Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast - The Latest About Salary Increases Versus Bonuses

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

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Welcome to the latest audio podcast of the Bearcat Wrap Up. This is about my latest post called the latest about salary increases versus bonuses. Arkansas Legislative Council is recommending that schools use ARP funds for staff bonuses, but this creates a lot of problems they did not anticipate on July 21st an ALC subcommittee actually called PEER p-e-e-r and I cannot remember what the acronym stands for made a recommendation for school districts to use their ARPS or funds to give full-time certified employees a $5,000 bonus and classified employees a $2,500 bonus and any part-time employees half of what they would have received had they been full-time.

You can view a link, you can find the link on my post that will take you to a video recording of the business session and beginning at the 9 minute 33 second mark you can see or you will hear the main motion and much discussion that ensues after the motion because the whole about the whole idea because we've consistently been told by the division of elementary and secondary education that giving across the board bonus to all employees using ESSER funds was not allowed. The rules do allow funds to be spent on recruitment and retention, but since bonuses were not allowed,

we have had to be creative in order to provide additional pay to all staff members and our ideas have been approved by the department. This motion by ALC appears to be in conflict with federal law and our department's oversight of these funds and will create many difficulties for most schools in the state to pay for such a bonus the legislative action of recommending ARP ESSER funds bonuses to employees has some challenges first there are procedural issues with whether this recommendation meets state and federal laws and regulations and second many districts have already allocated

the expenditure of their ARPS refunds and some do not have enough remaining ARPS refunds to pay the bonus. Additionally, many districts never received enough ARPS refunds to cover the bonus in the first place, even if their entire allotment was spent on bonuses. During the last two years here at MENA, we've shifted allowable expenses from district dollars to ESSER and ESSER ARP funds. Therefore, we were able to give an employee bonus of $1,000 last Christmas using district funds. Additionally, we have given additional COVID duty pay, and for the first time ever, we're giving sign-on and retention bonuses. We're also giving bonuses for upskilling by earning additional credentials, and we're also helping to offset costs of graduate degrees

using these funds. All of these things are in our current ARP plan for recruitment and retention and it's been approved by the Department of Education, so we're good to go. For us to afford the bonuses recommended by the Legislative Council, we would have to shift the salaries of our RTI interventionists and their paras to another fund likely title one if we move these salaries we would not be able to meet the mandated 20% use of ARP funds for learning loss we would be out of compliance with federal law we would also have to end the incentive pay that we have in place for upskilling sign-on retention bonuses and the help that we're giving people paying for college

tuition from ARP. We would look for other possible funds to pay for it if it's affordable, but we haven't done this upcoming year's budget budget yet so we're unsure as to how much affordability there would be ending incentive pay would also be a disappointment as it's not only good for staff it's good for our students who are being taught and supported by adults who have more skills if ending the incentive program does not fully cover the bonuses, we would have to adjust other capital projects already in place. We have signed contracts for cameras, HVAC systems, outdoor classrooms, and flooring.

The cameras and HVAC projects are 95% complete but not 100% paid for the outdoor classrooms are out for contract now and the floors are already under contract we may be forced into a breach of contract litigation if we had to suddenly end all or a portion of these projects to pay for the bonuses the state surplus of state revenue that would that would cover the cost of the recommended bonuses if the legislature desires to compensate teachers in that way. They do have enough in state surplus to cover this if they want the bonuses paid. This same surplus was part of a comprehensive plan offered by the governor to give teachers

raises entering in the 22-23 school year, but there wasn't enough support for that, so it does not appear that salaries or bonuses will be addressed during the special session that's scheduled this coming August. I have explained our situation to Representative Maddox and Senator Rice. They both understand the dilemma and are communicating that with their counterparts in the legislature. There's still much uncertainty about whether or not these bonuses will be both allowed or even affordable for MENA and every other school district in the state. I

hope for leadership and guidance that will keep us on our current plan and work toward teacher raises to either come up in the special session anyway or come up in the regular session starting in January of 2023 when we have a new governor I'll keep you all informed as to how this will affect Mena Public Schools as the situation involves evolves thank you for listening