Teachers and parents decry proposed budget changes and redeployments at Berkeley County school board meeting

Public commenters at the Berkeley County Board of Education meeting on May 4 pressed the board to reverse or clarify proposed budget decisions they say will destabilize schools and push educators out of the district.

Kathleen “Kat” Lowe, president of the Berkeley County Education Association, told the board the contracts just released “look exactly the same and actually a little bit less,” and described the package as a “fire sale,” arguing that language on redeployment and lack of clear pay projections create instability for teachers. “When you reduce the value of teachers, you’ve reduced the value and stability of our schools,” she said.

Sarah Khalil, a BCSD parent and 15-year district employee speaking for the association, urged the board to open meaningful dialogue with staff and families. “We show up every meeting. We speak. We wait. We hope. And what do we get? Silence dressed as process,” she said, asking for responses beyond email and delayed calendar slots.

Multiple speakers raised staffing concerns tied to the district’s proposed allocation changes. Amanda Hebel said the budget workshop lacked clarity about how savings would be achieved and cited outside reporting on local tax abatements to question lost local revenue. “In two articles published by Good Jobs First, we lost a total of $385,500,000 from 2017 to 2022,” Hebel said, adding that she understood the district has been an outlier in recent years. She pressed the board for transparency about where the administration’s projected $3.5 million in savings would come from, noting a staff presenter had listed $2.1 million.

Students and arts program supporters urged the board to save the Berkeley Center for the Arts (BCA) creative writing major. Journey Murray, a freshman in the BCA creative writing program, read from a petition started by poet Marcus Amaker and said the petition — which she said had 562 signers — urges the district and school board to reinstate the creative writing major and launch an annual recruitment campaign. “The solution to low enrollment is not elimination. It is awareness,” Murray said.

A district librarian with nearly 20 years of experience, Lauren Bogholz, warned that cuts would eliminate two librarian positions at each of the district’s four largest high schools, and outlined librarians’ responsibilities, from inventorying 15,000 books to supporting thousands of devices and coordinating digital citizenship programs. “Does that not sound like one full-time job?” she asked.

Board members did not take action on the public comments during the meeting; the board’s public-comment policy allows speakers to raise concerns but generally reserves action for later agenda items or committee work. Superintendent Dr. Dixon later described the budget process as a “strategic realignment” intended to preserve progress while addressing fiscal constraints but did not announce changes in response to the night’s public comments.

The board will continue the budget process at upcoming workshops and readings; speakers at the meeting urged faster, clearer public communication and specific answers about pay, redeployments and program decisions.