Full- and half-time Spring ISD employees can expect a one-time retention supplement in their Nov. 25 payroll following approval by the SISD board of trustees Oct. 8. According to an Oct. 9 news release, part-time SISD employees will receive a half-time payment of $500, while full-time employees will receive $1,000. “We are very happy to do this for our employees,” SISD board President Rhonda Newhouse said in a statement. According to the release, funding for the retention supplement as well as other one-time expenditures approved by the board are made possible by revenue the district recently received as a result of Senate Bill 500, which was signed into law be Gov. Greg Abbott on June 6. For more information about the one-time retention supplement, click here. In addition to the one-time retention supplement for employees, the board approved $4.2 million in middle school investments, $1.1 million for instruction resources for campuses and classrooms, and $9.15 million for campus facility improvements. According to the release, the middle school improvement funding includes $2.5 million to reduce the middle school student-to-teacher ratio from 30-1 to 28-1 and will also include funds for the LIFT6 campuses to purchase new student and teacher desks, expand parent engagement efforts, increase substitute teacher pay and explore specialty programming. Additionally, $7 million of the funding for campus facility improvements will be used to enhance the scope of Westfield High School’s ninth-grade center and support the redesign of the schools’ Junior ROTC area in the main campus. Another $2 million will be used to renovate Spring High School’s pool, and $150,000 will be used to relocate the district track to Dekaney High School, the release states. Finally, the instructional resources funding will be allocated for science supplies, enrichment resources, test banks and formative assessment tools, among other resources.