Richland 1 will be giving all employees one-time bonus

Richland 1 will be giving one-time bonuses for all district employees, the board voted earlier this week.

Full-time employees will receive a $1,000 bonus and part-time employees will receive a $500 bonus. To be eligible, an employee had to have worked 152 days in the last fiscal year and still be employed by the district, officials said at the board meeting.

The raises were approved unanimously at a Tuesday school board meeting.

“It’s been a long-time coming,” board member Cheryl Harris said. “They definitely deserve it.”

Originally, the Richland 1 administration had proposed giving $750 raises to all full-time employees, which would have meant roughly $500 in an employees pocket after taxes. Board member Jonathan Milling motioned to raise that amount to $1,000, which other board members voiced support for.

The one-time bonus will cost the district roughly $5 million, said Richland 1 Chief Operations Officer Ed Carlon.

Richland 1 employs more than 4,000 full-time equivalent employees, according to its website.

The move comes just days before Election Day, in which three, sitting school board members have a challenger. Two candidates vying for the seat told The State they are happy the bonus was approved, but see the timing so close to an election as suspicious.

“It happening a week before the election looks like it was engineered, but in the bigger picture it’s still a good thing,” said John Adams, who is running for Richland 1’s at-large seat.

Shannon Edmond Williams, who is challenging Harris for the sub-district 4 seat, agreed.

Williams said the one-time bonuses for employees was “awesome,” but asked “why do we need to wait a week before the election to implement it?”

Still, “I’d rather (the bonuses) come now that not at all,” Williams said.

Richland 1 was motivated to provide the raises because of the extra work employees have been putting in because of coronavirus, but also to keep up with Richland 2, which approved $1,000 raises for 3,500 employees back in January.

“Especially when we have a neighboring district who has been pretty aggressive in recruiting, I think it’s really good policy,” said board member Beatrice King.

Asked how the district settled on the amount for the bonus, Carlon told board members it was a balancing act, especially given that the district may need to spend more down the road on personal protective equipment or other COVID-19 equipment.

“We would love to pay $2,000 for all our employees, but we’re trying to be conservative, yet trying to be fair to the employee,” Carlon said.

It’s unclear exactly when employees will receive the bonus, but the district is hoping to get it to employees before the holidays.

“It’s been a difficult time. It’s been a challenge to make ends meet,” said board member Aaron Bishop. “It could be a great opportunity for people during the holidays to take care of their families.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 1:28 PM.