assessments for two decades, in essence begged the board not to approve it, saying they felt the district unfairly put all the responsibility on teachers.
The school is located in a high-poverty area, some students are subjected to abuse and neglect and most do not speak English as their first language.
Also included in the plan is Alexander Elementary, which on the most recent state report card was ranked average, an improvement over the last report. One trustee, Jeff Cochran, voted against the plan saying Alexander has made improvements and should not have been included. Alexander is a feeder school to Lakeview.
Personnel not hired at either school would be reassigned to one of the district’s 106 schools.
Chelsea Fleming, a former Lakeview teacher who now works at Fisher Middle, called the teachers “warriors” who are ready to take on the challenge of a struggling Title 1 school.
Lakeview is in the bottom 5% of all Title 1 schools in South Carolina and faces a takeover by the state Department of Education if something doesn’t improve in a year.
Tanner Woody, a 7th grade English teacher at Lakeview, said the problem is multiple open positions and lack of discipline.
The school doesn’t need “someone standing in the back of the classroom with a clipboard,” Woody said.
“Lakeview is magic,” said Joanna Castillo, now a science teacher at Fisher MIddle.
She said students come into the school and find caring teachers who offer healthy relationships.
The plan could upend those connections, she said.
The trustees debated the plan for more than an hour, after a four-hour discussion two weeks ago.
Trustee Lynda Leventis Wells, whose background includes working as the deputy psychologist and investigator for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department as well as several education jobs in Greenville County, was the most impassioned opponent.
She said it was wrongheaded for students who are failing to automatically get a 50 and for them to pass during COVID when they didn’t attend online classes.
One teacher found discipline so lacking they quit before the first nine weeks were up, she said.
A teacher had two students with more than 50 referrals for discipline problems yet the students remained in the class.
“Have some teachers been there too long? I’m sure, but these teachers who we heard from tonight love these students,” she said.
She worried that new and more experienced hires might be going there for the wrong reason, bonuses and padding their retirement.
The minimum bonus is $5,000 a year.
The four-year pilot program will cost $3.3 million in Title 1 money and $4.5 million from the general fund to cover bonuses.
In the just-announced state school report cards, Lakeview scored 33 of 100 and received its lowest scores in academic achievement and school climate.
The trustees approved the plan 8-4.
