East Lansing Public Schools had a surplus. They gave $394K to teachers and staff.

EAST LANSING — East Lansing Public Schools teachers and staff left school Friday holding envelopes containing hand-written notes from the superintendent and something the district hadn't seen for decades: bonuses.

School district officials reviewed the 2018-19 school year’s year-end audit and found a healthy $687,000 surplus. School board members approved Superintendent Dori Leyko’s recommendation to spend $394,000 to reward the teachers and staff members who make the schools run.

One employee told Leyko that bonuses had not been distributed in the 39 years that person had worked for the school district. As far as East Lansing Education Association President Tim Akers is aware, teachers have never received bonuses.

“It’s been extremely rewarding for me to give a token of appreciation to our staff,” Leyko said, in an email. “They work so hard for our students and families, and I can’t think of a better investment than one in our people.”

All employees who worked for the district when school board members approved the bonuses on Oct. 14 and who were still employed when they were distributed on Nov. 15 were eligible.

In total, 341 employees regularly scheduled to work at least 20 hours per week received a $1,000 bonus, while 36 employees working a regular schedule of fewer than 20 hours per week got $500 bonuses. That's after taxes. 

The board did not consider any other potential uses for the extra money, said Board of Education President Erin Graham.

School employees and administration have had a rocky relationship, Akers said. They are in the second year of a three-year contract that did not include the raises some union members were expecting to see, and union employees saw pay freezes during negotiations in 2016-17 and 2017-18, he said. 

"I think a lot of it … has to do with the circumstances from the last three years," said Akers, an English teacher at East Lansing High School. "This is recognition on Dori’s part of the efforts we’re putting in."

Employee wages had been stagnant before Graham was appointed to the board in 2015, she said, and, when considering inflation and growing health care costs, take home earnings were falling.

“Now, a few years down the road, the district is on better financial footing,” Graham said. “Investing in our employees is one way we can show how much they are valued and appreciated.”

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Contact Mark Johnson at 517-377-1026 or at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.