Greenville County Schools approved a revised budget on June 15, following an agreement between South Carolina’s legislative bodies for a $1,000 increase on teacher’s base pay.
Greenville County teachers will earn a minimum $42,515 per year. The additional pay will cost the district $6.96 million.
Greenville County Schools board approves $714M budget for FY22
Nurses, audiologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists will also receive a $1,000 raise under Senate and House budget proposals and bus drivers will see a raise from $16.32 to $16.57, according to Superintendent Burke Royster.
The new expenses for the district come to about $7.2 million. Royster said about $6.85 million will come from the school district’s pockets.
The pay increases will help attract and retain teachers at a time when there are 600 openings heading into the fall. The entry pay is one of the highest in the state, he said.
In discussing the salaries of staff, Royster said the district continues to look at economic trends. “We always watch all those trends out there to feature how might that affect both what things cost us and what things cost for our employees and how might that affect income and tax rates,” Royster said. “Preparing this year’s budget, those things were all relatively positive indicators, but that might change over time.”
