When he delivered his State of the State address in January, Gov. Brian Kemp promised Georgia teachers and other school employees a bonus for weathering the storm of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, those employees have been waiting to see the money, and the Hall County School Board decided their workers have waited long enough.
Hall County Superintendent Will Schofield told board members Monday night that he has been waiting on guidance from the state, but so far has received none.
"As you know...the state approved a $1,000 bonus for all school-level employees...we have been waiting for some guidance about what that was going to look like. As of today, we still don't have that, and I worry that we're starting to lose the benefit of the bonus," Schofield said, noting that employees have been questioning when they'll see the promised payment.
Schofield made the recommendation to go ahead and award the bonuses without waiting any longer on the state.
"I would like to make the recommendation tonight that for all Hall County School District employees, based on our CPI [Certified/Classified Personnel Information] reports, that we go ahead and make arrangements to have that [money] in their April paychecks," Schofield said. Schofield's recommendation was approved unanimously.
The $1,000 bonuses will go to most full-time employees with a proportionate amount distributed to part-time employees; the bonus amount is determined by the employee's personnel classification.
"It could cost us up to $1 million locally - I don't anticipate it being that much - we will use CARES funding to cover that," Schofield said.
The Hall County School District has just over 2,700 employees.
Board votes to supplement extracurricular activity funds at all high schools, middle schools
In addition to approving bonus payments for employees, board members also approved funding for each middle and high school in the district as a supplement for extracurricular activities.
Schofield said during the pandemic, it has been more costly to operate everything from music programs to sports.
"The bottom line is...all of our extracurricular programs are really hurting in terms of the revenues that they normally have to operate their programs," Schofield said.
Each of the county's high schools will receive a $12,000 supplement, while each middle school will receive a $2,000 supplement.
