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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Teachers in the Charleston County School District are one vote closer to a higher paycheck.

The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to recommend approval for next year’s budget, which includes salary increases for teachers and non-teachers.

By next school year, the district is expected to lead the state in teacher pay.

The recommended budget includes a $7,500 salary increase for all teachers, something educators have been advocating for over the past two years as the cost of living continues to rise.

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“This will allow teachers to afford houses and housing costs – whether rent or home ownership – closer to the schools and communities they serve," said Patrick Martin, a high school teacher in the district. "We can be more active members in those communities."

But teachers aren’t the only ones likely to see a larger paycheck.

Classified workers, non-teacher staff, would get a 6% pay raise, bringing them to 100% of market value.

“It wasn't ever that the focus needed to be on anyone but the teachers, but it highlighted the fact that we weren't paying the teachers enough. Once you do that, and you can start to retain your primary staff, that's when you can bring the rest of the staff into the conversation,” said Megan Maciejewski, a numeracy assistant for CCSD.

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Recruitment and retention are some of the driving forces behind continuing efforts to increase teacher salaries.

“There's just no replacing a veteran teacher who has experience, especially serving the community and knowing the culture of the community in which they serve,” Martin said.

The same is said for the district’s classified workers, many of whom turn to second jobs to bring home enough money.

“I think the goal is to always have somebody capable and educated and experienced with the students in that role, but how can you keep that up when your staff is constantly having to supplement?” Maciejewski said.

A spokesperson for CCSD said the district is looking to fill around 200 teacher positions for next school year.

The school board will make its first vote on the budget on Monday, May 20.

Charleston, SC – Lowcountry Food Bank (LCFB) held its fifth Agency Conference at NewSpring Church in North Charleston on April 26. The LCFB Agency Conference is typically held every other year.

LCFB partner agencies are the backbone of LCFB’s business model and operations. Last year, LCFB partner agencies distributed 90% of the 42.8 million pounds of food distributed by LCFB, of which more than 40% was fresh produce.

LCFB procures, then distributes healthy food to 230+ partner agencies, including food pantries, on-site meal programs, and homeless shelters that give neighbors who experience food insecurity in the 10 coastal counties of South Carolina direct access to healthy food.

LCFB’s Agency Conference provides its partner agencies and food pantries with best practices for food service, connects them with resources that enhance and support their operations, and provides opportunities for professional development to help them best serve their communities. At the conference, agencies also gain a greater understanding of LCFB strategic initiatives that support equitable food access for Lowcountry neighbors and learn skills to further empower the neighbors they serve through nutrition education.

Conference breakout sessions were chosen based on partner agency preferences and by LCFB to maximize the opportunity for agencies to best serve their neighbors: Creating a Culture of Belonging and Connection, Volunteer Recruitment and Retention, Scenario Planning – a session that helps the neighbors we serve get the most out of the fruits and vegetables available, and a networking session to discuss challenges and solutions that come with managing a food pantry.

Keynote speaker Rev. Dr. Byron Benton, LCFB Board member and Senior Pastor of Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, gave an inspirational and uplifting address to conference guests to kick off the event. Dr. Benton talked about the “power of community bonds and connections” and “how we are all a part of the same community.”

“In addition to enjoying a fun day where our partner agencies can get to know each other, these agencies know best the unique and local communities they serve, and they make decisions on what is best for their neighbors who experience food insecurity,” said Nick Osborne, President and CEO of Lowcountry Food Bank. Nick addressed the agency attendees as “the heart and soul of our collective work to serve our communities.”

Food Lion generously sponsored the 2024 Agency Conference hosted at NewSpring Church.

Conference resource booths provided valuable industry and community information covering topics of interest for partner agencies: a demonstration of LCFB’s GIS Mapping technology, which strategically pinpoints where food assistance is most needed; nutrition information and food sampling; LCFB’s sustainability efforts and efficiencies; opportunity for partners to provide feedback toward LCFB’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiative; the opportunity to provide feedback on LCFB-administered feeding programs; a social determinants of health table, which outlined how the environments where people are live affect their health and quality-of-life, and an Advocacy table, where attendees can learn ways LCFB works to increase awareness about hunger issues and helps educate our community about social and policy issues that surround food insecurity.

Community partners WIC, United Way, and Second Chance Resource Center all had information tables at the event that presented valuable resources to attendees.

LCFB held drawings and awarded prizes to partner agencies, including food and merchandise gift cards for the neighbors they serve, a food freezer, shopping carts, and a computer.

