As employees of Allen Parish School Board prepare to return to school soon, the board voted in a special meeting Thursday, July 25, to give stipends in September.
The plan is to use monies from local sales taxes and the board’s general fund to give stipends to 650 employees. The board adopted two resolutions to pay a salary supplement utilizing funds from the sales tax salary enhancement fund and from the general fund in September 2024.
Superintendent Brad Soileau said the district had a budget surplus, projected at $2 to $3 million. He told the board the money could stay in the general fund and then into the fund balance. However, the board decided to use some of the surplus for the stipend. The rest of the stipend will be supplemented by the sales tax account, which is roughly $650,000. Together, the two accounts will fund the plan of $2,500 for classroom teachers and administration and $1,500 for other employees (cafeteria, custodian, secretaries…). No school board member will receive any of this stipend.
Board President Karen Reed praised Soileau for working with the finance director and her staff and the board’s finance committee to review budgets and funding to find ways to fund this stipend. She said they were all here to support teachers and other employees in the parish. She also noted the board was blessed to have dedicated employees willing to be life-long educators here in the parish. She added the board would continue to discuss stipends for December and January.
Soileau said the state monies will be used for stipends in January. In the mean time, he said the district has been fortunate, especially for many years, to give the stipends in December for Christmas. He said the board continues to be appreciative of the monies from the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana from gaming revenues in the past. The loss of those dollars has changed a lot of things for the district, so Soileau and his staff continues to search and consider all avenues that may be used for stipends in the future.
The board will continue to study ways to find monies to give stipends to employees when feasible.