Jackson County teachers and faculty members will receive a bonus from the one-time $500,000 grade allocation funds the district received from the state.
The board approved to give a $2,000 bonus to certified teachers, a $1,000 bonus to non-certified teachers and faculty, and reserve $125,000. The school board previously tabled a decision as some board members were unsure how the money should be dispersed. School Board Chairman Dustin Kennedy said the board had to make a tough decision.
“You can’t make everybody happy, but we are trying to make everybody at the same time, going into the summer with money that you weren’t expecting,” Kennedy said. “It’s a good amount of money, regardless if it’s, I hate to divide teachers over $500.”
Board Member Emily Trisdale said giving equal bonuses could help certain weak spots that the school district has. Trisdale said in her opinion, those weak spots are teacher recruitment and teacher retention.
“I think that’s something that using this equally can benefit every school, and I think that we would really be risking major devastation in morale in our other schools if we don’t divide this equally,” Trisdale said.
Board Member Mark Allen said that the money going into the reserves should be awarded to the students. Allen said after all, the students are the ones who made the excellent grades.
“We’ve talked about money and teachers and how we are gonna allocate money, we really haven’t talked about students hardly at all,” Allen said. “So I mean, I’m not saying we take all this money and distribute money out to children, that’s not what I’m getting at, but I think we should put some of that aside to reward the A schools with maybe a field trip or maybe something a little bit extra.”
Director of Schools Jason Hardy cleared the air on what the school district could use the money for. Hardy said he received a letter from the state’s commissioner of education stating that the money is awarded to the district and does not have an earmark on how the money can be spent. Hardy said at the end of the night, he wanted to make sure that the students at Jackson County Schools are successful.
Hardy said the bonus from grade allocation funds is an additional bonus on top of the $2,000 bonus that teachers are receiving from the state as part of the Education Freedom Act. The school board approved the allocation of bonuses during a board meeting on Thursday.
