The emotions were palpable as these deserving teachers received monetary awards – some pretty significant – for all their hard work to increase their students' academic achievements.
Berkeley County School District leaders spent the past couple of days surprising six teachers, all of whom taught at College Park Middle during the 2024-2025 school year, in their classrooms by bestowing them with checks courtesy of the South Carolina Department of Education.
Berkeley County School District announced in March that College Park Middle School has been selected as one of 38 schools across South Carolina to receive the Strategic Compensation Pilot Grant from the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE). The grant, which provides up to $199,800 in funding, is being used to support innovative educator compensation initiatives aimed at recognizing and rewarding outstanding teaching based on measurable student growth.
College Park Middle is among the first to receive this funding, which is intended to support innovative approaches to educator compensation. The grant’s funding will be exclusively allocated to compensating highly effective teachers, recognizing their contributions to student growth and academic achievement.
Allocation results are based on student growth measured via SC Ready from spring 2024 to spring 2025. Awards require students to have assessment results on SC Ready for the prior and current school years. The SCDE and Education Analytics calculated growth metrics and worked with grantees to ensure rosters, assessment data, and other needed information was accurate prior to the district/school distributing awards.
The results are in, reflecting all the academic gains in these teachers’ classrooms, so BCSD leaders were eager to swing by their classrooms to present them with their checks – as well as some additional goodies for the teachers and some cookies for the students.
College Park Middle Principal Chris Swetckie said the district applied to be in the pilot program last winter, and his school was fortunate enough to be the only school in the district selected to participate.
“Really it came down to our teachers teaching really well, and our students performing very well on their iReady and state tests,” he said.
Swetckie credited State Superintendent Ellen Weaver and the SCDE for looking at different ways to compensate teachers, noting how hard of a job it is to be a teacher.
“It is certainly a calling as much as it is a profession,” he said. “I was just glad to see so many of the teachers in our building – and our district and our state – get recognized for their students’ performance, that is a testament for their hard work.”
Superintendent Dr. Anthony S. Dixon said the hope is for the state department to expand upon the program and provide more opportunities to recognize the dedication of such teachers.
“We always talk about teaching and learning, and this is the epitome of what it means to have strong teaching and learning put together,” Dixon said. “It’s heartwarming to see the teachers be compensated for all their hard work.”
Congratulations to the following College Park Middle teachers for achieving academic growth in their classrooms last year (Please note: all the teachers below were teaching at College Park Middle at the time when growth data was being collected; some have since moved on to other schools):
Krissa Fellin - $33,500
Judy Stevenson - $19,000
Ashley De:ong - $14,500
Sherry Williams - $9,000
Cara Rowe (now at BCSD’s Next Steps Learning Center) - $3,000
Timothy Capazzi (now at Sangaree Intermediate) - $1,500
