HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – Horry County School Board members are the second highest paid in the state but they are considering voting themselves a pay raise.
Chairman Joe DeFeo says their compensation isn’t matching their workload.“Right now the workload on school board members is far more than it was 10 years ago.” He says members can spend up to 30 hours a week on board duties during the school year.
“It’s not just the meetings. It’s the conversations, it’s the emails and things in between meetings. It’s dealing with parental concerns of 44 thousand students. They don’t always call up the principal first,” says DeFeo.
Board members currently make $9,600 a year, which is the second highest in the state. DeFeo believes they should receive the same amount as Horry County Council Members, which is almost 16 thousand dollars a year. “I think the jobs are very much equivalent. Some of their problems take a lot longer to deal with because you’re talking about zoning, businesses etc. But we have a lot more because we have a lot more constituents.”
DeFeo says the workload relative to the pay also restricts the types of people who can run for school board. “I’ve talked to people about running for school board and when I tell them what it entails, they say they can’t do it. This job should at least be to the point where the average person can consider running for it and they can’t. Unless they do not work or are a lawyer, self-employed or retired.”
