Beaufort Co. school board OKs staff COVID bonus — but the timing, amount aren’t final
Correction: Due to a board clerical error, a previous version of this article misstated the vote taken to approve the COVID hazard bonus. The article has been updated.
Beaufort County School District has approved a COVID hazard bonus for employees — but staff won’t see the money or know the amount of the bonus until April.
The school board voted 9-0-2 Tuesday to approve the one-time bonus, with the recommendation that full-time employees receive $1,000, part-time employees who work between three and four days per week receive $500, and part-time employees who work between one and two days per week receive $250.
Mel Campbell and William Smith abstained, with Campbell stating his preference for the board to directly approve the bonus rather than directing Superintendent Frank Rodriguez to do so at a later date.
The district’s approximately 500 contract employees, which include cafeteria staff, custodians and maintenance workers, will not receive the bonus.
However, the school board’s finance committee, which was tasked in January with evaluating a possible COVID bonus, added a caveat: the “final decision on the actual amount and the timing of the payments will be made” after the district collects its funding from Beaufort County’s delayed tax bills at the end of March.
Tonya Crosby, the district’s chief financial officer, said the recommended bonus amount matches the bonus being given to Jasper County School District employees.
She said the decision to match that amount was made in part to ease the process of paying bonuses to employees at the Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Career Excellence, which is co-operated by both school districts.
A Tuesday motion made by Smith to instead give a flat $1,000 bonus to all employees, which would add about $16,000 to the overall cost, failed 1-10. Smith was the lone “yes” vote.
Crosby recommended Tuesday that the school board finalize the timing and amount of the bonuses at its April 20 meeting, after the district receives tax invoices from the county treasurer’s office.
Tax bills are normally due by Jan. 15 but were delayed because of an ongoing legal battle between the Beaufort County Council and Auditor Jim Beckert.
The district relies on Beaufort County Council to approve its $250 million-plus annual budget every year and to provide the tax money to pay for it. The taxes, with a rate set by Beckert, represent approximately $150 million of the budget.
South Carolina’s Department of Education has told school districts that they cannot fund one-time bonuses for employees through federal CARES Act funding, Crosby said Thursday. The CARES Act is designed to offset the costs of adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, Crosby said, the estimated $3.1 million cost of the bonuses will have to come from the district’s general fund, which is supplemented by the county’s tax bills.
In January, the district approved borrowing up to $100 million to “keep the lights on” as it waits for the tax revenue to come in, with Crosby noting that the district’s accounts would be left with a $100 million deficit in February without any borrowing or revenue.
As of Jan. 31, Crosby said, the district has collected $69 million in tax revenue this year — about $72 million short of what it had collected at that point in 2020.
“If we say we’re going to do it now, we’re telling the public we have slush money, we can push something through that costs three million dollars,” finance committee chairperson Richard Geier said Thursday. “Well, the fact is, we don’t.”
A few other school districts in South Carolina already have approved similar one-time bonuses.
In Richland County, District 1’s school board voted in October to give a $500 bonus to part-time employees and a $1,000 bonus to full-time employees, according to The State newspaper.
In September, the Charleston County school board approved a one-time $500 bonus for full-time employees and a prorated bonus for part-time employees, which cost an estimated $5.2 million.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 8:18 PM.