Article in Sunday's St Cloud Times on QComp

Board to vote on performance pay
By Dave Aeikens
daeikens@stcloudtimes.com


St. Cloud school board members and teachers are expected to vote this week on whether to join a state-funded performance pay program.
If the district is accepted, it could receive up to $2.4 million from the state.

District administrators and teachers union leaders have been meeting to hammer out an agreement.

The school board has a special meeting Monday about the proposal and teachers are scheduled to vote Tuesday. The deadline is Saturday.

Minneapolis and Hopkins school districts were the first two schools to be approved.

The program is called Quality Compensation, or Q-Comp.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty made the proposal and the Legislature approved it this summer.

It provides $86 million over two years for districts to join the program.

It includes five components: career ladders for teachers; professional development; instructional observations and standards-based assessments; ways to measure student growth; and alternative teacher compensation, or performance pay.

St. Cloud's proposal, if approved, calls for a career ladder for teachers that includes new leadership positions with the intent of improving teacher performance and student achievement.

St. Cloud school district and the teachers agreed in July to pursue the Q-Comp dollars when they settled the 2005-07 teachers' contract.

If St. Cloud is accepted, teachers can volunteer to participate, said Bernice Berns, associate superintendent for teaching and learning.

Teachers who participate will be expected to have more professional development, more observation and higher expectations for student achievement, she said. Some teachers can earn performance-based bonuses.

"The Q-Comp application is causing us to be very focused and consistent in our district and site planning," Berns said.