Bridgeport ed board to consider pandemic bonuses for teachers
BRIDGEPORT — Talk of bonuses for public employees who worked during the pandemic has left as many questions as answers.
Ongoing union calls to give city workers “premium” or “hero” pay have been expanded to teachers. The bonuses could come from federal pandemic aid, though who’s eligible, for how much and from which bucket — the city’s or school board’s — remains unclear.
The mayor’s office and City Council have signaled they’re on board with the bonuses, while the Board of Education has only recently taken up the mantle. But teachers tell Hearst Connecticut Media they deserve to be in the mix.
“We kept the community going,” said Ana Batista, president of the Bridgeport Education Association, the local teachers union. “We came in there and worked, and we deserve the premium pay.”
Batista was among the Bridgeport educators who reported to classrooms throughout spring 2020. She said others were there too, and many distributed computers, delivered materials to student homes and gave out masks and books at local events.
More teachers returned to inperson classes last school year, she said, before they became vaccineeligible in March. And some teachers still have concerns about contracting the virus or bringing it home to their families.
“We’re still in this pandemic,” Batista said. “Look at how high the numbers have been, and our teachers have been going in recognizing the best quality education we can give is in person.”
As of Friday, 195 staff and 788 students had reported positive COVID-19 cases since the start of the school year, according to district data. More than 150 and 650 of those infections have been since mid-November, when cases started to creep up statewide.
The Bridgeport Board of Education took up the topic of extra pay at a public meeting recently.
“I think there’s still some questions that need to be answered, and also some questions as to what that would look like, and what that means — the impact on children,” Superintendent Michael Testani said.
Board members shared concerns that funds for the bonuses could otherwise be spent on students, and suggested the subject first be tackled by the board’s finance committee.
“This issue is going to become one of emotions,” said Joe Sokolovic, who heads that committee. “While our staff is deserving of compensation, the matter is not could we, the matter is should we because every dollar has to come from somewhere.”
Sokolovic told Hearst Connecticut Media he’d wait until after the finance meeting this week to comment further.
“I think about possible objections that could be brought forward with something like this,” said Joseph Lombard, the board secretary. “Something like this that’s meant to be a positive thing” could be complicated by such questions as what to do about retired employees or those who left the district.
Testani had additional questions at the meeting about what time frame would render a teacher eligible, and who was in school buildings or coming into direct contact with others. He told Hearst Connecticut Media that the schools could benefit from “more time to ask questions and digest it.”
“I think there’s full support of recognizing what folks did during the pandemic for students and families,” Testani said.
The superintendent was only aware of one other Board of Education in the state that had approved of bonuses — Stamford, where teachers were awarded $500 each from COVID funds. New Canaan, too, agreed to give district teachers up to $1,000 in bonuses out of the town’s general fund.
“We think a lot of towns — leaning more toward urban centers and older suburbs — are considering it,” said Kevin Maloney, spokesperson for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. “Bridgeport may be further along the lines of doing it.”
Maloney added that essential workers and premium pay are under the eligible categories for COVID-relief funds, and the organization of municipal leaders was aware of unions pushing for it.
The City Council first pushed the Ganim administration to issue the bonuses over the summer. Later, some members joined with local unions representing personnel from the Board of Education, public facilities, the police and fire departments, and other agencies at a rally in November.
Councilman Scott Burns, a budget committee co-chair who has been closely involved in deciding how to spend pandemic aid, noted there are generally still decisions to be made about how to best distribute the bonuses.
“We’re kind of treading water, unfortunately, right now,” Burns said.
City officials have been exploring how to award the pay, which like the school board also has its complications.
“This is an employee-by-employee analysis to determine how much somebody worked (during the height of the pandemic), and what the risk was,” said mayoral aide Tom Gaudett.
The city has been trying to come up with bonuses in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, Gaudett said, for those who worked a year starting in March 2020, including parttimers. There would likely be a process for those who worked some of that period but have since left the payroll, he said. They’re also ironing out where those funds will come from.
“Because we have union crossover — where there are employees that are part of the same union, but many work for the Board of Education, many work for the city — it makes sense the Board of Education and city cooperate together and come up with a plan that’s consistent, so all employees are treated equally and fairly,” Gaudett said.
The Bridgeport Union Coalition declined to address specific questions asked about bonus amounts or eligibility — “out of respect for the diligent discussions our coalition is having with city and Board of Education representatives.”
“What we can say is that we started this campaign for pandemic hero pay as one and we will finish it together as one,” said Larry Dorman, a spokesperson for AFSCME.
Sherrie Weller, president of the AFSCME Local 1522, whose members include public school employees, has previously said the bonuses would honor Eleanor DeShields, a paraprofessional at Wilbur Cross High School who died after her colleagues said she contracted the virus at work.
Conversations are ongoing and appear unlikely to conclude soon. The school board moved the matter to its finance committee, which meets on Wednesday. After that, final decisions are expected to return to the full board, where the larger group could vote on Feb. 15.