By T. Scott Boatright

Thanks to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER), Lincoln Parish schools employees will soon be receiving a bonus paycheck.

Certified schools personnel will receive a $1,000 one-time stipend from the federal pandemic relief funding while support staff personnel will receive $500 and hour workers will get $400 payments after the motion to do so was unanimously passed during a special meeting of the Lincoln Parish School Board on Tuesday.

The funding comes through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act that was signed into law last December.

Lincoln Parish Schools will receive approximately $7.8 million from the stimulus payout with the bonus checks taking around $1 million of that.

The remainder of the funding will be applied toward funding remedial summer school programs, adding more technology in parish schools and to hire a mental health counselor for each public school next year along with interventionists to handle learning loss cause by the COVID-19 school shutdowns over the past year.

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