Terrebonne school bonuses to cost $4.1 million

Christmas bonuses for full- and part-time Terrebonne Parish school staff will cost taxpayers $4.1 million, far more than the $3.6 one-time payment school administrators originally proposed.

The school board approved end-of-year bonuses at its Dec. 4 meeting.

Superintendent Ed Richard had offered a $3.6 bonus package, which the school board nixed, opting instead for a plan presented by board member Roosevelt Thomas.

Richard’s plan would have paid full-time staff a one-time 3 percent bonus. It did not include part-time employees.

Under Thomas’s package, approximately 1,700 teachers will receive $1,500, 923 support employees will get $1,000 and 126 part-time staffers will receive $250, according to school officials.

The end-of-year bonus will be paid in large part from a $5.5 million surplus school officials expect to net from a 1-cent sales tax dedicated to teacher salaries. Richard said state and federal monies will be used to pay the difference.