Oct. 29
October 29, 2009
Mr. Dudley Gaspar
November 2, 2009
The Terrebonne Parish School District became the first in the state to give bonuses to employees at schools that exceeded their School Performance Score (SPS) growth target.
The school board unanimously approved the measure at last Tuesday’s meeting, which pays $3,000 each to instructional personnel and $600 to non-instructional personnel.
In all, 760 employees at 12 schools will receive $1.7 million in bonuses.
“The board stood tall and clearly established that student achievement is their top priority,” said Schools Superintendent Philip Martin. “I know all employees, even those that didn’t reach their growth target, are equally excited about this.”
The SPS calculates school quality based on standardized test scores, attendance, dropouts and high school graduation rates.
The schools that surpassed their SPS growth targets in 2008-09 were Acadian, Bourg, Broadmoor, Dularge, Greenwood, Lisa Park, Mulberry and Village East elementary schools, Dularge and Legion Park middle schools and H.L. Bourgeois and South Terrebonne high schools.
Funding for the bonuses came from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, part of the federal stimulus package.
Bus drivers in attendance said they should have also received a bonus as part of the school’s support staff. Some board members agreed but Martin said a limit was set on who was eligible for the extra pay.
“What we used as a criteria are those people who work every day within the walls of that school,” he explained.
However, the school board approved supplemental pay for all school system employees for the fifth consecutive year.
The supplemental bonus equals two percent of an employee’s annual salary. Full-time employees will receive between $500 and $1,000, while part-timers get a minimum of $250.
Supplemental bonus funding comes from the 83 percent of the 1-cent sales tax dedicated to teachers’ salaries and benefits left over from last year.
Board member Rickie Pitre warned that employees should not continue to expect performance pay due to recent declines in Terrebonne Parish’s tax revenues.
“I don’t want this to become an entitlement,” Pitre said. “This is something we are going to have to monitor. We can only continue if we have the funds necessary to do so.”
Finance Director Harris Henry said parish tax collections were down 17 percent in July 2009 from July 2008 and 5.2 percent between August 2008 and the same period in 2009.
The school district is adjusting its 2009-10 fiscal year budget downward by eight percent. That is over $4 million less than the $197 million budget passed in July.
Henry projected shortfalls of $796,000 from the general fund sales tax, about $1.8 million from the three-fourths-cent sales tax and nearly $2.4 million from the 1-cent sales tax.
Still, some board members hoped to find a way to continue the performance pay as an incentive to improve achievement.
“Taxpayers are willing to do whatever it takes for our students to get the best education possible,” said board member Roger Dale DeHart.
“This year we had 12 schools meet the state’s goals,” Martin noted. “Next year I hope to have 24 (schools).”
School Superintendent Philip Martin – Achievement a top priority
