Gayla McSwain for School Board
The purpose of the Berkeley County School Board is to create the educational policy for the school district and to ensure that public funds are spent wisely to implement that policy. The experience that I have gained from service on other boards, along with my background as a military officer, as a lawyer, and as a business person, will enable me to identify what needs to be done, to prioritize those needs, and to ensure that public funds are spent wisely by being directed only to those prioritized needs. For instance, I believe that we need to raise teachers’ salaries, hire more teachers, and then listen to their voices regarding how best to educate children. Paying teachers more will bring the best qualified people into the profession and hiring more teachers will lower the number of children in a classroom; if we are able to achieve that combination – more of the best qualified teachers and smaller classrooms – we will see the vast majority of obstacles to providing an excellent education to our children fall by the wayside. Did you know that the number of Berkeley County kids who fail to graduate from high school has actually increased steadily for the past 5 years? More of the best qualified teachers and smaller classrooms would be a great start to reversing that trend.
About Gayla S. L. McSwain
I have two wonderful children who attend public schools. As a concerned parent, I have been to many school board meetings over the past 7 years, having addressed the board on several occasions regarding issues about which I am passionate.
I am a candidate for school board because I believe that an excellent public education is the greatest opportunity that we can offer a child for a better life and because I believe that such an opportunity must be afforded to all children equally. 
I grew up in a family that was very poor financially but very rich in other ways. My mom made sure that we five children knew that school was the way out of poverty. Upon graduating from a public high school in upstate South Carolina, I received a scholarship from the cotton mill where my mom worked third shift along with a tuition grant from the state of South Carolina. That money allowed me to graduate magna cum laude from Presbyterian College in 1982. On that same day, I was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
After serving four years on active duty as a PATRIOT missile officer (and jumping out of perfectly good airplanes; don’t worry, I am a little bit smarter now that I’m middle aged), I went to law school. I have practiced law with the McNair Law Firm and lived in Goose Creek for almost 20 years. Among other community service, I currently serve on the board of directors for the Crowfield Plantation Community Services Association and the board of directors for the Charleston Regional Development Alliance.
