It’s the season of giving, and Gwinnett County Public Schools felt the spirit. As the AJC reported last week:
The Gwinnett County Public Schools board of education Thursday approved a one-time pay bump of $700 that teachers and other employees on their salary schedule will receive next month. The bonus, which will be included in the December monthly paycheck, goes to about 12,000 full-time benefited teachers, counselors, speech language pathologists, school technology coordinators and media specialists who were on the payroll as of Thursday.
However, not all employees on the district payroll received the bonus. Among the notes I have received about those left out:
- Any way to call attention to all of the Gwinnett workers NOT receiving this...paras, OTs, PTs, nurses, bus drivers, psychologists, office staff....all of whom have worked in person since August.
- GCPS is giving teachers a gift of $700. Yes, they deserve it. But what about the support staff? No school in Gwinnett could exist without us. Ye,t the county has deemed us worthless. Ms. Downey ask them why we don’t matter.
- I feel it’s a slap in the face for all of us who have been showing up in the buildings even before teachers were required to return.
I asked the district why some employees were not included. Gwinnett Schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said:
We recognize that everyone's job has been more challenging during the pandemic and understand their questions. However, our teachers are certainly deserving of this compensation as they have faced additional challenges as they have been working to teach students both digitally and those who are attending in person, concurrently.
In the past, our district has made previous one-time salary adjustments to employees, including some that only went to certain employee groups.
We understand this is a difficult time and appreciate the work and contributions made by all of our employees.
Buford City Schools is also giving one-time bonuses this month, but all employees will get them, according to Kerri Leland, director of communications for the district.
In an email today, Leland said, ”Buford City Schools will be awarding every employee of the school district a one-time salary adjustment in the December paychecks. Current employees that were active prior to July 1, 2020, will receive a $1,265 payment...staff that began their employment with BCS on or after July 1, 2020, will receive a $632 payment.”
About 6,500 Atlanta Public Schools’ employees will receive a $1,000 one-time payment this month. The bonus will go to active, full-time employees and those who work at least 29 hours a week, according to the AJC.
Your thoughts on Gwinnett’s approach?
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