Georgia teacher retention bonus: Atlanta Public Schools makes about-face on decision after criticism

ATLANTA - It sounds like teachers at Atlanta Public Schools will receive their $1,000 retention bonus after the state superintendent wrote a letter questioning why the district officials would not be passing on the money to teachers.

In a statement to FOX 5, APS says the district is "committed to passing along any additional funds" to its teachers, but it is unclear when that might be. The change came after Richard Woods, Superintendent of the Georgia Department of Education, sent a letter blasting officials.

In his letter provided to FOX 5, Woods says he doesn't understand why "hardworking teachers and educational support staff" of Atlanta Public Schools will not receive the $1,000 retention bonus that was announced by Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday.

APS reportedly sent a memo to its employees that read in part:

"All eligible Atlanta Public Schools employees have already received the state-referenced employee retention supplement in the form of the Mid-Year Holiday Retention Stipend, included in the December 14, 2023, paycheck."

RELATED: Atlanta educators frustrated by $1K bonus miscommunication

Woods says his office has received countless emails and phone calls. In the letter, Woods says that the intent of the state's $1,000 retention bonus is not to backfill the Atlanta Public Schools budget or "share in the cost" of additional recognition already provided by districts to teachers.

RELATED: Kemp announces $1K bonus for Georgia teachers, state employees

The superintendent says that he is "baffled" by the assertion that APS somehow predicted the exact timing and amount of a bonus that had not been "finalized or announced at the time of the district-level payments – particularly since this payment does not align with the timing of retention payments made in past years."

APS officials sent a statement to FOX 5 on Wednesday explaining the decision.

"Given that Gov. Kemp has provided bonuses for school employees the past few years. APS preemptively included the payment in its employees' December 15 paychecks so that they would have the funds prior to the holiday break," the statement reads. "The district will reclassify the payments to eligible employees, restoring our fund balance for other educational needs in the future."

Woods went on to say that he finds it "inconceivable" that APS would not welcome the opportunity for its teachers and educational support staff to be recognized by the state for their extraordinary efforts on behalf of students this year.

Thursday night, Atlanta Public Schools sent a statement to FOX 5 saying the district is "committed to passing along any additional funds."

"The intent of Atlanta Public Schools and the Atlanta Board of Education was to reward our hardworking teachers and school staff with a bonus before the holiday break, while also being fiscally responsible stewards of taxpayer funds," the statement reads. "We did that as a district on December 15th and we are committed to passing along any additional funds once funds are disbursed for the Governor’s proposal and clarification is provided on which categories of employees should be covered by the bonus."

More on Georgia 2023 teacher retention bonus

Earlier this week, Gov. Brian Kemp announced that the state would be sending out a one-time $1,000 retention pay supplement to more than 300,000 state employees, educators and school support staff by the end of the year.

The $330 million payment will be given to each of the around 112,000 eligible, full-time state employees and 196,000 educators and staff across the state.

The pay supplement is planned to appear in employees' last paycheck in December.

The governor also announced a $100.3 million addition to provide $45,000 to every public school in the state to use for school security and safety.

The state's amended 2024 fiscal year budget will include both the pay supplement and security funding. 

Teacher retention in Georgia

Data released this year from the Georgia Department of Education shows that statewide teacher retention has dropped for the last two years. 

For metro Atlanta school districts, like Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Atlanta Public Schools, the data indicates that teacher retention has dropped in the last two years as well.