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District awards Mission Possible bonuses

Twenty-four percent of eligible faculty at 20 Mission Possible schools will receive performance bonuses of $2,500 to $5,000 for improving test scores this year. School board members were notified about the bonuses (to go out with Wednesday checks) on Friday. I am still waiting on a breakdown by school and will post it when I get it. Be sure to read the full story on Tuesday.

Update: Check out the last page of this attachment for details by school. I requested a breakdown with eligible faculty and bonuses per school, but the district gave me this instead.

Comments (9)

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Joe Stafford said:

Question. How long will a teacher be entitled to Mission Possible monthly pay when they do not earn any performance pay?

Wally World said:

Your Monday story stated that teachers and administrators would receive bonuses under this program. I do not recall that administrators were eligible under the program, so what administrator positions will receive bonuses?

Wally World said:

Why are my posts disappearing and not being posted?

Morgan Glover said:

Joe,
I am not sure. The salary increase comes every year for teachers still employed at the Mission Possible school. The performance bonus is paid once a year. Dr. Grier has said in the past that Mission Possible teachers who don't increase test scores may be moved to another school.

Wally World,
From the beginning, the Mission Possible plan was billed for teachers and administrators. The only eligible administrators are principals and curriculum facilitators.

Wally World said:

Morgan,

I have checked with some others, and no one had an understanding that principals and curriculum facilitators were included in this program. So, how do these positions qualify for a performance bonus? I thought that this program was designed to attract and reward teachers for improving test scores in low performing schools. You referenced "eligible faculty" in your post, but I thought that faculty represented only the teaching group in a school.

Morgan Glover said:

Wally World,
You can find out more about the Mission Possible incentives by visiting http://www.gcsnc.com/depts/mission_possible/pay.htm.

I know in the reporting of this program, we have typically focused on the teachers, as they are the largest group and the group that would have initially lost an increase in salary supplements to help pay for the program (under an earlier proposal). Even then (around April of last year), the program would have awarded both teachers and administrators. I apologize if we did not specify that in previous stories. Curriculum facilitators are actually teachers who serve in an administrative role by coordinating curriculum among the various teachers.

You can find a mentioning of teachers and principals in April 3, 2006 minutes of a board meeting: http://www.gcsnc.com/boe/2006/5_9/minutes4_3sc.htm

That said, it seems reasonable to me that a principal would also be rewarded if his/her school performed better on state exams. It takes both the principal and curriculum facilitator to set the expectations as well as establish approaches to improving student performance.

Joe Stafford said:

Morgan, you need to get info on how much bonus money was paid at each school. It would be interesting to know what schools got a boost by Mission Possible and which ones did not. The staff is a little reluctant to give us all the facts. What was the turnover by school and subject? So far it seems that the gains were less than our expectations. I hope I am wrong but when you Smith in freefall under Mission Possible, you have to wonder if it is worth it all schools.

Joe Stafford said:

Why does the attachment show money going to Southern HS faculty when Southern is not listed as one of the eligible High Schools?

kangaroo said:

One principal that I know makes about $81K per year (regular salary) and will receive an $8000 bonus if his/her school makes Mission Possible test growth in the spring. The math and language arts teachers receive a recruitment bonus and extra money (depending on test scores), however, teachers in other subject areas receive no benefit for teaching the SAME students. Why? The EOGs are only in math and reading.

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