Critics: SC law threatens more than just supply of teachers

The passion Lesslie Elementary School Principal Seberina Myles has for her students is illustrated throughout her office and outside her door, where posters with the words "best principal ever" shower the door's frame.

"Education is still exciting. It doesn't get dull," said the 53-year-old Rock Hill native who has been Lesslie's principal for 13 years. "If you're ever having a busy day, you're getting a little bit tired, you go to the kindergarten class, and then you remember why you do what you do."

But Myles' tenure is winding down because of the expiration of a once popular state program — the Teacher Employee Retention Investment, or TERI. Myles is one of nearly 3,380 S.C. public school employees — 6,630 public-sector workers statewide — who will retire effective June 30.

School districts and state agencies fear the end of TERI — designed to get experienced teachers to stay in their classroom beyond retirement age and later expanded to all state workers — will result in a mass exodus of employees, worsening staffing shortages.

Myles could stay in her job. But she could not collect retirement benefits past earning $10,000 — an earnings limitation crafted to navigate workers away from retiring, then coming back to work while drawing their retirement benefits.

Wednesday, an S.C. Senate Finance panel will take up a proposal, by state Sen. Mike Fanning, D-Fairfield, to head off the feared exodus of veteran educators from S.C. schools.

In part, the legislation would allow retired school employees to keep working without the loss of their retirement benefits if they work in areas where they are critical needs because of large numbers of job openings.

“We’ve (the state) invested in 30 years of training (of educators)," Fanning said. "We’re going to lose them.”

'Value what we do'

Myles is not alone.

After this school year, Chis Beard will not be a principal of Rock Hill's Ebenezer Avenue Elementary.

"I feel like this was my life mission, to work with kids," said Beard, a teacher-turned-principal.

But absent a legislative solution to allow him to keep his retirement benefits and work, Beard plans to take his career in a different direction: real estate. Beard considered teaching in North Carolina, only a roughly 30-minute drive away, but wanted to stay in the county where he grew up.

"I know some who are choosing to go across state lines to work," he said. "That is sad for the state of South Carolina. We've invested in training our teachers, and we're going to let them go across state lines to work in another state."

Financially, it would benefit Rock Hill's Rawlinson Road Middle School Principal Jean Dickson to work in North Carolina. She could collect her S.C. retirement pay and be paid by North Carolina.

"That's unfortunate," the 54-year-old Dickson said. "I have spent a lot of time and money in professional development. The district has invested a lot in me."

North Carolina schools are heavily recruiting York County educators to work in the Charlotte area, Fanning said.

Fanning's amended proposal would allow retired teachers and other needed school employees — for example, principals — to stay on the job and be exempt from the $10,000 earnings cap.

However, exempting more school retirees from the $10,000 earnings cap concerns some legislators, who note the state's first objective is to fill current and future vacancies with quality teachers.

“I understand principals can be good leaders," state Sen. Sean Bennett, R-Dorchester, said last week. "(But I'm) not so sure ... a school nurse is really moving the needle.”

Lesslie Elementary principal Myles is watching and waiting.

"I've been sitting here, hoping, thinking it would work out in a positive way."

This story was originally published March 20, 2018 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Critics: SC law threatens more than just supply of teachers."