St. Landry schools is giving employees an extra bonus. Will it be enough to retain them?

St. Landry Parish School officials are taking financial steps that, along with state pay raises, will help to ensure the retention of school personnel in the District.

School Board members this month agreed without opposition to add $1 million annually to the 2022-23 operating budget to assist with permanent pay increases for school workers.

Additional funding approved by board members allowed workers to receive $1,000 stipends in May from revenues derived from a portion of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

Another $1,500 bonus check, at a cost of $3.4 million, is scheduled to be given in November to employees from a sales tax-generated Employee Compensation Benefits Fund.

State lawmakers have agreed to give school employees annual $1,500 raises, while the same legislation will provide $750 for the support workers.

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Superintendent Patrick Jenkins told board members last month that increasing pay at all levels of the work force is necessary to decrease the chances of having employees look elsewhere for jobs.

Jenkins said adding money to the budget raises the projected salaries of beginning teachers to about $42,000. That’s approximately $2,000 more annually than district teachers have previously earned, according to Jenkins.

While Jenkins has frequently alluded to the number of workers that are leaving the St. Landry School District, school officials have seemed reluctant about providing board members with the actual count of employee resignations that occurred during 2021-22.

School officials have failed to provide publicly how many workers have resigned from the system during the previous year along with the number of certified teachers that have been employed to replace those that have left.

Board members also have not requested that school administrators provide them with accurate totals of employee resignations and those who have been hired.

Although other school districts have been able to provide higher stipends and bonus checks for employees, Jenkins has told board members that augmenting the annual salary scale for teachers and other workers enables St. Landry to become more competitive with nearby school systems.

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Million-dollar operating fund addition

Former Finance Director Tressa Miller during budget meetings last month, told board members that agreeing to add a $1 million yearly expenditure for the salary increases would probably act as a key element in her projection of a $1.4 million general fund deficit by June 30, 2023.

To offset the predicted deficit and still provide the employees’ raises, board members with the consent of Miller, agreed to transfer if necessary an additional $1 million of anticipated ECBF revenues.

Miller and Jenkins told board members that if the operating budget experiences a surplus by the end of the 2022-23, the $1 million used for the annual increases could remain in the ECBF account in order to be used for future stipends.

“We would add the ECBF money to the operating budget to cover the costs of raises, only if we show that there might be a deficit that would occur at the end of next year. If we see that there is not going to be a shortfall, then the money will remain in the ECBF fund to be used at another time,” Jenkins told the finance Committee.

The $1 million scheduled for the employee raises gives teachers an extra $500 annually in addition to $250 for support workers.

Last year the ECBF provided account provided $1,500 to full-time employees and $750 for substitute workers at a cost of $3.4 million, according to a budgetary report provided by Miller to board members in June.

A separate report also given to board members during the series of budget meetings indicates that by May 31 there was $5,263,399 available in the ECBF account for stipends or other employee benefits provided by sales tax totals that Miller predicted should remain moderately strong over the next few months.

Board member Raymond Cassimere said during the budget hearings that he is not opposed to the raises. Cassimere added that he wants to make certain the annual raises will be supported by an ongoing funding source.

This article originally appeared on Opelousas Daily World: St. Landry School board approves $1M budget addition to help with raises for school workers