Bonus checks
Enhancement pay for District 25 employees in mail
By Carolyn B. Tyler
Staff Writer

The Riverton community received a $1 million shot in the arm Monday when bonus checks were sent to 441 individuals employed in Fremont County School District 25 during the 2007-08 academic year.
The school district accrued the enhancement pay money because, business manager Mike Collins said, the schools “had a clean year with no major breakdowns or unanticipated expenses.”
Through state statute such funds can’t be “moved forward” because of the 15 percent cap imposed by the state, Collins said. Nor can they be applied toward district construction or maintenance projects without advance planning, which was not possible through the short schedule on money projections coming from the county and state.
Therefore, the $1.07 million would not be available for the district to use toward something such as adding the enhancements to the activity field recently built between the middle and high schools.
And, if the excess money is not spent for state-approved programs by the end of the fiscal year, it has to be returned to the state for distribution elsewhere.
Instead of returning the $1-plus million to the state, the District 25 Board of Education directed the funds to be used as “enhancement pay” for the past year’s staff — certified and classified.
Monday, June 30, was the end of the district’s fiscal year and the checks totaling $1.07 million, including the employer taxes, went out to 441 local people.
Distribution of money of this type is difficult, superintendent Craig Beck said, because the district can’t determine fund balances like this until June because of the timing of the county on its payment.
“This money has to be spent and items received by June 30. That limits what can be purchased,” Beck said.
Despite all the other and varied needs within the school district, Beck said he firmly believes “our people deserve the payment.”
The distribution of the money was broken out into certified and classified brackets, Collins said, with 74 percent going to the certified (teaching) staff and 26 percent for classified (support) staff.
The district’s business office established the proportional distribution of the money. Collins said a factor was determined for each group by dividing the allocated amount by a total made up of years of experience.
The “factor amount” for certified personnel was $219.04 and $113.10 for classified. No one was paid less than one factor, Collins said.
The average enhancement pay for certified staff was about $3,155.78, Collins said, and the average for classified was about $1,256.44. Payout to classified staff ranged from a low of $113.10 for an individual to a high of $3,788.85. Among the certified staff, the lowest enhancement payment was $219.04, ranging up to a top of $5,256.96 for an individual.
This was paid to district employees on Monday, beyond their contracts, and was a special one-time bonus from district funds available for no other purpose.
The district’s 2008-09 budget comes to public hearing for adoption the night of Wednesday, July 16.