On Tuesday evening, the Newport News School Board approved additional funding from the state and city for a 4% raise and $1,500 (pretax) retention bonus for full-time contracted employees. The additional funds will also cover increasing starting teacher pay and starting teacher associate pay by $1,000, as well as sign-on bonuses for high-need positions.
The long wait on announcing the retention bonus was due to negotiating for an additional $2.1M from the city in matched funds, to go along with the additional $3.6M from the state.
Superintendent Dr. Michele Mitchell noted that the state only funds the retention bonuses for Standards of Quality teacher and staff positions. NNPS is offering the bonus to all NNPS full-time contracted employees who worked for the district last school year and who are returning this school year. Dr. Mitchell said that this is 35% beyond the state’s SOQ threshold.
A disbursal date for the retention bonus was not announced at the meeting. The state bonus has already been disbursed in several nearby districts and NNPS just formally approved the funds, so it is likely to come soon.
Normally these special meetings are televised, but this was not available at Tuesday’s meeting, which was held at the Heritage High cafeteria immediately before a summer graduation ceremony at the school.
To view the meeting agenda and meeting documents, visit
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/nnps/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=DWENWY61E870
Signed,
Dr. James Graves, PH.D, D.TH,
NNEA President
Newport News Education Association 
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