School board approves employee bonuses

The Fairfax County School Board on Aug. 26 approved one-time $1,000 bonuses to all full-time and hourly contracted employees, including bus drivers and food service workers.

Temporary hourly employees will get $500 bonuses. 

The bonuses “recognize the extraordinary contributions and sacrifices that all FCPS employees made during the pandemic,” a news release states.

The bonuses will be paid at the end of November. The total cost, $32.7 million, is part of a series of revenue and expenditure adjustments to the FY 2021 budget. 

The school board also approved a $188.6 million spending plan for using its share of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER III) funds. ESSER III is part of the American Rescue Plan and is aimed at helping schools safely reopen and address the impact of COVID-19 on students. 

FCPS will use $170 million (82 percent of its ESSER III funds) to support students with academic and social-emotional needs. 

Related story: School news roundup: A COVID update and a different kind of board meeting

The remaining funds will be used for prevention and mitigation strategies and other uses, such as technology, transportation for after-school and Saturday programs, career and technical education, family engagement, program management, and school monitors. 

Some examples include: 

• Increasing the starting pay for bus drivers from $19.58 to $22.91 per hour. 
• $10 million for monitors to help with cafeteria lunches and outdoor learning and for additional substitute teachers. 
• $1 million to provide 10 English-as-a-second-language teacher positions. 
• Additional pay for special education teachers, as their work hours, will be increased from 7.5 to 8 hours a day. 

Each school will receive a funding allocation based on enrollment and need.

The factors used in determining need include the percent of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals, the percent of English language learners, the percent of students with disabilities, the reading and math achievement reverse index, and, for high schools, the graduation and completion index.

All schools will create a plan that outlines how they will use their ESSER III funds to support student learning and wellness and will post information about their plan on the school website.