The Washington Parish School Board approved a salary supplement last week for employees of the parish school system.
In addition, the board recently also implemented a fuel supplement for bus drivers.
A $600 stripend will be paid to all employees of the school system in May and a 4% stripend will be paid in October. In addition, at last week’s meeting of the school board, a new salary schedule was adopted.
John Wyble, president of the school board, said the increases “are in recognition of the outstanding service and commitment of our employees.”
He added, “We recognize in a time of both out of control inflation and historic teacher shortages, we have to do everything we can and more. We continue to look at what else we can do and plan to revisit it again at our May meeting.”
In addition to the supplements and the new salary schedule, the board has approved a one-time fuel supplement for bus drivers that averages about $1,000 per driver, Wyble said. He noted that while the fuel supplement is one-time, the board will take another look at it this summer.
Wyble commented, “I was personally disappointed in the governor not proposing a larger pay increase for teachers. State revenue is in the best shape it has been in for a long time. I expected a larger increase proposed considering he initially ran for governor on an education platform.”
But Wyble said, “Despite our challenges, great things are happening in the Washington Parish School System. Our district was one of only a handful of districts statewide that saw improvements in test scores despite the pandemic. We are also receiving a $1 million grant to expand early childhood in Washington Parish, which is desperately needed.”
