Gratitude manifests itself in many forms; nice words, wide smiles, acts of kindness.
Rome City Schools Superintendent, Louis Byars, and the RCS Board of Education decided to show their gratitude for their faculty and staff by offering a gift of aid.
As part of an employee reimbursement program approved by the Board of Education, the gift came in the form of bonus checks. Some of the funds were allocated from the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act which provides education funding to both local and state education agencies to offer support during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“The state only funded some of those people,” Star Smith of the RCS Director of Finance explained, “but Mr. Byars was very gracious to allow everyone in the system to receive a bonus.”
Smith calculated that a total of 850 RCS employees received the bonus. The system’s business office, essentially, had to undergo the process they use for payroll twice in one month. When added with the day-to-day business, such as internal audits, benefits and more, Smith said this job was a large undertaking for her department.
“This was a very new adventure for this department,” she added. “We’ve never done anything like it in the past that I’m aware of.”
The faculty and staff were able to embark on their spring break holiday with some appreciation and a little extra cash in hand, all because of the hard work of the professionals in the RCS business office and the acknowledgement from the system’s leadership of sacrifices made by all.
“It’s nice to be able to help the employees,” Smith added, “and take some of the burden from them anytime there is a situation that we can help with.”
