Yesterday, the Red River United took a stand to protect members who were excluded from the Caddo school district’s “Heroes Stipend.” While we support the district’s effort to reward employees who risked their lives during a global pandemic in order to serve their students’ needs, the district’s criteria regarding who could qualify for this stipend was overly restrictive. Too many deserving people were excluded from receiving the stipend. Even more upsetting, those that were excluded appear to be disproportionately women, older employees, and those with a physical condition or handicap.
After weeks of trying to negotiate with the district, warning them about the potential impact of this decision, and imploring them to expand the stipend to more people, it was clear that our concerns had fallen on deaf ears. The Caddo School Board and Superintendent were steadfast in their decision to exclude hard working, deserving heroes from their “Heroes stipend.”
Left with no other choice, yesterday Red River United filed a lawsuit asking the court to force the school district to expand the stipend to more employees. We believe that the court will see that the manner in which the district planned to allocate the stipend is discriminatory towards women and those with a physical condition or handicap, and therefore insist that the district broaden distribution of the $1,000 stipend payment to more employees.
This is in no way intended to take away the stipend payment from anyone. The district had no intention of distributing this stipend until June, and we believe this window provides plenty of time for the case to work its way through the courts. It is possible that the district will use this as an excuse to delay payment, but in the end, we believe that we will be victorious and all deserving employees will win the stipend payment. If at any point the district decides they are ready to do the right thing and expand stipend eligibility, then there would be no more reason for the lawsuit.
If you have any questions or concerns about how this action may impact you, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.