Bonuses Approved For Bath School Employees

Warm Springs, Va – Bath County Schools employees will be getting a bonus after a three year wait. At a joint meeting of the Bath Board of Supervisors and the Bath School Board Tuesday night, the Board of supervisors voted to appropriate money to be used as bonuses.

The money is coming from the Education Jobs Fund legislation. It is available only for salaries or bonuses for school level employees. The money is offered on a one time basis and Bath’s allocation is $75,217. The school board has already voted to accept the money and give a one time bonus to school level employees.

At the November board of supervisors meeting, School Superintendent Sue Hirsh asked the board to appropriate the money. But the board tabled the request for further consideration. Tuesday night the Board of Supervisors approved that request to appropriate the money for the school board to provide bonuses. The vote was 4-0, because Supervisor Stuart Hall was absent.

Hirsh explained that there will be nine school system employees whose bonuses will not be covered by the Education Jobs Fund money. The money is only available for school level employees, which excludes employees at the bus garage and the central office. Hirsh says she feels there is enough money saved in the budget to provide the bonuses to those nine employees.

The school board has not voted yet on how to divide the bonuses. Hirsh said it could be a percentage or a fixed amount. Or the amounts could be determined by professional or classified status. Supervisor Jon Trees said he feels every employee should get the same amount.

Before making the motion to approve appropriation of the money, Supervisor Carol Hardbarger had a point of order question. She asked for clarification on whether the meeting was considered a regular meeting or a work session. Chairman Richard Byrd said the last board of supervisors meeting was continued, so the Tuesday night meeting was a regular meeting.

Bath school and county employees have not received a bonus or a raise in three years. Since school employees will now be getting bonuses, the board of supervisors discussed the need to find money to give county employees bonuses also. They all agreed that bonuses do need to be addressed. Supervisor Percy Nowlin said he is doing everything he can to make other county employees equal in terms of bonuses. He said it will probably have to wait until next year’s budget, but the board has that obligation.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

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