Understanding why the journey, in this case, is not more enjoyable than reaching the destination!

“Grandfathered salary schedule” – The salary schedule for employees “grandfathered in” to either Professional Service Contracts (PSC) or Continuing Contracts (CC) before July 1, 2014.

“Performance salary schedule” – The Salary schedule for employees on Annual Contracts (AC) as of July 1, 2014.

Note: Instructional personnel may switch once from the Grandfathered schedule to the Performance schedule if they surrender their PSC/CC. They may not switch back, ever.

A “Highly Effective” teacher on Performance Pay must get a bigger raise than any other teacher.

An “Effective” teacher on Performance Pay must get a raise that is 50-75% of that of a “Highly Effective” teacher.

“Raises” are changes to their salary and are permanent – there is no provision for moving back on the salary schedule.

Sounds easy, right?

Years Teaching Salary

0 357801 35980

2 36180

3 363904 36590

5 36800

6 371007 37410

8 377109 38220

10 38840

11 3955012 40470

13 41390

14 4230015 44040

16 4567017 48220

18 51180

Marion County’s salary schedule has a big step of $2960!

SB 736 therefore would require that each “Highly Effective” teacher on the performance pay schedule, regardless of years of experience, receive a raise of more than $2960 every single year!

Obviously not affordable over the long run, so what do we do?

Just give smaller raises!

That means change the schedule to reduce the “Big Step”

The law also says that if the district has less than the money it needs to give raises, everyone gets a proportionally smaller raise.

Regardless, if every Highly Effective teacher gets that huge raise under the current schedule, the budget will break every year.

Either we fix the salary schedule by minimizing the “big step”, or teacher salaries for most teachers will lag far behind in the long run!

In the “old days,” step raise for all teachers is simply $187,000.

Theoretically, this is a predictable expense…

…but what happens with the new Performance Pay requirements of SB 736?

Example - consider a district which employs 200 teachers as distributed below:

Years# of

TeachersSalary

Increment

0 50 35000  1 35 35200 2002 20 35400 2003 25 35600 2004 20 35800 2005 20 36000 2006 30 36200 2007 41300 5100

Suppose that 100 of the teachers from before are on Performance Pay, and the rest are on the Grandfathered salary schedule, distributed as below:

Of the Performance Pay teachers, suppose 50 get “Highly Effective,” and 50 get “Effective.”

Then 50 teachers have to get at least $5101, and 50 have to get at least $2551.

The cost of these raises, plus step for the other 100 teachers, is $525,100 !!!

Since 187000/525100 = .356, maintaining the prior year’s budget for raises means each teacher will only get 35.6% of what they thought they would get!

Years

# of Teache

rsSalary

Increment

0 0 35000  1 10 35200 2002 15 35400 2003 15 35600 2004 15 35800 2005 20 36000 2006 25 36200 2007 41300 5100

Teachers expecting $200 only get $70.22.

Teachers expecting $5100 only get $1816.23.

Even Performance Pay teachers lose: the “Highly Effective” teachers expecting $5101 get $1816.58, and the “Effective” teachers expecting $2551 get $908.47.

Unless the Florida Legislature decides to triple education funding, this will happen year after year after year! And if our teachers become more effective, the problem grows in magnitude.

Neither teachers nor districts will know what their raises are for each new school year until the entire district gets evaluations for all of its teachers from the previous school year – not likely before October.

Conclusion…

Instead of this… …we need this!

Years SalaryIncreme

nt0 350001 35200 2002 35400 2003 35600 2004 35800 2005 36000 2006 36200 2007 41300 5100

Years SalaryIncremen

t0 350001 35900 9002 36800 9003 37700 9004 38600 9005 39500 9006 40400 9007 41300 900

If we just move people up to the straight-line schedule, some teachers would get unrealistically large or small raises.

Years Old Salary New Salary Difference

0 35000 35000 01 35200 35900 7002 35400 36800 14003 35600 37700 21004 35800 38600 28005 36000 39500 35006 36200 40400 42007 41300 41300 0

Or, we could put people on the same step … but it doesn’t seem fair to have several year groups making the same amount.

