Opinion Number

Dear Mr. Burton:

I am in receipt of your request for an Attorney General's opinion on behalf of the Beauregard Parish School Board concerning their "Teacher Early Signing Incentive" program. Specifically, your Board is concerned with the feasibility of extending the incentive payment to all teachers regardless of when their contract is signed. You state the following events and the order in which they occurred:

The Board voted, last year, to authorize a $1,000.00 lump sum payment to each teacher who signed a contract on or before July 21, 2000. This "early signing incentive" was designed to…