ATLANTA — The state superintendent is raising concerns after he said his office received calls from Atlanta Public Schools teachers claiming they will not be receiving the recently announced $1,000 retention payments.
In a letter to APS' interim superintendent Danielle Battle on Thursday, Richard Woods made clear the purpose of Gov. Brian Kemp's retention payments. Kemp announced the bonuses on Monday in a news conference. K-12 teachers, school support staff and full-time eligible state employees would receive the retention bonus.
In Woods' letter, he claimed some news outlets shared a statement from the district that mentioned APS gave bonuses to teachers earlier this month. The letter implies that the district would use the funds for "other education needs." He said he was "baffled" by the situation.
"Let me be very clear: the intent of the state's $1,000 retention pay supplement is not to backfill the Atlanta Public Schools budget or 'share the cost of additional recognition already provided by districts to teachers," the letter reads.
11Alive reached out to APS about the letter and inquired about their plans for the funds. We received the following statement from a spokesperson:
The intent of Atlanta Public Schools and the Atlanta Board of Education was to reward our hardworking teachers and school staff with a bonus before the holiday break, while also being fiscally responsible stewards of taxpayer funds. We did that as a district on December 15th and we are committed to passing along any additional funds once funds are disbursed for the Governor’s proposal and clarification is provided on which categories of employees should be covered by the bonus.
Kemp said many state and university employees will get their bonuses at the end of this month. The governor's office said it would be up to the school districts when teachers and support staff will get their bonuses, but the bonus was set for the end of this year.
Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, said confusion arose when details were left out of the state's promised funding for the bonuses.
“The governor made the announcement, all the details weren’t worked out," Morgan said. "Rather than waiting for details to be worked out, people have kind of jumped ahead.”
So, more than 5,000 Atlanta Public Schools employees will receive the state-issued bonus in addition to the bonus they already received from the district earlier this month. For Morgan, keeping teachers and other employees in the classroom goes beyond one or two retention bonuses.
“It’s one piece of keeping teachers in the classroom. Obviously, teacher retention and the fact that we have a teacher shortage is a big issue," Morgan said. “Salaries and benefits, we need to improve those, but we also need to improve respect and allowing teachers a voice in what’s happening in their classrooms. We also need to improve the mental health supports for teachers and students.”
Kemp also announced that $103.9 million will be implemented in the 2024 budget for school security funding, with $45,000 for each school in the state. All schools will have the opportunity to allocate the funding for more security staffing or updating school safety technologies. The funding toward school security was the only other allocated towards other needs in the new budget in the governor's announcement.
The state will not only give bonuses to school teachers – but they'll also go to paraprofessionals, support staff, administrators and bus drivers.
To read the full letter, look at the X post below.