The Allen Parish School Board will use nearly $1.8 million in local sales tax and general fund revenues to issue salary supplements to its 650 employees in September.

School board members unanimously approved separate resolutions during a special meeting Thursday providing for paying salary supplements for employees from its sales tax enhancement fund and general fund revenues.

Under the plan, degreed employees including classroom teachers and administrators will receive $2,500 with support personnel including custodians, cafeteria workers and secretaries receiving $1,500. School board members will not receive the supplement.

“This year we had the opportunity to run into a surplus which was projected at $2 to $3 million,” Superintendent Brad Soileau said. “That money could stay in the general fund and go into our fund balance, but we decided as a board to go into that sales tax account, which is roughly $650,000, and use a portion of that surplus to give back to our employees.”

Funds from the general fund are coming from this year’s surplus and not the current fund balance,  Soileau said.

“As a board we feel like this is something we can do and should do for our employees,” he said.

Board President Karen Reed praised Soileau for his efforts to work with the board and its finance director and staff to continue to find ways to help supplement employees’ salaries.

“We are 100 percent here today to show our support for our teachers and all of our other employees in Allen Parish,” Reed said. “We are very blessed to have dedicated employees and employees that are always willing to be life-long learners and do things that will better the education for our students.”

The board is expected to continue discussions about issuing its annual December stipends, as well as a January supplement from the state.

“A lot of our employees at this point have been concerned about stipends this year,” Soileau said. “We have been very fortunate for many years to give our employees stipends at Christmas and I want to say it will be comforting for them to know that we are going to continue to find ways to supplement them. We know with the loss of our casino funds that definitely changed a lot of things.”

He said the board has been appreciative of the funds provided by the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana from gaming revenues in the past. Those revenues were lost last year when the tribe withdrew its funding from local agencies.

Under the former agreement with the Coushatta Tribe, the school board’s first $1.2 million was dedicated to teacher salaries. The remaining funds were used for curriculum and school projects, including repairs for schools that did not have adequate maintenance funds.