RAPID CITY, SD– Amid the bitter cold of the past week the Rapid City Board of Education unanimously approved a motion to allow allocation of carryover funding (funding from the previous year not otherwise allocated), allowing the district Special Services Department to give a one-time retention bonus to staff involved in special education.
The staff in question– such as “Special education teachers, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech language pathologists” would be awarded a one-time $2,500 bonus payable on June 10th to full-time members and proportional bonuses to non full-time members.
Confusion on the motion, based on an earlier email by Superintendent Cory Strasser was clarified first by Vice President Jamie Clapham who said “This bonus is not only for paying RCEA members,” and went on to speak to the necessity of the bonus, stating that special education staff were in a “critical situation”. Strasser apologized for the miscommunication and clarified further, saying “Any time there’s compensation we work with a bargaining unit, that doesn’t mean you have to be a member of the bargaining unit in order to receive that compensation”.
