School district dumps Q Comp teacher pay plan
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(AP) - For the first time, teachers in a Minnesota school district have voted to pull out of an alternative pay program championed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
About 55 percent of instructors in the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale school district opted out a year after they entered the program. The decision will cost the district about $2.8 million from aid that came with their participation in the Q Comp program.
The program's aim is to tie teacher raises to performance goals and move away from the seniority-based salary schedule. The state provides incentive funding to districts that mutually agree with their teachers to take part.
Statewide, more than 30 school districts and about a dozen charter schools joined the program, said Minnesota Education Commissioner Alice Seagren.
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Late last spring, North St. Paul signed up after an overwhelming vote by teachers. One condition was that either side could opt out before Dec. 1, said Dennis Fendt, president of the district's teachers union.
Fendt said the reversal grew out of concern over how the district would reform the traditional pay system in the future.
"I hope that nobody interprets this as an attack on Q Comp," Fendt said. "What it really meant is teachers wondering, 'How can we say yes to this if we don't know what it would look like?'"
Gene Janicke, the district's director of teaching and learning, said district officials were surprised by the vote.
The initial pay plan made each teacher in the district eligible for up to $1,700 in performance pay, gave them opportunities to serve in leadership positions and receive additional compensation for those jobs.
But reforms were due after this school year.
"The teachers seemed to be suspect of what that might look like," Janicke said.
Seagren said the program remains sound.
"North St. Paul's decision to opt out is isolated and will have no bearing on our efforts to expand what has become a nation-leading program during the upcoming legislative session," Seagren said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)