SALISBURY, N.C. — The Rowan-Salisbury School System Board of Education discussed staff bonuses Monday night, ultimately approving the recommendation.
The attached video aired prior to the board meeting.
School officials approved an $825 bonus. School-based certified teachers, instructional support personnel, and school administrators (paid on the teacher's pay schedule) will be eligible.
The bonuses will be paid from $1.39 million being provided by North Carolina's Low Weather Supplement funding, which is provided by the state to "bring lower wealth counties into greater parity with more populous ones in terms of supplemental pay," according to a presentation given Monday night.
Central office administration and non-certified personnel are not eligible.
Pre-K teachers and assistant principals (paid from the administrator salary schedule) are eligible but not yet funded with the state money, according to district documentation. District leaders advocate for using about $64,000 of local funds to provide the bonus payments to those individuals.
Rowan-Salisbury leaders also proposed using federal money for more staff bonuses this fall.
School teachers are battling teacher retention and staffing shortages.
Neighboring Cabarrus County Schools paid $1,000 bonuses earlier this year. Then just a few weeks ago, the district officials approved an additional $475.
In February, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education unanimously voted to double the district's retention bonuses for employees.
Union County, North Carolina, also previously voted to provide their staff a $2,000 bonus.