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The Oneida Special School District Board of Education has formally adopted a plan that would provide a retirement bonus to teachers in an effort to ease budget woes for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

The unanimous vote came at Thursday’s regular session of the board, one month after it was first introduced by Director of Schools Henry Baggett.

The one-time-only incentive will offer a $10,000 bonus to eligible teachers who opt to retire at the end of the current school year. Previous discussion indicated that there are 15 certified personnel within the system who will be eligible for retirement at the end of the school year. However, the retirement bonus will be capped at the first five eligible teachers who declare their intention — in writing and in person — to retire.

Retiring teachers have until Wednesday, April 15, to file for the incentive.

The bonus offer comes as the school system looks for a way to trim its budget in the face of a revenue shortfall. Baggett said Thursday that the exact situation remains “very unclear,” and added that he and his staff continue to look at areas where cuts can potentially be made.

“We see this as an opportunity to look at our programs and if something isn’t working for us, eliminate it,” Baggett said. He added that the budget “is going to be tough,” and said that program cuts could impact “a tenured teacher or two.”

The school system will have until Wednesday to determine which programs, if any, might be cut. State law requires that tenured teachers who aren’t going to be rehired be informed of the decision by April 15.

The only definite decisions to rehire have been with administrators, who have been informed that they are rehired, but have not been assigned a position.

Baggett said he has been meeting individually with teachers to discuss the situation, and will meet with each teacher by next week.

“I really hate it,” he said of the uncertainty. “It puts unfair pressure on folks and I don’t want to have to do that. But it’s something we have to do because of the uncertainty of the budget situation.”

In a separate order of business Thursday, the board voted unanimously to accept a grant from the Tennessee Alliance for Continuing Higher Education (TnACHE). The two-year grant will provide $2,500 to the middle school and $5,000 to the high school each year, for a total of $15,000 over the course of the two years. Grant funds provide trips for all students to visit college campuses.

“This will give students an opportunity to learn what’s expected and see what they’re going to have to do to attend college,” Baggett said.

Middle school principal Cheryl Butler said similar programs have proven beneficial for rural schools in other areas.

“This is not just for students who plan to attend college,” she said. “All students will be able to make the visits.

“We have seen schools where students get to visit seven college campuses by their senior year,” she added. “There were schools (participating in the program) that went from sending very few students to college to sending 70% to college.”

In other business, the board approved fundraiser requests for Oneida Middle School, the elementary school handbell group, high school cheerleading and middle school soccer, approved a field trip to cheerleading camp for OHS cheerleaders, and accepted a bid for janitorial supplies from Ellison Supplies.

The board also discussed a proposal by board member Lori Phillips-Jones to form a committee to study the school system’s existing policy on cell phone use by students.

Butler informed the board that TCAP testing at the middle school will be conducted April 13-16. High school principal Jimmy May said the ACT will be given to all juniors on April 22, and announced that high school student Pyper West has been selected as the first alternate for the Governor’s School for the Arts.

Prior to the end of the meeting, Baggett addressed a March 19 incident at Oneida High School that has been the subject of rumors circulating in person and online.

The incident, which involved police officers and Oneida Police Department’s drug canine being called to the school after administrators learned of possible drug possession, was greatly overblown, Baggett said.

“The administrators took the correct action,” he said, adding that at no time was the school on lock down, nor were any drugs found in the building or arrests made at the school.

“I learned in ninth grade civics class that in the United States we are presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Baggett said. “A lot of names have been linked to this that to my knowledge are completely innocent. The names of these students have been dragged through the mud.”