Increasing pay, extended school year proposed

Charleston County School Superintendent Nancy McGinely says increasing teachers’ pay is her No. 1 priority for the 2012-13 school year budget.

She also wants the district’s lowest performing schools, those in its Innovation Zone, to have a mandatory summer semester that would last 20 days.

The county school board is meeting today in a workshop to discuss for the first time the upcoming year budget, and McGinley made a brief statement before the session began saying she will ask the board to give teachers the pay they deserve.

Teachers haven’t received an increase in their cost of living pay, or in their step (the money they received for additional experience), for two years. To make up for the past two years would cost an estimated $12 million.

She gave little additional information about the extended school year, but the board was slated to discuss the issue later.