Warren County School System employees could receive a second bonus during the 2020-21 school year, followed by a salary increase for the 2021-22 school year.
A workshop was held Feb. 2 by members of the Warren County Board of Education. Discussed during the session, says Director of Schools Grant Swallows, was a bonus for employees from the 2% increase approved to school districts by the Tennessee General Assembly during its special session.
“What it looks like we are going to be able to do with it is, once again, give a bonus to our educators sometime in the spring,” said Swallows. “I talked to the School Board last week. Our hope and our goal is to give a bonus to all of our staff and all of our employees the same as we did in November.”
In November, full-time employees were given $750 and part-time received $375. The amount to be given in the spring is unknown.
“We need to do a little bit more work with that regarding how much we are going to get and how much we will be able to pay out,” said Swallows. “We anticipate giving some sort of bonus to our employees over the next couple of months.”
An update of last week’s workshop was given to members of the county Education Committee this week.
Commissioner Robert Hennessee asked the reasoning for providing a bonus over a salary increasing.
“I don’t see how we could do that in mid-year,” said Swallows. “Also, it’s simply not enough money to give everybody. We could do it on a salary raise, but it’s not going to amount to very much. We think a bonus this year is the right way. What my hope would be in July would be salary raise as opposed to a bonus.”
The amount of the proposed pay raise is also unknown.
Commissioner Carlene Brown asked how much the 2% bonus would be, but an exact number is unknown.
“It is based on the ADM, the average daily membership,” said Swallows. “They will go back to our Jan. 1 number, calculate that and send us that number. We have a rough estimate, but we are still working on it. A lot of things have come at us over the last couple of weeks.”
