Sumter district’s chief financial officer says it can’t use COVID-19 relief funds to pay for teacher bonuses or raises

By law, Sumter School District cannot use federal stimulus funding it has received associated with COVID-19 to give staff bonuses or raises.
That has been a source of some confusion in the community during the last several months, and district Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Miller tried to make that point clear as she began the district’s proposed 2021-22 general fund budget and millage increase request presentation to Sumter County Council on Tuesday.
To date, the district has been allocated about $31 million in emergency relief funding in the last year from the federal government to address the impact COVID-19 has had — and continues to have — on the local school system.
Much like with many government grants these days, there are specific allowable categories where those emergency funds can be spent, and across-the-board salary increases is not one of them, Miller said.
“Those funds are strictly regulated on what they can be spent on,” she said. “For example, we can’t use those funds to just improve operations in the school district. It has to be something that if it were not for COVID-19, we wouldn’t even need to buy. Therefore, we can’t use it for salary increases. We can’t use it for straight across-the-board bonuses for our employees. We have to spend it in the allowable categories that the state has mandated.”
One example of an allowable category for spending is with the district’s four-week summer school program that starts in early June for some students as a result of the pandemic. Teachers will be paid $50 per hour and school paraprofessionals $30 per hour for that time because they otherwise would not work during the summer months.
In part because of the various restrictions, the district is asking for a 2-mill increase, or about $374,000 in additional funding, from county council for next year’s budget. The funding would be used to help support a small salary increase — generally 1% to 2% — to the district’s nonteaching staff, such as custodians and food-service workers.

GRADUATION TICKETS PER STUDENT
Class of 2021 graduating seniors are each receiving four tickets now for the district’s three in-person graduation ceremonies in early June. Last week, the district announced the increase from two to four tickets per student because of the continued shifts in COVID-19 guidelines. Masks and physical distancing measures will still be in place for the high schools’ ceremonies that are all planned for Sumter Memorial Stadium, 1965 Stadium Road, which is the district’s largest outdoor facility. Everyone in attendance at the ceremonies, including parents and family members, will be required to wear a face mask, according to the district.