90 LCFB partner agencies were present at the conference with a total of 200+ people in attendance. Many LCFB partner agencies volunteer their time to help provide equitable, dignified, and consistent access to food for neighbors who seed food assistance.

Click here to learn more about LCFB Agency Relations on the LCFB website: https://lowcountryfoodbank.org/about-us/partner-agencies/ Organizations must meet specific eligibility criteria to quality as an LCFB Partner Agency and serve food to our neighbors who face hunger. Applications will be considered at the end of 2024.

About the Lowcountry Food Bank: Feed. Advocate. Empower.

The Lowcountry Food Bank serves the 10 coastal counties of South Carolina and distributed more than 42 million pounds of food in 2023. The Lowcountry Food Bank helps fight hunger by distributing food to more than 230 partner agencies including on-site meal programs, homeless shelters and emergency food pantries. The Lowcountry Food Bank advocates on behalf of those who experience hunger and helps empower people to make healthy and nutritious food choices. For more information, visit the Lowcountry Food Bank website.

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, keep reading for a look at Asian-owned restaurants to support throughout May and beyond.

This list is far-reaching, but not exhaustive — please contact Free Times Food Reporter Jane Godiner at jgodiner@postandcourier.com with more AAPI-owned restaurants to feature in future roundups.

Kultura — Charleston

Located in Cannonborough-Elliotborough, Filipino restaurant Kultura offers both traditional and fusion cuisines against the backdrop of artful plating, craft cocktails and weekend karaoke brunch. Menu highlights include the arroz caldo with smoked trout roe, xo sauce, chili crisp, fried garlic and a soft-boiled egg, sisig carbonara with roasted pork belly and trout roe and scallop adobo — a twist on the national dish of the Philippines — featuring coconut grits. Kalamansi and ube meringues make it difficult to skip dessert.

Freshe Poke — Columbia

With three locations across Columbia, Freshe Poke specializes in poke bowls. The word "poke," or the verb "to cut" in Hawaiian, encapsulates the nature of this dish — cubes of protein, usually marinated fish, over rice. Freshe Poke allows guests to customize their poke bowl with as many toppings as they want, from classic rice bases and seafood to chicken sous-vide and salad bases.

Poke beginners can try one of Freshe's pre-set combinations, including "The Buddhist" with tofu and seaweed salad, the "Spicy Ahi" with tuna and sriracha aioli and the "Volcano Eruption," with salmon, ahi tuna and shrimp. Wash down your poke bowl with one of Freshe's 29 fruit or milk tea flavors — boba, jelly or swirl optional.

Arts & Entertainment

Saffron Indian Cuisine — Greenville

Greenville's Saffron Indian Cuisine keeps things classic with North Indian lunch and dinner offerings, including customizable curry entrées, vegetarian specialties and fried appetizers.

Guests can enjoy their choice of protein in tomato-based tikka masala, spinach-based saag, traditional curry, creamy korma, ginger-forward kadai or sweet mango sauce. Specialty plates, including their coconut curry shrimp and gobhi Manchurian, featuring fried cauliflower, encourage diners to explore Southern Indian and Indo-Chinese cuisines.

Finish off your meal with homemade desserts, including their gajar halwa, a glazed carrot pudding and rasmalai, cheese patties in sweet, floral milk with pistachios.

Inakaya Watanabe — Columbia

Located just off of Saint Andrews Road is Inakaya Watanabe, which offers hot and cold Japanese fare. "Inakaya" translates to "cottage house," but this Columbia mainstay offers as many homey options as it does adventurous. Guests can opt for warm bowls of miso soup and choose between countless comforting, fried appetizers and mains — including their "Inakaya Fried Chicken," pork katsu cutlets and takoyaki, or octopus balls. Those in the mood for fish can peruse Inakaya Watanabe's pages of seafood dishes.

Raw options include fish-over-rice sushi known, called nigiri, sushi rolls, called maki and sliced, raw seafood without rice, called sashimi. Cooked options include salmon teriyaki, steamed clam and una don, or barbecued eel over rice. No meal at Inakaya Watanabe is complete without one — or many — of their selection of six ice cream flavors wrapped in mochi rice dough.

Sum Bar — Greenville

While there are over 2,000 types of dim sum dishes, which come in the form of small, shareable plates and originate cross different regions of China, Sum Bar pays homage to some of the most ubiquitous — and some of the more hidden gems — in its Greenville kitchen.

