Who is going to pay for the merit pay?

From the St. Augustine Record

By MARCIA LANE

If merit pay goes into effect in 2014, the biggest question facing local school officials is whether there will be any money.

"The state is not going to give us any more money. People could earn (merit pay), but, if we don't have the money to pay it, we can't. Just like we didn't have the money for the last three years to pay raises," said Jim Springfield, who heads up the St. Johns County School District's human resources department.

School officials are in the midst of negotiations with the St. Johns Education Association, although money isn't on the table yet. Routinely, that issue doesn't come up until after the Florida Legislature ends and a state budget has been set, usually in April. It's a good bet money will be tight -- the state is looking at a $3.56 billion shortfall.

"We really have not made any decisions," Springfield said. "We're talking language right now; that doesn't have anything to do with money."

Merit pay and evaluations are two of the biggest parts of Senate Bill 736, which some are calling the Son of Senate Bill 6. SB6, another massive education reform bill, died after Gov. Charlie Crist refused to sign it into law.

School officials in each district must come up with an evaluation process by June 1. The negotiating team in St. Johns County is headed into three days of meetings in Jacksonville, where a national consultant hired by the state with federal Race to the Top funds will share ways to supervise and develop teachers.

For the next three years, the state's teachers will be evaluated with 50 percent of the review based on their students' test scores and the other 50 percent based on six state standards including items such as a teacher's education plan and the learning environment provided.

It will be 2014 before the bill takes effect and another year after that before merit pay begins.

"We're barely beginning on building this ship," Springfield said, pointing to a variety of complexities.

For instance, two different salary schedules will be needed. One will be for teachers grandfathered into the system, and the other is for new teachers. Incoming teachers must come under the merit pay system, and teachers grandfathered in must give up tenure to gain a chance at merit pay.

How much the merit pay system will cost in St. Johns County isn't known yet. How much each teacher gets would also depend on how many teachers qualify.

Springfield won't guess at the percentage of St. Johns County teachers who will meet or exceed standards. He does expect the ranking will apply to a "majority" of the district's teachers; the more teachers who qualify, the smaller the amount of merit pay for each teacher.

http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-03-09/big-question-merit-pay-will-there-be-money-pay-it