Teachers in the Charleston County, S.C., school system are earning far more now than they did even a few years ago鈥攁nd they have, in part, Bill Briggman to thank.
Briggman, the district鈥檚 longtime director of human resources, created an advocacy task force to give teachers a platform at school board meetings and in the press to shine a spotlight on their own financial struggles. He developed strong relationships with school board members, senior district officials, and educator advocates alike.
The result is a much higher starting salary, more opportunities for older employees to get raises after more than three decades on the job, and fewer teacher vacancies.
Briggman, a 2025 EdWeek Leaders To Learn From honoree, spoke with Education Week about how he did it鈥攁nd what other district leaders could learn from his success. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
When you first started in the role, how did you work to develop better relationships with your staff?
We used to not allow principals to interview candidates unless the HR office had screened people. I had principals say, 鈥淚 ran into a math candidate at the grocery store, but I鈥檓 not allowed to talk to this candidate.鈥� I thought, I鈥檝e got to trust my principals more鈥攖hey can be part of our HR team. Don鈥檛 offer them a job, of course. But I just completely redid that whole process.
What did you do to expand the pool of candidates for positions in your district?
We were struggling with media specialists in some of our schools鈥�13 vacancies, because some people decided to retire. In South Carolina, the only university that offers a master鈥檚 program for an educator to become certified as a media specialist was [the University of South Carolina].
I actually did a cold call there, got a meeting with the assistant dean, to say, 鈥淚鈥檝e got 3,700 teachers in our system. There have to be at least 13 or 14 who would love to jump into a master鈥檚 program. Once they had completed three courses or four courses at the time, they actually could get out to the field and be in the media center as they鈥檙e working on their master鈥檚. I approached [the university] , and told them, [the district is] willing to pay for the master鈥檚. Now we鈥檙e on cohort 8 of this program, and I don鈥檛 have vacancies there.
How did your closer connections to the people you were hiring lead you to realize they weren鈥檛 being paid enough?
It wasn鈥檛 just teacher pay. I had situations for higher-level positions鈥攚e were offering six-figure salaries, but candidates turned me down. They started to look at the cost of housing in Charleston and realized, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 sell my house here where I live and find a comparable house that I can afford, even on this salary. It just doesn鈥檛 make sense for my family.鈥� From then on, I could tell it was becoming a big issue.
How did partnering with the educators whose pay was insufficient help with your advocacy?
Whenever we talked to the board, I kicked off the presentation, but handed it over to the task force. They decided how they wanted to tag team on the presentation. They even decided they wanted to show a short video of teachers talking about their lives鈥攚hether they have a second job, or they鈥檙e trying to plan a family, whether they could afford to live in Charleston, or they鈥檙e living outside of the district area because the cost of housing was cheaper in a neighboring county. The traffic situation, commuting an hour back and forth. Teachers on that video really opened up about their private lives.
What鈥檚 one tip you鈥檇 offer to other district leaders who want to do something similar?
Teachers were so excited about being recognized with this pay increase, but they were concerned about their teacher assistants, the front office staff. We started a task force subgroup with one of my directors and a retired principal who had a lot of knowledge about these types of positions in schools.
We were not only looking at their salaries, but also their job descriptions. Are they doing what鈥檚 on the job description? Is it possible that the pay grade they鈥檙e at needs to be looked at?
It impacted all of our hourly folks. The teacher task force was very passionate about the members of their team who were hourly employees, and I agree.