Menu items are rotational, but there are some cult favorites on the Sum Bar menu, including the green beans, shrimp toast and sesame balls. Those looking for entry-level dim sum dishes should order the siu mai, a type of dumpling with shrimp and pork, char siu BBQ pork and gai lan, or Chinese broccoli with oyster and garlic sauce. For dessert, order egg tarts for the table, which feature a vanilla-flavored egg custard cradled in a shortbread crust.

Kao Thai Cuisine — Columbia

Situated on Columbia's Main Street, Kao Thai Cuisine offers guests a survey of Thai dishes across regions and contexts — from street food like spicy sausage called sai ua and duck confit wrapped in a flatbread called roti to large, theatrical main dishes like crab fried rice and lychee curry. The menu hits on all of the classics, including papaya salad, coconut-milk-based curries and Pad Thai, or thin rice noodles with egg, bean sprouts and "Gai's secret sauce."

However, Kao is not afraid to explore cuisine from other parts of South and Southeast Asia, including Malaysian chicken wings, Hawaiian seaweed salad and their "K.F.C.," or "Kao Fried Chicken" dish, which comes coated in a Korean sweet and spicy sauce.

Phuong Vietnamese Restaurant — Charleston

Whether you appreciate some variety or get overwhelmed by too many choices, Charleston's Phuong Vietnamese Restaurant has a menu with something for everyone.

Diners can snack on fresh appetizers like spring rolls called goi cuon or fried appetizers like fried wontons while they decide on what combination of starch and protein they want for an entrée. Those who want something warm and hearty can opt for pho, a soup made with beef and rice noodles, or egg noodle soup for some more protein variety. Diners can also skip the broth by ordering bun, or rice vermicelli noodles, topped with any combination of pork, egg rolls, beef, chicken or shrimp. Those who want to do away with noodles altogether can opt for any of the soup or noodle proteins over white rice. Think of it as an edible choose-your-own adventure.

Nibl Dessert and Cafe — Columbia

Another of Columbia's Main Street attractions is Nibl, a cafe selling Asian-inspired desserts and coffee tucked inside MOA Korean BBQ.

While desserts are rotating, some of its greatest hits feature brownies infused with Japanese green tea called matcha, Korean shaved ice called bingsu and crinkle cookies featuring a Southeast Asian purple yam called ube. Guests can eat their sweets alongside a selection of specialty coffees including butterscotch cream cold brews, ube lattes and Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk. Non-coffee drinkers can enjoy lavender lemonade, matcha lattes and strawberry milk.

Jane Godiner is the food reporter for the Free Times. You can reach her at jgodiner@postandcourier.com or find her at @JaneGodiner on X and @jane.craves on Instagram.

The restaurant group, Poogan's Hospitality Group, which operates its flagship location at an upstairs restaurant on Queen Street in Charleston, announced via social media on May 13 that the Forest Acres eatery would close for good on May 19.

"To the people of Forest Acres, your support has been incredible, and we're grateful for the warmth and community you've shown us," the Facebook post read.

The restaurant, which serves Southern comfort food like shrimp and grits, biscuits and fried chicken, opened in the Cardinal Crossing development of Forest Acres in August 2022. The 6,600-square-foot space was able to seat roughly 200 patrons and sat alongside other popular spots like Bad Daddy's Burger Bar and Molto Vino.

Poogan's Southern Kitchen's last day of service will be May 19.

The proposal is called a voluntary cleanup contract, and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control regularly approves them for businesses that want to buy and redevelop so-called brownfield properties with decades-old contamination issues.

The deals allow the cleanup to take place without the new owner having to worry about liability for pollution created by a previous property owner. DHEC is accepting public comments on the SPA's proposed contract through June 5.

"We have entered in a VCC with DHEC to clean up the site and will go through that regulatory process as part of the future redevelopment to expand our terminal in North Charleston," a SPA spokeswoman said in a written statement. "We will start the VCC assessment and sampling soon and can put in place the remedial measures during the redevelopment."

The SPA purchased the WestRock site along the Cooper River — and additional land the paper and packaging giant owned in Berkeley County — for $105 million this month. The deal will expand the adjacent North Charleston Terminal to 481 acres and the capacity to handle 5 million shipping containers per year. That's more than twice the capacity of the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant, currently the SPA's largest.

The sale won't affect operations of Ingevity Corp., which operates a chemical plant near the former mill.

An initial environmental assessment performed in March by HDR Engineering found numerous potential environmental issues on the paper mill site.

