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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

The Chilton County Board of Education approved two motions at its regularly scheduled meeting earlier in March that will add new options for its students and incentives for its teachers during the upcoming 2025-26 academic year.

First, the board gave approval to fund and post 13 locally-funded teacher units across Chilton County for the new school year starting this August. Local units refer to teachers who are employed by a school system having all of their costs, including salaries and benefits, being paid by their school system as opposed to the state. Local school principals in Chilton County made requests for the units to help Chilton County Schools “take the next step forward in offering our students an education that will keep them competitive with surrounding districts,” a press release from Chilton County Schools Superintendent Corey Clements said.

Some of the drawbacks to not having locally-funded units for students include overcrowded classrooms, a reduction in class offerings in areas like career tech and the arts, and an overall lack of progress in career development.

“Locally-funded teacher units are often seen as a luxury reserved for city school systems or larger county systems,” Clements continued in the release. “Anything above and beyond state-funded teacher units is usually an option that most rural systems cannot afford to pursue.”

CCS’ 13 locally-funded units include six additional career technical education instructors, including a modern manufacturing teacher, a new program that will be introduced and available to CCS students. Also, six grade-level teachers at schools in the county that have rapidly changing enrollments to help keep the student to teacher ratio in check. Lastly, a secondary behavior unit will be added to help seventh through 12th grade students across Chilton County that may need additional behavioral support with the benefit of a smaller classroom setting. The units will bring 13 new jobs to the county, increasing CCS as the county’s No. 1 employer.

“Initiatives like this do not happen overnight,” Clements concluded. “They take planning, meeting and budgeting. I am grateful to our principals, teachers and board members who played a part in making this a reality for our students.”

Secondly, at the meeting, the board approved three resolutions in one that will give every full-time employee of CCS for the 2025-26 academic year a $2,500 bonus. The resolutions, at the recommendation of Clements, were approved and gave Chief School Financial Officer for CCS Cheri Miley Wright the authority to move forward with the bonuses.

The bonuses will be paid out to teachers in three lump sums — $950 on Aug. 4 as a kickoff lump sum, $600 on Nov 30 as a Christmas lump sum and $950 on April 30, 2026 as a completion lump sum.

“I appreciate the board’s willingness to work with us to help recruit and retain the best employees possible to work with our students,” Clements said in a press release. “As our organization grows to almost 1,000 full-time employees, I commend our board for sharing in my belief that ‘The best work here.’”