17 TPS administrators have returned bonus pay

8/3/2004

The 17 Toledo Public Schools administrators who were each awarded $2,000 merit bonuses all have returned the payment, four months after they promised to do so, the district announced yesterday.

The administrators, who signed agreements to send the money back to the district's general operating fund in April, voluntarily returned their bonuses as a show of goodwill in the wake of budget troubles, school officials said. The administrators, most of whom make more than $100,000 annually, repaid the bonuses five months earlier than required, the district said in a statement.

The bonuses nearly coincided with a vote on a 6.5-mill, three-year operating levy that voters at first rejected. The bonuses were handed out while the district was mired in a budget deficit that threatened potential layoffs, school closures, elimination of sports, and other cutbacks.