A fight to get Christmas bonuses for Roanoke County school employees has led to a plan for payouts to all county employees.

But the one-time $500 boost, if approved, will not be paid in time to spend before the holidays.

The county's board of supervisors and school board reached a compromise Tuesday on what began almost two weeks ago as a contentious plan to reward school employees, who, like all county workers, did not receive raises this year.

Under the compromise agreement, every county and school employee, full and part time, will receive the bonus, to be paid out of each board's health insurance reserve fund surpluses.

The disagreement between the boards followed a Nov. 19 school board vote at a meeting in Williamsburg. It proposed to give bonuses of $750 to each full-time employee and $500 to part-timers.

That would have totaled about $1.8 million for the schools' 2,250 employees, to be taken from the $8 million in surplus funds in its health insurance reserves.

Supervisors, who are required to approve such large allocations, said they only found out about the plan by reading a story the next day in The Roanoke Times. Objections were almost instantaneous from supervisors who worried that it would be imprudent to dip into the reserves given the continuing uncertain economy.

Negotiations Tuesday between the chairmen and vice chairmen of each board resulted in the agreement for a lower payment to all county employees.

Supervisors Chairman Mike Altizer, who originally had moved to block consideration of the bonuses, said, "This was a compromise for everyone to show our appreciation to our employees but not put a huge strain on our resources."

Although the school board originally planned to ask for the money to be distributed on Dec. 15 in time for Christmas spending, the compromise calls for the money to be included in employees' January paychecks.

Diane Hyatt, assistant county administrator for finance, explained after the meeting that the funds can't be appropriated until after a Dec. 15 public hearing and vote on the plan, and the county treasurer will then need time to convert investments into cash to pay employees.

Hyatt said that under the new proposal, the school division will be paying out about $1.2 million, including the Social Security taxes for some employees. The county's other 1,095 employees will receive a total of about $589,000.

Altizer last week informed the school board that he, with the consent of the rest of the supervisors, was declining the school board's request to include a public hearing on the allocation in Tuesday's meeting.

In interviews, Altizer said he and the other supervisors feared that the health insurance reserves may be needed to prevent job layoffs in the next 18 to 24 months as stimulus funding from the federal government dries up.

Hollins District Supervisor Richard Flora reiterated that fear during comments Tuesday.

"I don't believe the General Assembly will raise revenues to make up that money in the next two years. That's about as politely as I can put that.

"And I know with an amount of certainty there will not be a tax increase in Roanoke County, so we'll see what happens when that [stimulus] money dries up.

"The last thing we want to see in Roanoke County schools or Roanoke County government is for anyone to lose their job."

He said he hoped that the school board was confident that no layoffs would be necessary three years down the road because of the spending proposed Tuesday. School Board Vice Chairman Mike Stovall nodded to indicate that had been considered.

Stovall thanked the supervisors, saying, "once again this shows your commitment to public education in the county."

Tammy Wood, president of the Roanoke County Education Association, said she is pleased the supervisors will hold a public hearing to consider awarding the bonuses.

"The way that it stands now, it's a negotiation process, and instead of just affecting the education side, it will benefit employees across the county," Wood said. "Our bottom line was, it deserved a hearing."

Given the uncertainty school employees have faced in recent days over the proposed bonuses, Wood said she is satisfied with the compromise.

She also said morale among the county's teachers is low in light of persisting wage and hiring freezes.

"I think any amount of money at this point is important," she said.

Supervisors Vice Chairman Joe McNamara, who helped negotiate the compromise, said, "The end result, we hope, is to share appreciation for a job well done, recognizing full well the financial ramifications that lie ahead next year."

cody.lowe@roanoke.com 981-3425

courtney.cutright @roanoke.com 981-3345