GEORGETOWN — Georgetown-Ridge Farm board members decided Monday that district administrators will now receive a pay bonus for longevity.

Board members approved a committee proposal regarding administrators’ longevity pay, which is the first of its kind for school building officials in the district.

The policy is separate from a principal’s or vice principal’s annual salary increase, and is instead based on their number of years in their administrative position.

“It’s a way for the board to award them for their number of years in the district,” said Superintendent Kevin Tate.

Each administrator in the district will receive $213 per year served in an administrator position. Since the policy was enacted late this fiscal year, the payment this time will come to them in a lump sum.

However, when the new fiscal year for the district begins in July, the bump will be pro-rated and added into their regular pay periods.

For example, a principal who has been on the job five years in the district would receive an additional $1,065 annually in longevity pay.

The measure did not pass unanimously as board members Susan Riggle and Kevin Metheney voted against the additional pay.

Board members Lori Key, Carla Pollman, Robert Delmotte, Janet Martin and board president Jack Morrison voted in favor of the proposal.

Tate said administrators currently do not have a step program in place like teachers do in their contract. He said teachers in the district gain salary as they move up the steps, until they are off the step program when they earn their master’s degree and they begin to get longevity pay.

Tate said the administrators’ longevity pay is matched to what is offered in the current teachers’ contract.

In other business, board members:

-- Heard Pine Crest Elementary will work with Crosspoint Human Services with a $75,000 grant that was awarded to them by the Illinois Department of Human Services.

The 15-month program will enable a project coordinator to be hired who will have an office space at the school and who will work directly with students, teachers and families to help strengthen the social and emotional health of the school and greater community.

“We’re looking forward for the extra help that will bring to us,” said Principal Cindy Gilliland of the grant. “It’s to help us better help those kids with emotional types of needs.”

The grant period begins immediately with planning starting this Friday between school and Crosspoint officials. In the end, the program will serve as a model for mental health services and development strategies for the entire county.

-- Hired Casey Hays of Kentland, Ind., as a math teacher and head volleyball coach at Georgetown-Ridge Farm High School for the 2008-09 school year. She is presently teaching at Normal High School.

-- Accepted the retirement of Dorothy Lickfett as first-grade teacher effective at the end of this school year.

-- Accepted the resignation of Matt Ryan as Mary Miller Junior High seventh- and eighth-grade science and math teacher.

-- Dismissed Holly Pasquale as MMJH cheerleading coach effective immediately.

-- Accepted the resignation of Bob McMurray as seventh-grade boys’ basketball coach.

-- Hired Patty Comstock as MMJH special education summer school teacher and Rhonda Olson as special education summer school personal aide.

-- Approved a 2009 Disney Magic Music Days trip for the high school marching band and color guard in Orlando, Fla.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Georgetown-Ridge Farm School Board will meet at 7 p.m. April 28 at the superintendent’s office.