FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – Florence-Darlington Technical College is on a hiring freeze until further notice.
Interim President Edward Bethea says it’s all about cutting back on the budget and better controlling expenses. He tells News13 the school is not looking to hire any new staff members and the freeze could last anywhere from 6 months to a year.
Last week, the school board approved a $39 million budget that they cut by about $2 million. Bethea presented a $1.5 million surplus that is set aside for emergencies and unforeseen circumstances. He also told commissioners that the school is currently not looking to hire any new staff members. That includes positions in financial aid, enrollment, admissions, and the registrar’s office.
“Basically we have a large number of employees that if they happen to retire or take another job, we’d probably look at whether we need to fill that position or not. It’s just basically something that we had on and off throughout the history of the college. Sometimes you’re hiring and sometimes you’re not,” he said. “We’ve had hiring freezes occasionally when we’ve felt like we needed to control expenses.”
Bethea says the priority is making sure the school has enough money at the end of the year for academic equipment and technology.
“It’s to have more money for those areas instead of for hiring people is to be able to provide the technology to teach the students,” he said.
Bethea tells us he doesn’t predict any negative impacts on students or classroom. We spoke to one sophomore who says he’s not worried about the budget cuts or the hiring freeze.
“It’s not like I’m depending on the schools money to benefit me,” said Benjamin Hill.
According to Bethea, the school is more staffed right now than it’s been in the past few decades. He says there are about 260 employees at Florence-Darlington Technical College.
