The Public School System is working on disbursing this week the remaining balance of incentive checks under the Project Restart Retention Incentive program for school-based personnel. <\/p>\n
In a phone interview with Education Commissioner Dr. Alfred Ada, he said that PSS is working on issuing the $1,000 incentive checks to PSS instructors this week, even though it is originally supposed to be given out at the end of the school year. <\/p>\n
\u201cProject Restart is only for school-based personnel. They all will get $1,000, but they were not supposed to get it until the end of the school year but we were able to get permission to give it out early, considering the COVID-19 situation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Ada said PSS federal programs officer Tim Thornburgh reached out the U.S. Department of Education to release the over $1.3 million balance early because PSS wanted to lift the teacher\u2019s spirits in some way during these hard times. <\/p>\n
Ada said he wanted to release the incentive checks early because teachers were not paid their entire salary last pay period, with locally funded staff only receiving 70% of their salaries. <\/p>\n
Thornburgh said during a special board meeting last Saturday that the schedule of the release of the incentive checks is at the discretion of the education commissioner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a situation where, if we really want to, we could do it, because it is an incentive to keep our teachers. \u2026We can do the drawdown [this week],\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
According to Saipan Tribune archives, all teachers, teacher aids, school administrators, substitute teachers, librarians, and other qualified school-based personnel were given $1,000 each back in December as incentive pay under the Project Restart\u2019s Retention Incentive program.<\/p>\n
The grant is intended to retain school-based personnel and motivate them to stay for the entire school year. Each individual who qualifies gets $2,000. The first payment was back in December and the second payment of $1,000 was initially supposed to be disbursed at the end of the school year in June. <\/p>\n
Thornburgh discovered the Retention Incentive Program under Project Restart, a federal program that awards grants that can be used for school operations, recruitment of teachers, renewal of teachers, rewards, and performance incentives for teachers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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