Will Lafayette Parish teachers receive a salary raise or a one-time check?

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) -- Lafayette Parish teachers may soon be getting a pay raise.

The decision lies in the hands of the Lafayette Parish School Board (LPSS). The decision LPSS is facing: Should teachers get a salary increase or one big paycheck at the end of the year? On Monday, LPSS's Blue Ribbon committee met to give their recommendations.

The amount of money Lafayette Parish teachers could receive as a bonus depends on excess collections from a sales tax every year. This year, there was a lot of money left over.

"We had historically high collections in sales taxes this year due to the economic stimulus and other unemployment issues and also the travel ban keeping people in the community spending the money. So we did have some historical collections this year, which allowed us to have probably a larger amount of sales tax collections than we would have had normally," LPSS Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Matthew Dugas said.

This is good news for Lafayette Parish teachers.

"It gives us a little bit more money to work with in terms of giving a permanent raise, as opposed to giving a one-time payment and balancing those two," Dugas said.

It's a decision the school board has to make every year. Should teachers get one large bonus check or a little extra every paycheck?

Last year, the school board opted to give teachers a one-time check of $1,850, but this year, the Blue Ribbon Committee proposed giving teachers a salary increase and a smaller extra check.

"The recommendation of the committee is a $500 raise and about a $1,600 one-time distribution," Dugas told News 10.

The committee, however, says most teachers say they'd rather the one-time check.

"If you were to not do a raise at all, and give a pure distribution, that amount would be closer to $2,900," he added.

The Lafayette Parish School Board will ultimately have the final say. They'll vote on Oct. 6 at the next school board meeting.