$2.7 million in new bonuses, stipends for employees coming to Muscogee County schools
The Muscogee County School District hopes a package of new incentive programs totaling an estimated $2.7 million in bonuses and stipends will help recruit and retain employees.
The MCSD board unanimously approved the five initiatives during last week’s meeting.
Revenue from the federal law called ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief), enacted in 2020, will fund the programs.
Here’s an explanation of the initiatives, according to the administration’s presentation to the board.
Hard-to-fill schools
For the Hard-to-Fill School pilot program, MCSD identified three schools with a history of having an especially tough time hiring and retaining employees: Baker Middle School, Eddy Middle School and Rothschild Leadership Academy, which also is a middle school.
MCSD budgeted $1,336,000 in ESSER funds for all employees except principals and assistant principals at those schools. The money will be allotted over three years:
- Year 1 — $1,000 bonus for benefits-eligible employees and $500 for non-benefits-eligible employees who commit to return for the 2022-23 school year. Paid in September.
- Year 2 — $3,000 bonus for benefits-eligible employees and $1,500 bonus for non-benefits-eligible employees. Paid in two installments, December 2022 for recruitment or retention and June 2023 for successfully meeting performance goals.
- Year 3 — $4,000 bonus for benefits-eligible employees and $2,000 bonus for non-benefits-eligible employees. Paid in two installments, December 2023 for recruitment or retention and June 2024 for successfully meeting performance goals.
Failure to complete the entire year will result in a repayment penalty. Employees who are terminated for cause aren’t eligible.
Exiting state identification
MCSD budgeted $710,125 in ESSER funds for bonuses to employees returning to schools that improve enough on the 2022 Georgia Milestones standardized tests to exit the state’s list of schools receiving extra support because of substandard performance.
The district has 12 of its 53 schools on one of those lists:
Five schools — Baker Middle School, Brewer Elementary School, Dorothy Height Elementary School, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and Rothschild Leadership Academy — receive comprehensive support from the state because they are among Georgia’s lowest 5% of Title I schools (serving students from predominantly low-income families) when ranked on a three-year average of their state test scores, called the College and Career Ready Performance Index.
Depending on their position, employees at those schools will receive a bonus ranging from $375-$1,500 if their school improves enough to exit the list.
Four schools — Davis Elementary School, East Columbus Magnet Academy (a middle school), Georgetown Elementary School and Wesley Heights Elementary School — rank between the lowest 5.01% and 10% among the state’s Title I schools on the three-year CCRPI average.
Depending on their position, employees at those schools will receive a bonus ranging from $250-$1,000 if their school improves enough to exit the list.
Three schools — Carver High School, Jordan Vocational High School and Rigdon Road Elementary School — receive targeted support because they have at least one subgroup of students performing among the lowest 5% of all Georgia schools in at least half of the CCRPI components.
Depending on their position, employees at those schools will receive a bonus ranging from $150-$600 if their school improves enough to exit the list.
Relocation stipend
To help schools fill vacancies at critical teaching positions in core academic subjects and special education, MCSD has budgeted $200,000 in ESSER funds for relocation expenses of new employees in those job categories.
The stipend will be determined based on the mileage from MCSD’s headquarters at 2960 Macon Road in Columbus. New employees moving from 90-199 miles away will receive $2,000, and those moving from more 200 or more miles away will receive $4,000.
Funding for the relocation stipend program is budgeted at $100,000 in the 2022-23 school year and $100,000 in the 2023-24 school year.
Tuition assistance
MCSD budgeted $235,000 in ESSER funds to contract with International Scholarship and Tuition Services of Nashville to help administer a tuition assistance program for benefits-eligible employees to earn college degrees or other certifications.
The proposed maximum amount of assistance per employee is $3,000 per school year. The program will start in April and run through the 2023-24 school year.
Recruitment bonus
MCSD budgeted $200,000 in ESSER funds to pay a $500 bonus to any employee who recruits someone to fill a vacant position.
The new employee must successfully complete at least 90 days of employment for the recruitment bonus to be paid. To avoid a conflict of interest, the person who directly hires the new employee isn’t eligible for the bonus.
As of Friday, MCSD had 468 vacancies out of 5,109 positions, Arleska Castillo, the district’s chief human resources officer, told the Ledger-Enquirer. MCSD didn’t provide a breakdown of those positions by job category before publication, but Castillo said, “only 1.5% of the vacancies are educators.”
In a follow-up email, Castillo corrected her previous statement and said, “The 1.5% would be from the total number of positions within the district; not the total number of vacancies. Our largest vacancies are within our support roles in Transportation and School Nutrition similar to districts across the nation.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 2:58 PM.