"Given the long history of mill operations, presence of more than 911 storage tanks onsite and multiple documented releases onsite, there is potential that petroleum products (diesel fuel and No. 6 fuel oil) may have entered the process sewer and could have impacted soils and groundwater beneath the property," the proposed contract states.

It adds there is a potential for groundwater contamination due to "the heavy historical industrial use in the vicinity of the property."

Under the contract, the SPA would be required to make a detailed assessment of the environmental condition and formulate a plan and schedule for cleaning up the pollution. The analysis will include soil and groundwater quality testing and evaluating the presence of methane in a former landfill on the site.

The SPA said it plans to move forward with planning the expansion of its North Charleston Terminal as well as adding two new phases to the Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston.

"Port infrastructure projects require long-term planning and foresight, and SC Ports consistently plans for multiple projects at once while ensuring ample capacity for our customers," the agency said, adding timing for both projects will be driven by market demands.

The maritime agency said it also plans to coordinate the mill expansion with the S.C. Department of Transportation's plans to replace the Don Holt Bridge over Interstate 526. The proposal calls for construction of a taller span so the world's biggest and heaviest container ships can navigate underneath to the North Charleston Terminal. The Cooper River's navigation channel would also be deepened to 52 feet between the Leatherman and North Charleston terminals.

"We have to have sufficient capacity to handle ships calling North Charleston today before we take them out of use for modernization," the SPA said.

Atlanta-based WestRock, successor to the old Westvaco Corp., announced a year ago it would shut down the 500-worker papermaking plant by late summer after 86 years, citing a "combination of high operating costs and the need for significant capital investment." The redevelopment and reuse as a port terminal isn't projected to be needed or completed until the 2030s or possibly the 2040s, SPA chief executive officer Barbara Melvin told lawmakers earlier this month.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A long-awaited presentation of the 2024 to 2025 Charleston County School District’s budget was discussed among the Board of Trustees on Monday evening.

The first reading of the budget is officially not until May 20, but the board discussed and made recommendations for the first time on Monday night during three back-to-back meetings.

Two budget proposals would make the Charleston County School District the only district in the state to implement a new funding formula and lead teacher compensation in South Carolina.

Increasing teacher salaries by $7,500 would put the district in that number one spot for pay as well as funding step increases. Pay increases for all non-teachers and classified employees are also included in the budget, providing 100% of the market, which is an overall 6% increase.

The most notable expansion in the budget is the adoption of the Weighted Student Funding Model which would allocate funding from the district to individual student needs at each school. With a $32.8 million dollar price tag, the funding would fully offset the sunset of federal funds, otherwise known as ESSER.

“What we are trying to do is equally distribute resources based on student need, then principals can determine what key things they need to leverage improved outcomes,” Superintendent Anita Huggins said.

The model would allow resources to be allocated to help schools in the district with students in poverty, special education or multilingual. The need for a new funding model partially comes from the number of students in poverty attending non-Title 1 schools under the current funding model cannot address all students.

During Monday’s budget workshop, board members asked Huggins and Chief Financial Officer Daniel Prentice a number of questions surrounding the model. Their questions surrounded a graphic and numbers stating the total cost of the Weighted Student Funding Model would cost around $32 million.

But board members argue the numbers need to be updated since students can fall into more than one category that the current model does not reflect.

“This seems like almost intentionally misleading data being put out into the public which I very much object,” Board of Trustees Member Ed Kelley asked. “When this goes out to the public, I would like to see this slide with the actual numbers.”

“If you are able to put this in layman’s terms, that would be great,” Board of Trustees Member Leah Whatley asked. “That is an awfully high number compared to the number of students we have enrolled in CCSD.”

Huggins and Prentice assured the board that the correct numbers would be provided to clear any confusion.

“We are going to have to take a very close look over the next three to five years,” Huggins said. “Then, we will determine whether this allocation model works or do we need to go back to the drawing board.”

To balance the budget, one strategy used includes central office reductions with the district eliminating over 30 positions totaling to $8 million.

A 3.9 millage increase is included in the proposed budget with it noted that future millage increases are not contemplated in the long-range plan. A millage rate is a tax collected on real estate and large purchases, like cars.

However, families that own and live in their homes are exempt from the increased tax on their houses for education purposes. Non-owner-occupied houses and businesses bear the brunt of a millage rate increase.

The first reading after recommendations from Monday will be at the Board of Trustees meeting on May 20. Then, the second reading will include a public hearing and board meeting on June 24.

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