Now That's More Like It!

I wonder if the Hillsborough Schools' CTA's phlegmatic head has the moxie and smarts to do something like this. I love this principal at the end of the article. Are there any like her in the HC schools? I am going to find out her address and try to write her a commendation. I will put the address on the Web if I find it for anyone else who wants to comment this fine gal. lee

City to Give $14.2 Million in Bonuses to Teachers at Schools With Improved Report Cards


Go to PS 324 online. There's a place to send an email to Ms. Heller and the teachers. lee

M.S. 324 - Patria

Janet Heller, Principal

21 JUMEL PLACE, MANHATTAN, NY 10032
Phone: 212-923-4057

Ms. Heller: My four children began grammar school in Flushing before we moved to Florida. PS 155 I think it was. They got good starts in that school.

I read with delight that you and your teachers got some bonus money from the board of education for your excellent performance at PS 324. Well done. I was a teacher before I retired--college English, and I always cheer when teachers do well. Teachers are my gang.

The board and administration treat teachers badly here in Hillsborough County, FLorida. So I am glad to see you treat your teachers so well.

I like your generosity in sharing your bonus. That sets a good example for us all.

Congatulation and thank you for your good work and that of all your teachers and students.

lee drury de cesare

*
E-Mail
New York Times

Article Tools Sponsored By
By JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: September 18, 2008

Teachers at 89 elementary and middle schools will receive bonuses of several thousand dollars each, based on the progress their schools made on report cards released this week, Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced on Thursday. The bonuses, which total $14.2 million and will go to slightly more than half the 160 high-poverty schools the city deemed eligible, are part of Mr. Klein’s efforts to boost pay-for-performance programs in the city’s schools.

A dozen principals at those schools were awarded $25,000 bonuses — the largest ever given to school administrators by the city — for placing in the top 1 percent among the more than 1,000 schools receiving grades this week.

Under an agreement reached with the city’s teachers’ union, which is strongly opposed to individual merit-pay programs, each school that earned the bonus got a pot of money to distribute as it chose. In most schools, the bonuses were spread evenly for classroom teachers, with several giving less to special-education aides and other staff members. A few schools constructed more elaborate systems, like basing bonuses on extracurricular activities.

Schools that met targets set by the Education Department last year received amounts equal to $3,000 for each union member, while schools that reached 75 percent of their targets received $1,500 per union member. Schools that fell below 75 percent but still maintained an A on the report card were also awarded $1,500 for each member.

Despite their past squabbles over other merit programs, Mr. Klein and the presidents of the unions representing teachers and principals presented a united front on Thursday, repeatedly talking about collaboration between school leaders and staffs.

“People are in it together — they are rowing the boat together,” Mr. Klein said. “It’s an affirmation for their community, which works very hard to move their kids forward. They feel a sense of passion and commitment, and now they have an affirmation and that’s all to the good.”

Approval of this program by Randi Weingarten — head of the city’s United Federation of Teachers as well as the American Federation of Teachers, one of two national unions — is an important symbol, and she said on Thursday that she would be willing to support similar initiatives around the country.

Ms. Weingarten has taken care to emphasize that she views the school-based bonuses as different than merit pay, because they do not, as she has said, “pit teachers against each other.”

“If this becomes one of the choices where it’s collectively bargained the way we did it here, or there’s real voice in the nonbargaining states, we’ve always said this should be one of those options,” Ms. Weingarten said. “But it can’t be a top-down model, where it’s imposed on people, because even the best top-down model imposed on people doesn’t work.”

At Middle Schools 319 and 324, which share a building in Washington Heights in Manhattan, classroom teachers each received roughly the same amount, regardless of which subject they taught or how many after-school activities they took part in.

“For us, it was not even a question,” said Ysidro Abreu, the principal of M.S. 319, who received a $25,000 bonus. “We knew that everyone here was important to the success, and we wanted to reward everyone equally.”

At Bronx School of Science Inquiry and Investigation, the staff constructed an elaborate system that essentially set up two tiers of rewards, with all union members receiving at least $2,000 and those who do extra activities like supervising clubs, writing grants and teaching on Saturdays getting an extra $1,786.

“At last it’s a way for us to recognize people that go above and beyond,” said John Barnes, who helped design the system as principal of the school and has since moved to Bronx Early College Academy, where he is earning an extra $25,000 to take over a troubled school. “There are rare opportunities to give people the kind of compensation they deserve. The truth is they deserve a lot more.”

Janet Heller, the principal of M.S. 324, said that the school’s chapter had voted unanimously to reward each staff member with roughly 5 percent of average salary, so that teachers received $3,600 and school aides, $1,200.

“Everyone thought that the teachers are here until 8 o’clock at night and writing the lessons plans and worrying about can their kids read,” Ms. Heller said. Noting that a large chunk of her $25,000 bonus would be eaten by taxes, Ms. Heller said that she planned to donate another $6,000 to the school for field trips and other special events — and that, even though they got their own bonuses, she was considering rewarding her teachers with gift certificates for a massage.

“They really might need it,” she said. “I have to think of something to thank them with.”