Government

Education Acts Swiftly to Pay School Lunch Workers Following Statement From Sarauw; Senator Concerned About Scope of Payments

The V.I. Department of Education, in partnership with the Office of the Governor and the Office of Management and Budget, will compensate school lunch workers up to $2,000 with federal funds received through the American Rescue Plan for work performed during the Covid-19 pandemic, a release the department issued Friday morning has made known. The one-time payments are being processed and are on schedule to be released to employees by Jan. 31, D.O.E. said. The announcement comes on the heels of a statement from Senator Janelle Sarauw, who on Thursday called on the department to pay V.I. Feeding Initiative workers the $1,000 each that was allocated to them through a bill that Ms. Sarauw sponsored that was signed into law. On Friday, the senator told the Consortium she was aware of the department's press release issued today that emphasized a plan Education said was already in place and superseded her allocation. "The clapback level of politics is  nauseating," Ms. Sarauw said. "The ...