by Malcolm Butler
The Lincoln Parish School Board approved stipends for parish teachers and supports staff while also approving additional finances for some upcoming facility projects at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting held in the teachers lounge at Ruston High School.
With Otha Anders the only school board member absent during the meeting, the board members unanimously approved one-time stipends in the amount of $2,000 for full-time certified staff and $1,000 for full-time support staff that will be paid no later than December 15.
They also approved $1,600 stipends for part-time hourly certified positions and $800 for part-time hourly support personnel with regular weekly work schedules of at least 20 hours. A prorated one-time stipend was also approved for part-time salaried certified positions and part-time hourly certified positions with regular work schedules between 10 and 20 hours.
The funding came from an allocation of $1,844,517 approved during the 2024 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature, an increase of $107,383 over the 2023-24 allocation.
An additional one-time stipend was also approved that will go only to parish teachers that received a rating of highly effective or effective efficient. No administrators or support staff receive this one-time stipend.
This will be a $455 stipend that will be paid to 286 eligible teachers with the regular payroll on January 24, 2025. This funding was also allocated during the 2024 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature as Lincoln Parish received a total of $155,211.
“I think anything we can do to encourage teachers by putting more money in their pockets especially around the holidays is a positive,” said LPSB Superintendent Ricky Durrett. “Anything we can do to reward them for the job they are doing of teaching our kids is always a great thing for us to do.”
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:55 right to your inbox. Just CLICK HERE to sign up.