Years Old Salary New Salary Difference

0 35000 35000 01 35200 35900 7002 35400 35900 5003 35600 35900 3004 35800 35900 1005 36000 36800 8006 36200 36800 6007 41300 41300 0

Divide steps into halves or 3rds, 4ths, etc.

Teachers still move one full step at a time, but can be placed “in between” steps.

This avoids both problems noted above.

It does take money to make these schedule adjustments – fortunately the Governor has provided that.

It also makes implementing the Performance Pay next year easier, as we’ll see…

Instead of this:

Years SalaryIncremen

t0 350001 35900 9002 36800 9003 37700 9004 38600 9005 39500 9006 40400 9007 41300 900

We would have this:Increment

300300300300300300300300300300300300300300300300300300300300300

Level Salary0A 350000B 353000C 356001A 359001B 362001C 365002A 368002B 371002C 374003A 377003B 380003C 383004A 386004B 389004C 392005A 395005B 398005C 401006A 404006B 407006C 410007A 41300

Now, employees can be placed to receive realistic raises, but are not collapsed together in an unfair way!

Old Salary

Old Years New LevelNew

SalaryDifferenc

e35000 0 0A 35000 035200 1 0B 35300 10035400 2 0C 35600 20035600 3 1A 35900 30035800 4 1B 36200 40036000 5 1C 36500 50038600 6 4A 38600 041300 7 7A 41300 0

Remember: “Highly Effective” teachers get the biggest raise, “Effective” teachers get 50-75% of what “Highly Effective” teachers get.

With fractional steps, we can just move Highly Effective teachers up the schedule a bit faster.

For instance, we can move PSC/CC teachers 3 fractional steps, “Effective” teachers 3 fractional steps, and “Highly Effective” teachers 4 fractional steps.

This is what we are considering for Marion County!

Ex: Three teachers: Bill, Marie, and Janet.

Bill has a PSC and chooses to remain on the Grandfathered Schedule, Marie has PSC but opts to “roll the dice” and move to the Performance Pay Schedule, and Janet is AC and must compete for Performance Pay.

Assume they all start at the beginning step.

We will track their movement on the salary schedule over three years.

Day 1, Year 1

All three start at 0A

Bill knows he will get a step each year

Janet and Marie know that their raise depends on their evaluation

Bill Janet Marie

StepSalar

y StepSalar

y StepSalar

y

0A3500

00A

35000

0A3500

0

0B3530

00B

35300

0B3530

0

0C3560

00C

35600

0C3560

0

1A3590

01A

35900

1A3590

0

1B3620

01B

36200

1B3620

0

1C3650

01C

36500

1C3650

0

2A3680

02A

36800

2A3680

0

2B3710

02B

37100

2B3710

0

2C3740

02C

37400

2C3740

0

3A3770

03A

37700

3A3770

0

3B3800

03B

38000

3B3800

0

3C3830

03C

38300

3C3830

0

4A3860

04A

38600

4A3860

0

4B3890

04B

38900

4B3890

0

4C3920

04C

39200

4C3920

0

5A3950

05A

39500

5A3950

0

5B3980

05B

39800

5B3980

0

5C4010

05C

40100

5C4010

0

6A4040

06A

40400

6A4040

0

6B4070

06B

40700

6B4070

0

6C4100

06C

41000

6C4100

0

7A4130

07A

41300

7A4130

0

After Year 1

Bill gets 3/3 step

Janet receives an “Effective” rating on her evaluation and gets 3/3 step

Marie receives a “Highly Effective” rating on her evaluation and gets 4/3 step

This is the result:

