School Board Considers Cash for Departing Teachers

By Todd Hatton

Paducah, KY – The Paducah School Board tonight has their first reading of a policy that would offer teachers cash if they let the district know early they plan to leave their jobs. The proposed policy would give departing teachers 7-hundred dollars if they inform the school system by September 15th. The amount would go down by 100 dollars each subsequent month through March. School Board Superintendent Randy Greene says the schools can have as many as 45 or 50 job openings per year. He says because employees leave on short notice the district struggles to recruit teachers in competitive areas like math and special education. Greene says officials also try to hire minorities, but that can be difficult without time to conduct a proper job search. Greene hopes the policy would allow officials to start recruiting new employees at college job fairs in January and February.