By Betsy Finklea
Dr. John Kirby discussed deferred maintenance and teacher salary discrepancies at the Dillon County Board of Education meeting recently.
Dr. Kirby said that when he and Superintendent Ray Rogers first started, the state was giving them $30 per pupil for building maintenance. He said that was a good little bit of money to take care of roofs, sidewalks, etc. Kirby said several years ago that stopped, and they were never told why. Since this happened, it is 100 percent a local issue. Kirby said over the years, they have not had building money to take care of this kind of maintenance.
Kirby said 20 years ago when they started talking about replacing all of the buildings, it would have cost $100 million to replace all of the buildings at that time. About 10-17 years later when they passed the capital sale tax, it took $70 million to replace two buildings.
‘Somehow, somewhere, somebody, sometime is going to have to take care of these maintenance issues,” said Kirby. Kirby said they have done everything they can get grants as District Four has, and he has reduced their cash flow to the most minimal level that the auditor will allow to take care of the building needs.
Kirby said that Latta has $2.6 million in needs right now including safety issues, the baseball field lights, playground issues, and more. He said Dillon’s was three times as much.
Kirby said the Dillon County School Board is the owner of the buildings, and as the user of the building, he was there to say they had done all they can and that they need a plan to move forward to deal with deferred maintenance. He said they were looking for guidance.
Kirby said he thinks there are four ways to solve this: 1) Taxes, 2) Reducing operating costs to free up money in the regular budget for maintenance, 3) Continuing to get grants and go after state funds, and 4) Including the deferred maintenance in the next phase of maintenance.
Kirby said another issue was salary discrepancies. Horry County pays $7,000 to $9,000 more. Kirby said his nemeses was Florence. Teachers are being recruited heavily due to shortages, and Florence pays about $4,000 more. He said his ideal teacher has about 10-15 years experience and makes a medium salary. He said their own children are about to start college and $3,000-$5,000 makes a difference when one is looking at college costs and additions to retirement. These issues are going to be looked at by the County Board.