Bill Janet Marie

StepSalar

y StepSalar

y StepSalar

y

0A3500

00A

35000

0A3500

0

0B3530

00B

35300

0B3530

0

0C3560

00C

35600

0C3560

0

1A3590

01A

35900

1A3590

0

1B3620

01B

36200

1B3620

0

1C3650

01C

36500

1C3650

0

2A3680

02A

36800

2A3680

0

2B3710

02B

37100

2B3710

0

2C3740

02C

37400

2C3740

0

3A3770

03A

37700

3A3770

0

3B3800

03B

38000

3B3800

0

3C3830

03C

38300

3C3830

0

4A3860

04A

38600

4A3860

0

4B3890

04B

38900

4B3890

0

4C3920

04C

39200

4C3920

0

5A3950

05A

39500

5A3950

0

5B3980

05B

39800

5B3980

0

5C4010

05C

40100

5C4010

0

6A4040

06A

40400

6A4040

0

6B4070

06B

40700

6B4070

0

6C4100

06C

41000

6C4100

0

7A4130

07A

41300

7A4130

0

After Year 2

Bill gets 3/3 step

Janet receives an “Effective” rating on her evaluation again and gets 3/3 step

Marie receives a “Highly Effective” rating on her evaluation and gets 4/3 step

Here’s what happens:

Bill Janet Marie

StepSalar

y StepSalar

y StepSalar

y

0A3500

00A

35000

0A3500

0

0B3530

00B

35300

0B3530

0

0C3560

00C

35600

0C3560

0

1A3590

01A

35900

1A3590

0

1B3620

01B

36200

1B3620

0

1C3650

01C

36500

1C3650

0

2A3680

02A

36800

2A3680

0

2B3710

02B

37100

2B3710

0

2C3740

02C

37400

2C3740

0

3A3770

03A

37700

3A3770

0

3B3800

03B

38000

3B3800

0

3C3830

03C

38300

3C3830

0

4A3860

04A

38600

4A3860

0

4B3890

04B

38900

4B3890

0

4C3920

04C

39200

4C3920

0

5A3950

05A

39500

5A3950

0

5B3980

05B

39800

5B3980

0

5C4010

05C

40100

5C4010

0

6A4040

06A

40400

6A4040

0

6B4070

06B

40700

6B4070

0

6C4100

06C

41000

6C4100

0

7A4130

07A

41300

7A4130

0

After Year 3

Bill gets 3/3 step

Janet receives a “Highly Effective” rating on her evaluation and gets 4/3 step

Marie receives a “Needs Improvement” rating on her evaluation and receives no increase

Here’s the result:

Bill Janet Marie

StepSalar

y StepSalar

y StepSalar

y

0A3500

00A

35000

0A3500

0

0B3530

00B

35300

0B3530

0

0C3560

00C

35600

0C3560

0

1A3590

01A

35900

1A3590

0

1B3620

01B

36200

1B3620

0

1C3650

01C

36500

1C3650

0

2A3680

02A

36800

2A3680

0

2B3710

02B

37100

2B3710

0

2C3740

02C

37400

2C3740

0

3A3770

03A

37700

3A3770

0

3B3800

03B

38000

3B3800

0

3C3830

03C

38300

3C3830

0

4A3860

04A

38600

4A3860

0

4B3890

04B

38900

4B3890

0

4C3920

04C

39200

4C3920

0

5A3950

05A

39500

5A3950

0

5B3980

05B

39800

5B3980

0

5C4010

05C

40100

5C4010

0

6A4040

06A

40400

6A4040

0

6B4070

06B

40700

6B4070

0

6C4100

06C

41000

6C4100

0

7A4130

07A

41300

7A4130

0

We can smooth out the salary schedule with fractional steps such that it:

Can be implemented now and meets the requirements of SB 736 for 2014-15

Can be funded with help from the Governor’s special allocation of recurring revenues

Is fair to all teachers regardless of contract status

Does not unnecessarily entice PSC/CC teachers to give up their right to “due process”

Makes sense in showing career earnings potential for prospective hires over the long haul

Is scalable to accommodate changes in revenue

By labeling the fractional (1/3) steps, we maintain a salary schedule that makes it easy for payroll to track where people are.

We retain the original placement plan to guide the assimilation of new hires who bring experience.

The Marion County Public Schools administration chooses to spend the extra salary money on other parts of the budget.They argue that other parts of the budget, including contracted services, are up.The last time we looked, the salaries of teachers in Marion County were “contracted services” with a published salary schedule in the contract – one that has been ignored for four of the last six years.We have presented an affordable salary request that should be approved immediately!If they have to move money around in the budget – so be it! The School Board approves budget amendments at virtually every meeting!