Van Buren Will Do Pay Study For Volunteers

The Van Buren County Schools want to compensate some of the volunteers who help the school with various programs.

Van Buren County Director of Schools Jared Copeland proposed the idea to the School Board to help those who help with sports teams or clubs, for example. Copeland said he understood if the board did not want to pay volunteers.

“It’s like I said I see both sides,” Copeland said. “I see the point of someone loves it enough to volunteer, but then I also see the point if they do love it enough to give us our time because we can’t find anybody else, you know, and we have already budgeted it I feel like its at least a good faith and effort of thank you for your time.”

The board did not set an amount of what volunteers will be paid and will conduct a study of what is a feasible amount in the next work session. Board Member Barry Austin said he agrees with paying volunteers because if a teacher filled the position the board would have to pay the teacher anyway.

“It’s not like you are paying someone extra,” Austin said. “We would be paying a volunteer because a teacher didn’t volunteer. If a teacher volunteered we would be paying them anyway. Right now we just don’t pay them because they are volunteers.”

Copeland said the schools go through a process similar to employees before allowing someone to volunteer.

“We do that like we do on everybody,” Copeland said. “They go through a background check and essentially do everything you would have to do if you received a paycheck.”

The school system currently has one volunteer to help with volleyball and two volunteers with cheer. Copeland said he would reach out to other surrounding counties to get a ballpark number of what volunteers are being paid.