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School is back in session, as is the Chambers County School Board. One of the first actions by the board this year was to approve a sign-on bonus for high-need teaching positions. 

“This is a hard-to-staff bonus because of the time of year and some of the positions,” said

Superintendent Dr. Casey Chambley. 

There has been some turnover to start the year, specifically in the core subject positions; language arts, math and science. 

“You gotta find ways to incentivize and pull people out. And so one of the ways that we thought that we may try to do that, is through a sign-on bonus,” Chambley said.

“We’re trying to be creative in ways to try to recruit teachers. We’ve had some situations occur recently where we’ve lost a couple of our core teachers…people resign for a lot of different reasons,” he added.

The sign-on bonus will be $3,000 to be paid in three installments across the school year. The first $1,000 will be given when the new teacher starts work, followed by another around the end of the first semester and the third at the end of the school year. 

The sign-on stipulated that if the teacher leaves within 90 days of one of the installments, that $1,000 is owed back to the school system. 

“We don’t want kids sitting in a classroom without a teacher for long periods of time if we can help that, and having to deal with a long-term sub in that class,” Chambley said. 

“They have to be a highly qualified teacher, they have to be certified to receive the bonus,” said Chambley. “They don’t receive it all at one time. Our thought process on that is if you receive $1,000 in the beginning, that could help if somebody moved…another 1000 would be paid to them before Christmas, and the other 1000 would be paid to them at the end.”

The installment plan is to encourage the new hires to stay on throughout the year. The sign-on is only for the current positions needed urgently, including secondary English and Math teachers. The motion is only for the 2024-2025 school year. The board approved the item unanimously.