RUMFORD — Regional School Unit 10 Director Bonnie Child of Mexico on Monday questioned Superintendent Deb Alden and board Chairman Greg Buccina about how COVID-19 government funds were given as bonuses to bus driver/custodians and administrators.

In an article published Feb. 11 in the Sun Journal, the Western Foothills Education Association, the district’s bargaining representatives for its bus driver/custodians, teachers and four other groups, said Alden and Buccina, of Rumford, were not transparent about the bonuses.

Child said she didn’t understand “how that went off the rails. I really don’t understand.”

Directors Janet Brennick of Mexico and Michelle Casey of Buckfield also weighed about the COVID funds paid in May to administrators for time over 60 hours a week, for this year’s $1,000 sign-on and retention bonuses to bus driver/custodians and for additional pay in January for overtime to teachers.

“I don’t think there was anything done underhanded here,” Brennick said. “I mean, we all just wanted to reward teachers for the hard work that they put in over the past couple of years. In my mind, my personal opinion is that some people just are never happy,” she said.

Casey had other thoughts about the newspaper article and the monies from COVID funds paid to administrators and staff.

“I think from (the superintendent’s) side, there should have been the clarification that this was (payment for) extra work due to COVID; the long hours, the Zoom meetings, trying to figure everything out.

“And we also offered this (payment for additional work) up to teachers, and that wasn’t even clear. It wasn’t even clear that the teachers got anything,” Casey said about the article.

“When staff are paid hourly (even if they are contracted for less than 40 hours a week) they are paid for every hour they work,” Alden wrote in an email to the Rumford Falls Times on Tuesday. “If they work more than 40 hours per week they are paid time and a half or overtime. They were paid this overtime anytime we had to ask them to do additional work that took them more than 40 hours.”

“All of these (additional payments to staff and administrators) were paid from COVID funding and were not considered bonuses and took place before the $1,000 sign-on bonus (for bus driver/custodians) happened and then $1,000 for existing bus drivers/custodians and then $700 (for) nutrition staff and then $1,000 (or) $400 for (teachers, educational technicians, etc.) under the Western Foothills Education Association,” Alden wrote.

The district works with two other bargaining groups besides the Western Foothills Education Association, which represents bus drivers/custodians, teachers, educational technicians, secretaries, and central office and technology staff.

The other bargaining groups are the Western Maine Administrator’s Association, which represents administrators and directors, and the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees, which represents the school nutrition staff.

Buccina explained at Monday’s meeting how staff and administrators were paid by using COVID funds in the past year.

“People have opportunities as Deb (Alden) explained, to get monies (for additional work) during the COVID (pandemic) back in 2021,” he said. “For opportunities, work, the administrative people that worked over 60 hours were compensated above and beyond. They’re salaried folks, but because they worked over 60 hours, they received extra compensation.”

He said, “What upset the (Western Foothills Education Association) that we were negotiating with” was that the district failed to negotiate with the bus drivers/custodians representatives when they paid $1,000 sign-on bonuses this year to attract those employees.

“We did not negotiate that,” he said. “That’s where we made an error. We were doing business and we thought OK, other districts are doing it. We just didn’t think (we’d) have to negotiate (the bonuses for bus drivers). Once that was brought to our attention we sat down, and we brought it to the board, and you said to negotiate with the (Western Foothills Education Association),” Buccina said.

RSU 10 includes Rumford, Mexico, Roxbury, Hanover, Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Feb. 16 to delete the reference to teachers being grouped with staff that are paid as hourly workers. Teachers are salaried employees.