Board approves $5,000 incentive for LR teachers

Sum to be paid over 2 years

The Little Rock School Board on Thursday approved a plan to pay a $5,000 employment retention incentive — $3,000 next month and $2,000 in November 2023 — to its certified employees, most of whom are teachers.

The board also voted to offer the same two-part $3,000/$2,000 plan to the district’s support staff. That will be a change from the $2,500/$2,500 incentive plan that was previously adopted for the support staff last month.

The school board approved the retention incentive pay plan at a meeting in which Superintendent Jermall Wright introduced preliminary plans to hire as many as five different companies to provide a range of tutoring services to students — plus a company that will aid in evaluating the success of each of the tutoring services.

The terms of the employee retention incentive have been batted back and forth for several weeks between district administrators and the district’s Personnel Policies Committee for the state-licensed employees.

Initially, the employee committee had asked that the $5,000 be paid all in one year — with one payment this November and another in April 2023.

Wright last month argued to the board against what he considered to be a bonus rather than a retention incentive.

The payment divided over two school years makes the money a true employee retention incentive and not a bonus, the superintendent said.

Wright said at the time that a bonus that is funded with the federal covid-19 relief money would put the district at risk of being audited for violating directives that the special federal funding not be used for employee bonuses.

The incentive was sent back to the Personnel Policies Committee, which came back with the plan for $3,000 to be paid in November and $2,000 in November 2023.

The district’s administration, however, opposed that — largely because it would complicate the processing of the incentives if they differed for certified and support staff.

Teachers Jason Bailey, Kimberly Crutchfield, Megan Perryman and Kristy Mosby appealed to the

board Thursday to approve the $3,000/$2,000 plan.

“The incentive is to show the teachers of the Little Rock School District that you care about them,” Bailey said. “You care about all of the work that they do — both on the clock and off the clock. And you are aware of the toll that the last two years has taken on them — be they a teacher, a staff member, or a principal. That is what this money means.”

Mosby said the district has more than 30 teacher vacancies.

“We have a retention problem,” Mosby said, “but the ones who are here are here every day. We didn’t quit during the pandemic. We didn’t quit when we didn’t think we would get [acrossthe-board] raises. We still showed up.

“You can show you appreciate us showing up every day by honoring the voices that are spoken through the personnel policies committee for certified teachers,” Mosby said about the recommendation for a $3,000 payment this year and $2,000 next school year.

Board member Ali Noland made the motion to approve the $3,000/$2,000 plan after getting assurances from district leaders that a different pay plan for certified and support staff wouldn’t create significant problems.

The board voted to approve the plan for the certified employees and then voted to offer an altered incentive plan for support staff to match that for the teachers.

Also Thursday, five tutoring companies described for the board the services they can provide for students. The companies are Carnegie Learning, Amira Learning, Tutor Me, BookNook and Ignite Learning. The evaluating company is GoSchoolBox.

Wright said company representatives will spend time in the coming days with school principals and others to determine if any or all of the companies are a good match for the needs at different campuses.

“Our goal is to launch by January so we can have an entire semester of data to see what is working well, what’s not working well, and we will be able to use that information for moving into the 202324 school year,” Wright said.

Board member Michael Mason asked whether the district has the money necessary for employing the services.

Wright said that the district has federal covid-19 relief money that is not yet allocated but must be used by September 2024.

“We are looking to use the remainder of our funds in a short amount of time to do something that will really have impact,” Wright said.

Board member Norma Johnson said that all five companies appeared to have something to offer.