KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

The teachers and staff got an extra gift this holiday season as the Tullahoma City Schools Board of Education approved of a holiday bonus.

In a special called meeting held on Monday, Dec. 16, the members of the school board met to discuss the topic of holiday bonuses.

TCS Director of Schools Dr. Catherine Stephens discussed outcome funding to all seven board members, which is provided by the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act (TISA) to districts that achieve specific targets in student performance. The funds awarded for outcome bonuses are 100% state funded per TISA.

“It is not something we can budget because it’s unknown year by year,” Stephens said, “it’s totally rooted in test data scores.”

Stephens then provided information to explain to the board how the school district received the money. She said the district was informed Thursday, Dec. 12, about the outcome funding, and she, the finance committee and Finance Director Hank Jordan got together the following day to go over the information.

 Per Stephens, TCS gets outcomes funding for elementary, middle and high schools. According to the TISA and as explained by Stephens, For elementary schools, the outcomes funding determined based on two factors: a student meeting or exceeding expectations on the third grade ELA TCAP or a student, who scored “approaching” or “below” on the 3^rd grade ELA TCAP, made significant gains in the fourth grade ELA TCAP by at least one performance level. For middle school, outcomes funding is based on eighth graders who either meet or exceed expectations on a combination of eighth grade ELA and Math sections of the TCAP or eighth graders who improved by at least one performance level from the seventh grade TCAP to the eighth grade TCAP on both the ELA and math sections.

“You’ve got an achievement and a growth component for elementary and middle,” Stephens said.

As for the high school, outcomes funding can come from three paths. The first path is that students have to earn least two early post-secondary opportunity (EPSO) credits like receiving a passing score Advanced Placement courses, receiving credit hours through dual enrollment opportunities, or receiving a Tier 2 or Tier 3 industry credential.  Along with the two EPSO credits, students must have scored at least a 21 or higher on the ACT composite exams or improve their ACT composite score by at least four points between the first 11^th grade ACT and a retake. A second way is for students to earn three ESPO credits and the last track is for a student to score 31 or higher on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Armed Forces Qualifying Test, as well as earning at least two EPSO credits.

Stephens continued and said for elementary, middle and high schools the district views two columns when it comes to the money. One column focuses on a subgroup of students, specifically economically disadvantaged, expeditionary learning and students with disabilities.

“So if those students have made the mark on any of those things, elementary, middle or high, our district is award 20% of the base for that,” Stephens said. “In all three categories, other students are looked at and we get a 10% weight.”

Stephens said this year, the district earned $284,415 for outcomes. She added last year was the first year TCS ever earned outcomes funding and received $267,540.

She said the finance committee discussed last year about the possibility of using the outcomes funding to possibly award a holiday bonus. The topic was also discussed during the school board’s summer retreat.

“Again, we can’t plan for the amount, we don’t know the amount but that was out there,” she said.

Once they received the news about the funding, Stephens and the finance committee got together to figure what was an amount they could offer and recommend as a holiday bonus and what to do with leftovers. After discussion, they wanted to be clear about everybody should be awarded a bonus, but keeping in mind of those who may just joined the staff as recent as December.

“We wanted to look at what is an equitable way to award a holiday bonus that certainly recognizes people that have been here five full months, August, September, October, November and December,” Stephens said, “using those five months because those are full months and that’s when school is underway.”

It was decided that employees who have been employed with the district from August and are still employed would be awarded a $250 bonus, employees who have been employed since September would be awarded a $200 bonus, employees who joined in October would be awarded a $150 bonus, employees who joined in November would be awarded with a $100 bonus and employees who joined in December would receive a $50 bonus.

“So every single employee who is a full or part-time in the district, and there’s 587 of them, would get up to $250 as a maximum,” Stephens said.

Stephens said about 94% of the employees will receive the full $250 bonus, and the total cost was $172,638. She said the plan for the leftover funding is to evaluate some of the projects and needs that have come up since the year started that were not budgeted, and come to the finance committee in January or February with a plan for what to do with the remaining funds, like making an amended budget or putting the money in a fund balance.

“There’s no rules on what you do with the outcomes money and how you spend it,” Stephens said. “We do think this bonus concept is the right idea.”

The bonuses does not include contracted employees, like substitute teachers, and the bonuses are for full-time and part-time employees with no differentiation, according to Stephens. She added that in order to provide this amount in bonuses she needed the board’s seal of approval.

 “We cannot provide a holiday bonus and spend $172,000 without the board’s expressed approval,” she said. “That’s not an option we can’t arbitrarily decide that so that’s why we did a special called meeting.”

Stephens said if the board approved the bonuses that night, they could get the information to payroll the following day, and the employees would see the bonus in their next check.

“It’s a very fast turnaround,” she said.

After the motion to accept the bonus as presented, board member Gigi Robison said she supported it and one of her reasons was the gains the school district has seen was because of the employees.

“I know personally just from teachers that I’ve talked with, and from watching with my grandchildren in the system I know how much effort the teachers and all the staff have put into making those gains possible,” Robison said. “I definitely think this is a wonderful way to say ‘thank you for what you’re doing’ because we’re going to need to continue to do it.”

Board member Andy Whitt agreed with Robison and added another piece of the funding is it will be preserved for other items that the district may need in the future.

Board chairman Kim Uselton said when she worked in the district she recalled the employees getting a $50 bonus and everyone was thrilled. Robison added the board was able to give a bonus two years ago and said the employees were thankful.

With no further discussion, the board unanimously approved to the holiday bonuses.