Wake County school employees will get a $500 bonus for Christmas
Wake County school employees will get a $500 bonus from the school district in time for Christmas.
The Wake County school board unanimously voted Tuesday to award a one-time, across-the-board bonus that will be paid to school employees in December. School leaders say the bonus costs more than $10.6 million.
“We wish we could do more,” A.J. Muttillo, Wake’s assistant superintendent for human resources, told the school board. “This one-time bonus provides an opportunity for us to acknowledge the value all our employees bring the school system.”
Also on Tuesday, the board voted to give $835,000 to school athletic programs hard hit from loss of ticket revenue during the pandemic. The money will help high schools and middle schools pay for officials and to book events.
The bonus comes at the end of a year that’s been challenging to the school district and the nation. Employees worked their way around the coronavirus pandemic that forced Wake to change the way it’s educating its 157,000 students.
All “active, benefit-earning employees” who were working as of Tuesday are eligible for the bonus. The district estimates that 19,350 employees, representing most its staff, will get the bonus.
The district says the bonus money comes from savings, partly due to how schools were closed for in-person instruction for several months.
”We have noted the heavy lift many of our employees, from teachers to nutrition workers, have done during this time,” said school board member Jim Martin. “Five-hundred dollars is a mere token.”
Only pay increase for some workers
The bonus is the only pay bump some school employees are getting this year.
This year, state lawmakers approved a $350 bonus for certified staff, which includes teachers. Lawmakers also funded the “step increases” — the annual increase that teachers and assistant principals with less than 15 years of experience receive.
But school leaders noted Tuesday how the state hadn’t approved any pay increases this year for non-certified staff, principals and central office staff. Non-certified staff include employees such as cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians, maintenance workers and teacher assistants.
Non-certified staff are among the lowest paid employees in school districts. County commissioners recently approved a plan to raise minimum pay for Durham school support staff to $15 an hour, The News & Observer reported.
Last December, the Wake school board approved a 3% pay raise and a one-time $500 bonus for support staff, The News & Observer previously reported.
The response to the Wake bonus varied.
Some school employees thanked district leaders for the extra money this holiday season.
But some people criticized Wake for giving across-the-board bonuses instead of targeted bonuses. Others complained that bonuses were being given at all.
“Tens of thousands of parents have been forced to forgo paychecks and are in poverty because extended school closures,” Sloan Rachmuth, a Raleigh-based critic of the district, tweeted Monday. “1/3 of kids are failing, and the school board rewards EMPLOYEES??? They are a joke.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 8:28 PM.
