There were charges against an Ocean Bay Elementary director in a case of child neglect that put her on paid administrative leave almost three years ago.
After that, Rebecca Schroyer got two pay raises that were given to Horry County Schools workers, according to an email from Lisa Bourcier, a spokesperson for the schools.
The school board agreed to give everyone who works for the district a 2% raise in 2023 and 2024.
An online database called Govsalaries.com says that Schroyer was making $143,979 a year in 2023. It doesn’t show the pay raises in that amount. The database says that Schroyer’s pay in 2023 was 23% more than the average principal salary in South Carolina.
Someone didn’t answer the phone when a message was left at a number that was thought to belong to Schroyer or a family friend.
Bourcier told Schroyer that she can’t go to work until she is no longer on temporary leave. She hasn’t been there yet. The school system is still waiting for the South Carolina Department of Education to finish its hearing.
She was not charged by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, so her case was sent to the SCDOE for an administrative review of her qualifications.
There doesn’t seem to have been a status hearing for Schroyer by the department of education, but an official has said that these hearings normally take between three months and a year or more. As of January 14, 2025, Schroyer was not on the list of people who were being punished by the education department.
I left a message with the SCDOE asking when the meeting would happen, but they did not answer.
It was decided that Schroyer should take some time off work with pay in November 2022.
Schroyer was charged with two counts of failing to report a child abuse case that happened during the school year 2021–2022. On February 28, 2023, those charges were dropped.
Robert Kittle, who is in charge of media for the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, confirmed by email in August 2023 that Schroyer’s charges had been dropped. He would not say why the charges were dropped or give any other information, saying that the law prevented him from doing so.
According to The Sun News, the claimed event took place in February 2022 and involved a teacher “putting hand sanitizer in a child’s open wound.”
South Carolina’s mandatory reporters law says that people who work with children must report suspected child abuse in the right way. This includes school teachers.
Charges were brought against Schroyer after charges were brought against Grace McColgan, who worked as a special education teacher at the same grade school. McColgan pleaded guilty to child abuse charges in July 2023.
Schroyer has worked for Horry County Schools since 2001. In 2016, he was made director of Ocean Bay Elementary. Records show that she still has her teaching certificate, which will end on June 30, 2024, if it is not renewed.
Parents who say their children were abused have sued Schroyer and Horry County Schools several times.
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