RALEIGH - Hundreds of teachers who were promised $1,000 signing bonuses to work in Wake County will still get their money even though the school district has ended the program.

The Wake school board had killed the $427,000 bonus program July 15 to help fill a budget shortfall. But at the request of school administrators, the board agreed Tuesday to provide $300,000 to pay the bonuses to teachers who had signed contracts before the program was discontinued.

"It's a matter of integrity and doing what we say we're going to do," said school board member Beverley Clark.

For several years, Wake has offered a one-time signing bonus of $1,000 to teachers who accepted positions in the hard-to-fill areas of special education, mathematics, science, English as a Second Language and foreign languages.

The hiring bonus is different from the bonus provided annually to teachers at schools across the state that meet expectations on state exams.

But when county commissioners provided the school board with $36.2 million less than requested, the signing bonuses were among the programs that were discontinued.

The problem is that the bonus was heavily promoted by the school district at teacher job fairs. Administrators say numerous applicants accepted employment opportunities with the expectation of receiving the $1,000 bonus.

Maurice Boswell, the school district's assistant superintendent for human resources, said bonuses had already been promised to 246 new teachers.

David Neter, the school district's chief business officer, said the bonuses would be paid from the district's rainy-day fund.

Even with Tuesday's vote, the bonus program still would be over. It could put Wake at a competitive disadvantage with nearby school districts, such as Johnston County's, which offers a $2,500 hiring bonus for special-education teachers.

"Ending the program hopefully won't have a detrimental effect," Neter said.