Berkeley County Schools superintendent says employee benefits law doesn't go far enough

Berkeley County Schools Superintendent Manny P. Arvon said state lawmakers “got half of it right” last week when they passed a plan to solve a $5 billion retiree-related shortfall in covering the cost of public employee benefits.

The legislation reduced the Berkeley County school district’s liability for what is known as other post-employment benefits, or OPEB, from about $35 million or $36 million to about $7.9 million, according to school officials.


“That’s still a lot of money,” Arvon said of the remaining obligation.

The legislation that passed Friday places the burden on the state to shoulder the portion of the shortfall from county teachers and school personnel that are funded through state dollars, but county-funded employees are still the responsibility of the state’s 55 county school boards. 

Arvon believes the county should not have to handle the liability that remains because the amount calculated does not factor the extraordinary cost counties have had to shoulder when educating special-needs students.
 
“The (state) school aid formula has never addressed special education ... and because of that it underfunds us in the first place, so we’re having to operate through our (county) excess levy to fund positions that the state doesn’t pay for, nor does the federal government,” Arvon said.

The county now employs about 140 more service personnel than what are funded through the school aid formula, Arvon said. Aides hired to assist special-needs students are classified as service personnel. 

In addition to being shouldered with the OPEB liability that comes with the extra staff needed for special-needs students, Arvon said the “double whammy” is when the school board must also absorb the cost of the pay increases and benefits approved by the legislature for these employees.

Arvon said the school district has made strides to keep the number of teachers within the school aid formula’s funding structure, but noted that ratios used to calculate the number of service personnel for each school fail to account for the unique demands that special-needs students place on the school district.

Arvon said the school district is in a good financial position to shoulder the OPEB debt because of the voter-approved levy, but Del. Walter Duke, R-Berkeley, who is the minority chair of the House Education Committee said after the bill passed the House that other counties are in worse shape.

Arvon said he told the state school board a couple years ago that the county was spending $3.2 million to educate about 160 special-needs students, not including speech therapy, transportation and other costs.

The cost per special needs student was calculated to be about $20,000 versus about $1,600 for a student who did not have special needs, Arvon said.