Laurens County School District 55 says bus drivers are not losing their benefits or guaranteed hours, pushing back against rumors that spread online after the district overhauled how it pays workers who hold two jobs at once. District officials say they paid $277,000 in bus driver overtime last year, and that money was going toward hours worked inside drivers' standard guaranteed workday rather than for hours over a 40-hour week.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Rhett Harris released a statement addressing the online posts, saying they did not explain the severe financial strains that prompted the board's decisions, according to FOX Carolina. The district says it will now pay overtime only when an employee physically exceeds 40 work hours in a week, a shift from how guaranteed-day hours had previously been compensated. Under federal Fair Labor Standards Act rules, public employers assigning hourly employees to two distinct non-exempt jobs must combine the total hours across both positions when calculating weekly overtime for anything past 40 hours, according to Renning, Lewis & Lacy — a framework that helps explain how stacking two hourly roles generated automatic overtime costs for the district.
Dual Jobs, One Big Bill
At the center of the dispute are what the district calls dual-employment positions — workers who held two roles at once, such as driving a bus while also working another non-certified job. The district says it paid these dual employees $990,630 in combined pay and benefits last year, including $160,998 in overtime pay, with one employee alone collecting $46,470 in overtime. Officials say some dual employees received the equivalent of two full-time salaries even though their combined hours only added up to one full-time position.
There were 13 dual employees in total, the district says, and nine of them earned more than many certified teachers in the district. One dual employee earned $107,698, while the group's average salary was $56,990. For comparison, South Carolina's statewide minimum starting salary for new certified teachers was raised to $50,500 for the current school year, according to a Facebook post detailing the new pay scale. The top-earning dual employee's $107,698 total was higher than the group's $56,990 average.
What the District Disputes
The school board's policy has now terminated the dual-employment practice altogether. Officials specifically disputed claims circulating on social media that full-time bus drivers are losing their health benefits or losing their guaranteed hours as a result. The district maintains it guarantees a 7.5-hour workday and full benefits for full-time drivers, and says it has implemented a 5% hourly raise for all drivers and bus aides going forward.
Harris was direct about the reasoning behind the changes. “Fair pay for a fair day's work is one thing, but paying excessively for any position is not wise,” he said. He added that some workers calling the district's actions unfair had themselves been unfairly paid in excess for years, and that “That something has been done wrong for a long period of time is not a valid reason to continue that practice.” Officials say the spending adjustments are meant to protect taxpayer money and restore fiscal stability to the district.
A Rocky Start to the School Year
Bus-driver concerns made headlines on the first day of school, and an episode of Laurens County Lowdown discussed the issue, according to a GoLaurens.com Facebook post. The district later faced online rumors about driver pay and dual-job terminations.
Harris was selected by the board on June 22, 2026, while Dr. Jody Penland was still described as the retiring superintendent; Harris began the interim role on July 1. Penland, a 31-year education veteran, had co-managed the district's administration alongside Harris since January 2024, according to The Clinton Chronicle. He took over sole administrative leadership of the district just months before addressing the dual-employment overhaul publicly.
A District Under Scrutiny
Laurens County School District 55 serves roughly 5,200 students across nine rural schools, and federal grant records show about 77% of enrolled students come from low-income or impoverished households, according to U.S. Department of Education data. That economic backdrop puts added pressure on how the district spends tax dollars, even as the district points to recent academic gains — an 84% on-time graduation rate for its 2025 cohort and a dropout rate reduced to 1.1% on its most recent state report card.
The district has previously worked with structured pay reform efforts, having received a $13.5 million federal Teacher and School Leader Incentive Grant in September 2023 to build performance-based compensation frameworks and boost teacher retention. Separately, the South Carolina General Assembly appropriated $1.5 million for fiscal year 2025–2026 toward a joint Career, Agricultural, and Technical Education Center serving Districts 55 and 56, reflecting state-level investment in the region's vocational infrastructure even as the district tightens operational spending elsewhere.
It remains unclear how former dual-role employees will adjust to single-role wages, and whether the 5% raise for drivers and bus aides will be enough to keep transportation staffing steady without further service disruptions.
