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89 staffs to receive schoolwide bonuses
Sep 25, 2008 4:23 PM
IS 319 Chapter Leader Tiffany Braby (left), with Chancellor Joel Klein, UFT President Randi Weingarten and members of her school staff by her side, says there was never a question in her school that members would share the bonus equally.
Here’s a new twist: many Wall Street titans will be getting no bonuses this year while more than 5,600 teachers, paras, school secretaries and other school staff at 89 schools will be getting an average $1,500 to $3,000 bonus each as part of the schoolwide bonus pilot program negotiated last year.
Educators and staff in 89 of 160 high-need elementary and middle schools that participated in the pilot this year will be getting the cash bonuses for meeting all or most of their targets on the Progress Reports, released on Sept. 16.
The DOE expects to make payments in late October.
Staff at another 45 participating high schools, District 75, K-2 and 6-12 schools should hear if they won awards in October, when the remaining Progress Reports come out.
The UFT actively negotiated with the DOE to create the program early last year. It was designed to foster collaboration and reward entire schools for student progress and achievement, rather than individual teachers. The UFT and the DOE agreed to a multistep process that ensured real staff voice in opting in to the program, deciding the distribution of the bonus money and opting out.
“Many people thought that we were brought kicking and screaming into the program,” UFT President Randi Weingarten told a press conference at IS 319 in Washington Heights to announce the bonuses. “That was not true. We wanted to test — to prove, really, because we already know it — that collaboration in addition to teacher quality are the two keys to student achievement.”
The program was piloted in the 2007-08 school year in 205 schools serving high-needs students. Sixty-three elementary and middle schools that met their Progress Report targets will receive a sum equal to $3,000 per UFT-represented full-time staffer. Another 26 will get $1,500 per staffer for meeting 75 percent of their target or maintaining a grade of A.
As per the agreement, compensation committees of two administrators and two UFTers selected by the staff in each school decided how the bonuses were to be allocated.
No schools designated bonuses based on test scores, and most distributed them on an equitable basis. Some schools decided to differentiate the payouts based on titles or other factors.
Speaking at the press conference, IS 319 Chapter Leader Tiffany Braby said her school had voted to divide the award equally. “It was never a question,” she said.
Braby brought up several staff members, and described her school as one where there are frequent team meetings, common professional development time, and time for teachers to meet and collaborate.
IS 319 received an A last year and this year was among the top five ranked schools in the city on its Progress Report. “None of this could happen without the whole team,” Braby said.
Weingarten congratulated the IS 319 staff, and the staff of IS 324 which shares the same building and also received the bonus money. She assured educators that “the programmatic design of the schoolwide bonus has a hefty dose of teacher collaboration and teacher voice.
“While this program is not perfect, this type of differentiated pay is a far cry from the divisive individual merit pay plans we have and will continue to fight against,” she said.
The program even appeared to make a convert of schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who has long sought to award individual teachers for student achievement. “You’re seeing a fabric being built across the school system,” he said, praising the program. “We’ve created one of the largest school bonus programs in the country because we’re committed to recognizing the work of teachers, principals and other staff who help students succeed.”
Joining Weingarten and Klein at the press conference was Ernest Logan, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, whose members also received awards of as much as $25,000 if their schools met certain targets through a program the CSA bargained with the city. But Logan said the bonuses follow “a civic rather than a corporate model.” They reward success, he said, by emphasizing “what we can do for our children when we work together.”
A total of $14.2 million will go to the staffs at the 89 schools. Another $5.5 million will be awarded to principals and APs.
The money was donated by private funders including the Broad Foundation, the Partnership for New York City, and the Robertson and Robin Hood Foundations.
Private funding will also underwrite an independent evaluation of the program, looking at its impact on student achievement but also asking teachers and staff about its impact on school climate and program.
