Gwinnett County teachers lose $2,000 bonus

Teachers and staff in Gwinnett County will not get the money that they'd hoped for this school year. That is because the state did not fund a $2,000 retention bonus for staff that the school district wanted to give. Fox 5's Tara Jabbour spoke to the teachers union and joined us live to tell us what they had to say. Tara. Well, Courtney, the teachers union says that they are frustrated with the district because teachers and staff just learned that they wouldn't be getting this money this week. Now, of course, the state budget did pass back in the spring, but the union says that the district didn't send out a letter to teachers and staff saying they wouldn't be able to give them this money until this week. Now, Gwinnett County Association of Educators president Allison Cundiff says she's spoken to a lot of teachers who are not prepared to not receive this money. She says a lot of teachers use them. Some teachers use the money for the holidays and visiting family, but she also says some teachers use the money for extra bills like medical expenses. Cundiff says instead of the bonus this year, she's hoping the district can implement some different policies for teachers to help with retention. It is a policy across the district that protects planning time. Right now, our planning time is constantly being taken up by professional development, by just various meetings, meetings about planning, but not actually planning. A chosen witness policy that prevents ambush meetings, so meetings where they just kind of bring you in, there's no warning, and it's a disciplinary meeting, and you don't have a witness with you in the room. So that is really demoralizing, and it causes people to leave. Now, I did also reach out to the district for a comment, but I'm still waiting to hear back. Reporting live in Norcross, Tara Jabbour, Fox 5 News. All right, Tara, thanks.