FARMINGTON -- The Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative board on Thursday unanimously approved a $900 bonus for staff members.
About 84 employees will receive the bonus at a total cost of about $75,000 to the cooperative, according to board president John Karnes. The bonuses will be paid out of the cooperative's operating budget, he said.
This is the third year the cooperative has approved such a bonus, he said, adding many staff members don't get automatic pay increases each year.
"We're hoping we can give an increase to the salary schedule at a later point, but there's no guarantees," Karnes said.
Some employees wouldn't have received any raise this year without the bonus, said Bryan Law, cooperative director.
"We feel like we can revisit that raise idea in the summer, possibly," he said.
The board also unanimously supported Law's recommendation to continue wearing masks at the cooperative through Memorial Day to help mitigate the spread of the covid-19 virus, Karnes said.
"With professional development, you have people coming in from all different areas, all different districts," Karnes said. "There's a greater chance of spread that way."
Many of the districts supported by the cooperative are making the same decisions, he said.
The cooperative offers professional development and support services to school districts in the region. The board consists of superintendents of each district. Funding stems from the state and grants designated to support specific programming, Law said.
In other news, Jonathan Warren, migrant coordinator, shared information of a potential partnership with Drury University of Springfield, Mo.
The university supports the federal Migrant Education Program by participating in the College Assistance Migrant Program, he said. The college assistance program provides scholarships for the first year of college for students who've participated in the Migrant Education Program at any point in their scholastic career, he said.
The cooperative helps manage the program for the region. The program provides educational and support services to students who must move when their parents search for work, Warren said.
The potential partnership may allow Drury to offer satellite classes for migrant students in Farmington at the cooperative, he said.
"They are wanting to expand to this area for on-site instruction," Warren said of the university.
The possible partnership would allow the university to offer classes in the evening, which wouldn't disrupt the cooperative's day-to-day activities, he said.
Such a partnership would make attending the university far more accessible to Northwest Arkansas migrant students, who otherwise have to drive to a satellite location in Monett to attend classes in-person, Warren said.
"It would create a reasonable drive, much like students who live surrounding the University of Arkansas who commute," he said.
Warren said he anticipates the board will have an opportunity to make a decision on the partnership at its May meeting.
"Nothing has been formalized," he said.
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Who’s involved
Information on school districts that participate in the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative is available at www.starfishnw.org/… .
Source: Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative