ST. MATTHEWS — South Carolina State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman spent Thursday morning mingling and talking with Calhoun County public school students about their educational hopes and dreams during a tour of the school district.

“How many of you want to be teachers?” Spearman asked students in the Calhoun County High School teacher cadet class. A handful of students raised their hands. “It is the most rewarding profession there is to be a teacher,” she told them.

Spearman took time to interact with the students, even stopping for a few group pictures. She visited several other classes including a Project Lead the Way pre-engineering class, a marketing entrepreneurship, English and a self-contained class for those with special needs.

She spoke to one pre-engineering class student about his future, and he told her about his plans to attend Clemson University to study engineering.

“Very impressive,” Spearman said, encouraging the student to continue his studies.

While talking to students in the marketing entrepreneurship class, she learned one of them has plans to become an engineer and two others plan to join the military. Another wanted to study music.

“That is what I studied,” Spearman said. “Do you sing or play?”

“Both,” the student told Spearman, who appeared to be delighted with the answer.

Following the tour, the state superintendent praised Calhoun County High School Principal Cynthia T. Johnson and her staff.

“You are doing what needs to be done,” Spearman said. “We are proud of you. You have good leadership, and keep up the good work.”

Johnson, who accompanied Spearman on the tour, told her the school’s successes are “a team effort.”

“We all do it together,” the principal said.

Spearman also visited the St. Matthews K-8 School and the Sandy Run School.

“I want to get out and see all the wonderful things that are happening in our public schools and particularly in rural areas because sometimes these districts get overlooked,” Spearman said. “Calhoun County is doing some magnificent things. The students are high achievers, and I wanted to see what was going on here.”

The Calhoun County School District’s most recent achievements include:

Having the highest percentage of students scoring ready or exceeding in English in the inaugural 2014-15 ACT Aspire test.

Calhoun County scores ranged from 60.1 percent of fifth graders to 78.7 percent of third graders reaching the goal.

The test is designed to determine if students in grades three through eight are on the college-ready track. It tests students in English, math, reading and writing.

Calhoun County schools’ graduation rates increased from 85.4 to 92 percent in the past four years.

Calhoun County High won a Palmetto Gold for closing the achievement gap earlier this month. Schools are honored for general performance and closing the achievement gap between various population groups.

“What I see here is all about keeping students engaged and finding out what they like doing and helping them find a pathway to success,” Spearman said.

After talking with two young men at the high school, she noted, “They said (they) want to be engineers when they are sitting at a computer designing cubes and already getting the skills they need to be successful in college. It is very impressive.”

Asked about the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee putting an additional $375 million in the proposed K-12 education budget, Spearman said, “We are pleased with it. There are a few things we will be working on in the Senate, but overall, we think it is a very good budget.”

She said one of the items in need of tweaking is teachers’ pay. Spearman has expressed concerns about the low starting salaries for teachers. First-year teachers with a bachelor’s degree earn about $32,000 a year on average.

“We still have some work to do,” she said.

The House passed the proposed budget earlier this week, and it now goes before the Senate.

As part of that spending plan, all teachers would see a 2 percent cost-of-living raise in addition to their step increase for experience, through 22 years in the classroom.

Currently, 20 percent of teachers statewide get no credit for experience beyond 22 years — many of them in poor districts that can’t afford to pay more.

The proposed budget would also provide $8 million for incentives to attract teachers to rural districts with the highest turnover. It also designates $19 million for bus drivers’ salaries to cover a $7.50-an-hour wage for all districts.

Legislators have until session’s end to answer the state Supreme Court’s fall 2014 ruling that South Carolina fails to provide opportunities for students in poor, rural districts. The tentative budget, however, does not specifically refer to the case.